The Sh*t is Getting Worse

At least one good friend thinks I am being too harsh on our elected representatives.  We will never agree on this.  The time for the Democrats to stand up for our rights was November 2000, yet I had many Democratic friends at the time who thought I was overdramatizing the problem.  I didnt think so then, I dont think so now.  

Dear Representative

After two decades or more of going along with the Democrats weak support of democracy, we reach a crisis.   This has been coming for a long time, at least since November 2000 when the Democrats permitted George Bush to steal the election, thus putting Roberts & Alito on the supreme court.  That was a critical mistake, but it was not the only one.  You had opportunity after opportunity to fix the supreme court, to make a stand, to get Merrick Garland on the court, for example, but you failed.  And so as the Republicans merrily put their right wing nuts throughout the judiciary, you continued to play golf or whatever it is you do.  As globalization and elite immigration destroyed employment for people like me, you just laughed.  And the supreme court destroyed the voting rights act.  And the supreme court put Citizens United in place.  And so forth and so on.  You ignored the traditional working class of the Democratic party, you did nothing for the "flyover states".  Nothing.  As far as I can tell you guys are a total failure.

So here we are, and now what do we do.

The only input we are permitted to have is through our "elected" representatives, who may or may not actually be elected (see voting rights act comment above and dont forget the November 2000 coup d'etat).  But our representatives have not done their job, nor do they particularly care to do their job, and issues and problems that might have been solved when they were small have now become very large and very difficult. In fact it is unlikely that they can be solved with the normal tools at hand.   That is too bad for all of us.

Therefore it is up to us to make our opinions known to our representatives even if it makes their lives just a little bit uncomfortable.  We tried it the other way.   All we can do is call you and be as insistent as possible until you do what you should have done already or we vote you out of office.

I am sure that the following demands will be difficult, maybe impossible. But failure will mean that we dont vote for you, and maybe vote for your opponent.  Then when he or she also fails, we vote for their opponent.  And so on and so forth.  At some point people will lose patience and civil society will be at an end.  That time may have already come to pass.  Again, too bad you guys screwed up.

This is a pretty strong set of opinions I am presenting here.  We do have a right to our opinion, dont we?  Maybe? 

So here is what we require from our so-called elected representatives.

1. Donald Trump is tried for his crimes before the election.  That means the Jan 6 events and the theft and handling of classified materials.  Given how close it is to the election, that means the trials start now.  At the very least, Judge Cannon needs to be removed.

2. The Supreme Court must reverse its ludicrous decisions or some workaround needs to be found.

3. The Supreme Court needs to be fixed.  That may mean term limits, it may mean impeachment, it may mean increasing the size of the court, it may mean something else.

4. The other courts need to be fixed.  Trump and others have put right wing nuts into the judiciary at all levels, they have to be removed.  Right now.

5. The supreme court must be open to public opinion, unlike the way it is now.  

6. The Voting Rights Act needs to be restored.  Citizen's United needs to be removed.  

We need all of these and we need them now.  So sorry you screwed up, maybe you will do a better job going forward.  Or maybe your replacements will.  I am not sure what will happen when you fail as you almost certainly will.

Sincerely,

MW

Representatives Playing Golf

I have called my two representatives (current and former) and my two senators to express my opinion about the failure of my representatives to see that Donald Trump is tried before the election and to reverse the ridiculous decisions of our right wing nutty boy so called supreme court.   I have also asked them to see to it that we can express our opinion to the supreme court. 

 

Repesentative Cardenas

Representative Carbajal

Senator Laphonza Butler 310 914 7300

Senator Alex Padilla. 310 231 4494

The Supreme Court Doesnt Take Comments

You are not permitted to give comments to the supreme court of the united states.  They couldnt care less.  If you call them, they will tell you this once and then hang up.  If you try to call again you are blocked.  We live in a right wing dictatorship.

But my elected representative did give me a phone number where I could leave a message.  Maybe.  Try 202 479 3000 and 202 479-3060.

