Vote For The Crook! - Convicted Felon!

Back in 1991, Louisiana was a one-party state, the Republicans having gone moribund, and it was an election year. The leading Democratic wannabe for Governor was Edwin Edwards, who had just been released from the state prison after serving 5 years for official corruption. Challenging him for the nomination was KKK leader David Duke. Duke changed his party affiliation after losing to Edwards in the party primary, and petitioned himself onto the general ballot. Edwards and Duke finished 1-2 and moved on to the runoff.

Humorous unofficial bumper stickers were created in support of Edwards over Duke, despite Edwards' negative reputation. One bumper sticker read "Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard", while another read "Vote For The Crook: It's Important."

FWIW, the Wizard was never really a republican and the “crook” won.

Trumps Staff

 A piece in the WSJ today announces that Trump may be considering  an advisory role for Elon Musk. This would be the first time in my memory that a president has brought on someone with actual knowledge of a topic to advise him.

Rumor has it he's also courting Vivek Ramaswami, who at this point is not terribly enthusiastic about joining the Trump team.

While he's at it, he might consider Christie Noem in a position relating to down sizing the government. This should work well and prove to be a fairly smooth operation as many government employees would take the hint and either resign or take early retirement.

Fun With Headlines - Lost In Translation

 From IOTW:

WLT Report: Drew Barrymore invited Kamala Harris on her show and made an embarrassing mistake.

During the show, Barrymore, in a soft emotional tone, told Harris, “We need you to be ‘Mamala’ of the country.”

Harris responded, “Yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I know.”

Barrymore was attempting to join the words mom and Kamala together, but in doing so, she called Harris “Mámala,” which, in Spanish, means “suck it.”

AI vs Natural Stupidity

 The Colorado legislature, or at least one member of it, has decided that AI represents a threat, or something, to themselves, or maybe someone else, and has offered legislation that would somehow regulate AI development in Colorado, to protect us. Or at least protect the politicians.

Money quote:

“The technology is literally changing on a weekly basis, just like the early days of the World Wide Web. It’s mind numbing how fast it’s moving,” said Kyle Shannon, CEO and founder of Denver-based Storyvine, which is using generative AI to add transcription and summaries to its videos. “I also know from experience how stifling a bill like this would have been in the mid-’90s. And I know that overregulating AI right now is going to put Colorado businesses at a significant disadvantage.”

Warning that letting the famously stupid legislature regulate anything is generally a bad idea. I used ChatGPT to write a bill calling for a top-level audit to be performed on statewide elections, and sent it to my representative, and to the Secretary of State. The rep never answered, and the SOS claimed we already did this, citing the reg that allegedly called for it. I read the reg. It DOES NOT call for any such thing, but rather sets up a checksum count to verify that the original count was correct. 200 ballots mailed in from a "residence" at a gas station is just fine as long as they all get counted. 

Technology Report

 Getting humanoid robots through the "uncanny valley". Here's an article about a company building companion robots. They look very realistic, although they lack human level strength and mobility, they're getting closer, and it looks like newer developments in high power electric motors will go a long way toward getting those 'bots up and running, so to speak.

“They had hired an actress to pretend to be a mannequin — and she was really good at it,” McMullen recalls. “For some reason that stuck with me, I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a mannequin that looks so real, that people would think that it was?’ Kind of like an inverse of that experience. I started coming up with this, like, crazy idea of a hyper-realistic, pose-able mannequin.”

To this end, McMullen founded his own company, Abyss Creations in 1996, which is perhaps best known for developing the RealDoll adult companion mannequin, the most deluxe versions of which can fetch over $10,000.

He’s sold thousands of them.

McMullen then founded Realbotix in 2014 to bring a similar realism to robots.

 

Modern Campaigning

An article shows that an aspiring candidate can buy an AI that can work his or her name into daily news releases in a favorable way. The candidate can then do a quick fact check, and pass the releases on to the press, or incorporate them into fliers to be distributed to the constituents. The AI in question is written in Israel, but if that's a problem, others are available. Word is that they turn out workmanlike prose at very little cost.

At the same time, clever programmers can take images of their candidate and make videos of said candidate making speeches endorsing, or condemning, whatever issue is hot in any given district. This makes it possible for U.S. Grant to campaign effectively from his tomb. It also makes it possible for Joe Biden to come out in favor of reinstating slavery. So watch out. Still, it could get Trump out of the courtroom and back on the campaign trail in short order, rendering the Dem interference moot. 

