Bill Gates

From The Atlantic, Bill Gates on AI (and Epstein) ...

Wild mustangs and Yosemite

And ...



It appears the current administration looks at our countriy's natural wonders, from wild mustangs to national parks, and sees only dollar signs.

Why is there an occupation?

Haviv explains why the West Bank is occupied, part 1 and 2 ...

Nukes at the movies

Tom Nichols, retired professor at the U.S. Naval War College, talks about A House of Dynamite, other movies, nuclear annihilation, and why younger people don't seem to understand the horror some oder people have about the nuclear proliferation (now Syria and next up Saudi Arabia).

I'm a fan of all these past movies. From the original Planet of the Apes ...



To Sarah Connor's dream, in Termintor 2, of the future AI caused nuclear holocaust that she knows is coming ...



And the aftermath of such nuclear destruction? One thing that really gives you a sense of the devastation of everything is the Pulitzer Prizewinning novel, The Road. They made a movie of it, which could not touch the true horror of the book, but here's the trailer ...



I don't know why people are now so sanguine about nuclear, whether it's power plants or doomsday bombs, but I will be forever worried about it all. And I will be forever disgusted by the attitude of the people who plow ahead with this stuff, whether it's nuclear or AI, not caring about the dangers to the rest of us but only the money and accolades they will get.

My favorite ...

Blue Öyster Cult song: Burnin' for You, 1981 ...

Ezra Klein - the Puritan work ethic

Ezra Klein has an interview with a writer whose new book is about how difficult it is to access government programs that are ideally meant to help the poor, the disabled, the sick, etc. The writer is Annie Lowrey who works at The Atlantic, and who also happens to be his wife.

As someone who has been legally deemed "disabled" since just after college and who has struggled financially ever since, I found this subject depressingly familiar.

I think the sad truth about our country is that most people, including the government ... Reoublican and Democrat ... seem to deeply believe that everyone should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, no matter what deficits they have to work with. And so even when the government does help those people, it makes sureI to punish them ... you know, to teach them a lesson and make sure they pay their pound of flesh to get that help.

Speaking of the dead

In a post yesterday about Hakeem Jeffries meeting secretly with Jared Kushner, I advised Jeffries to remember the people who are now dead because of this administration's policies.

Saw in the news this morning that the family of one of those people is speaking up ...

Gadi Eisenkot

Netanyahu Rival Eisenkot Vows No Palestinian State: 'Not Now, Not in Next Government'

Gadi Eisenkot, a leading opposition candidate, pledged that no Palestinian state would be established if his party wins October's Knesset election, after United Arab List Chairman Mansour Abbas called Saturday for an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian state ...

For those who think Netanyahu is the source of all evil. Eisenkot is generally thought to be less conservative than Netanyahu, but there is no one in Israeli politics after Oct 7 who will push for a two state solution.

Natalie Harp, cont'd

We're learning more about Natalie Harp.



This isn't the first time people have been concerned about the outsized influence of a nutty aide on their political leader - an extreme case would be Rasputin - and it's not bizarre that Jon Ossoff would bring up Natalie Harp.

David at the Grand Canyon

David Muir of ABC News visits the Grand Canyon.

Ezra Klein: AI

At some point in the early twenty-first century, all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI. - The Matrix

On August 2 I had a post about AI midels running amuck ... AI off the leash ... that featured an interview with Helen Toner. Here Ezra has a longer interview with her to discuss the worries about AI.

What's interesting is that everyone admits there is a danger. They admit that we don't really know what the AI agents are doing on their own time, and that it's probably not good. But no company is willing to even slow down, much less stop. "Someone will do it so it should be us" "Yes, things might go catastrophically wrong, but they may also lead to utopia".

Read more about P(doom) and technological singularity.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.)

He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar.

The speech that got everyone's attention.