Possible Solution to Supreme Court Ruling to Destroy the Homeless

Since the Supreme Court believes that we should destroy the homeless by denying them anywhere to go, but the Court also believes that it is unconstitutional to do anything to regulate firearms, why not put the two policies together and give AR-15s to the homeless and allow them to defend themselves?

Image by MidJourney

Good Background Material on Mandatory Palestine

I refuse to discuss the issues in Mandatory Palestine with most people.  What would be the point?  They know even less than I do, apparently, and that is saying something.  So rather than waste your time with my opinions on most of the issues, instead I will mention a few articles or books that I found particularly helpful.  

First "A Peace to End All Peace" by David Fromkin about the end of the Ottoman Empire. See https://www.amazon.com/Peace-End-All-Ottoman-Creation/dp/0805068848

Second,  "Should American Jews Abandon Elite Universities?" by Bret Stephens in the NY Times.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/opinion/jews-ivy-league-antisemitism.html

Students who police words like “blacklist” or “whitewash” and see “microaggressions” in everyday life ignore the entreaties of their Jewish peers to avoid chants like “globalize the intifada” or “from the river to the sea.” Students who claim they’re horribly pained by scenes of Palestinian suffering were largely silent on Oct. 7 — when they weren’t openly cheering the attacks. And students who team up with outside groups that are in overt sympathy with Islamist terrorists aren’t innocents. They’re collaborators.

Third, an article on the history of Zionism, particularly in the context of other ideologies of the 19th century by Peretz. See https://zionism-israel.com/ezine/Zionism_God_History.htm

I believe that there is something to be said for moral authority.  In other words, before you lecture other people or nations, it would be best if one cleaned up one's own house first.  Sometimes this is stated as "Let he (or she) who is without sin throw the first stone." or "leading by example".  If an American wants another nation which is fighting for its survival to "return the occupied territories" perhaps they should start by returning their own "occupied territories".  For example, in the case of the United States of America, one might return the states of New York, California or Virginia, all of them occupied territories. 

Peace.

Ensign of the Palestinian Mandate

Notes on Adding Assets to the OpenSpace Project (OSP)

There is an open source project to provide a visualization framework to present astronomical data to the public called, logically enough, the OpenSpace Project (OSP).  It is in the grand tradition of the infrastructure of planetariums that stretches back in time to long before computer graphics and even computers.  The current state of the art uses graphics and projection hardware that would have been far too expensive for this purpose even a few years ago.

This particular framework seems to be a robust, somewhat comprehensive collection of the things one might need to put on a science show at a planetarium.  Time marches on, and so must the software.  It must permit new science to be incorporated into the core framework.

Furthermore,   the classic planetarium show has always been interactive and real time even when it has been rigorously scripted. Real time enables improvisation but it does not require it.   Every community has its traditions and the traditions of planetarium shows insist on this capability.

One of the principals of this project, Carter Emmart, a veteran of the ancient Digital Galaxy Project at the Hayden in NYC, asked me to add a very simple item to the repertoire of OpenSpace.  It should have been straightforward, but I have been pulling my hair out trying to get traction because, as we all know, writing documentation for a complicated piece of software like OpenSpace is non-trivial and not particularly pleasant.  OpenSpace does have documentation but not all documentation fits all use cases.

Systems of this type have very different classes of users and they all need different learning materials.  Some of these users will script new shows with the capabilities at hand.  Others will want to add to the functionality of the software.  Still others will be doing a masters or PhD thesis that incorporates visualization of science data or models into the software, but for their own use and not as a general capability.  Some of these people will be astrophysicists, some will be visualizers and some will be children.  So learning the software is likely to be painful depending on what your use case is.

This blog post will attempt to fill in some of these gaps for those who come after me.  The post will evolve as my understanding evolves.

The task at hand is to be able to create a type of lunar surface that exhibits the "retro reflection effect" for want of a better term.  Imagine you are in a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.  One of the observed phenomena is for light to be directed back at its source just as you might see from a reflected sign on a highway at night.  This phenomenon has been observed both on the moon and from earth.  It shouldnt be too hard to have OpenSpace simulate some version of this.

