Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Walkabout Thoughts #5

My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:

Today's Podcast is from, Janes - OSINT Ethical Considerations with Amy Zegart


Today's Instagram post

Air quality today was a rating of, 10! Therefore, Walkabout!

I have maybe one more read through/edit on my book "Suffering Long CoViD", before working on formatting it for upload to Amazon. I should submit it to a publishing house but, that could take forever while people are suffering. My hopes are in the book to just make people with long CoViD, even our healthcare providers, a little more aware of what information is out there. 
Because I found nothing when I first got long CoViD in March 2020. But over two years I've found a few things and want to share them. I came up with seven rules of long Covid/COVID-19, and posted them to a long CoViD group. I had difficulty initially getting it posted from the admins there, but worked it through and got it posted. One person offered good advice, and actually the admins offered good advice to re-word one rule. They said not to command people to do something, which wasn’t my intent and I didn’t think I was doing that. But I put down my frustration and irritation at them, and began to see something in it and how I had worded things. So I reworded it and then they posted it, after a couple of failures. Then someone commented and pointed out that while it can seem with long CoViD that it gives you a temporary allergy to foods, it could be just related to eating something with sugar or high histamine levels. Which long CoViD can make you susceptible to for a while. I also realized in my final rule of remaining hopeful, I said that one day long CoViD would end. But I need a caveat that we don’t really know yet, but hopefully it won’t last forever for anybody. Someone also posted they were really glad I posted the rules as it was helpful to them in someway.

This Janes podcast on ethics was really good and actually had a lot of relevancy for especially, conservatives and Republicans in this country, who have abused and subverted information dissemination, marketing, and election campaigns to where they don’t just spin things (which every political campaign has been susceptible to and probably guilty of all through history), but are literally outright lying to the public. Ethics are and should be involved in intelligence gathering, but also in intelligence dissemination. Obviously, as they even point out in the podcast, an intelligence operative gathering intelligence for Russia has a very different ethical concern then do say Ukrainians, or nearly any other intelligence agencies today.

If you’re trying to get into shape and you’re using walking as your exercise, try slightly tightening your belly, your core, and suck it in, trying to pull your belly button to your your spine, and walk that way as long as you can. At first it’ll be seconds. Then you can hold it for minutes. Take it easy, take your time, just keep doing it. You’ll be surprised the progress you can achieve. The thing is, to strengthen your core because then that muscle tone radiates out to the rest of your body and makes it easier to exercise and tone of other parts.

Ah, the uncomfortable part of a fall morning walkabout (or afternoon). When young children and a few parents are scattered about, walking to a bus stop, sometimes walking toward you, or along with you, as it may turn out. Why uncomfortable? Because you find you have to dodge kids sometimes, running around, not paying attention, or children, or parents, eyeing suspiciously. Where certain looks, fashion, race, or age group can appear unnecessarily more suspicious than another. Trying to not look suspicious when you’re just doing what you do every day and walking the street around and around until you get your steps/miles in. Good times! 
Personally, when my own kids were young, we got them personally to their school and back home by ourselves. Until they were older and took a bus. But speaking for myself, when I was out with my kid, every other human being in the world was “suspicious“. Something I never let my kids feel from me though. As when they were out in the neighborhood, yes, I would follow them. But they never knew I was there. Unless somebody, or a car had pulled up to them. Then I would just suddenly, be there. Which happily never happened. But if I were at home while they were running around the neighborhood, especially nowadays. How would I have known?

Quote from Janes podcast: While there is a role for AI, some in intelligence worry they will lose their jobs to it. Which is a misperception of its role, at this time. If you are intelligence gathering and you tell your boss, “the AI told me...“ That doesn’t persuade. Not yet, anyway. I found that a fascinating comment to make. Because at this state, AI still requires accounting, shepherding it carefully. Because we know that intent has much to do with what raw data implies. Which is how you get propaganda, and what Russia, and the Republican party (especially, the last couple of decades have been doing to an ever greater extent, then presenting to the public as if it actually meant something to the common voter). As George Canning said, "I can prove anything by statistics except the truth." Or, that there's "Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Example, if you count Russian weapons and compare them to Ukraine's inventory, Russia is the obvious winner. But the "qualifiable variables" that Ukrainians have along with proper equipment, consistently bares out an entirely different scenario as has been presented in reality and the news. Regardless Russia's superiority in somethings, Ukraine has still been kicking ass.

