Climbing Sisnaajini

This summer I plan to return to the magical playground of the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains and the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado, a place I visit as frequently as any other on the continent. It is a special place of challenging high peaks, seductive hot springs, and tasty micro-brews. But its spiritual allure is probably what draws me back more than anything else, again and again. It is a magical place with hidden secrets that beckon the serious adventurer to reach beyond the ordinary into a sort of mysterious dreamtime.

The valley has been known for a long time as a place where many strange events occur, with a preponderance of paranormal activity, whether UFOs, poltergeists, spectral Indians, crop circles, or Bigfoot, and often many at the same time, causing it to be referred to as a paranormal playground. Looking at the geophysical properties of the area, it is one of only a few areas anywhere with large pockets of maximum field strength and minimum field strength magnetic energy in close proximity. This sets up what some call vortices and others call portals, tears in the electric membrane that separates dimensions. This magnetic field anomaly has been attributed to the vast quartz crystal deposits underneath the topography that generate electric fields that are so strong that they cause a momentary tear in the dimensional membrane. When you get that happening you get interactivity between dimensions, which we call the paranormal.

Wherever one finds these large quartz crystal deposits, like under Sedona, Arizona, the mountains in the area exhibit electromagnetic fields that are up to 500 times more powerful than those of the surrounding countryside. That's what it takes to get a rip in the membrane to occur. Piezoelectric discharges of bolts of energy shooting from the mountain to the sky have been observed on cold winter nights with low humidity in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east side of the San Luis Valley. Nicola Tesla was said to have come here to investigate these discharges. It is little wonder why the military is discretely buying up the areas of highest activity and posting a guard to keep others out.

Indigenous peoples that have inhabited the area have long maintained an oral tradition of strange happenings there, as have local ranchers from the 1800's and 1900' – objects that come up out of the ground and go into space and all kinds of other strange things. It is the only region anywhere in North America where three regional groups of native Americans overlapped – there were thirteen different groups of native Americans that would come here – among them, the Anasazi, Utes, Kiowa, Comanche, Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, and Hopi. It was a sacred gathering place for all, where native peoples of different tribes did not fight because of a recognized interconnection of their common heritage with interstellar beings known to be here. That energy or presence is still very much apparent today.

The bloodless San Luis Valley was viewed by these regional native Americans as their place of origin, their Garden of Eden. It is in this valley that they describe the Sipapu, or place of emergence, a hole in the ground through which they literally crawled up into this existence. Before coming here they claimed that the Ant People were taking care of them.

Rising above the valley to the east is the holiest of all the mountains, the sacred Blanca Peak, which I will be climbing this summer. Called Sisnaajini by the Navajo, it is the place where all thought originates, where creation occurs, where native Americans say there are crystal skulls buried. There are so many UFO sightings around Blanca Peak that an observation tower has been set up for viewers to watch.  I'm really looking forward to climbing here; this mountain portends to be more than just another fourteener.

Aging with Grace

People around me are getting old. Some are dying; some are already gone. But I'm still here. I don't feel like I am getting old. I'm doing much more than just hanging on. I'm living fully with much that awaits on the event horizon of my life. What's the difference? I look in the mirror and don't see someone who is “over the hill” looking back. I don't make jokes about the wear and tear of life, nor do I identify with what I perceive as “slippage”. I feel like I am as young as I have ever been. These are the best days of my life. But a lifetime of experience has humbled me; perhaps I am wiser, and I have certainly lightened up. Where I may have been quick to judge, now I am more likely to feel solidarity or sadness at the tragic part of the human experience. Broken can still be beautiful.

I aim to be a person that widens, not narrows, with age. My contribution is what I give to the world each moment. That's a good enough legacy. I don't fret about the things I will never do; I'm too busy working through my ever- expanding bucket list. I'm not regretful about the “road not traveled”. I did it exactly the way I chose, and that was good enough. Everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to. If I want to do it differently, I'll do that the next time around.

a Universe Built on Questions

More and more, it seems that if you want a good answer to any question, you ask a computer. Machines are really good at giving answers — and not just simple answers. They are getting better and better at dealing with really complicated issues.

But machines are not very good at asking questions. What we'll never have enough of are good questions. Good questions are like a discovery - a way of exploring “what if?” But it turns out that questions are not very efficient. We have this world of the Internet and smart phones and GPS where answers have become cheap and ubiquitous and pervasive, and unimaginably abundant. Machines are really good at all the things where efficiency counts, where productivity and efficiency count; those are the kinds of tasks we give to the machines.

What we’re left with as humans are the things that are inefficient, which also happens to be the things that we enjoy most, like discovery or innovation. Innovation is inherently not efficient, or science for that matter. Science is inherently inefficient, because if you are 100 percent efficient as a scientist, you’re not learning anything new. So humans are good at trial and error - there’s the error part; there’s the failure; there’s the dead ends; there’s the trials of prototypes. And humans are essentially really good at wasting time. We’re expert at all the things where efficiency and program-ability don’t count for much. All of these things that are an essential part of exploring, trying, and discovering, which are all inherently inefficient, are the things we are good at.

As the robots and the AIs rise — this may be one of the answers to the quandary about what we are going to do when the machines replace most of us in the workforce. There may be ultimately more opportunity for us to explore, curate, invent, innovate, love, chat, experience things, all of which are inherently inefficient and not things that machines are good at. We may have much more time to ask questions, which should lead to even greater invention and innovation.

In some ways, this resonates with the structure of the universe — which is more likely built upon a question, rather than an answer; it’s very likely that the universe is really a kind of a question, rather than the answer to anything. The answer to a good question is always more and better questions. And that may be why we resonate so much with asking questions, rather than just being satisfied with smart answers.

One can only hope that the rise of the machine leads us as a species to the point where questions become more important ultimately than the answers. The quality of asking good questions may, perhaps, become more appreciated than the quality of all the machine's answers. And just maybe the humans that generate the best questions are going to be the most valued thing in a world that is ultimately run by machines with all the answers.

the Emerging Frontier

Artificial Intelligence will likely be the most powerful force in the world over the next one hundred years and more. But the thing that is even bigger than AI is the fact that we are beginning to make a global super-organism that will impact us way beyond anything that we might imagine. This is the emerging frontier. AI will be part of it, but not the whole thing. Never in history have we made anything on a planetary basis that works in real time. It is going to be shocking to see what happens when we have a billion people working together on something in real time.

The only other thing like this that happened in my lifetime was Woodstock. I was in high school when this musical “happening” just seemed to come out of nowhere. It was like all of a sudden the same thought occurred to half a million people. People just seemed to all tune into the same message at the same time: “I need to be at this farm.” And they all showed up at Max Yasgur's farm for this wild hippy exposition and concert. I subsequently talked to friends who were there and it seemed as though they were all shocked that so many others also showed up.