Notes for Adding New Geometry & Shader to OpenSpace

1. In general, types of data to be visualized with the OpenSpace Project (OSP) are defined as assets.  All assets are defined in text files with the suffix ".asset".

2. Assets can be added statically at the startup of OSP or interactively through the Lua console.  

3. The particular type of asset we want to add is called a RenderableModel.  See the documentation for this kind of asset at 

https://docs.openspaceproject.com/en/latest/generated/asset-components/RenderableModel.html

4. There are three fields in particular that interest us: the GeometryFile, the VertexShader and the Fragment Shader.

5. The GeometryFile will be the filename of a GLTF or GLB file.  This filetype is designed to encapsulate 3D geometry and many other things.  It is documented and maintained by Khronos and can be read about here:

https://registry.khronos.org/glTF/specs/2.0/glTF-2.0.html

6. The Vertex and Fragment shaders are individual text files which are compiled and downloaded to the relevant GPUs.  They contain the code necessary to actually render the surface in real time.  

7. Probably we will define this type of asset interactively using Lua, and therefore will need the scripting API documentation, which is documented here:

https://docs.openspaceproject.com/en/latest/generated/scripting-api/index.html

8. So, to my current understanding, I will be creating a new type of asset which points to some geometry, a vertex shader, and a fragment shader, and add this asset interactively via Lua.

No doubt this post will be updated as I learn more.

Fan Art for "Earthly Pleasures"

 
Jill Fraser's new album, Earthly Pleasures, is loosely based on the music of 19th century hymns.  As a fan, I contribute the following fan art, based on the idea of an angel and worshippers.  The angel is wearing a silver bathing suit and carries a whip.

There are some very entertaining things that were mostly unintentional in some of these pictures.  Notice how the groveling worshippers seem to be in pain.  Is that because I said the angel was carrying a whip?

The Philosophical Research Society and the Library of Esoteric Knowledge

For all the years I lived in Los Angeles, I never visited the Philosophical Research Society.  I knew it was off in Los Feliz somewhere.  

Generally speaking, back in the day, I would rarely go east of Western and only go as far as Western because that is where the AFI was located.  

But the PRS is an example of the best of old Los Angeles.  Founded in the 1930s by a self-educated mystic, Manly Hall, he eventually built a library for his 30,000 plus titles of his collections of Esoteric Knowledge and wrote many classics in the field.  Their bookstore is the best of its type since the Bodhi Tree.  The library is open Thursday & Friday from noon to six.  The bookstore is open normal business hours and in the evening during an event.

An entertaining and informative article on the PRS, Manly Hall, and their history, is here:  
https://www.laweekly.com/the-strange-history-of-los-felizs-mysterious-metaphysical-research-center/

If you can judge a place by its people, then the PRS is a very interesting place.  We should all spend more time there.

Vegetarian Vegetable Soup #1

 
Recipe for one variation on vegetable soup.   

prepare soup stock

in olive oil, saute 1 yellow onion and 6 cloves of chopped garlic

add several carrots chopped into large pieces

add several stocks of celery also chopped

add a handful of dried shitake mushrooms

add two bay leaves 

add several dozen pepper corns

add about 8 cups of water and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes

strain the stock, discard the vegetables and put half of it in the freezer

keep half for the rest of the recipe

in a clean soup pot, saute several cloves of garlic 

1 teaspoon paprika

add the soup stock

add about a dozen romano beans chopped roughly

add several dozen snow peas chopped roughly

add a handful of chopped broccoli 

add a can of cannellini 

3/4 small can of tomato paste

4 or so large fresh shitaki mushrooms sliced

fresh oregano, fresh thyme, fresh basil 

add dried oregano, basil and thyme

several bay leaves

salt and pepper

and simmer for 15-20 minutes

variations: 

cook the cannellini from scratch

use fresh tomatoes sauted in olive oil 

roast an anaheim pepper, remove the skin and seeds, chopped

add one small chopped carrot 

add one stalk of celery chopped

add juice of 1/2 lemon

Vegetarian Pseudo Pozole

Recipe for a vegetarian pseudo pozole:

