What's it good for?

The Power of Trump. Why fascism is attractive to some voters. Why is religion attractive to some voters? Why are conspiracy theories attractive to some voters? Why is faith praised? Because it serves some human con man somewhere and unless you're the con man, the person it's serving ain't you.  So maybe you might try hiring the best con man around to represent you. You know he's a con man, but he promised to con everyone in your favor! We call that the long con. You join the con and you still get stiffed. Such is life. At least I'm conning everyone else more than I'm getting conned! I have never seen the attractiveness of living in a fascist state where the prosecutorial power of the state was run by a transactional plutocrat who's sole goal was to suck money out of you in return for 'favors.' The most common favor is not getting beaten up or arrested. The money is in the form of donations to the candidates or the parties (limited, attributed) or to ...

 I was reading the latest fiascos of Donald J. Trump and his aversion to showing reverence to the troops at cemeteries...when it gave me an idea that I think all red-blooded Americans can get behind and support. To set the stage, we need to go back in history and see how other presidential estates have been turned into libraries, or cemeteries . In particular, it's educational to learn about what happened to Robert E. Lee's  estate in Arlington, Virginia. He inherited this estate from George Washington's adopted grandson. After the civil war, the United States seized the land for non-payment of back taxes (they didn't pay their property tax during the civil war...) then they turned Lee's front porch into a war memorial and a military cemetery. And they wouldn't pardon him, either. Lee went to his deathbed still a fervent white supremacists to the ends of his days. And we rewarded him by taking away his land and turning it into a cemetery to honor those he had he...

China eradicated the virus in 90 days and it's economy is up and running again. South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and many other countries have eliminated the virus and restarted their economies.  Europe's death rate and case rate is continuing to go towards zero and it's economy has started to reopen. This is not the case in United States?  What is wrong with the United States? Is it the same thing that was wrong with Kansas ? [6] Even worse: what's wrong with California? Is it really too many Covidiots? Methinks the data speaks for itself. And the data says yes. COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in California [5] Since we ignored the obvious testing issues that would have allowed us to track, trace and isolate the virus into submission, we had to wait for a vaccine to have a hope of fixing it. Cases: Note July is the first peak, when this was written. Boy did Trump Fuck it up BIGLY. Deaths: And here's the deaths, Wow, did we screw this up big time. Everyt...

Reflections on " Experimental rejection of observer-independence in the quantum world " and an updated version " Experimental test of local observer-independence ". Are we quantum mechanical or not? This paper basically proves that the famous Schrodinger's cat experiment , which says the cat is a quantum mechanical wave function is correct. The cat is actually in an entangled state which means the cat is alive and dead at the same time. That's pretty weird! But we an make it even  weirder! Imagine, if you will, [1] that you are taking the place of Schrodinger's cat. We don't want to kill you so we'll modify the experiment in line with Deutsch's proposal and Wigner's interpretation. [2] The experiment performed above is exactly Deutsch's proposal and the result is that yes, you as the observer are in a superposition of quantum states. What is you in that previous statement? You only ever remember one set of events. You never have...

Flat Wron g the end piece in Scientific American, in the latest issue (May 2020) got me to thinking about how we could just end this idiocy that leads to many, many people being driven into believing obviously fallacious conspiracy theories. Did we actually go to the moon? (hint: we did.)  Was Obama born in Hawaii? (hint: yes.)  Is he Muslim? (hint: no.)  Is QAnon saying anything that's true? (hint: no.)  Are the Jews trying to take over the world (hint: no.) Are aliens here? (hint: no.) Do humans cause Global Warming? (hint: yes.) Have the Clintons murdered tens of people? (hint: no.) Did the Russians help the Trump campaign? (hint: yes.) Yada, yada, yada. We can't actually have much proof against most of these fallacies, but the Flat Earth one, we can if we actually get high enough in the atmosphere to see the curvature of the Earth. You will convince some Flat Earthers they are wrong. Most will just come up with some other excuse and continue t...

An opinion piece from the @WSJ in their 'main street' section: The Lockdown Rebellion Ordinary Americans protesting to reopen the economy face only contempt from elites. By   William McGurn April 20, 2020 12:40 pm ET https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lockdown-rebellion-11587400850 —- it’s not a rebellion, it’s a corporate led PR stunt that the @GOP is exploiting. Billionaires are afraid their profits will diminish, they don’t care who dies. This is standard fare in the media ecosystem. You can get what you pay for. Here we go. I'll quote the opinion piece and point out the fallacies. What's the motivation? Who's gaining advantage? Who's financing this? Does it make sense? Who's dying? —- There they go again, ordinary Americans denying science and refusing to defer to their betters. — It starts with the typically sarcastic #FlameAndBlame tactics of the shills of the right. The unwashed masses are great! They can be manipula...