This is what I am saying, don’t let your algorithms reflect your ethics if your ethics are bad. If your algorithm can properly reflect good ethics and you have a good algorithm, regardless either way, you need to apply your ethics against the raw data, Being careful that you’re not blindsiding yourself. When applying ethics to an unethical country, or action, as in Putin‘s Russia, and as we’ve also seen with the Republican party, viewing unethical behaviors through the lens of an ethical orientation can indeed, either further exemplify and enlighten, or utterly miss what is actually going on. Which is in part why Trump was able to become POTUS and why he continually got away with one crime after the other. Because he would do something stunningly wrong and before anyone could get up to speed about it, he would already have done something else stunningly questionable or wrong, so that it was just a matter of his punching and punching, numbing and numbing, normalizing and normalizing, and how he made it to the end of his presidency. That and his delaying and bullying tactics are why he’s gotten to where he has in our historical record. However now, he’s up against something those things don’t work so well with, especially when found up against the weight of hopefully "blind justice" which is finally enforcing him to be held accountable. We're just seeing the beginning of that and he could still wriggle his greased countenance out of it, but hopefully that will not prove to be the case.

Again from Janes' Podcast: the Russians have been wasting some of their very highly effective missiles on faked targets. Also they said on the podcast, if you’re listening to this and you’re confused about what your ethics are in your tradecraft, talk to your colleagues and see where you’re (all) at and what you’re (all) doing. Because you don’t want to find later that you ended up out there with potentially devestating, inadvertent effects.

Damn, just got hit with several tiny raindrops. It’s supposed to rain today but they said maybe not until the afternoon. Yeah, I’m walking through the occasional droplet of mist coming down, almost unrecognizable. I can see wet spots on the street here and there. I’m heading out now on my third lap and I hope to get in at least four miles today. So one more lap after this, unless it rains.

Next podcast today, Pod Save America: "Impeaching the Choir", with David Plouffe

I just stopped at home, dropped off my polar fleece shirt as it's warmed up slightly, hit the bathroom, and now I'm back on the road… 

And it’s not raining at all now. For now.

So the January 6th Trump insurrection commission hearing set for today was canceled due to the hurricane hitting Florida. This morning before I got out of bed NPR said it was going to happen at 10 o’clock Pacific time today. What? So having deleted my DVR settings to record for today, I took a look and just set to record those regular shows in the menu playing during that time just in case and it will record  while I’m walking. Weird, so is it on or off? I’m assuming it’s off. I actually went to the Congressional webpage for the hearing, where you can actually watch the video live and it's counting down today, four hours, three hours, two hours... before it begins. But I’m assuming when I get home they’ll reschedule it for probably next week. Because it would be unwise to say the least, to tell everyone it's cancelled and then change and put it back on since a lot of people who would watch it, then wouldn’t even know about it.

So the "let's make things equal" thing between John Fetterman and Dr. Oz, it was suggested that Dr. Oz should consider having a stroke (referencing his making fun of Fetterman who had one). Seems like a fair suggestion…

So the podcast is talking about the Republicans releasing their party platform? "A commitment to America"? I thought since Trump, they decided not ever to have platforms because then they could be held accountable? they'd actually have to do something. I mean, they really haven’t had much of a platform for years even before Trump. But as far as commitment to America, I agree, many of them should be committed and held (aside from in contempt) in a mental health trust. I might say by Democrats, but being that most of Republicans now are RINOs, probably should be by real and true fundamental Republicans, who still believe in democracy. Regarding Sen. McConnell signing the new bipartisan bill to block anyone like Trump from ever doing again what they tried to do in 2020 with the electors (which only Ted Cruz voted against), McConnell's really gotta go, that guy. He may follow the rule of law, which in his personal life and with his wife, I actually question. But he sure as hell doesn’t follow the spirit of it. Blocking allowing a president POTUS44, from his Supreme Court Justice nomination and then reversing all that to shove through their own Republican "Federalist Society" version of toxic conservative Christian nationalists, yeah… McConnell's really got to go.

