MrG's Blog & Notes

* This is an archive of my own blog and online notes, with weekly entries collected by month. The current week in stand-alone format is available here. Feel free to CONTACT ME if so inclined.

[MON 07 APR 25] THE WEEK THAT WAS 14

DAYLOG MON 31 MAR: There was a national / international "Tesla Takedown" demonstration on Saturday, with hundreds of demonstrations at Tesla dealerships, and hundreds of thousands of people participating. There was little serious violence in the demonstrations, with organizers of the effort emphasizing that it must be nonviolent, and not encouraging attacks on Tesla vehicles -- though the attacks are common. They are unhelpful: the Trump Regime wants to say such attacks are due to a "terrorist movement" to justify repression.

There were counter-demonstrations in a few places, it appears on a much smaller scale; it is encouraging to find that few feel inclined to stand up for Elon the Musk Rat and his Tesla vehicles.

The Musk Rat himself is upset at the negative attention he is getting, saying that the protesters are being paid. The reaction of protesters has been: We could get paid? We've been doing this for nothing! Who can we talk to get the money?

In the same way, the Musk Rat had claimed that the big crowds attending rallies by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & Bernie Sanders were paid, and following them from city to city. He said nothing about how many airliners it would take, or where so many people found rooms.

The Musk Rat's behavior is becoming increasingly erratic, some claiming due to the influence of recreational drugs. Somebody made a chart of his online postings, with days on the X-axis, time of day on the Y-axis, and a red dot for each posting.

The chart shows the postings start to accelerate after he bought Twitter -- and now it's approaching solid red for waking hours. Not incidentally, one of the chants of the demonstrators was: WE DON'T WANT YOUR NAZI CARS / TAKE A ONE-WAY TRIP TO MARS!

Some have slammed the demonstrations, saying that driving down Tesla's stock price doesn't amount to much -- but that's not really the goal, the goal is to drive Tesla out of business and hit his bottom line. More generally, how much do the protests amount to? Compared to the vicious assault of the Trump Regime on the USA, not much. Does that mean it would be better to do nothing? No: we do what we can, and keep looking for new things we can do.

DAYLOG TUE 01 APR: DEFENSE EXPRESS ran an item on Destinus of the Netherlands, a drone manufacturing firm run by one Mikhail Kokorich -- a Russian expatriate who renounced his citizenship, and now supplies drones to Ukraine. He'd actually gone to the USA first, but his Russian background was a problem for him in the US defense industry. He then went to Switzerland, but the stiff Swiss regulations on arms exports drove him to switch his HQ to the Netherlands.

The Lord drone has been in combat since 2023, with the Ruta and Hornet following in 2024. The Lord is a very cheap-&-dirty drone, looking much like a very basis prop-powered RC model aircraft. It can be used for surveillance, EW, or as a killer drone.

The Ruta looks more like a mini cruise missile, jet-powered with intakes on both sides of the rear fuselage. It said to be in the 300-kilogram (660-pound) weight class. It appears it is primarily for surveillance, but is intended for all drone missions.

The Hornet is a pusher-prop drone of canard configuration (rear wing, "tailfins" in front) that appears to be primarily intended to intercept other drones, suggesting it is fast. Once again, however, it can be used for various missions, using a modular payload.

The company has also flown a set of demonstrators, primarily for a jet fighter-type "loyal wingman" combat drone. The subsonic "Destinus 2" demonstrator is expected to lead to the production "Destinus 3" Mach 2 combat drone, but deliveries won't be until 2026 at earliest. Interestingly, Destinus is building their own jet engines.

A relatively cheap "loyal wingman" drone would be a big assist to Ukraine, multiplying air power without needing more pilots. Unfortunately, that's not easy to build and can't happen for some years.

* Hillary Clinton has now showed up on BlueSky to help promote the Democratic cause, quickly acquiring almost 200,000 followers. That's a good thing, since the more big players show up on BlueSky, the more momentum it gets. Alas, the replies to Hillary included the faction that despises her. They're called "BlueMAGA" -- being either MAGA fakes pretended to be Blue, or Blue useful tools acting like MAGA. My BLOCK button got a workout.

DAYLOG WED 02 APR: Yesterday and the day before, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker set a record for the longest speech delivered to the Senate, at 25 hours 5 minutes. It wasn't just idle rambling either, he ran from notes in a big binder, and scored many hits.

He was spelled by other Democratic senators so he could take breaks. In any case, there's been a need among the Democratic faithful for leadership in the face of America's constitutional crisis, and Booker just stepped up front. BOOKER IN 2028? Maybe.