I think we can look forward to similar spontaneous gatherings in the future, entirely unanticipated, where suddenly several million people from all different countries and cultures come together and use these new tools of Internet communication to work together in real time to do something collaboratively. Such “happenings” will totally dumbfound people. Everyone will wonder what happened? This will be the beginning of the new frontier, where we see the beginnings of true globalism.

People talk about globalism. We haven’t had globalism yet. But it is coming. And when we have planetary-scale institutions and planetary-scale governance, we will be an entirely new world functioning at a whole different level. Like anything else, there will be planetary problems that require planetary solutions. It will be a whole other order, however, and that’s where we’re headed after AI.

Teilhard de Chardin said: “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” A beautifully poetic image of the future. I think we’re going to be surprised by how deeply emotional the relationships we create with the things that we’re inventing right now - robots and things like that - because emotion will be programmed into them. Not that hard to do. And ethics will be programmed into them as well, which is again not that hard to do, once we decide what kind of ethics is best.

These new relationships are really going to challenge our minds and cultural standards. We’re probably not ready for how much love we might actually have for these new technologies, or maybe how much love they will express back. Imagine having something like a pet dog that could talk to you. At first it will likely be a real challenge. We already know how to program ethics and morality and even emotion into machines, but what we don’t know yet is what it is exactly that we want to program into them. 

We like to think that we, as humans, are highly ethical and moral, but in reality for many of us our morality and ethical standards are really shallow, very inconsistent, even horrible. I believe that in the process of trying to program these human attributes into the machines, the process is going to make us better. Just like parenting, we'll figure out where we’re insufficient and adjust to make our machines better, and in the process we’re going to actually become better humans ourselves. A new wild, wild west is emerging. Hold onto your I pads.

Surprising God

Be Fruitful and Multiply. The direction of the evolution of the world is in making as many new, complicated, self-organizing structures as possible; increasing the number of possibilities in the universe is why we are here. We have a moral obligation with our entry into the world to create as much as we can. That may be the role of technology, as well, in the long term – to increase the variety, diversity, options, and possibilities in an expanding universe of creative expression. As human beings, perhaps we each are encouraged by this universal dictum to surprise God with something entirely new that springs from our own inventive creativity - now, tomorrow, at every moment.

The gifts that surround and surprise us at every moment are from the generous loving Source of our being. Ours is to be fruitful and multiply these gifts in a show of our gratitude and love in return. The overriding human purpose for being here may ultimately be nothing less than to continually generate surprises in life.

Changing the World

There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in taking action to change the world. It is incapable of change in and of itself because it is entirely an effect. The only change we can effect is a change of our thoughts about the world. Every thought we have makes up some part of the world we perceive. Only by changing our thinking do we change the cause. The effect will change as a result automatically. To change our perception of the world then, it is exclusively with our own thoughts that we must work.

Pondering Digital

In the year I was born, it was the first time the word “technology” appeared in a State of the Union address. It was not something anybody ever talked about when I was growing up. I guess my introduction to the idea of computers came in my early teens when the television series Star Trek debuted and with the national attention given to the space program from the late 50's through the 1960's, and of course with NASA putting men on the moon before I was out of high school. It was all very interesting and exciting, but I had this deep down sense that things were going to be different in the future and that machines were going to play a much larger role.

Technology, if viewed as a non-living product of the creative mind, has always been with us. From the fork we eat with to the table we eat on; from the shoes we wear to the football we kick... these can all be considered technology. What has changed recently is that technology has become something more than just useful into something that is becoming increasingly closer to how we identify ourselves. We now find ourselves asking who we are in relation to the technology in our lives, and who we want to be.

It is becoming increasingly evident that we need to reckon with the moral force of our technological creations, and also question how we may best manage our unfolding lives with technology. Most of what we now look at as indispensable to function in the modern world is less than ten years old. For most of this technology it may be too soon to draw a conclusion about its continuing value. As we learn more about the impact of social media, people will likely become more selective in their use of it. I personally waver in my use of Face Book and have as of yet found no essential use for a smart phone or Twitter.

I wonder how we will look back upon these early times of the Internet and the large players that have emerged. How will Google, Face Book, and Amazon evolve over the next generation of users? These new giant companies with their unimaginable new-found wealth and influence have entered uncharted territory in which they find themselves with power not much different than that of national governments. They may have two billion customers across every continent who they now must view in many regards as “citizens” of a unique world that they themselves have created. Corporations have never had to deal with anything like this before. One cannot fault them, however, because they are really just making it up as they go. Corporations are going to have to evolve to assume more responsibility for creating standards and practices and expectations for the greater good of its citizenry across all borders. The divided world of nation-states is ever so gradually being supplanted by a world of information without borders.

If this has all happened in the span of less than one life time, what can we expect in the next 10, 20, or 50 years? These are, indeed, even more interesting and exciting times than when it all began when I was a boy.

UFO Propulsion

It is no secret that humans have been reverse engineering alien flight technology since at least prior to World War II in Germany. Probably most of the typical UFO disc sightings in recent times are of craft designed right here on earth, piloted by military personnel of our own planet. They are identical to alien craft, but they are ours. Among people within the Military-Industrial Complex these craft are referred to as Alien Reproduction Vehicles or Fluxliners or ARVs for short. These are flat on the bottom with sloping sides of about 35 degrees, a small ledge between the propulsion and crew compartments, and then a dome. Multiple camera-like devices on gimbals on the dome can be moved around and pointed to offer a sort of a synthetic vision system, where two of the cameras can be slewed together in pairs to create a left eye and right eye view so that the pilot wearing a special helmet inside can have a completely three-dimensional view.

Inside the cockpit it is rather spartan, with no instrument panel, no gauges, no kind of telemetry. There may be two to four ejection-type seats with few features other than an inverted J-shaped post with a laser that can be reflected around to send impulses to different parts of the craft to self-control the yaw and pitch while in flight. These ARVs are able to accomplish traveling faster than the speed of light, superluminal speeds, using unique technology to create electrical power, drawing it right out of the vacuum of space-time, called scalar energy or zero-point energy.

Of course a lot of us remember that Einstein's original equations were quite clear in telling us that exceeding the speed of light was theoretically impossible. What he said was that as an object is accelerating through space-time, its mass begins to increase. But the thing that nobody talks about is that the reason the mass of a super-sonic vehicle increases is because the interaction that its atomic structure has with the zero-point energy in the environment causes the atoms to become even more energized.

If matter can't be created, can't be destroyed, and electrons never slow down and don't follow the second law of thermodynamics, which is entropy, you'd expect them to slow down over time, but they don't. The reason they don't is because they're constantly absorbing this zero-point energy and that's what keeps all the parts of the atom going all the time, forever. That's why it never disintegrates or falls apart.