1 anaheim
1 poblano/?
1 jalapeno
roast & skin peppers

1 onion, shredded
6 cloves of garlic
saute in olive oil

1 can red enchilada sauce (hot)
put peppers & 1/2 the saute onion in blender with enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup water 

4 cups soup stock
in pan with 1/2 onion saute
2 cans garbanzo beans
add teaspoon cumin seed
add fresh oregano
add pinch of cinnamon

put pepper mix into the main pot
salt and pepper
cook for 15 minutes

garnish with avocado, radishes, lime juice, cilantro, cheddar cheese

Campus Protests Redux and the Media Failure

(Rewritten to tone down this post).

The campus protests about the Israel-Hamas war are slowly dissipating but their impact is still very much with us although what those implications actually are or will be is to be determined.  Many, many people are annoyed by these protests and annoyed at how our media failed to deal with many points.  Here are a few of the issues.

1. It is possible to do protests without making other people feel unsafe.  See for example the women's marches of the last decade.  

2. Many people attend the University in order to get an education.  They do not have infinite time to screw around and to be intimidated.  The role of the President and the Trustees is to see that people get their education.

3. I dont recall ever seeing a contract that says a student can determine the investment policy of these institutions.  Furthermore there are people associated with the University, including other students who do not agree with the opinions of these protesters.  

4. Many campuses have been unsafe for Jews for a long time.  This issue is well known to the administration(s) and they have declined to do anything about it.  I think its funny that all the noise about "safe spaces" turns out to be hypocritical bullshit.

5. I have no desire to have this country's foreign policy determined by these people.  I do relate to the protester's frustration with our foreign policy elites.  

6. From what they say, I have no reason to think that the protesters know enough about the history here or what they are protesting.  Or maybe they do know enough about what is going on and have made some choices that I do not agree with.

7. There are slogans that are code words for killing Jews, and when the media repeats them they need to make that clear. 

8. Failure to understand and use words like "genocide" is offensive.

9. I personally have been prevented from expressing my opinion on this topic and been removed from social events on the possibility that I would express these opinions.   What about my freedom of speech?  Oh I guess that doesn't matter.

Palestinian Flag

Brief Bio for Friends from Virginia

 

This is a very brief non-bio bio for friends and classmates from Virginia.  It is just a way to keep things concise and not have to repeat myself too much and I doubt anyone else will be interested.

I left Collegiate after 10th grade, spent one year at a high school in LA (public, it was awful) and then spent a few years at UCSB and graduated from UCLA in Math and/or Economics.  From there I went to the RAND Corporation which was wonderful, and worked in early computer graphics for visual effects which was "not pleasant" although I did meet some nice people.  Did some early films with the technology, wrote some of the early technology (for which I received an Academy Technical Achievement Award) and worked on some innovative, very early, projects.  I briefly helped run my own production company, deGraf/Wahrman, inc, and when that was over worked on a variety of consulting projects.  Some of these were lots of fun, like the rebuild of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.  If only they could all have been that fun! 

I have lived in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Colorado and New York City.  I am currently living in Los Angeles with Jill Fraser, a noted pioneer and composer in electronic music.  

I am thinking about going back to school to make something of my life.

Now its your turn.

Other notes: 

-- email sent to kent hudgens, linda linkins, bruce mckenney on 5/7/24

-- I have heard from Paul Sikorovsky, Bucky Neal, and Linda Linkin, Ed Jones, Bob Siff, Chuck Rogers, Charles Strauss and David Clough

What About "What-About-Ism"?

 
I have recently been accused of using "what about ism" as a rhetorical device and I am told in no uncertain terms that it is an unacceptable technique.  This blog post will discuss some of the issues as I attempt to understand what my position will be on this matter.  I may have to change my position after this exercise.

There are several types of "what about ism", I propose, and each of these deserves their own discussion.