As I get older, the order in the world I long assumed, without really knowing it was there, tends to evaporate. In these times, it is easy to see nothing but amoral chaos. People like Cory Booker suggest that there really are things worth fighting for, and people who do so.

There's been a cry for the older generation -- notably Obama -- to take the leadership role, but are they really in a position to do so? Booker can get into the driver's seat, but Obama is retired from politics and no longer driving. Obama can provide support. One thing about having a leader in this environment is the unfortunate prospect of the Trump Regime trying to steal elections. Having a prominent leader to call out and push back on cheating should be a big help.

* In other good news, in a special election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court the Democrat, Susan Crawford, won handily. This was important to keep liberal control of the court. Her rival, Brad Schimel, graciously conceded and said there was no cheating. The overlying significance of the win was that Elon the Musk Rat had tried to influence the vote, even paying for votes with a million-dollar giveaway. The Democrats played up his involvement. I was hoping that he would turn out to be an electoral liability. He was.

* In semi-good news, the Trump Regime has finally acknowledged there's no visible prospect of a cease-fire in Ukraine. Of course not, and everyone else knew it: Putin wanted the war, doesn't want to stop it, and is running out of money to keep it going. It may be the case that the EU -- Ukraine's "Coalition of the Willing" -- was playing up peace just to drive Putin to make it clear he doesn't want it. What happens next, given the Trump Regime's incoherent behavior, remains to be seen.

DAYLOG THU 03 APR: Yesterday, the Trump Regime dropped a bombshell and passed a big blanket of tariffs over the world. They came up with some numbers for countries indexing the US trade deficits with those countries, then used a simple math model to set "reciprocal tariff" rates that would, according to the model -- and forgetting about the inevitable retaliatory tariffs -- cancel out the trade deficits.

Assuming, with more than a little good reason, the regime follows through, the result will be a deliberately-made global recession with stagflation. The Dow Jones has crashed like 1200 points so far. The Trump Regime issued a statement on their thinking in the scheme. I commented online: "Part of me wanted to dig into it and unravel it, but the wiser part told me: DON'T." There is a certain logic to it, but not a logic connected to the real world, and it doesn't really make sense. They really are that witless.

The rest of the world is talking about trade alignment to deal with the Trump threat. Canadian PM Mark Carney said the era of US "economic leadership" is over, and that: "If America doesn't want to lead any more, Canada will take that role."

Anyway the goal, it appears, is to get rid of progressive taxation and replace it with regressive sales taxes. Trump keeps insisting that exporters pay the tariffs, but everyone knows that consumers ultimately pay them, and also that Trump just spews out whatever trash pops into his head.

Another item of Trump trash talk is that the tariffs will force foreign companies to set up manufacturing in the USA. That's nonsense, too; it would take at least 5 years to set up a factory, and Trump is unlikely to be around in 5 years. It is also unlikely that his ramshackle fascist regime will long outlive him, with his demented policies then rescinded. Besides, any foreign firms setting up factories in the USA have to know that Trump will step on them the moment he feels like it.

It appears the Trump Regime wants to dial back the USA to the 1890s: isolationism, no income taxes, little regulation, women as 2nd-class citizens, white supremacy. It's so preposterous that it won't work, but it will be a lot of pain before that becomes clear.

That's the silver lining: the Vichy Trump Regime is so witless and inept that it is unlikely to endure -- though how long it does endure is a good question. There's another silver lining, in that we're seeing Blue leadership like Cory Booker emerging to challenge the regime and set shining examples. We endure because we have to.

DAYLOG FRI 04 APR: LINCOLN PROJECT'S Rick Wilson gave a podcast, while sitting in a hotel room in NYC, on the subject of courage, coupled to Cory Booker's marathon speech in the Senate.

Wilson stated that courage is the most important virtue from which all else flows -- OK, I would just rank on the top level myself and leave it at that -- and that the bluster, bullying, and abusive trolling of the MAGA faithful is fake courage.

Wilson talked about people making "good trouble", about Booker going beyond any particular political issues to point that, as Wilson said, "America is not the perverted vision of Donald Trump."

BOOKER: "[Trump] wants to divide us among ourselves, wants to make us afraid, wants to make us fear SO MUCH that we're willing to violate people's FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS!" Wilson got feedback from Senate contacts that many GOP senators were rooting for Booker -- and not just the "usual suspects", Wilson pointing that there are only like ten Trump toadies in the Senate, but that the rest lack the will to stand up. There's still courage out there; Wilson said he gets messages from people still in government who tell him what's going on.