So the first item in the Republican platform is based on a fever dream they dreamt up themselves which they can’t achieve on this platform because it hasn’t happened. But that’s par for the course and probably played at a Trump golf course. So they claim they’re going to stop the hiring of 87,000 IRS employees, which is ridiculous, because that number includes those who are retiring, includes even IT people and it takes place over 10 years. So again, more manufactured bullshit from Republicans because they don’t have anything good to offer. Like I said, par for their course.
Also. the reason we need to hire so many in the IRS is because the Republican Party has been gutting them for years to keep them from going after the wealthy and corporate. While they’re claiming the IRS is going to go after you and me. Which as we know Republicans do themselves all the time and want to do if they get re-elected. It would then be just more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate and they would tax the hell out of all the rest of us, the majority of Americans who really are struggling. 

All we keep seeing are Republicans inflaming people who feel hurt, because America is moving forward and they want to stop it, to reverse it to “the good old times“. Which means, "I get good old times". But for others it may have meant much harm or terror and death, for those far too many others.

What’s Republican's actual platform? Grievance and vilifying Democrats. I turn on my TV and I see commercials by both parties and the Republican, especially MAGA candidate commercials are all angry and fear invoking (at times creepy) and it’s like they’re talking to children who are scared of the dark. Typically punching down to (yet again) Immigrants and trans people. Really, they should be embarrassed.

I would say this especially about this podcast, if you’re a MAGA, if you’re Republican, if you’re going to vote Republican, or vote for God forbid (nobody’s this stupid, right?) Trump, then be a big girl or boy, toughen up and just listen to this podcast. Just ignore the stuff that pisses you off. Because they clearly detail how the Republican platform is disingenuous, and so many other things that Republican voters need to hear about. Because if you just believe this platform as they serve it up to you and just believe what they say in it, well, what they include in it is actually telling. Even more so what they exclude from it. Or what in it is the same as the Democratic platform except for the way  Republicans will execute achieving those goals, which would be pretty much the polar opposite.

Republican platform: “No details, but no enemy missed, either.”

Republicans mention at this point that if they get back in power, they will impeach President Biden. But for what, they don’t seem to know. Kind of shows how desperate they are. Exactly what we’re seeing from Donald Trump, by the way. Their leader. The Republican Party anymore just seems to be where we keep our political criminals until they’re indicted. Or get elected as president, which I’m sure, is yet to come.

Have you ever noticed whenever Newt Gingrich raises his ugly head, so to speak, Kevin McCarthy vanishes?

How can we be the most knowledgeable (not necessarily most intelligent) human beings in the history of the planet, with access to the most knowledge ever, and yet we’ve allowed ourselves to be dumbed down to where we praise leaders like a failed reality TV star, and narcissistic faux Billionaire? Well a third or so of Americans, anyway…

I haven’t said this for a while so it’s about time… We need to get dark money out of politics. We need to end things like Citizens United. We need to do something about the lobbyist problem. (this is going to hurt, or make some crazy) We as taxpayers should be the ones footing the bill for people to have campaigns to get elected. They don’t need to be getting all the money they’re getting. They just need media coverage and there’s lots of kind of that now. Though it would need to be strictly controlled so there’s no liars anymore. Seriously, they could still lie a little (we used to call that "spin", but whatever), but no more blatant outright absolute just a lie LIES! What would we get out of footing that bill? The most honest election campaigns we’ve seen in quite a while and an end to American citizens being just combustible fodder to be chewed up to fuel toxic conservative and toxic capitalistic goals... and if you want to also claim toxic Democratic Party goals to? Hey. Have at it. Because all of America would still win.

Cheers! Sláinte!

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