In the first case, someone argues "what about <blah>" where <blah> is an assertion of some fact that turns out not be true.  Someone might excuse Donald Trump's criminal activities by saying "What about Hillary Clinton?  She had non-consensual sex with children in pizza parlors".  Obviously this did not happen and so this kind of "what about ism" is or should be invalid.

The second case might be called "the false equivalency".  In this case, someone might argue that sure, Donald Trump abused women but "Hillary Clinton once got a traffic ticket for speeding.  What about that?".   It may be that Hillary was once caught speeding, I have no idea, but it is irrelevant.  Again, easy to dismiss.

The third situation is more problematic.  In this case, the case is made that whoever is making the accusations are guilty of the same crimes or worse and has no moral right to make the accusations.  I see this kind of problem every day of the week, and it is a variation of the aphorism "Let those who are without sin throw the first stone".   In some cases, it might be best if the accuser led by example.

There are far too many examples of this.  It would be tiresome to go over them. 

So what is the conclusion about "what about ism"?  My conclusion is that when used correctly it is a valid way to point out hypocrisy.  Others wont like that and think that it is just a technique for deflecting from the issue at hand.  Both may be true.

Picture courtesy of Mid Journey

On Valerio Street, They Wait for a Customer

 
God forbid, LA or Van Nuys would do anything to help the women who hook for a living on a cold night.  Maybe a coffee shop where they can wait in warmth and have their customers vetted for VD and other issues.  No, not in LA, LA doesn't give a fuck.

Pictures courtesy of MidJourney

Notes on "The Mind's Eye"

In 1987 I was the Producer of the pioneering computer animated short “Stanley and Stella in Breaking the Ice.” It was a showcase for storytelling in the fledgling medium of computer animation. It also featured the recently developed “boids” model of flocking/schooling, and demonstrated the capabilities of graphics products from Symbolics, Inc. A 2023 remastered video can be seen here (https://archive.org/details/stanley-and-stella-in-breaking-the-ice-original-symbolics-tapes-restored-remastered-1080p).

Our animation premiered at the Electronic Theater of the SIGGRAPH 1987 conference. (This was the same year as “Red's Dream” from PIXAR whose “Toy Story” would come out eight years later.) Narrative computer animation was in its infancy.

Then in 1990, a modified version of our animation appeared in a collection called “The Mind's Eye: A Computer Animation Odyssey.” I was reminded of this by an upcoming 2024 screening and presentation in San Francisco: The Mind’s Eye with Steven Churchill (https://grayarea.org/event/the-minds-eye-with-steven-churchill-screening/).

I recalled being surprised back in the 1990s finding our animation included in “The Mind's Eye”, re-titled, re-scored, and stripped of its credits. To the best of my knowledge (and of the rest of the production crew, and Symbolics’ management) the producers of Mind’s Eye never sought nor received permission to use our animation in their compilation. Tom McMahon, General Manger of Symbolics Graphics Division at the time, and Executive Producer of the animation said: “This is water long under the bridge, but back then, we were all astonished to see that without permission, someone had taken our work, repackaged it, and then resold it.”

If anyone knows of any evidence that Symbolics granted permission to use “Breaking the Ice” in “The Mind's Eye” I would be quite interested in seeing it.

One of the awards our film received:

Collegiate Reunion Redux

I sincerely hope that this post and related emails do not annoy my fellow alumni.  If it does, well accept my apologies.

If you attended Collegiate in Richmond, VA then this post is for you.  If you didn't please do us both a favor and go away. 

The reunion at Collegiate last September was a complete screwup for me because I arrived in Richmond (for the first time in REDACTED years) with COVID.  This is not good because I really wanted closure on this part of my life that would only come from 1 on 1 interaction with people who I havent seen for REDACTED years.  This bums me out not least because the organizers worked so hard and with such diligence.

So what I want to do is as follows:  1. Get in touch with whoever I can via the bold new internet and have some minimal interaction, 2. Maybe even have a zoom call with one or two of you, 3. Try to get some answers about some mysteries / questions that I have, 4. Find out what happened to a bunch of our instructors, and finally 5. At some point come back to Richmond and see a few of you as available.