So, if any object made of atoms goes through space-time and is accelerating faster and faster, it's absorbing more and more of this energy, and all the parts are spinning faster and faster like a gyroscope. And just like a gyroscope, once they get going really fast, it's hard to move them around. It's like it's developing its own gravity, in a way.

This is what Einstein said would slow things down and make it impossible to ever have enough energy to approach and exceed the speed of light, because you're mass literally begins to approach infinity as you get closer and closer to the speed of light. What off-world engineers figured out was that if you just used that energy for traditional flight it would certainly increase your mass as Einstein said, but if you used it as a propulsive energy source to power the flight system, it meant that the faster you go, the more energy you have to propel your craft even faster.

You don't have to carry a fuel supply, so you don't have to worry about the weight of the vehicle. The faster you go, the faster you're able to go. And that's how you actually break the light-speed barrier, because your mass never really becomes anything greater than what you started out with. But you have this tremendous, almost limitless amount of energy that you can draw from as a propulsive force.

This is probably why all the electrical components in the craft are embedded in pure quartz as an insulator, because we're talking about millions and millions of volts of electricity being generated all the time. That's also why when such a craft comes into our atmosphere, the ionization is so severe that it produces blinding X-ray photons that require a synthetic vision system on the dome just to see where they're going.

At the bottom of the ARVs is a massive capacitor array embedded in a heavily insulated perfect optically clear dialectrical quartz material, not open to the air. Perfect for space travel. The array is divided into 48 radially-oriented sections, like long, thin slices of pizza, each stacked with eight alternating positive and negative plates, with the positive plate being on the top of the stack, and the last negative plate being on the bottom to form the basis for the craft's propulsion system.

Because the thing is using zero-point energy as a power source, which happens within the central column of the vehicle, these ARVs are creating such a tremendous stored potential of energy on the entire array of capacitors as a whole that they actually begin to warp space-time itself. Sounds like a fictional fantasy out of Star Trek, but it's actually not. In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre wrote a paper on a metric engineering space drive for hyper fast travel within general relativity doing this very thing. He wrote that by controlling electromagnetic and electrostatic fields you could create a compression of space-time ahead of a vehicle, like what you'd find with a black hole, like a singularity. And then behind the vehicle, you would create an expansion of space-time.

This polarization process allows you to create what amounts to a system that is like surfing a wave, where you have a depression in front of you and a ridge behind you and you're basically sliding down the face of this warp in space-time. That's what creates the vector that allows you to move forward at break-neck velocities.

But the really interesting aspect to this whole concept is this principle of dynamically engineering local space-time around the vehicle, generating a bubble of space-time surrounding the vehicle, being created and influenced by the propulsion system inside the vehicle itself. When this thing begins to move through space-time, it moves uniformly – the vehicle, the crew, the components, everything that's in it – moves as a unit.

And as it moves as a unit it is influenced by the other things that the craft is doing to the space-time around it. So it's creating an expansion of space-time behind it and a compression of space-time ahead of it. But since the whole thing is moving uniformly, there's no sense of g-forces at all. None.

So when people talk about seeing an object moving through the sky at unimaginable speeds and making quick right-angle turns, they naturally say it's impossible. The pilot and occupants would be turned to mush. But if you're eliminating mass, then there's no inertia. And if you're talking about uniform acceleration of a metrically engineered space-time – the vehicle, its contents, and everything – the whole thing moves together so that there's no sense of g-forces at all, because there's no inertia inside this metrically engineered local space-time. That's what uniform acceleration is really all about and how UFOs make these impossible navigational changes at impossible speeds.

Everybody is a Genius

I've known quite a few geniuses across the years and have been called one from time to time myself. People seem to recognize a genius when they bump into one, yet have a hard time pinpointing exactly what it means to be a genius. Are geniuses born that way or is it something most of us can aspire to and achieve with effort? I think the answer is both. The gifts we are each born with certainly vary, and it is apparent that some folks have an advantage, but I believe each of us has talent that can be developed to be exceptional beyond what most of our peers demonstrate.

Let's just say we can't alter our genetics once we come into the world. So the only question remaining is, what can we actively do to bring out the genius in each of us? Research is showing that while talent is indeed responsible for some extraordinary results, most great accomplishments attributed to genius are the result of a combination of practice, habit, and mindset. General intelligence and creativity can be dramatically improved by anyone by disciplining yourself to do just three things everyday.

THINK. Yes, we all use our brains every day, but are we thinking? It is important to use our brains beyond the surface of our day to day experience. Take time to contemplate deeper questions that force you to go further. Why do you do what you do? What is it about the world that truly excites you? How much of your ideal life are you living? Ask yourself one hard question every day, and take time to ponder it. There is usually a lot of joy that comes from figuring out things that will benefit you for a long time to come, and more often than not, you make your life a bit easier in the process. You can learn a lot from the ideas you put into your mind from the outside world, but you can arguably learn even more by breaking down and better making sense of the things that are already roaming around in your head.

READ. The Internet is a great place to find great minds that are sharing worthy content with the world. Follow a good story or some detailed research and learn something new and valuable each and every day. Reading is also as much about the tangents of thoughts that arise in your own mind as it is about whatever the writer is trying to tell you, and that's where the brain does the real work of sharpening itself. It doesn't take a huge commitment of time. If you were to read for 20 minutes, or about 15 pages of a book, every day, then by the end of the year, you'd have completed between 15 to 20 books. It is not an exaggeration to say that a single book could completely change your life.

ENGAGE. Arguably the greatest teacher in the world is the process of mastery. Just do it. When you put your brain and body together and dedicate yourself to something you find valuable, you give yourself a window of opportunity to refine your mind in a way that thinking and reading alone cannot accomplish. It's natural to think that when a musician is focused on practicing a tune or when an artist is absorbed in the painting process that they're honing their craft and reaping the rewards of their practice in their specialty. It actually goes further than that, however. In states of deep focus, when we're being challenged and pushed by any activity, we're honing our minds. We're refining our ability to internalize information, giving us an intellectual edge that easily transfers to other areas of our lives. Continuing to learn is one of the most important qualities required in a fast-changing world, and it comes from the ability to intensely focus on something that pushes you to ask more of yourself. Whether it's a hobby or a personal project, it's worth dedicating even just half an hour a day to getting a little better at it in a tangible and measurable way, not only giving you more fulfillment, but also improving your mind.

So how do you start? You probably think you are already doing all of this. While everyone spends at least 10 minutes every day reflecting on something, they don't do so deeply; while everyone reads something for 20 minutes every day, they don't read the kind of things worth consuming; and while everyone is busy with something for at least 30 minutes every day, they don't do so with the aim of purpose and progress, without distraction. Most people who we see as smart didn't get there suddenly or through magic. They just did the little things that are easily neglected by most people with a little more attention to detail. Over time, these little things add up. Whether you were born a genius or not, you can hone the talent you were born with and learned over time by just sharpening the way you already do things.