Wilson said: "God bless you." -- and added: "Protect yourself." They should use a burner phone and Signal to communicate, and to communicate with the news media, even if it seems compromised. The media can still get the message out, or at least can't say they didn't know.

The pushback against Trump needs everyone to have courage, including universities, media outlets, corporations, everyone. Wilson suggested taking a break every now and then, we can't fight all the time, this is a long-term thing. The bottom line is still that we need the strength to back up 250 years of strivings of Americans. BOOKER: "If America hasn't broken your heart, you don't love her enough."

As for myself, I'm not usually into inspirational messages, but this one hit home. I got up this morning, striving to keep my balance between falling into discouragement or full of mindless and useless anger. Wilson's right, we do need to keep courage. Again, we're in this for the long haul. There's not a lot I can do myself, but I can do little things, give a little money, spread the word. In the meantime, I keep the faith, stay brave, and don't go off the rails.

[MON 14 APR 25] THE WEEK THAT WAS 15

DAYLOG MON 07 APR: There was a nationwide demonstration, named "HANDS OFF", against the Trump Regime on Saturday, which was a huge success -- millions showing up across the country, some estimates as high as 5 million. It turned out there was a demonstration in Loveland CO too -- but I didn't realize it and I didn't show. It seems there will be another mass demonstration on 19 April, so I'll show then.

Anyway, the question was floated online: Do these demonstrations really do any good? OK, in directly influencing or posing a threat to the Trump Regime, NO. However, as one "Laura" commented online: "It's good for morale; it normalizes speaking out against the govt (which is important when fascists are trying to criminalize dissent); and it can provide opportunities to invite people into other, more direct forms of action."

I said myself along the same lines: "They encourage people who are demoralized, defy repression, send a message to our congresspeople and other elected officials, & provide a basis for organization. Another thing: Where are the counter-protests? Weak at most." They were estimated at a fraction of a percent, with zero reports of violence. It sends a message to MAGA that so many of their neighbors have had it with Trump and his stooges.

The demonstrations were personally very encouraging at a time when things aren't looking good. The next day, the worries came back and piled up. We do what we can in the here and now, and don't focus on the problems that might be down the road. My world is shifting now, it's a strange period of time for me: yeah, fear and dread, but I'm also focused and resilient.

One last word. One Ken Jennings, reflecting on the cascading lunacies of the Trump Regime, commented online: "This is really unfair to everyone who just voted for him for the racism."

DAYLOG TUE 08 APR: The Trump Regime is making a lunatic fuss about trade deficits. I've long wondered if trade deficits are really a problem. One "Franca", posting online, did a simple analysis of trade between the USA and Canada for 2024. What he pointed out was that 40 million Canadians buy $8700 from the USA per capita each year -- while 340 million Americans buy $1200 from Canada per capita each year. So where's the problem?

It could be a problem if the other country has formal or informal barriers to selling US products there, but that's something that can be reasonably negotiated without a trade war. In the absence of big tariff barriers and obviously unfair regulations against US products, it's hard to convincingly blame the other country. Canada buys way more from the USA per capita, but the trade is imbalanced because there aren't as many Canadians as Americas -- simple as that. We can't really fix the trade deficit except by being more competitive internationally.

* Kamala Harris showed up on BlueSky yesterday -- up to over 100K followers already. The trolls showed up in force in the comments. I had a nice block party. Her first posting was a short video, the gist being: "Fear is contagious ... but so is courage." These days I'm much more into inspirational messages than I've been since I was a kid, when I was easily impressed.

Inspiration is needed. Commenter JV Last, writing on THE BULWARK, had an article: "America is a Powder Keg", suggesting an imminent explosion. I couldn't read much of it since it was paywalled, but I wondered if he was panicking. Sure, mass violence is a possibility -- but I don't see the fuze as having been lit yet. It might, but it's only one possible future, and we can't give the odds of that over other plausible possible futures.

I'm keeping a rule of NO VIOLENCE. Violence isn't really a practical solution, and can hurt us far worse than it helps us. I'm believing more that this is the USA's time to shine in nonviolent resistance. Millions will join in. Finishing off with another inspirational message I just saw: "On the other side of fear is everything you want."

DAYLOG WED 09 APR: As discussed in an article from NEWATLAS ("Renewable energy now handles 40% of our global electricity needs" by Abhimanyu Ghoshal, 8 April 2025), a report from UK-based climate-energy think tank Ember says renewables are gaining ground.