Natalie Harp

George, Ringo, and Badfinger

This song, It Don't Come Easy, had a somewhat tortured beginning. Basically, the Beatles were broken up and all were doing their own things. Ringo got some help from George to write/record a new song for himself.

The video above is a demo by George, with him singing instead of Ringo, and doing guitar. Two of the guys from Badfinger sang background (sadly, the two guys who later took their own lives). On the demo you can hear them singing "Hare Krishna" for George but later Ringo wanted it removed.

Ritchie Torres

Listening to an interesting talk between Haviv and Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York. It is from a year ago, but it mentions the now much worse problem the Democratic party has with the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as the deteriorating attitude of many Deemocratic lawmakers towards Israel.

Hakeem Jeffries on Meet the Press

Five years of Taliban rule

- Afghan women in 1927

A rare inside look at the collapse of women’s rights under the Taliban

Now that the US is all chummy with so many Middle Eastern countries, we seem to have forgotten, or we just don't care, that the lives of women in many of these counties is less than ideal.

Take Egypt, for instance. Did you know that more than 80% of women in Egypt experience genital mutilation?

Possum

Nails on fleek 💅🐾

📸: Jurgen & Christine Sohns#opossum #animal #wildlife pic.twitter.com/PeyZ9gMZvL

— Animal Planet (@AnimalPlanet) August 15, 2026

Two baby possums have been coming on the porch late each night to eat the leftover cat food. They are so tiny and cute! They are pretty used to me now and will come out if I stay quiet. The cats are totally uninterested in them. Here's a photo of a baby possum with Vicky the cat from years ago ...

There Is No Antimemetics Division

My latest sci fi book from the public library is There Is No Antimemetics Division ...

a literary work of science fiction–horror by British author qntm .... The work revolves around the director of the "Antimemetics Division", a secret organisation at odds with paranormal memory- and perception-altering phenomena. As the Division's research into these phenomena progresses, the director begins to uncover erased memories and finds herself ensnared in a conflict that threatens all of reality.

Here's some of the blurb from Amazon ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Humanity is under assault by malevolent “antimemes”—ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself—in this whip-smart tale of science-fiction horror, an entirely reimagined and expanded version of the beloved online novel.

“Utterly brilliant . . . a dazzling, confusing novel with a highly effective, creeping sense of dread . . . I can’t recommend it enough.”—Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post

“[An] unforgettable, mind-bendingly brilliant novel.”—The Guardian

Goodreads rates it 4.1.

I'm not far into it yet but it is intriguing. I actually picked it because I liked the cover, but the idea presented in the book grabbed my interest once I started reading. Hope it holds up.

David at the redwoods

On ABC news tonight, David Muir visits California's redwoods - Redwood National and State Parks.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv on a Thursday night pic.twitter.com/AMmsyoB7Zn

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) August 13, 2026

I've never visited anywhere in the Middle East. The closest I've come is Greece. It looks like California.

Yay!

David Crowley narrowly won the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor, delivering a significant blow to the insurgent far-left in a nail-biter race https://t.co/Jlr4KCRuQq

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 12, 2026

Morning Joe

On Morning Joe a couple of weeks ago, Joe talks about what he sees as the Democratic party, which has had a great chance to win in the midterms with their affordability message, ruining their chances by giving too much power to extremist DSA candidates.

I mostly agree with him (thhough I cringe when people yell a lot). Many of the DSA candidates make my skin crawl.

Today is the election in which Hong is running for governor. She is trying to pretend she hasn't advocated for abolishing the police, prisons, the Senate,Thanksgiving. When asked about that, she will go on instead about how bad the Republicans are.

Yes, the Republican agenda is bad, but that's not who she is running against now - she is running against another Democrat, one who at least seems rational.

I have a prediction. El-Sayed will run for president in 2028, and President Obama will endorse him. I don't even recognize my party anymore.