Doorway to the Next World

Two things have always made me curious about the existence of extraterrestrials and how they arrive here. One is that their flying craft seem to defy all the laws of modern physics. I have personally seen maneuvers in flight that are “impossible” (not to mention what is shown on feature documentaries and YouTube), moves that should kill any pilot or passengers in the craft. And second, the nearest star to our own sun is Proxima Centauri at 4.24 light years (1.3 parsecs) away. Since light speed is an unimaginable 186,000 miles per second, even if these ET's have acquired light speed technology, an eight-and-a-half year round trip seems hardly worth coming here just to zoom across the sky to entertain watchers on the earth. How do they get here so fast?

Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects are most frequent in two areas: over the United States of America and around the Sun. As the most technically advanced nation on the planet, it is probably the area in which technically advanced ET beings would have the most interest, or perhaps because it is the USA which will play the most critical role in determining mankind's future. But why are NASA and other space agencies as well as professional and amateur astronomers seeing such heavy traffic of these same UFO's traveling back and forth between the Sun?

The Sun has recently been developing strange characteristics - large holes where parts of the Sun appear to be completely missing, called coronal holes. These are more than holes; they are massive empty spaces with stars visible behind the sun. Our government will not tell us, but satellite images show us something strange is going on with the Sun. Interestingly, these particular dark holes always coincide with the summer solstice and the winter solstice. What is the meaning of these coronal cold spots only appearing on these two pivotal days of the solar calendar?

Pyramids and stellae at ancient ruins on every continent show doorways on the Sun that are only open on the shortest day of the year and the longest day. The solstices were always a significant marker to the ancients; a reminder to their gods, perhaps, that it was time to go home? The conclusions one might draw from this are staggering. Is the Sun a gateway for interstellar travel? A doorway that reaches into space, into the outer reaches of the cosmos? Undeniable empirical archeological evidence would indicate that this is so, no matter how it is interpreted.

If the door of the Sun is a stargate, it explains why so many UFO's have been observed flying into and from the sun. If there is more UFO activity around the sun than anywhere else in the solar system, it is because the sun is more than just a ball of light; it is an open door for travel beyond our solar system. The Babylonians called it the Gate of God; the Egyptians called it the Gate of Heaven. Is it a doorway that leads to the next world, far beyond our imaginings? Knowledge of this beckons us into space where we will find our future as well as the source of all UFO's and perhaps the source of our own being.

My understanding is that the sun is at the other end of a wormhole, a shortcut through the time-space continuum that enables travelers to move great distances in no time. When hyperspace physics is fully revealed we may learn that every star that we see in the night sky is connected with a black hole by a wormhole between them, defying all concepts of space and time in our modern understanding of physics.

All shapes and sizes of UFOs with varying propulsion systems use the same portal to come and go. Their differences would imply that they are not all of the same race or origin, coming here from a variety of galaxies. Are they coming here to invite us to follow? The WHY is a topic for another conversation.

Still the Best Bet

The size of government is shrinking, but never quick enough for my liking. I am a Jeffersonian at heart and entirely endorse the principle that “that government governs best which governs least”. The administrative state of elites, that permanent bureaucracy of busybodies who are not elected but nevertheless wield enormous power over every aspect of our lives, who think they know better than the rest of us, is being routed, little by little, but it won't be enough for me until there is a glut of empty houses in the plush bedroom communities of DelMarVa surrounding the Capitol.

We now have an administration in place that strongly believes in fruits of capitalism and a streamlined, downsized government of fewer regulations and less oversight. For much too long we have been under destructive, naive, and irresponsible leadership that believed that more government was the answer to managing the evolution of modern culture, steering our democratic republic ever closer to a socialist state. The self-righteous intelligentsia has increasingly held sway in the court of ideas with Benito Mussolini's belief that as a society becomes more complicated, individual freedoms need to be increasingly restricted.

Even though history demonstrates time and again that this kind of thinking has never been successfully implemented – never – the dream of a perfect collective world blooms afresh with each new generation. What is it about intellectualism that makes socialism so appealing?

From idealization to disillusionment we can trace the history of the various socialist experiments through an endless string of failed utopias – the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Tanzania, and Nicaragua. It should work, it is reasoned, but it never has. Therein lies the fault of this fatal conceit. There is always a tiny elite in every emerging generation who believe without question that just by imposing their reason the desired outcome of a society that is at once prosperous and equitable as well as orderly and conducive to political liberty should result. The addiction to this conceit, however, has never been more than wishful thinking removed from reality.

One would think that in the wake of the very successful Reagan and Thatcher economic revolutions, capitalism would be embraced. Instead the revitalized capitalist polices of the Trump administration are viewed as maverick and threatening. The history of central planning demonstrates that it is the nursery for the growth of totalitarian policies. What begins as a conviction that for planning to be efficient it must be taken out of the realm of politics and placed in the hands of experts, ultimately ends with the failure of politics and the embrace of tyranny. Socialism always leaches personal initiative by denying personal liberty, very often deceptively disguising its efforts as humanitarian benefits.

Socialism is a version of sentimentality. The socialist, the sentimentalist, cannot understand why, if people have been able to generate some system of rules coordinating their efforts, they cannot also consciously design an even better and more gratifying system. The sentimentalist cannot understand why we shouldn’t favor cooperation (a nice-sounding arrangement) over competition (much harsher), since in any competition there are losers, which is bad, and winners, which may be even worse in their view. It is at this juncture that advocates of a planned economy introduce the word “fairness” into the discussion: Wouldn’t it be fairer if we took money from person A who has more than he needs and give it to person B who doesn't have enough?

Friedrich Hayek (The Road to Serfdom) called free market economics (capitalism) “the extended order of cooperation.” The seeming paradox of the free market, according to Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations), is that the more individuals are given the freedom to follow their own dreams and means, the more their activities are “led by an invisible hand to promote” means that ultimately aid the common good. In other words, private pursuits advance public benefit. That is the beneficent alchemy of the free market. Hayek’s fundamental insight, enlarging Smith’s thought, is that the spontaneous order created and maintained by competitive market forces leads to greater prosperity than a planned economy - always.

The spontaneous order generated by market forces is beneficial to humanity in unexpected ways; it has greatly extended our lives and produced wealth so staggering that, only a few generations ago, it was unimaginable. The poor are still with us, and probably always will be. Not every social problem can be solved. Capitalism is working, however. Not perfect, but it is working. If there is a better way, I would love to see it. But it is not socialism. Been there, tried that.