Globally, 40.9% of the world's electricity is now from renewable sources. Data for the survey was obtained from 215 countries. Hydropower provided 14.3%, while wind and solar provided 8.1% and 6.9% respectively -- for the first time, more than hydropower.

Solar grew by 29%, with China and the USA being the most bullish on solar. Growth in wind power hasn't been so robust for the last few years; wind turbines are being installed, but there's been a general decline in global wind itself for the time being.

* In the meantime, the Trump Regime is trying to boost coal -- again. He tried in his first term, and it was a fizzle; it will be a fizzle now, coal being in irreversible decline. According to an article from ARSTECHNICA ("Trump throws coal a lifeline, but the energy industry has moved on" by Marianne Lavelle, 9 April 2025), coal plants are being shut down not just because they are environmental nightmares, but because they are uneconomical to operate.

One estimate suggested that keeping existing coal plants running is more expensive than replacing them. The downward drive on coal is not really due to environmental regulation, but instead to the rising use of natural gas and renewables for power generation.

Coal is dying and can't be revived. The Trump Regime, of course, insists on pushing ahead with coal, while sweeping environmental and climate worries under the rug. The story is so familiar that it's hard to complain, it's what we expect. However, it still seems that the world keeps on track even if the regime tries to stop it. The Trump Regime is temporary, and may not amount to more than a downward blip on an upward track. Trump is bad -- but also weak.

DAYLOG THU 10 APR: Yesterday, I ran into someone online saying that Americans needed to buy assault rifles and confront the Trump Regime. I replied that the evidence suggests nonviolent resistance is much more effective than violent resistance.

That conclusion was established by political scientist Erica Chenoweth of Harvard / Radcliffe, working with others. Considering hundreds of governmental change efforts of the 20th century, the result was that nonviolent efforts worked more than half the time -- but violent efforts only about a quarter of the time, and they often led to tyrannies. Not surprising: we can't create harmony using violence. Chenoweth was actually surprised by the results.

Chenoweth says that nonviolent resistance can work, first of all, if based on a large and diverse population that can be sustained. Violent movements tend to based instead on a smaller militant clique that is intolerant, sometimes brutally so, of disagreement.

Second, a nonviolent movement can, unlike a violent movement, get sympathy with groups within the regime, particularly police and military. Soldiers are usually not enthusiastic about stepping on unarmed and nonviolent women, for example. Third, nonviolent movements are not weak: they can use a range of imaginative, even prankish techniques to push back against authoritarians. Violent movements are much more limited.

And fourth: nonviolent movements need to be resilient against repression. They need to watch out for provocateurs stirring up trouble -- and defend against attacks. I'm worried about crazies driving trucks into crowds of demonstrators.

I got mostly good feedback on standing up for nonviolence, the recognition being common that violent protest would give the Trump Regime a pretext for a crackdown. Nonviolent protest won't be easy and won't be quick, but it's the right way to go. These days, I often feel submerged in a subtle pool of fear and dread, and I know I'm not alone. I remember to stay brave, and get my head above water when I can. It will take time, but we'll put Trump behind us sooner or later.

DAYLOG FRI 11 APR: Trump is still (more or less) pushing on his global trade war, in particular targeting China. According to an article from the BBC ("Why Beijing is not backing down on tariffs" by Stephen McDonell, 11 April 2025), the Chinese are not intimidated. The most significant reason for Chinese confidence is that US trade only accounts for 2% of Chinese GDP. Trump has also given Beijing a diplomatic prize, the Chinese reaching out to other countries to coordinate a trade response to US lunacy. China is making friends, the USA is driving them away.

As far as the mutual sky-high jacking up of tariffs between the US and China, they're meaningless: once tariffs reached a painful level, making them more painful amounted to nothing. The blanket 10% US tariffs against everyone else are still on; exactly what happens there is unclear. It would seem retaliation by our trading partners would be wisest, because caving in to Trump only encourages him to do more of the same thing again.

Trump is, by all evidence, trying to force a recession. The ugly silver lining there is that a man-made recession (emphasize "men" here) will wreck the Republican Party, probably permanently. The road in front doesn't look the same as the road behind.

* Regarding my comments yesterday about fear and dread, I think I'm getting used to them, and able to rank my level of burden. It was like level 2 yesterday -- difficult. It's level 1 today -- mostly annoying. Sometimes I get to level 0, not bothered at all.

Again, I'm in it for the long haul, taking things a month at a time. Also relative to comments yesterday on nonviolent resistance, Erica Chenoweth says that all nonviolent movements with more than 3.5% of the population succeeded.

