Public Comment

A GOP Voice Against Washington's Wars?
In his speech at the RNC convention Silicon Valley Republican donor David Sacks caused some jaws to drop when he uttered a seldom-spoken truth—that President Biden provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of "his talk about NATO expansion."  

It was far from just talk. The US provocations hit a peak with the 2014 coup and a shooting war in the Donbas region that lead to Putin's "special military action." Sacks was correct when he stated that President Biden "rejected every opportunity for peace in Ukraine, including a deal to end the war just two months after it broke out." Sacks was correct when he bemoaned the resulting conflict's high cost in lives and money. And he sounded like Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein when he declared that the US should not try to "play the world's policeman." But Sacks dropped the bag when he declared that the US should build the world's most powerful military to keep America "safe." 

Sacks failed to explain why the US—with 4% of the world's population—needs to be Number One in military strength. While Sacks prefers a president "willing to talk to adversaries as well as friends, because that is the only way to make peace" he also called for "a president who will stand up to the warmongers, instead of empowering them." The words were a bit discordant since many of America's worst warmongers are to be found in the GOP (e.g., Lindsey Graham). 

Spoiler Alert: Sack's investment firm helped found Palantir Technologies, a major US $72 billion high-tech weapons manufacturer. Bonus Alert: Republican Rep. Mike Gallegher (R. Wis.) has announced that he's stepping down from his seat in Congress to take a top job with Palantir. As one press report put it, Gallagher "is publicly acknowledging that he is looking to trade on his government contracts to create profits in his new role: overseeing Palantir's defense business. In other words, he didn't just go through the revolving door. He's proud of it." 

Locked and Lethal But Too Sick to Serve?
In her DNC acceptance speech, Kamala Harris shocked her peace-loving supporters by promising to unleash "the world's most lethal army." Harris has yet to address the requirement in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that would require women—as well as men—to register for the military draft. But there's a problem the draft-hungry Pentagon has to deal with—i.e., the health of America's draft-age youth. Commentator Natalya Panteleyeva explains in the following diagnosis: 

"[The] promise of the world's most powerful military runs into the problem of recruitment in a generation with 60% having a chronic disease disqualifying them from military service. Among the remaining 40%, many do not qualify because of non-chronic diagnoses in medical histories…. Even if [recruitment qualifications] are relaxed, the most powerful military will not emerge from the sickest population compared to its competitors." 

Climate Change Isn't Healthy
The Climate Reality Project has just offered a glimpse of what climate change has in store, starting with Australia's Great Barrier Reef where temperatures over the past decade have reached the highest recorded in 400 years. Extreme heat has caused five mass coral bleaching events over the past decade. At the same time, the frequency and magnitude of extreme wildfires has doubled worldwide with the six of the most extreme fire years occurring in the past seven years. 

Climate change is bringing more bad news for the Pentagon's plans to bring back the military draft. Climate change is aggravating a wide range of ailments, including respiratory and heart diseases, insect-spread diseases like Lyme disease and West Nile Virus, as well as water- and food-related illnesses. Not to mention potential injuries and deaths from extreme weather events like floods, wildfires, and more intense storms. 

Give Us Hope, Kamala
The Harris/Walz ticket has gendered lots of enthusiastic response—in large measure because the Democrats are offering (for the first time in US history) a gendered ticket. The hope-spasm enthusiasm has been captured by this online reggae anthem, "Gimme Hope, Kamala." 

This song is based on an 1988 Apartheid-era tune from South Africa performed by Eddy Grant's once-banned song, "Gimme Hope Jo'Anna." It's worth hearing. Give it a click. 

Speaking of South Africa
Cleaning out some of the files in my office, I came across a stack of papers from a memorable trip to South Africa more than a decade ago. In addition to a list of 290 examples of local slang ("takkies" for sneakers, "stokies" for slippers) the glossary also included the following useful phrases under the headline, "You Know You're South African When":
You call a bathing suit a "swimming costume."
You can sing your national anthem in four languages and have no idea what it means in any of them
You can do your monthly shopping on the pavement.
You know someone who knows someone who knows Nelson Mandela.
You have to take your own linen if admitted to a government hospital.
People have wonderful names like: Christmas, Goodwill, Pretty, Wednesday, Blessing, Brilliant, Gift, Precious, Innocence and Given. 

Fashion Plates
Personalized license plates spotted about town:
AUTAN
GROKNOW
PAPABOB
MONCERO
HELIOSP
XILANGA
MZDAMBN
MWWWMMM
LUIGIZ (Luigi's?)
LUVMRJ (LOVE MR. J?)
ARRTHOU (How Art Thou?)
Bumpersnickers
Get Bent
Be Simple
Peace Through Music
Skullastic READ of DIE
Can't Stop Me: I'm Following My Dreams
We're Fonda Jane 

The Earth Does Not Belong to Us. We Belong to the Earth. 

Electricity from the Ground Up
Researchers at Northwestern University have stumbled across a source of electricity that was first developed in 1911 and is literally "dirt-cheap." In an article titled "Dirt-powered Fuel Cells Can Run Forever," the scientists write about their creation of "a new fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt." 

A solution may lie with Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) that "use special microbes to break down soil and use that low amount of energy to power sensors. As long as there is organic carbon in the soil for the microbes to break down, the fuel cell can potentially last forever.” 

The article describes how, instead of using chemicals, " MFCs harvest electricity from bacteria that naturally donate electrons to nearby conductors. When these electrons flow from the anode to the cathode, it creates an electric circuit." 

As one university researcher noted: “If we imagine a future with trillions of [electronic] devices, we cannot build every one of them out of lithium, heavy metals and toxins that are dangerous to the environment." 

A solution may lie with Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) that "use special microbes to break down soil and use that low amount of energy to power sensors. As long as there is organic carbon in the soil for the microbes to break down, the fuel cell can potentially last forever.” 

"About the size of a standard paperback book, the completely soil-powered technology could fuel underground sensors used in precision agriculture and green infrastructure. This potentially could offer a sustainable, renewable alternative to batteries, which hold toxic, flammable chemicals that leach into the ground, are fraught with conflict-filled supply chains and contribute to the ever-growing problem of electronic waste." 

A British start-up is reportedly ready to market a version of the MFC. They've named their bacteria-based-battery the "Bactery." 

Artificial Intelligence Sings the Blues
"The Lesser-of-Two-Evils Blues" by Donald A. Smith, PhD 

Using Udio.com for the music, I created this blues song about lesser-of-two-evils in US elections. I do think Trump is a lot worse, but both parties promote war and generally serve the 1%.