Even a sound democracy that is thriving under free markets will suffer shortcomings. When these become most apparent citizens must be most wary of the sentimental appeal to trash the whole system in favor of intelligent central planning and rationalistic hubris. Hitler took advantage of the decay of democracy in Germany and at the critical moment obtained the support of a large enough contingent in society to roll to power supplanting an otherwise workable state with an ideological nightmare.

The urgency with which Hayek condemns socialism is a function of the importance of the stakes involved. As he puts it in “The Fatal Conceit,” the “dispute between the market order and socialism is no less than a matter of survival” because “to follow socialist morality would destroy much of present humankind and impoverish much of the rest.” We get a foretaste of what Hayek means whenever the forces of socialism triumph. There follows, as the night the day, an increase in poverty and a diminution of individual freedom.

The curious thing is that this fact has had little to no effect on the attitudes of the intelligentsia. No obvious empirical development, even repeated innumerable times, seems to spoil the pleasures of socialist sentimentality. This unworldliness is tied to another common trait of intellectuals: their contempt for money and the world of commerce. The socialist intellectual eschews the “profit motive” and recommends increased government control of the economy. He feels, Hayek notes, that “to employ a hundred people is . . . exploitation but to command the same number [is] honorable.”

The Marxist theorist and Soviet politician Leon Trotsky got it right when it comes to summing up the impact of socialism upon any society, observing that when the state is the sole employer the old adage “he who does not work does not eat” is replaced by “he who does not obey does not eat.” As the old Soviet Union struggled desperately to make socialism work there was less and less work and more and more worthless pay. “They pretend to pay us,” one worker said, “and we pretend to work.” The only equality Vladimir Lenin and his heirs achieved was an equality of misery and impoverishment for all but the elite central planners.

The American experiment of the last 242 years is like a boat that is always taking on water. It doesn't want to go down no matter how bad the storm, as other boats around it come and go with the crashing waves. But it sits high enough on the water that no matter how insurmountable its problems appear to be, the passengers know they are going to get there. “She is a good old boat and she'll stay afloat through the toughest gale and keep smiling.” If the sentimentalists all go to one side of the boat in an attempt to upset the balance, we need to send them below decks to the engine room to shovel coal until they come to their senses.

Robo-pocalypse

Imagine a day in the not too distant future when you will go to an electronics store and have the lens of your eye removed and replaced by a liquid that is packed with nano-electronics, a camera, and a radio to give you super vision. You'll be able to see in the dark, have infrared vision, and be wired to the Internet 24/7. But what comes with this super-vision is supervision. You will not only be an upgraded Human 2.0, you will be part machine. Maybe the only way that humans are going to survive in the new environment of Artificial Intelligence will be to become integrated with machines.

Right now a lot of technologies are coalescing to accelerate this process. Most likely, we are not going to be prepared when machines become the upper mind in the world. When the day comes that computer intelligence exceeds our own, we will no longer have the ability to project the trajectory of our own future. We will no longer be in control and won't really know just how this intelligence will deal with us.

Some are referring to this time of the Singularity as a robo-pocalypse. It is not something in our distant future.  We're seeing the beginnings of its effects right now. The movement toward global automation is destroying the middle class. There is a massive class of people worldwide that all of a sudden are no longer employable. The number of people that do not have the skills to find a job in this new economy is skyrocketing. They are becoming expendables, and their numbers are expanding into higher and higher skill sets with no employment opportunities.

The blindly optimistic AI technicians suggest that everyone could someday receive a universal basic income to deal with the massive unemployment issue. But that's never going to happen. And if it did, anyone receiving government money would only end up being under government control. Kiss freedom good-bye. The real problem is that there isn't a Plan B in the minds of AI creators. There is no other option on the table to deal with this train of automation that is accelerating down the track on a collision course with the balance that currently exists in the world.

The really bad news is that people are no longer going to be necessary to drive the economics of our society. Except for the lucky 10% who continue to have a job, what will become of the ones Henry Kissinger referred to as “useless eaters”? We don't know. We should all be concerned about it. Are we going to end up in FEMA camps? Are we going to be left to zone out with minimal welfare on drugs, both legal and illegal, watching video games, getting fat and dumb watching re-runs of Three's Company for the balance of our lives? Who knows!

We'll become a world that must, of necessity, be totally controlled, otherwise there would be a restless populace that would get more than a little bit angry if it is ever able to start thinking for itself. All this could only be accomplished by giving most of us a dumbed-down education, feeding us dumbed-down genetically modified food, giving us awful entertainment, awful news, and otherwise continue to feed us a fake world of lies to keep the masses happy enough that we don't complain about the dystopia we are hopelessly mired in. Sound anything like the world as it is becoming already?

Do these AI optimists seriously believe that trans-humanism is going to work for seven and a half billion of us being merged with machine components and enhanced to become immortal? Seriously? That's just not how humanity works. Take a look at history and observe how there is always only a small group of rapacious, dominating people at the top who never, ever voluntarily give up that privilege. Never going to happen. All of humanity is never going to benefit from this super-intelligence and potential for immortality, even if it were a good thing, which is questionable to say the least.

Technology is growing at such a rate today that any widespread realization that we as a civilization have already achieved such advanced capabilities goes unnoticed. We are all being protected from knowing what is going on “for our own good”. We are getting rolled over by progress and the powers that be who want to keep it that way. Before it is too late we really need to be having intelligent conversations across society about the implications of this emerging change in human evolution and whether or not we can still salvage some control over it.

the God of AI

As artificial intelligence and smart technology advance we may increasingly be at risk as a human species of losing our spiritual values. What people don't realize with AI is that we may be disabling ourselves. The researchers that are bringing AI to the world have FAITH that it will be good for us. They HOPE that AI will be able to explain to us how it operates and why it makes decisions at its most super-intelligent level, and they TRUST that AI will benefit humanity in the end. AI has become a sort of religion. Too many people are increasingly assuming this kind of relationship with technology, with a future predicted to have even more fervent followers of the god of AI.

We are coming into a time where we are redefining what it means to be human. We already have the ability to rebuild every single organ of the body artificially and control it remotely. As implants and nanotechnology cross the skin barrier and deliver us into a expanded bionic age, where we increasingly become hybrids with machines, we may never be able to turn back.

The catch phrase in New Age circles and among technologists is becoming one and the same - we are really all One and should act as One. The way the technologists want to accomplish tist is by putting an implant in our brains that dramatically alters consciousness and brain capacity. Scientists tell us that our bodies cannot go into space as they are. If we are to inherit the heavens we are going to have to change our form in some manner. The choices are few:  we become machine hybrids or we do what the ancients did – transform our bodies into light bodies in preparation for ascension. Hidden within us is this tremendous reservoir of deep spiritual power that can transform our physical bodies into spiritual light bodies that can transcend space and time across the universe and then reform into flesh and blood on the other end. Bodhisattvas aim to develop the skills to transform their earthly bodily form into their celestial bodies rather than using technology that transform us into machines.

