The Democrats Failed Again

I would have thought that after Schumer failed to hold up the Trump budget that the Democrats would be on their best behavior.  I was wrong.

Apparently the Republicans in the House passed their fascist budget by 1 vote.  But the Democrats had lost three votes because some old members had refused to retire in time to be replaced but died in office.

OK, this disqualifies them from leadership.  

AOC and Booker should form a new party.

Administrative Note 5/30/2025

As you know, I dont actually know who reads my blog.  I am getting bored with all the politics.

For R&D Using Machine Learning Now is the Time

It turns out that science has its periods of boom and not-boom.  We are in a period of boom for many sciences and industrial processes that are using machine learning.   If you want to be a part of that, you have to act now.

Astronomy is a great example of the boom theory of scientific advancement.  Some Dutch guy invents the telescope and suddenly you have Galileo and others.   Same thing with planetary probes, radio astronomy, and so forth.  When they have new data, they can publish new work.

And now,  AI or as we might call it, machine learning, has opened up a hundred doors, or a thousand doors, all at once.  And everyone is running through those doors and if you dont, well too bad, there is still work to do but it wont be as easy and may not be possible.

Fortune favors the prepared mind, and it also favors those with the resources who are enabled to do the work when the time comes.

This is all obvious, I am just complaining.

Forgive me.

Walls and Constitutions

There is a story that in late antiquity the people of Rome wanted to build new walls in order to protect themselves from the hordes ravaging Italy.  Supposedly their top general tried to dissuade them saying "There is no point building walls if you dont have people who are willing to man them".

In the same vein, it seems to me that there are some similarities here to our current situation in America.  There is no point in having laws if you are not willing to enforce the law.  There is no reason to have a constitution if you can ignore it all you want and there are no consequences.

The Good News About US Science

According to a friend of mine who is a full professor of Computer Science, other countries see the destruction of the NSF and the authoritarian takeover of the US as a once in a lifetime opportunity to improve the science in their countries by attracting scientific talent.  

And why not, only a moron who did not know the history of this country during and since WW2 would try to destroy the NSF and the NIH.  

There are several theories here.  One is that the orange moron really does want to destroy America.  There are some variations on the theory that he just does not know what he is doing and thinks he is smarter than everyone else.  Why is the right so anti-intellectual?

An Interesting Discussion with a Trump Supporter

I enjoyed my conversation at a stoplight with a Trump supporter (30 something, male) in his truck flying a big trump banner.  What I concluded was that as long as people live in a fox news bubble, it will never be possible to change their mind.  

To be clear, I am saying that fixing things like Fox News is required, not optional.  If you cant fix it, fine, but do not expect that it will ever be possible to have democracy in this country again.

Special Thanks to my Fellow Americans

Exactly as predicted, Trump and friends are attempting to destroy American democracy and doing a good job of it.  Apparently all that self-serving rot about checks & balances was all "just kidding". In the history of the world, short of a major war, there has rarely been a national decline so precipitous and self-inflicted.  

We can be proud of failing better than anyone else.  But we could not have done it without the people who voted that idiot into office. 

The Moron King, Trump and the Republicans, were completely clear that they planned to destroy voting rights, betray our allies, destroy the world order created after WW2,  destroy the economy,  condemn millions of people to death and disease, oppress women, and turn America into a white theocracy.  You would either have to be stupid not to have known this or, alternatively, wanted it because you thought it was neat.

Winning a tiny share of the popular vote is not the same as a mandate and furthermore, even if it was, the President took an oath of office and is expected to obey the law and support the constitution.

America will have been diminished thanks to you wankers.  

Good job!

Let Us Embrace National Decline

The failure of democracy and speedy national decline of the American republic is a useful and perhaps necessary counter to the astonishing hubris and self congratulatory nature of our various elites.  It could not have happened without the arrogance and stupidity of so many people here from the rather blatant self-interest and treason of the Republicans to the weakness of the Democrats and their unwillingness to stand on principle to the obvious corruption of the judiciary (looking at you Justice Cannon, Alito & Roberts).

On the bright side, we should applaud the tremendous and world historical rate of decline of a formerly great country now destroyed.  Lets embrace our failure and look forward to the day when we can benefit from the tourists coming to witness the ruins.  Americans will rise to this challenge and be sure to greet these onlookers with souvenirs made in China.

Modified Coconut Chip Cookies

The following recipe is only approximate.  

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 tbsp plain yogurt, 1/2 stick unsalted butter (melted), 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp salt, 2 or 3 tbsp coconut oil, 1 cup flour, 3 cups or so coconut (unsweetened preferred), 3/4 cup white baking chocolate chips.    Add a few tbsps of hot water as needed.  Mix well. NB: no baking soda or powder.

Spoon out to baking pan.

Cook 18 minutes or so, or in the case where there are two levels of pans, 9 minutes and then switch the pans.

The Various Failures of the Democratic Party

Part 1 of 3.  Find parts 2 and 3 here, when they are written.

When you have a complete collapse of democracy there is plenty of blame to go around.  But I believe that second only to Trump the Pig, pride of place should go to my party, the Democrats.  Gotta love them, but I dont know any group of people more craven, more self-serving, more self-entitled or more self-deceived as the Democratic Party elites.  Weak and indecisive.  As the singing cowboy, Will Rogers, said: "I belong to no organized political party.  I am a Democrat".

In the last 25 years or so, I have watched the Democratic Party studiously work to fail.  Failure of this nature does not just happen; it takes sincere effort and a desire for excellence.   A willingness to work to the point of pain to demonstrate contempt for their constituency.  Instead of working to educate us, perhaps to show why something was necessary, the Democrat Party ignored its people.  And they kicked the can down the road rather than make a stand on principle.

In contrast, the Republican Party who may be despicable, seem to deliver for their constituency. From "her emails" to Benghazi, to Fox News, to defunding the government, to treason, the Republicans always deliver solid red meat.

This is not hindsight on my part.  I have been waving my arms like a maniac since November 2000 when I went to Washington to protest the Supreme Court coup d'etat. 

First there are the policy failures, and second there are specific events where the Democratic Party demonstrated lack of backbone.

On policy, they did not articulate a strong position on immigration.  They abandoned the center of the country to the ravages of a globalized, hollowed out America.  They did not take a strong stand on law enforcement or, for that matter, civil rights.  Always involved in political correctness beyond what most Americans care about.  And of course Biden failed to address inflation and the party lamely said that it did not exist.  

Then there are the specific issues or events where they failed to respond to fight and to lead. In no particular order. 

The Democrats failed to oppose the ridiculous Supreme Court decision that stole the election from Al Gore who was clearly winning.   They failed to get Merrick Garland onto the Supreme Court.  They failed to prosecute anyone in Wall Street for their malfeasance which led to the 2008 economic collapse. The Democratic party elites attempted to sabotage Sanders and give the nomination to Hilary. They exterminated the political career of Al Franken for no good reason.   Justice Ginzburg should have resigned during the Obama administration.  This was a mistake no Republican would make.  Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and Barrett should never have been permitted on the court. Garland, Smith and the DOJ failed to properly prosecute Trump. The Supreme Court immunity decision was an abomination. This list could be twice as long.  The Democratic party did nothing.

There are some exceptions to this of course.  There are some good Democrats.  AOC and Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders (I love Bernie!) but all too few and they are generally muffled by the Democratic elites.  Technically Bernie is not even a Democrat.

Whatever happens over the next few years or decades as we try to defeat our fascist dictator and his party, and restore democracy to this country, however that happens, one thing seems to be clear.  The Dems will not be a help and have nothing to contribute.  I am sure they will try to take credit later.