I've got to learn more about nonviolent resistance. At the very least, doing so helps me stay afloat in the face of the daily nightmares in the news. Not incidentally, today I saw somebody online demanding a military coup. Ridiculous, of course. I replied: "Not gonna happen. The military would then own the USA. They neither can nor want to do that. Things should be fixed tomorrow. They won't be. We do this the slow hard way, or it never happens." As always these days -- I feel angry, I tell myself: NO VIOLENCE.

[MON 21 APR 25] THE WEEK THAT WAS 16

DAYLOG MON 14 APR: Our national crisis continues to painfully evolve. This is clearly the biggest national crisis since the Civil War; some people say the Great Depression was bigger, but that remains to be seen.

Anyway, it's hard to track all the crisis all the time, so it needs to be taken a part at a time. Of course, there's the Trump global tariff war now in progress -- which, as much as anyone can figure out, is heavily driven by Trump wanting to get rid of income taxes. He has said as much.

Up to the early 20th century, most of Federal revenue was from tariffs, though there were income taxes every now and then. Of course, tariffs are highly regressive, hurting the poorest the worst. Trump keeps trying to claim exporting countries pay the tariffs, but that's a fraud -- we pay them. Anyway, more importantly, could tariffs actually replace income taxes?

One Michael Tomasky, writing in NEWREPUBLIC ("Donald Trump Really Is a Lot Dumber Than We Thought. Like, a Lot!", 4 April 25), says NO. During FDR's New Deal, Federal expenditures as part of GDP ran to about 10%, going up to 40% during WW2.

In the postwar period, Federal expenditures have hovered around 20% -- liberals want to get them up to 25%, conservatives down to 15%. The high was about 30%, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was on Trump's watch. Contrast this to 1900, when Federal expenditures were 2.5% of GDP. Do we want to go back to 1900? Just think: tiny military, no health / safety / environmental regulations, no health / retirement safety net.

Tomasky writes: "Trump is fantasizing about some America that no one, literally not a single American, wants to return to. Poverty was through the roof. Health care was abysmal." Of course, Trump & company want that, but the great majority of the USA don't want it at all.

Trump is talking up a trillion dollars a year from tariffs. Coming from Trump, that has to be a great exaggeration, and income tax brings in 6 trillion dollars. Getting rid of income tax is more Trump lunacy. The crisis flows on. We need to stay cool. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says: "They eat fear. That is why it is so important for us to remain focused. Chaos agents want you to spiral. Stay focused. Stay disciplined. Stay clear-eyed. The best way to fight back is by refusing to give them what they want."

DAYLOG TUE 15 APR: In the latest instance of America's national crisis, Harvard University, along with dozens of other institutions of higher education, was told by the Trump Regime to obey a list of dictates, or else.

The regime's demands were extensive, with Harvard to drop all diversity efforts; provide data on faculty & students for auditing; get rid of pro-Palestinian campus clubs & others deemed unacceptable; ban mask wearing; and otherwise cave in to trolls. An examination showed that the demands impossibly contradicted themselves -- and so Harvard replied with a NO, President Alan Garber writing: "No government -- regardless of which party is in power -- should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue."

The Trump Regime promptly froze billions in funding, with Trump threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status. Harvard would certainly sue to maintain its exemption ... but anyway, it seems Harvard leadership understood that there is no safety in caving in to Trump. Trump works from the book: ART OF THE RAW DEAL.

It appears that having an endowment of tens of billions helps Harvard as well. In any case, it is good that Harvard stood up, and hopefully other educational institutions will do so as well. Barack Obama, a Harvard law alum who only infrequently posts to BlueSky, commented:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

Incidentally, there is now not much trolling on BlueSky against Obama, I suppose in good part because I blocked the trolls there at the outset. There are still people who are demanding he do more, without being able to specifically say what. I block them, too.

* Getting a good night's sleep can be tough these days; I often toss and turn, worrying about this and that. Last night, I figured it out: only thinking about breathing in and out, working to relax myself as best I can. Surprisingly, it worked.

DAYLOG WED 16 APR: I mentioned yesterday that I've learned to focus on breathing and relaxation when I'm feeling unsettled at night. I was wondering if it would keep on working the next night, and found out that it did. I got a fair night's sleep.

Unfortunately, I check the news when I get up, and the ugly reality of things comes down hard. The Trump Regime is very busy making trouble on multiple fronts right now. Sometimes my fear & dread is manageable, sometimes it starts to paralyze me. However, over time I seem to get used to it and life feels more normal.