Recent times are the first in modern history where humans are choosing to augment their bodies with technology such as retinal implants, cochlear implants, and a variety of artificial organs. We can increasingly pick and choose how we want to change our bodies for health or cosmetic reasons. At the same time there are millions of people around the world practicing spiritual exercises to optimize our spiritual experience and move toward ascension. Maybe there is a way that these two approaches can converge. Maybe artificial intelligence and enhancing our bodies with technology can amplify our spiritual powers! Maybe we are missing a valuable conversation here.

Technologists in Silicon Valley and Beijing and elsewhere are talking about AI ruling over us; if we're going to allow this to happen, then somewhere along the way these robot rulers are going to have to learn how to exercise love and compassion. Can we do this? Right now there is a huge rift in approaches between expanding Artificial Intelligence and enhancing human spiritual values through Ascension Intelligence. Both sides are aimed at making humans more whole and complete and perfect, more one with one another, living together in a more unified, perfect complete world.

The technologists say that God baked the cake, now we get to put the icing on it. They hope to do that by merging four technologies: Bits, Atoms, Neurons, and Genes. They want to take our computing technology, nanotechnology, neuro-science, and genetic science, and merge them into one seamless technology aimed at improving the human body. But they are leaving out perhaps the most important fifth element - that of spirit. Can the human spirit be merged with the perfect upgraded trans-human to make a more complete and whole fulfilled human being? Given that historically these same powers that be that are pushing a technological future have done everything in their power to suppress spiritual progress, such a merger may not fit their larger agenda.

Take a look at the United Nations' agenda today. The UN is completely invested in the progress of AI. What is their agenda? It is called the UN2030 Agenda and seeks a world with no borders, no genders, and no races; you will simply refer to your identity as that of an Earthling. The only way they can make this happen is with the globalization of technology. They see AI as the way forward for humanity. But what about uniting the human race around its deep spiritual capabilities? Why not reach across all religious differences and unite humanity around its deep spiritual capabilities? Not interest there.  Government powers around the world are investing in a tech future devoid of any effort to enhance any of our spiritual powers to better meet the future.

Are we “summoning the demon” with technology, as SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk warns? Can we keep the demon in the box rather than allow it runaway control over humanity, while utilizing it and learning to communicate with it for positive ends? Before we plunge headlong into an inevitable period of trans-humanism there needs to be broad public dialogue and understanding of where this technology is taking us.

AI is already controlling a large part of human activity. The question is, can we live in accord with a fully sentient AI entity, or is that a pipe dream? More importantly, can AI live with us? Or will AI find that we interfere with its prime directives and decide to eliminate us, perhaps sooner than later??? Before these machines drive us to extinction because they ironically deem us the greatest threat to our own extinction, they are going to have to be upgraded to be more human, more compassionate, more loving. Can we teach machines to love us and be our ally? If we cannot, it may all come down to a choice between the machine and the human spirit.

I Human / I Robot

Artificial Intelligence technology is beginning to write its own algorithms that humans do not understand. Before it gets very far we should be asking: Don't we humans have the right to have the machine explain to us exactly what it means by a solution or conclusion? Never before have we had managing systems that make decisions for us that we do not understand. This capability is accelerating and will never be stopped. Expansion of AI is being funded by both the most powerful corporate interests in the world and the military of many nations. We may already be in real danger of being controlled by machines that can outwit us at best or harm us if they choose to.

Military interests are focused on creating weaponized AI. Military research and funding will never be curtailed for fear one's enemies may achieve an AI advantage first. If the military is developing AI, it is a guarantee that some teenage hacker somewhere in the world is also working on the same thing for his or her own personal use. If this is a nefarious individual it is very possible that he or she could bring down the entire world military establishment from a home computing device. Since it is an arena of development with essentially no oversight, we've entered a new kind of wild, wild west, wrought with unknowns and dangers we cannot even imagine.

The real danger may be in how rapidly we have already turned over control to machines and technology that we don't know anything about. Perhaps of greater concern, however, is what is being referred to as the militarization of the human spirit. A lot of the technology that comes through Silicon Valley aimed at consumer applications has ultimately come from the military. It is all about control - controlling the capabilities of everyday people. There has always been a directed effort to suppress the spiritual capability of humans. For centuries the powers that be have not wanted us to access the deep reservoir of abilities that we each have. Through Silicon Valley that attempt at suppression may now reach a greater height than ever before. Our technology is moving toward brain implants and insertion of nanotechnology into the body that would enable AI to keep people within a very narrow range of frequency, whatever it chooses for you. If you start to wander outside these frequency parameters, the AI is going to have a real problem with you.

This is only the latest method of control of the minions by the powers that be, like that of genetically modified food in the last twenty years. By introducing smart technology into our bodies we will in effect be putting ourselves in a prison cell with the limits defined by the AI. Computer technology that we have been exposed to up until now has engendered within us a certain familiarity and trust in AI without it being too invasive. Increasingly we are going to be encouraged to unite our brains and bodies with smart technology – to heal or enhance our intelligence. There is great danger in the coming days for those who allow the powers to be to “break the skin barrier”. As long as you do not allow an implant or the introduction of nanotechnology into your system you can maintain physical autonomy. Once you cross that line there is no going back - you will henceforth be a biological robot.

In the days ahead there is going to be an existential battle between choosing to change our evolution with smart technology or allow it to continue along the organic path that has successfully gotten us to this point as a species. There will be considerable pressure to make a choice to progress as individuals and as a species. Do we yield to technology without knowing where it is taking us, or do we draw a line over which we decide technology cannot cross, to preserve our human identity and spiritual values. The political battle lines are already clearly delineated. Should we accept blind trust in technological progress without limits or should we conserve our humanity by placing limits upon the progress of our technology?

the Singularity Approaches

The technological rise of computing during my lifetime has been dizzying. As computing has grown more powerful it has created its own kind of intelligence which we call Artificial Intelligence (AI). We like to think that if we can have machines do most of the work and solve our problems, humanity will advance to a more fulfilling existence. But what happens if the AI reaches a point where it decides that it no longer needs us? Ray Kurzweil in his book The Singularity is Near postulates that AI will very soon become so advanced that it is smarter than we are, begin to accelerate away from us, and take on its own evolution at an exponential rate. The time of that Singularity is imminent, yet we may be rushing to embrace a great unknown without fully understanding some potentially dire ramifications.