Testing, Hamas position

Hamas says the IDF has killed some unlikely number of civilians in Gaza. The IDF thinks otherwise. Here's a 'toon to help you tell the difference:

 

I'm too lazy to put much effort into drawing this, but I think you get the idea.

Dems Calling For Trump Assassination

 As the lawfare drags on, and begins to look as though it won't work, in spite of the distractions and expense it causes, the Dems are now pretty much actively calling for Trump to be assassinated, and publicly describing exactly how this should be carried out.

James Carville, longtime Dem poo-bah, is calling for "surrogates" to be hired to do the parties "wet work" in the case of Trump.

As a long time friend of Hillary, he could probably farm the job out to her, and just wait to hear of Trumps "suicide" a couple of weeks later. Probably from jumping from a 25th floor window in one of his N.Y. towers about to be stolen by the N.Y. D.A in a "fit of despondency".

Yeah, that sounds plausible. And anyone seen leaving the room from which he "jumped" will be described as cleaning people on their way back home to Russia to visit their families, and the WAPO and NYT will report it as such.

Edit #1: Mike Flynn predicts a "Black Swan" event.

Edit #2: Rep Katie Porter is predicting a heart attack.

The Iranian Gambit

 The FBI has announced that a disgruntled Iranian assassin is running about loose in the country with the avowed intent to whack Mike Pompeo in retaliation for the killing of General Soleimani in Iraq. Just before an election? The conspiracy theories write themselves, so here's my take:

The Iranian assassin gambit:

1. Iranian assassin whacks Pompeo or some similarly positioned figure. Biden expresses outrage and allows U.S. To bomb Iranian assets in Syria and possibly in Yeman. American public miffed.

2. Iranian assassin whacks Trump. Desantis or Ramaswami immediately moves up to the nomination promising strikes on Iran. Gets elected.

3. Iranian assassin whacks Harris. Hillary immediately volunteers to replace her. Biden expresses outrage and allows U.S. to bomb Iranian assets in Syria and possibly in Yemen. American public miffed but figures Biden won't last 2 weeks post inauguration. Election very close, Biden wins by 2% in spite of fires in swing state counting centers which are blamed on Trump supporters. Early Feb. Biden succumbs to heart failure.

4. Iranian assassin whacks Biden. Harris moves up and issues strongly worded letter of protest to Iran. Trump wins election 60/40 in spite of fires in swing state counting centers, which are blamed on Iranian saboteurs.

Modifications to the above:

A. Assassin is killed in the operation. Elizabeth Warren commission investigates and concludes he acted alone with no outside support.

B. Assassin is captured, and whisked off to an undisclosed location. FBI says he's being interrogated, but won't say what they've learned. NYT protests “inhuman treatment and torture of captured freedom fighter”. Email leaks suggest he received substantial assistance from the FBI. FBI announces that he has died of natural causes while in their custody in spite of their best efforts. They denounce the email leaks as “Russian disinformation”. Elizabeth Warren commission concurs.

Biden Walks

The DOJs investigation into Bidens mishandling of classified documents  has ended with no charges. 

DOJ: 

DNC: Also a trial would interfere with his presidential campaign. Can't have that.

Colorado Joins Cali, N.Y., Ill

 For 2022, Colorado joined the abovementioned 3 states in having more people move out than in. The overall population moved up a bid, but the moving stats tell the story.

The story about Denver being swamped with illegals is too new to show up on these graphs, but next years numbers should be eye-popping.

NICS Checks - Dec 23

 Having kept this log for 13 years, I'm out of enthusiasm for it. The big surprise, which surprised no one, would be the 2022-2023 spike when the Dems nearly took the trifecta in Washington but were unable to solidify uncontested 1 party rule.

AI writing Legislation

 This sort of thing could easily lead to legislators having to cancel their email accounts. Following the example of the councilman in Brazil who had ChatGPT write a city ordnance, which bypassed all the usual governmental roadblocks and passed unanimously on first reading, 

Not specifically gun related, but closely connected. I asked ChatGPT to write me a bill to establish an audit process, and here's what it came up with. Just needs someone to carry it. Yes, I know, it won't get anywhere in Colorado, but we can at least make an effort. Cut and paste to your rep or senator. It's specific to Colorado, but it should be easy to get one for other states by just changing the state in the request section. Don't send the request section, shown in the next paragraph. I'm not going to worry about some AI becoming an evil overlord, the things are programs, and do what you ask them to do. Usually. Proofread their work and treat them like unpaid interns.