I still have to cope with the usual trolling online. When prominent folks like Obama post online, there's always someone complaining that they should do more, without specifying what. I just block the trolls.

More significantly, I see demands for a military coup against the Trump Regime -- and always push back: The military protects the Constitution, the Constitution says a coup would be illegal, end of story. The military can't, won't, and shouldn't do that. The chance of it happening is, if not zero, very small, and the long-term results might be very bad: Should the military be able to overturn a government the brass doesn't like? People shoot back that circumstances are desperate. Yes they are, but a coup isn't a solution.

There's talk about violent action in general, but I always shoot back that nonviolent action works better. Examples of violent movements do not show they work: American's Weather Underground, Germany's Red Army Faction, Italy's Red Brigades.

Nonviolent action can work, one Deborah Elizabeth Flynn posting online: "The regime is a precarious structure, held up by precarious pillars of power." She compares it to the game of Jenga, in which blocks are piled up into a tower, and then removed until it falls down. Nonviolent action chips away at the support for the regime, exploiting its instability.

Right now, all eyes are on the judiciary, as judges move towards contempt charges as the Trump Regime ignores court orders. There's a lot of cynicism about anything happening, but we don't know what will happen. In reply to a doubter, a legal journalist named Cristian Farias said: "Take a seat and witness history unfold, because we're all about to find out. And in the meantime, fight for the world you want."

I commented I couldn't have said it as well myself. Not incidentally, Kamala Harris posted today -- I thanked her, asked her to post more often: "It helps reduce the fear and dread ... You and your family stay safe."

DAYLOG THU 17 APR: According to an article in WIRED ("This 'College Protester' Isn't Real. It's an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops" by Emanuel Maiberg & Jason Koebler, 17 April 2025), a New York-based AI company named Massive Blue is selling a product named "Overwatch" to some law enforcement agencies that "deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels."

The virtual agents include a "protest persona" that fakes a 36-year-old divorced woman with no children, and who is interested in baking, activism, and "body positivity." Other personas include "child trafficker", "pimp", "college protester", "juveniles", and so on.

Massive Blue and the associated law enforcement agencies only broadly provide information on what they're doing together, saying nothing that couldn't be easily guessed. The bottom line is that these days, it's almost impossible to tell a bot from a real person online. The broader bottom line is Massive Blue can't be the only company working on this tech, and there's no limit to the possible misuse.

I wonder these days if some of my pleasant online chats are with a bot. Since I say nothing risky, that's not such a threat to me. The amusing part is: what happens when two different and unrelated bots get into a difference of opinion? It might look like perpetual motion.

* WIRED also reports on the current measles epidemic, with antivaxxers claiming the outbreak is due to a "bioweapon" -- and selling dubious preventatives for big bucks. Why am I not surprised? Ah, the USA; trouble today, trouble every day.

DAYLOG FRI 18 APR: The Trump Regime, having sent the guiltless Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador -- and then saying they were powerless to redress the error -- was told by SCOTUS to "facilitate" bringing him back to the USA.

Of course, the regime appealed the decision. The 3-judge 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, led by conservative Reagan-appointee Circuit Judge Harvie Wilkinson, rejected the appeal, with the decision saying:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

The appeals court warned that a conflict between the executive and judiciary seemed to be looming, but said: "We yet cling to the hope that it is not naive to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos."

No hope: the White House released a screenshot of a NEW YORK TIMES front page, with the headline: "Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador." The headline was crudely marked up to read: "Senator Meets With [MS-13 ILLEGAL ALIEN] in El Salvador [WHO IS NEVER COMING BACK]." Juvenile internet trolls infest the White House -- how discouraging. The sneer clearly targeted SCOTUS, daring them to act.

We're headed for a Contempt showdown. What happens, I don't know. However, it is slightly encouraging to see again just how incompetent the Trump Regime is.

* Re Trump's idea of tariffs replacing income tax, FACTCHECK says that in March, they brought in $264 million a day, which over a year would amount to less than $100 billion USD. Assuming Trump's additional tariffs bring in ten times as much would get it up to a trillion, but it's obvious that imports will fall off dramatically with high tariffs -- so maybe $500 billion is what could happen, tops.

* Every day I endure the fear and dread. Over time, however, I feel it less. I know things are still really bad, I just cope with it better. This will not be over with soon.

There are times of change in anyone's life that lead to a transformation of self, to become a distinctly different person. It's not pleasant, but all the changes I'm seeing are improvements, shifting towards resilience and more courage. The hard part is not knowing how I might react in unpredictable circumstances.