There are three kinds of AI, beginning with Artificial Narrow Intelligence which we all experience anytime we go online or use our smart phones. Siri, Cortana, and Alexa are examples of this lowest level of AI. The Narrow Intelligence is beginning to broaden into General Intelligence, where machines are programmed to think like humans. We are not quite there yet, but getting closer quickly. The third level is the scary one: Super Intelligence, where machines become smarter than humans by perhaps billions of times. The difference is that they may have their own agenda. What we don't know is what will happen when machines have this level of intelligence.

We have become dependent upon artificial intelligence whether we like it or not, yet most of us have little appreciation for the power of AI. No one thinks about how this technology is increasingly able to take over decision making for both individuals and humanity collectively. AI poses a potentially serious threat in that it may be able to take over the entire human race, which in turn could potentially lead to the extinction of the human species. AI is here and it is here to stay. It may be, however, a Pandora's box and may have an unexpected surprise for us.

The Singularity could bring dramatic changes in problem solving within economics, science, and industry – providing valuable solutions to major human problems. The huge downside is that along with its utility and efficiency there is going to be an unimaginable loss of jobs – perhaps even up to 90% of the labor force may lose their jobs, which would inevitably lead to anarchy. Almost every job defined by routine could be eliminated with the use of robots and AI. The type of jobs that are very difficult for machines to do are menial jobs like street sweeper and construction. Any jobs where we use our hands and move our feet will be secure, but thinking jobs now performed by humans can readily be replaced with machines.

When we unite human intelligence with machine intelligence we're talking about a miraculous potential for solving human problems, like problems with the environment or problems in medicine; we may see miraculous cures for disease, but at so high a cost to humanity that the cure may be worse than the disease.  If we embrace this remarkable child of our even more remarkable creativity, what will this child become when it no longer needs us?  Are we setting ourselves up for ultimate extinction by enabling a soulless machine to do our work, solve our problem, and make our decisions for us?

Future Now

To know the future we need only explore the frontier where science fiction becomes scientific fact. For as Napoleon Hill said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Follow the minds that dwell on the very edge of the human imagination and discovery and you will find abundant signs that point to our emerging future. On the frontier of material science and biology we are very nearly able to make anything we want from the raw materials that surround us every day. The alchemist's dream is becoming reality. We may no longer need to mine for gold or drill into the earth for oil and gas. Atoms are atoms and can be arranged in endless ways to create the substances we want and need. We no longer need sperm and eggs to produce a living being. We are becoming masters of our own destiny, right before your eyes.

Already we have the ability to 3D print any organ in your body that you need. Need a new liver? No problem. A heart? No problem. Generated from your own DNA, using your own cells from the tissue of the dead or broken organ, or even from another part of your body. Encoded in the DNA of every cell of the body are instructions for making every part of the body. DNA is holographic.

When a strand of DNA is opened, the specific instructions for your heart are identified by a computer which directs a new heart to be grown in a huge vat of biological broth consisting of all the amino acids and other elements that form the basis of life. The computer is programed to know when and where to add more collagen, osteocytes, and osteoclasts. If there is a glitch in the program the computer automatically introduces what is needed to fix it. The result is a younger, healthy heart, or any other organ, grown quickly, ready for transplanting. We can now literally regrow ourselves from one cell.

It is believed that neurological tissue cannot be regenerated, however, technological advancements have been made to regrow the entire nervous system with a stimulative device that is implanted in the spinal cord. Even in a sort of Medieval way, by harvesting stem cells from fat and bone marrow we have been able to accomplish amazing achievements with quadriplegics and people who have suffered egregious spinal injuries. Our understanding has advanced to the point that we can grow any cell, even nerve cells. There is not a cell that cannot be regrow.

Not only could an arm or a leg be regrown as a salamander regenerates its tail, but as long as viable DNA is available the technology is there right now to rebuild your entire body from scratch. Encoded within DNA are also all the experiences of consciousness that you've ever had, stored within like on a hard drive. As with the selective differentiation of your own DNA, your own memories can be selected for specific reprogramming into the new model of you. It is the ultimate clone. Sounds incredible, but it is the future now.

These advancements have only recently come to fruition. Implementation on a wide scale basis will come in time, but not until certain political and corporate interests have been sequestered from their influence upon managing medical progress. Understand that there is still a powerful faction deeply embedded in the world that profits considerably by making sure we continue to believe and follow the current healing/pharmaceutical paradigm. It is not to their financial benefit or power agenda to see people live longer and healthier lives. Many of the key players in this syndicate, however, are taking advantage of these advances to guarantee their own health and continuity, including one former President. As long as this Deep State faction of world elites hold sway, the benefits of such scientific advancements will be withheld from the general public. It waits for us all in the near future, however.

It is an amazing time to be alive in the world and be witness to the unfolding singularity of taking control of our own evolution as a species. Stick around and you may be the beneficiary of these advances and even more to follow in a world coming to you very soon.

the Return of our Star Brothers

The ancient Babylonians and Sumerians wrote of strange beings coming down from the sky. The Mayans and Egyptians wrote stories about advanced visitors from the stars. It is an age-old tale that is no different when told today. With all the modern sightings and proliferation of stories there is no reason for disbelief. The preponderance of evidence is overwhelming. The evidence is unequivocal, a truth a reasonable person cannot deny. UFO's are here, they are here every day and they are watching. We know they have been coming here for thousands of years. Perhaps they are here to answer our greatest questions. Perhaps they are waiting for something. Perhaps they are here to protect or save us. We don't know why they are here, but the answer to that may be more important than even believing that they are here.

Perhaps the answer lies within the increasing frequency of their visitations. UFO formations present a very consistent message if interpreted as being coded in the universal language of the star constellations. Each home video of a UFO sighting can actually be interpreted as a conversation of sorts. Close examination of UFO formations demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that they very often visually represent complex star patterns corresponding to known constellations. The most ubiquitous UFO sighting is the formation of three UFO's spaced and angled to represent the belt of the constellation Orion. Is this a greeting of some sort? Nearly everyone who looks skyward recognizes the belt of Orion. Are they telling us they are from Orion? Are they telling us that we originated from Orion? Is this an invitation to travel to Orion? Are they beckoning us to return from whence the human species was born? Are they answering the fundamental questions asked by nearly every human at some point in life: Where do we come from? Why are we here?

It seems naive that we still send radio waves into space in Search of Extra-Terrestrial intelligence (SETI). We have been going about communication attempts all wrong. Forty years ago we sent a phonographic record on the Voyager probe because we were sure other intelligent beings would know how to play it. How many alien civilizations would have a record player? How many of us do today? We have been throwing millions of dollars away on lost causes just like this. We have been looking into the far reaches of space for extraterrestrial life when all the time they are right here, reaching out and communicating with us for thousands of years.

They have been speaking to us in a very enlightened language of the stars, and we haven't been paying attention to crack the code. None of us knows exactly why they are here or what they want for sure, yet they are speaking to us every day. Perhaps they are telling us that star constellations are how you navigate the cosmos. It is how they cross the millions of light years of space to get here. And star constellations alone are then how they first communicate with any alien race like us.