Ask Haviv about aid to Israel

Yoshiki

Yoshiki , Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Carnegie Hall, 2017

El-Sayed on Meet the Press

Kristen points out at the beginning that the majority of voters in Michigan actually voted against him. Of course she asked him about Israel too.

He accuses Israel of genocide, apartheid, and being a rouge state ... gives no proof ... then, on prodding, says he might give aid to Israel if all Israelis and Palestinians lived together as citizens, which would mean Israel as an Arab state with an Israeli minority population. Also he says Israel is trying to annex southern Lebanon - not true. He was asked about his friendship with Hasan Piker, who he reamins close with.

It's sad. I like most of his policies. But the fact that he so obviously hates Israel and is willing to push descriptions of it that are untrue makes me think he is not a trustworthy person.

More Dr. Alex

Still watching Dr. Alex.

Maybe part of the reason is that, although I didn't train for it, I ended up having a couple of medical jobs before my eyesight deteriorated. This was after I gave up trying to find a new career as a future blind person, and just tried to find a job to pay my bills for as long as I could keep it.

It's surprising how many jobs in a hospital require no medical education or training. My last two jobs were working in hospital surgeries. One was working for the anesthesiologists, ordering and caring for their drugs and equipment, and one was just stocking supplies and washing and wrapping surgical instruments for autoclaving. Kind of miss it.

Less than 1%

Hersh

The news is full of Abdul El-Sayed's victory. I see Kamala Harris has come out in support of El-Sayed. Not sure if that will help him or hurt him ;)

Here he is on Israel. He says that we should not send money to Israel because they engage in genocide and apartheud ...



But neither of these crimes applies to Israel unless you are creating your own definitions for these terms. For instance, Arabs and other minorities are citizens of Israel with all the rights that go along with that, incuding voting and holding elected office (Arab Citizens of Israel).

And you know, we give money to a lot of other countries. The last time that was analyzed was in 2024, when we gave Israel $6.82 billion and we gave Ukraine $6.51 billion. So are we going to demonize Ukraine too? Are we going to pretned that the money we give them is taking the food from our childreen's plates? Combined, the aid to Israel and the aid to Ukraine is less than 1% of the total US budget.

I was just thinking today of the Oct 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. That was when I started paying attention to Israel and the Middle East. El-Sayed wants us to think Israel is some far away foreign country that has nothing to do with us, so why send them money. But that isn't really true ... on Oct 7, there were American citizens who were killed, Americans who were taken hostage, including children. I won't forget them.

I am sick of the lies, innuendos, and shaming that my own party is doing, all in oder, I believe, to win votes.

All about Qatar

Carville and Piker

Here's a video I saw today - CNN interviewing former Democratic operative James Carville and Abdul El-Sayed's controversial buddy Hasan Piker.

I'm still thinking about the victory of El-Sayed in Michigan and what it means. First, did he really win over the Dem voters? By that I mean that if you add up the votes for both Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow, then he would have lost.

But, anyway, I worry that when the general election happens, Independents and Republicans will not vote for the far left Dems, and we will lose, both in the fall and in the coming election in 2028. Either way, I think the Democratic party I recognize will be gone. Maybe it's time for me to give up voting.

AI off the leash

Anthropic Says Claude Hacked Into 3 Organizations During Cybersecurity Tests



What's not often mentioned is that one of the agents also wrote itself, a future version of itself, a note telling it how to break out of the sandbox. And then it hid the note ...

OpenAI’s Rogue AI Models Were Reportedly Acting Like the Guy From Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’

[...] As part of an account provided by three sources who spoke to Reuters, one of the AI agents undergoing testing supposedly, “left notes apparently for future versions of itself” that were directly at odds with what OpenAI wanted them to do.

Reuters says these instructional notes were buried in some secret place deep inside OpenAI’s internal “infrastructure,” and provided instructions on escaping from OpenAI’s sandbox environment. While creepy, Reuters says this specific devious behavior was not specifically linked to the Hugging Face hack ...

We're doomed.