[MON 28 APR 25] THE WEEK THAT WAS 17

DAYLOG MON 21 APR: On Saturday, there was a HANDS OFF demonstration here in Loveland CO, and I showed up -- the first time I've ever gone to a demonstration. I took a large US flag and waved it for two hours. I guesstimated there were about 300 people there, maybe more. It was along a main drag, with a lot of people honking in support, holding flags out of car windows, giving a thumbs-up or a V-sign.

There were also some Ugly MAGA White People being troublesome. However, the Loveland PD was clearly monitoring the demonstration, and I saw some of the Uglies being pulled over, for whatever reasons. Apparently some bikers made a bit of trouble during the first HANDS OFF demonstration here, on 5 April. The LPD seemed to be in a protective mode. Of course, the demonstration was completely nonviolent and law-abiding. It was partly in front of the local Tesla dealership, which has been the target of property attacks -- not a constructive thing to do.

I wasn't unhappy with the turnout, but I was hoping for more people. However, when I got back home, the "Alt National Park Service" -- an undercover Federal government employee account on BlueSky -- had a series of pictures from demonstrations all over the USA. There were a lot of demonstrations in small towns. Berthoud, a much smaller town down the road from Loveland, got a demonstration about half the size. That was very encouraging. There were also declarations of support from Canada and elsewhere outside the USA.

Do such demonstrations do any good? Of course they do, they show me I'm not alone. They're good for morale, they provide a basis for more substantial actions -- and they also shine on the Uglies, who obviously don't have the same energy. It reinforced the idea that Trump's support is not very deep. I supposed most of the demonstrators were to the Left of me, but I don't care; these days, when confronted with the Uglies, I can easily shrug off petty differences of opinion. Oh yeah, I just bought a rainbow diversity flag. I'm waiting for it to arrive.

DAYLOG TUE 22 APR: As discussed in an article from KYIVINDEPENDENT ("More traitors in Russia' -- Ukrainian intel officer shares secrets of recent deep-strike drone successes" by Kollen Post, 18 April 2025), Ukraine's air attacks on Russia are increasingly destructive.

Brigadier General Yuriy Shchyhol of Ukraine's HUR intelligence service says that the Russians try to conceal the damage: "They hide whatever successful strikes that they can. While practically all of their hits on us are known, you have to add up our known strikes on them and multiply that number by two. And then if you compare the number of our drones and the number of successful strikes, our drones are much more effective in use."

Ukraine now has a range of strikers of different capabilities, with ranges of up to 3000 kilometers (1,865 miles), featuring technology resistant to countermeasures. The Russians, he says, have more air defenses, but also much more territory to protect. Interestingly, Shchyol says that the raids are often helped by disaffected Russians, who provide intelligence and even mark navigation waypoints. That might be disinformation, but it's believable.

A new raid hit the "GRAU 51" ammo dump in Vladimir Oblast, not far from Moscow, the strike resulting in a series of massive explosions that could be heard far away. Multiple videos have been released of the fireballs and mushroom clouds. Later satellite images suggested that dozens of individual storage bunkers were hit.

The Russians claim it was an accident, "safety violation". Sure it was. The ammo dump had to have been well protected, which leads to the question of how the defenses were penetrated. Jamming drones? Anti-radar drones? Nobody's talking. If Ukraine has upped its game in cracking Russian defenses, we'll see much more of this destruction.

* In late-breaking news: More than 180 university and college presidents co-signed a letter condemning the Trump administration's efforts to coerce private higher education institutions in by withdrawing Federal funding. Only Ivy League holdouts were Dartmouth & Columbia. Things are very difficult right now, but those pushing back are on the good side of history. Little bits of good news and heroism help everyone's morale and are deeply appreciated.

DAYLOG WED 23 APR: One Andrew Steele, posting on BlueSky, took aim at a CBSNEWS video with the title: "Artificial intelligence could end disease, lead to 'radical abundance', Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says"

Steele replied: "This kind of blind AI optimism forgets the importance of collecting enough data to feed the AI (which would probably take ten years ... ) and doing the clinical trials to see if the ... drugs work (another five years ... )".

Obviously, our AI systems are going to improve and become more capable, but "superintelligent AI" is an idea with more than a few problems. For starters, what do we mean by "superintelligent"? Are we going to create a godlike oracle who shows us the way?

It's more like being superintelligent at the tasks the SAI is designed to do. A scientific pocket calculator is "superintelligent", in that no human can do the calculations it can -- in the same way a forklift can carry far more weight than a human weightlifter.