For those of you who wonder what took so long, when I came back from Richmond I was (a) sick, (b) about to enter a medical disaster because of my incompetent doctors (c) about to move from Santa Barbara to LA to move in with my girlfriend, and (d) processing what had happened and what I thought about it.  At the same time, not everyone was willing to reply to my (pathetic?) emails.  And I started processing the Torch and discovered that I remembered all the guys, did not recognize most of the girls, and was completely baffled by a time skew between the boys and girls classes, and was shocked to see I recognized all the instructors.

What happened to them?  Where are they now?  Are any still alive?  And where are you, my fellow students?  What city(-ies) do you live in?  What do you look like?  Married?  Children?  Dogs?  Anyone still in prison?  What?  

So far I am in touch with Chuck Rogers, Chris Conlon, Janie Katzenberg Asch, Ed Jones, Bob Siff and Mary Ellen.

The tag below marked Reunion should link you to any other posts about this.

Please contact me at michael.wahrman@gmail.com and let me know.

Thank you,

MW

Moderate reunion success: email has been sent to Charles Strauss, Lewis Little, Paul Sikorovsky, Buzzy Northen and of course Bob Siff, Mary Ellen, Ed Jones and Chris Conlon.  More to follow.  Let there be a non official official reunion in september.

Knight's Templar and my Friend Speer

 Not everyone who is a right wing Trump supporter is a nut, but Steve Speer sure is.  Stay away from him is my advice.

This is an image of the Knight's Templar courtesy of Midjourney.  That was our topic of discussion.

Drone and Child in Graveyard

 
I tried to get Midjourney to create a picture of a drone using facial recognition on a statue of a child in a graveyard.  I spent very little time on it and I did not get what I wanted.  Still for the amount of time I spent it is not too bad, I think.

Ancient Roman Frescoes with MidJourney and AI

Here are some examples of "ancient roman frescoes" as created with Midjourney.  One is of an inscription foretelling doom, two are of sea creatures, and one is of a Cthulu-like creature from space.  I find that one is much better off to tell MidJourney what kind of style or artist's work to use as a template than to let it default to its own banal choices.

Doom is foretold

Roman fish of some sort

Cthulu, where are you?

My Friend as a Seat Filler at the Academy Awards (tm)

So you attended the Academy Awards(tm) ?


"Yes. As a seat filler. There must have been 100 of us. So to keep the seats full for the camera. 4 of us were assigned the front row center seats where Jack Nicholson always sat, and watched the awards for hairstyling and makeup. They moved us around during commercials as members would go out for a drink or restrooms. My last seat was in the third row next to DeNiro and his wife, and Scorcese was right behind. I had to say hi to both. Jodi Foster and Annette Bening were 2 rows in front and Tim Robbins was right behind. Across the aisle were Billie Eilish and Ryan Gosling, who switched to a pink sequined outfit for his I am Ken extravaganza where he led like 80 men in a synchronized dance. What a strange and transient experience."

Picture by Midjourney

No More Comments on a Facebook Group

I made some pithy comment on a facebook group about "Virtual Beings".  And my comment was removed by the administrator who didn't like it.  So I removed myself from that group and the lesson is learned.  No more comments on Facebook groups.  Total waste of my time.

From the Special Counsel

Although the US Government has consistently failed to bring Trump to justice for his crimes, there is evidence that some people or groups are at least trying.  Here the Special Counsel replies to Trump's insistence that he was only doing what Joe Biden and others have done with classified documents: 