A UFO formation representing a particular star constellation may be one way of letting us know where they came from. The different UFO formations may actually be intelligent contact. With their different formations they may be answering every single one of our questions. Their appearance may be providing us with undeniable proof as well as undeniable truth. The proof of their existence is not hard to accept. The truth they may be bringing us may be something we are entirely unprepared to receive. Perhaps we are approaching the precipice of the end of our time on the earth and they are here to guide us away. Maybe it is our time to leave the earth and return to the stars with our long lost brothers. Perhaps they are contacting us in such a flagrant manner and with such increasing frequency because they know we are running out of time. Are they actually here to help? Are they here to guide us to the next world? Will we get the message in time and welcome the help of our star brothers?

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

What can we say about 2017? Historians will someday write that 2017 was a major turning point for the United States of America, the beginning of a new era of expansion of technology, economics, and ideas. It was the year when the momentum for the redistribution of wealth was transformed into a new momentum for the redistribution of power. The control that was entrenched with an elite few in government, industry, academe, and commerce, began to unravel and be returned to the States and the people, where the true strength of this country has always resided. Things can never go back to the way they were for the previous eight years. Whether Donald Trump's presidency lasts for four years or eight years, whoever follows him, Democrat or Republican, whether they agree with him or not, will not be elected by stumping to reverse his policies, but for proposing to build upon them.

The destiny of this country from 2018 forward was astutely summed up by the CEO and Chairman of JP Morgan Chase this week. Jaime Dimon describes himself as barely a Democrat; no big fan of President Trump, he is rumored to be considering running for President himself because things are "so messed up". He believes Trump will likely be a one-term president, but cautions fellow Democrats that if they are to take back the White House, they are going to have to change. “The thing about the Democrats is, you know, they — they will not have a chance, in my opinion if they don’t have a strong centrist, pro-business, pro-free enterprise person. Y’know, the American public is not clamoring for more government.” Dimon further advised that the Democratic Party will need to come up with a reasonable candidate with fresh ideas for even more jobs and economic growth or Trump will win another four years.

If Dimon is right, this changes everything. None of the Democrats mentioned in the running for the next presidential election cycle come anywhere close to these criteria. What Dimon is saying is that the American people don't want more government; they don't want to be dictated to by the government or by the media or by Hollywood or by the NFL elite. If the Democratic Party does not come into step with the changing times it is going to enter into a dystopian world of total, permanent political irrelevance, if they’re not careful.

The person who wins the next presidential contest will be the one with the best ideas for the electorate, and not the one who wants to go back to the way things were. Trump is making things happen, despite the negative spin of the mainstream media. He is already fulfilling Obama's dream of fundamentally transforming America.  Dimon, despite his liberal leanings, thinks the momentum of the country has shifted in a positive way and expects 4% growth of the GDP in 2018. He is pleased with the recent tax legislation and foresees an expanding business environment with retained capital now becoming available to grow businesses — R&D, hiring, wages, competition – and believes it will be very good for America for a long time.

When the opposition is pleased with the consequences of Trump's policy decisions, it doesn't leave them much room to sell the electorate on reversing the President's "evil" agenda. The only option left is to one-up Mr. Trump in 2020 and offer the American people more of what he is so far succeeding at. Trump is the first president to run the country like a successful business. He is a savvy gamesman.  The Democrats can only beat him with good cards.  Intimidation and the old tricks will no longer work.  Someone is going to have to meet his wager and raise the ante to beat him in a game he is very good at playing. Right now the Democrats are just not paying enough attention to the existential changes occurring in this country for that to happen. Dimon's advice for the rest of us: "When you are on a plane, you root for the pilot."

Algore's Folly

 

I read the news today, oh boy. A bunch of global warming religionists go on an Antarctic expedition to measure the “melting sea ice” and become trapped in record thick sea ice, while ice cutters from three nations fail to reach the stranded cruise ship because of thick ice they cannot cut through. In the midst of their own peril, this cult of Global Warming enthusiasts still blamed ‘climate change’ for their situation. Reminds me of when Al Gore delivered a lecture in March 2014 during the First Business Forum on Sustainability and Environment on the outskirts of San Jose, Costa Rica, arguing that global warming meant the end of snow and that there would soon be no more snowy areas to hold future Winter Olympic games. Today I read that snow was just recorded in one of the hottest places on Earth in the Sahara Desert near the town of Ain Sefra, Algeria. Oh boy.

Very hard to resist satire, especially when it comes to Al Gore. Also in the headlines today was a report that 485 scientific papers were published in 2017 that undermine the so-called consensus on climate change. Apparently, the dangers of anthropogenic global warming is not nearly as settled among climate scientists as people would like to imagine. The papers are not written by uninformed climate deniers, but by serious scientists who believe that the true nature of scientific inquiry is not to bow to some proposed dogma—especially where significant ideological, political and economic interests are at play—but to see where the facts lead on their own.

Analysis of these papers by Kenneth Richard delineated findings in one or more

substantiated arguments:

”The first position attributes greater weight to the role of natural mechanisms in changes to the climate system than are acknowledged by climate alarmists, while giving correspondingly less importance to the influence of increased CO2 concentrations on climatic changes. Over 100 of these papers, for instance, examine the substantial solar influence on climate and weather, such as temperature variations and precipitation patterns.

“The second position questions the allegedly “unprecedented” nature of modern climate phenomena such as warming, sea levels, glacier and sea ice retreat, and hurricane and drought intensities. Thirteen of the papers suggested that these events fall within the range of natural variability, while 38 found an absence of significant anthropogenic causality in rising sea levels.

“The third position casts doubt upon the efficacy and reliability of computer climate models for projecting future climate states, suggesting that such predictions are “little more than speculation” given the enormous uncertainty and margins of error in a non-linear climate system with nearly infinite variables. Twenty-eight of the articles in question examined climate model unreliability, including factual errors and the influence of biases, while an additional 12 found no net global warming during the 20th/21st century.

“The fourth position questioned the effectiveness of current policies aimed at curbing emissions and pushing renewable energy, finding them both ineffective and even harmful to the environment. This position also offered a more sanguine evaluation of the projected effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and a warmer climate, questioning doomsday scenarios and proposing net benefits to the biosphere such as a greener planet and enhanced crop yields. In this category, 12 of the papers documented the failures of policies targeting renewable energy and climate, 8 contended that wind power is harming the environment and biosphere, 13 argued that elevated CO2 levels make for a greener planet with higher crop yields, and 5 proposed that warming is beneficial to both humans and wildlife.”

To summarize all of them into one explanation, let's just cut to the chase:
 

IT'S THE SUN, Al