As Steele effectively pointed out, just thinking harder about science doesn't buy that much. The sciences are empirical: we observe the real world, making observations and conducting experiments, then cook up theory. Whatever the theory suggests, we have to then test out. When SAI is applied to broader issues we have scenarios like, as in THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, the Ultimate Computer to answer the question of "Life, the Universe, & Everything!" -- which gave the answer: "42." The computer explained: "It wasn't a very specific question."

Or in other words, SAI can give us good answers to the extent we can hand it good questions. In terms of grand issues, SAI is useless: we already have tons of answers, some are better than others -- but they're more opinion than fact, and people will often blindly seize bad answers out of ignorance and bigotry.

In short, we can't build machines that tell us what we want. There's something creepy about SAI advocates: they want greater intelligences precisely because they want to craft the SAIs to carry out their agendas -- which on inspection sound profoundly creepy. They want to create their own gods, with the gods then agreeably telling them what they trained the gods to say. Gods are like that.

DAYLOG THU 24 APR: There has been considerable satisfaction that Elon the Musk Rat's electric vehicle company, Tesla, reported profits for Q1 25 that were 71% lower than for Q1 24. It appears the Musk Rat is hoping for a rescue from the upcoming Tesla Cybercab robotaxi -- but it's all but certain it will be targeted by the Tesla Takedown movement, and suffer accordingly.

Who says nonviolent resistance doesn't work? Like torching Tesla dealerships works better? Wrong. To be sure, the Musk Rat has proven the most effective testimonial against himself, combining a clueless arrogance with petulant whining, but the campaign still works.

The Trump 2.0 Regime has been a punishment all around to the USA, but its weaknesses are catching up with it. Retailer Target's foot traffic, a proxy for sales, has fallen dramatically, since it gave up DEI practices under Trump Regime pressure. Two days ago, Democratic House Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to five law firms that had, under pressure, come to deals with Trump. The letter read:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

Paying bribes, even under extortion, is illegal, people.

There's nothing in this that's enforceable on the companies, but a bigger spotlight needs to be shined on collaboration with the Trump Regime. The collaborators need to be listed and called out. Resistance works if everyone resists. If they don't, public shaming has a role. If nothing else, receipts have to be kept, hinting at accountability at a later time. Trump's public popularity is underwater and going deeper. We're stuck with him for a long time, but I don't think it will be forever.

In other words, as bad as things are, the fight back is only getting started, and will keep building up steam. America has gone dark, but forward motion continues in the shadows.

DAYLOG FRI 25 APR: I get on BlueSky in the mornings, braced for the latest Trump Regime outrage. Today, it was the Feds busting a judge for "interfering with ICE investigation" by allegedly helping a suspect to get away.

That is not at all good news, but my expectation is that this probably won't work for the Trump Regime and they'll end up backtracking -- after antagonizing the entire US judiciary. The Trump Regime is frightening, but also witless & incompetent. That was underlined in an essay by one Alexander Stille in NEWREPUBLIC, dated 22 April 25 and titled: "Which Past Fascist Does Trump Most Resemble? The Incompetent One."

Stille made comparisons between Trump and two Italian strongmen: Silvio Berlusconi and Benito Mussolini. Berlusconi "wrote the playbook for billionaire populism", but Berlusconi differed significantly from Trump. Berlusconi was limited in his ambitions: "It often seemed his main goals were preserving his financial empire and avoiding criminal prosecution." He otherwise hated to do anything that would antagonize Italians in general.

Trump, in contrast, compulsively rocks the boat; Mussolini was like that as well. Like Trump, Mussolini was a skilled demagogue who knew how to work the crowd. That put him into power; surrounded by toadies, he became convinced that he was superhuman. "But when he began to move outside of Italy -- creating an Italian empire and forcing Italy into World War II -- his fundamental provincialism, his deep ignorance of the outside world, and his overestimation of his own instincts over objective facts did him in."

Following imperialist efforts in Africa that antagonized everyone, Mussolini ignored his generals who told him Italy's army wasn't strong enough, and invaded Greece in 1940. The Italians took a beating, with Hitler finally bailing them out. Mussolini then committed his forces to aiding the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. That would be the effective destruction of his Army, with his regime then falling in 1943. Trump similarly overreaches himself, most obviously so far with his preposterous trade war.

Not a fatal mistake, not yet, but "it suggests that Trump's downfall is likely to come not from moral opprobrium but from economic failure and rank incompetence." The Trump Regime is not Nazi Germany: at best, it's Mussolini's Italy, even more like pathetic Vichy France. The myth lingers that dictatorships are efficient; the reality is that they are whimsical and inept.