Stupid is as Stupid does

I posted once in this blog about my father saying the following: “Just how goddamn stupid are you?” I’m now about the age he was when he said that 20 some years ago. I get it. He was just really tired of stupid people. They are exhausting.

We literally have access to vast amounts of information. In seconds we can look at any meme posted on Facebook or any other social media site and determine if it is a fact. Most people don’t bother. The post conforms with what they believe so they like or share. When confronted with facts the result is as follows.

The person who posted that has put out some things that were inaccurate. When I wasted my time providing evidence of their inaccurate nature the response was unfortunately predictable. They didn’t care because they liked what it said. It supported the ignorant beliefs they held and they preferred to stay willfully stupid.

I think George Carlin distilled it down to its basics. The “owners” of this country want a population just smart enough to run their machines and do their stupid paperwork but not smart enough to realize how badly the system is rigged and screwing them over.

So, I have a question for you if you look at how things are right now and you think everything is going well and getting better.

JUST HOW GODDAMN STUPID ARE YOU?

Mercedes

If you have an older car and some talent you have the opportunity to make a statement. This car was parked near us a few days ago.

Beach renourishment

Beach renourishment on Tybee Island.

https://www.facebook.com/brent.levy.581/videos/807033216464190/

Binary Choices

One of my many concerns is the willingness of too many to reduce complex issues to simplistic memes and binary options. They see the world, as best as I can determine, in black and white. I do my best to see the world is its magnificent shades of color and nuance. Time taken to read. To learn. To explore options. To look ahead at the possible outcomes of the choices I make. Am I successful? Am I good at that endeavor? Sometimes is the honest answer to both questions. What about the meme above a friend posted today on Facebook?

First, a simple fact. Democrats are not supporting the killing of unborn babies. What they do support is a woman’s right to choose. She made a choice to engage in sexual activity that resulted in an unintended pregnancy. She is pregnant with a child who has serious birth defects. She was raped. There was incest involved. Democrats even some Republicans believe a woman has the right to choose what is best for her life and circumstances.

Second, are Democrats willing to kill our enemies? Certainly when doing so enhances the security and safety of the American people. Did the recent killing of an Iranian general in Iraq accomplish those goals? Democrats and honestly every American should look at what happened, examine the consequences and make a determination.

It appears based on my reading and examination of the facts that the American government is willing to kill our enemies along with their born and unborn children. It remains of interest to me that our willingness to kill enemies is limited to those who have a very limited ability to fight back. Certainly the North Korean leader has created serious problems in Asia and at times beyond. Two things prevent us from taking action against him like with did with Iran. He has no oil. He has nuclear weapons. Putin has killed dissidents and spread his influence through Europe and the Middle East. We don’t attack him or his generals. Saudi Arabia participated in the murder of an American resident journalist. Our response? Well, they do a lot of business with us and buy our weapons. They have lots of oil so we’ll play nice. Looks more to me like we bully the weak.

Take some time. Think, examine, ponder and look around. The world is colorful and complex. Our responses should be well reasoned and proportional to the threat not vengeful and rushed.

Too Soon

President Trump ordered the United States military to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a strike carried out early Friday. There are plenty of questions regarding this action. It is too soon to know the answers to many of them. Perhaps in the days ahead the answer will be revealed.

One of my questions regards the information regarding our intelligence services. President Trump even before his inauguration questioned the information provided by the intelligence services regarding Russian interference in our elections. He has continued to question their reliability. Now President Trump gets information that coincides with his preconceived beliefs about Iran so he acts on them. Now we have great and accurate intelligence services. Is it only accurate when you tell him what he wants to hear?

General Soleimani was killed in Iraq. We violated the sovereignty of another nation to carry out an assassination. It would seem to leave us open to an Iranian or Iranian proxy group acting in the same manner against our troops or diplomatic staff anywhere in the world. Does that make anyone feel more safe?

Iran has announced they are no longer going to comply with the nuclear deal President Trump tore up. So they will enrich and stockpile nuclear materials perhaps leading to the creation of nuclear weapons. Does that enhance our safety or calm tensions in the Middle East?

President Trump has tweeted he will attack 52 sites in Iran if they attack U.S. troops or interests. He indicated some were cultural sites. According to the Geneva Conventions those actions would be a war crime. Would our military leaders refuse to follow an unlawful order?

The military provided President Trump with a series of options in order to respond to the attack on our embassy in Iraq. The assassination of Soleimani was one of the options. It is rumored that the military leaders from the Pentagon were surprised the President chose that option and attempted to dissuade him from that choice. If you give someone lacking foresight an option to do something with potentially long term serious consequences you shouldn’t be surprised when they pick the worst possible option. Why do we continually pick the kill someone option?

So many questions. No answers. Time will tell but I suspect the road ahead will lead to dire consequences for both sides.

Quote of the day

Iran, Iraq, and the attack on Soleimani

My position is that overt, public attacks on the leadership of sovereign nations outside of war is highly questionable both from a legal and effectiveness standpoint, and causes more harm than good. There must be a bright line between war and judicial/legal enforcement.  Of course there is a third way – the covert op way – but that’s a different and complex discussion.  I certainly won’t argue that Soleimani wasn’t behind a lot of actions that the US views as terrorism (a term I dislike in this case – what we are seeing is asymmetric warfare conducted by a nation-state).  If it’s that bad (and and argument could be made it is), collect allies, take it to congress, declare war, follow international law, take action.  Here comes the angry rant: In my opinion, in this case any analyst that thought this was a good idea should be fired.  You could put the skull of anyone associated with this operation up to your ear, and you would hear the ocean.  This was next level dumb.  Yes, I’m angry about this because it puts a lot of lives at risk, it violates international law, and compromises the US moral and strategic position both in the region and globally.

The above is from an article published by Enki Research. 

Here is a link to the full article. 

http://www.enkiops.org/blog/2020/01/03/iran-iraq-and-tossing-lit-matches-in-a-pool-of-gasoline/

This year please take time to do the following.

Read articles and learn the policy positions of candidates for office on both sides. 

Think. Think about the country and the world you want to leave to your children and grandchildren. 

Vote. Get up off your ass and go get registered if you aren’t. When the polls open get off your ass and go vote. Make your voice heard. 

Dogs

There are days I would trade places with Rose and Lily. It is good to be a dog in this house.

The Beach

It’s a new year and it seemed like a good day to go see how life is at Tybee’s north beach. The weather was moderate for the first day of January and winds were calm. The beach renourishment project was underway and we didn’t realize it was that close to the north beach crossover we use.

I’ll start with the foreground. If you look at the left side of the picture you can see how much recent hurricanes have eroded the beach. The dozer out at the water line is where the new beach edge will be. We were there at about the midpoint between high and low tide. In the background is the dredge that is pumping sand from the ocean floor to the beach. The project will run about 6 to 8 weeks, pump about one million cubic yards of sand to the beach and dune system at a cost of about 13 million dollars. You may wonder how disruptive this is to life in and around Tybee. Short sections of the beach are closed for the project then reopened as work is completed and the project moves down toward completion. Out on the ocean as the picture below shows, shrimping continues.

The boats always look so tiny compared to the vastness of the ocean.