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Compose a bill for a law, in the format of bills in the Colorado state legislature, to amend the Colorado revised statutes to require an audit of statewide biannual elections. This audit should confirm that every ballot cast represents a specific voter, that all voters tested are current legal residents at their stated address, and that all voters tested are legally entitled to vote in the Colorado elections. Sampling size should be sufficient to be statistically significant, and this audit should be completed and a summary report issued not later than 15 January following the election being audited. The audit must be performed by a private party or business competent to perform such actions.

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BILL NUMBER: H.B. XX-XXXX

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE [Your Name]

A BILL FOR AN ACT

CONCERNING AUDITS OF STATEWIDE BIANNUAL ELECTIONS IN THE STATE OF COLORADO.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Biannual Election Integrity Act."

SECTION 2. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.

The General Assembly finds and declares that ensuring the integrity of statewide biannual elections is fundamental to a healthy democracy. To enhance public confidence in the electoral process, it is imperative to implement measures that verify the accuracy and legitimacy of every vote cast in these elections.

SECTION 3. AMENDMENT OF THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES.

(a) Section XX-XXXX, Colorado Revised Statutes, is hereby amended to add a new subsection (XX) to read as follows:

(XX) AUDIT OF STATEWIDE BIANNUAL ELECTIONS.

(i) Following each statewide biannual election, a comprehensive audit shall be conducted to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of the votes cast.

(ii) The audit shall be designed to confirm the following:

(a) Every ballot cast represents a specific voter.

(b) All voters tested are current legal residents at their stated address.

(c) All voters tested are legally entitled to vote in Colorado elections.

(iii) The sampling size for the audit shall be sufficient to achieve statistical significance and shall be determined in accordance with recognized statistical principles.

(iv) The audit shall be completed, and a summary report issued not later than January 15 following the election being audited.

(v) The audit required by this subsection shall be performed by a private party or business competent to conduct such an audit.

SECTION 4. IMPLEMENTATION.

(a) The Secretary of State shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this act.

SECTION 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This act shall take effect upon passage.

QOTD - The Modern Left

Shamelessly taken from the WSJ, who also felt this worthy of repetition:

Thus does the glacial pace of the American legal system, and the helpless timidity shown by most liberal judges . . ., enable Trump’s attack on democracy. . . . Even most liberal judges, facing an existential threat to their entire profession, as well as serious threats to their own safety, can’t bring themselves to give Trump a taste of his own medicine. [Tanya] Chutkan at least is less tolerant of his lying garbage, but she did pause his trial. And the D.C. appellate decision rescinding part of her gag order, written by three Democratic appointees, reads like a parody of anxious liberal hand-wringing. “Mr. Trump is a former President and current candidate for the presidency,” it reads, “and there is a strong public interest in what he has to say.”

Even granting the dubious idea that the public interest is served by Trump’s semiliterate screeds on Truth Social, there is a far more obvious and compelling interest here. Whether he becomes president again will be highly influenced, and perhaps determined entirely, by whether these cases can be resolved in a timely and fair fashion. That interest is directly and seriously undermined by letting him speak about the trial in any way whatsoever. Indeed, if anyone has ever deserved pretrial detention, it is him.

Ryan Cooper writing for the American Prospect, Dec. 20: 

This should give you a bit of a foretaste of what to expect when the left finally grasps the brass ring of uncontested one-party rule.

Council of Guardians Disqualifies Trump

 After years of accusing Republicans of wanting a theocracy, the Dem controlled Supreme court of Colorado has declared Trump guilty of fomenting an insurrection and disqualified him from appearing on the Republican primary ballot. This is in perfect alignment of the Iranian practice of having a Council of Guardians, appointed 50% directly and 50% indirectly by the supreme leader, to reduce the hundreds of wannabe presidents there to an acceptable 3 or so.

Here's how candidates are selected in a theocracy. In Iran, it's 12 Ayatollahs in black robes. Here it's 4 high priests in black robes.

This is probably why the Dems badgered the Republicans to switch from a party specific caucus system to a more easily manipulated primary system.