[T]here has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s. He intentionally took possession of a vast trove of some of the nation’s most sensitive documents—documents so sensitive that they were presented to the President—and stored them in unsecured locations at his heavily trafficked social club. When the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) initially sought their return (before learning that they contained classified national defense information), Trump delayed, obfuscated, and dissembled. Faced with the possibility of legal action, he ostensibly agreed to comply with NARA’s requests but in fact engaged in additional deception, returning only a fraction of the documents in his possession while claiming that his production was complete. Then, when presented with a grand jury subpoena demanding the return of the remaining documents bearing classification markings, Trump attempted to enlist his own attorney in the corrupt endeavor, suggesting that he falsely tell the FBI and grand jury that Trump did not have any documents, and suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents rather than produce them to the government. Failing in his effort to corrupt the attorney, Trump enlisted his trusted body man, codefendant Waltine Nauta, in a scheme to deceive the attorney by moving boxes to conceal his (Trump’s) continued possession of classified documents. As a result, Trump, through his attorney, again returned only a portion of the classified documents in his possession while falsely claiming that his production was complete. The obstructive conduct even persisted from there. In June 2022, knowing that he had arranged for Nauta to move boxes to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, and knowing that the government had subpoenaed the security video footage that would reveal that surreptitious box movement, Trump, now joined by not only Nauta but also codefendant Carlos De Oliveira, attempted to have the information-technology manager at Mar-aLago delete the video footage that would show the movement of boxes.


Let there be no doubt in your mind, if you or I had done even 10 % of the crimes for which Trump is being prosecuted, we would be spending 20 years to life in solitary confinement.  

Disabled and Devout on Sepulveda Blvd

I drove to Western Bagels.  On the sidewalk down the block was a crippled or deformed person, probably homeless, very dirty, maybe without legs, praying.  Rocking back and forth and prostrated and praying.  To Mecca?

Image by Midjourney.  The actual person was much more crippled and dirty.

What Happened to the Van Nuys Air Show?

Once upon a time, long ago but as recently as 2006, the City and County of Los Angeles had a pretty wonderful air show at the Van Nuys Airport.  It attracted people from all over the city and the region.  It was cross generational and attendance was a tradition for many people and families.

Air shows are a way to see some exotic hardware and learn about the history of aviation.  Los Angeles was and is a center of aviation innovation and history. Many of the pioneers of aerospace such as Douglas Aircraft, Lockheed, TRW as well as hundreds of smaller companies were located here.    It is right and proper for the city to host an air show.  

So what happened?  Apparently the city sold out the air show because rich people and corporations wanted more space to store their jets.  The city said it did it for the money but some people believe the real reason was that they wanted to kiss the ass of their masters and show proper deference.   After all who cares about a festival beloved by the citizens of Los Angeles?  Certainly not us, the politicians thought.  

If the city had really wanted money, all it had to do was to lease the space to the rich for 11 months of the year and have the air show during the 12th month when the rich would have to fly their jets somewhere else, perhaps the Bahamas, or the South of France or Bali.  Or the rich people's jets could even be part of the show.  No problem.  But that is not what the city chose to do. 

I have heard that the government of the City and County of Los Angeles is corrupt and there is evidence for that.  But another explanation is that they are just not very good at their job and are indifferent to the lives and well-being of the people who for one reason or another have to live here. Our public servants are not pretending to be shallow and incompetent.  They are shallow and incompetent.  They are true to their values.

A visualization of private jet area of Van Nuys Airport courtesy of MidJourney.

No Response From Our Public Servants

 
Jill and I wrote a letter to our various local city and state representatives asking them if they would not mind looking at and possibly addressing a half dozen or so issues on our street. It was a very nice letter and we sent it to all possible relevant parties.

You know: maybe less prostitutes on the street, take down the overhead power lines, remove the derelict buildings, and modify Sepulveda Blvd so that it appeared that people who were expected to live here could do so with dignity and with some of the amenities that the rich white folk have in other parts of this Ciudad de Los Angeles.

We got one letter returned without forwarding address but no other response.  Not even a form letter or a robocall from a digital assistant.  How rude.  What were we thinking?  That the city of LA cares about its citizens?

Now we get to call their office and see if they even got the letter.  Yes, we know there is very little chance that anything will come of this.  But we think it is worth a little of our time to try and have our elected representatives do their job.

Politicians asleep courtesy of MidJourney

The letter:

Appeals Justices with a Pop Culture Spin

 

Using Midjourney to visualize three appeals court justices as the Joker.  Not exactly what I wanted but not bad for 5 minutes work, either.