Grob's Attack, Carlsen Variation

PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED I AM WELL, WELL, WELL! THIS IS JUST ANOTHER CLUMSY ATTEMPT AT CONCRETE POETRY 

Grob's Attack, Carlsen Variation. AI, open-source, Stockfish, popular in Nigeria as well as Norway. How expensive will oil have to get before Republicans, even the formerly-Republican Never-Trumpers, can mention EV's, solar or wind as something other than a joke in passing? "Yeah wind power haha" and it's back to what oh what will we do about this energy crisis. Is it hot in here or is it just the end of the world? California buys more than 40% of the EV's in the US, Caitlyn Jenner said she wanted to leave California because homeless people made her sad because they blocked her view of her private jet, but sadly, she stayed in Malibu.

Grob's Attack. 1. g4. Ask a chess nerd. Or just google it. Bobby Fischer said the object of chess was to crush the opponent's mind. I suppose there's less literal brain crushing than in boxing. Yes, I know that some people combine chess and boxing, box a round, sit down and play some chess, repeat and repeat and repeat. This, too, makes me sad, and saddens others who'd heard that the whole point of chess was to avoid violence. Channels warlike urges into less harmful directions, you see.

PS: YES, YOU'RE RIGHT, I SHOULD'VE LOOKED UP "CONCRETE POETRY" BEFORE POSTING THIS, WHICH IS MERELY PROSE POETRY 

Concrete poetry at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NWqgxg

General Motors and Electric Vehicles

The first mass-produced modern electric car was the EV-1, made by General Motors beginning in 1996. Over a thousand EV-1's were leased -- not sold -- to customers primarily in California. Then in 2002 and 2003, all of the EV-1 leases were ended by GM, who collected all of the vehicles and destroyed them. 

 

Then, in 2006, GM began development of the electric Chevy Volt, which went on sale late in 2010, and from then until the present day, General Motors has been selling electric vehicles -- with less than complete enthusiasm, although so far, after the EV-1, they have not gone so far again as to destroy any of their own cars.

Last Sunday, GM ran a Super Bowl ad in which Will Ferrell hears the news that Norway bought more EV's than ICE (Internal-Combustion Engine) vehicles in 2020, and goes on a rampage, vowing that the US will outdo Norway in this. Also on Sunday, commentaries appeared saying that, although the commercial is wonderful, GM itself is a big part of the reason why currently EV's account for only about 3% of new car and truck sales in the US, compared to 54% in Norway, pointing out that GM lobbies heavily against fuel-economy regulations, which a company set on pivoting to EV's would not do. And recently, GM has announced its intention to produce only zero-emissions vehicle by 2035. 

Many people, in the light of all of this, have described GM's attitude toward EV's as schizophrenic. But "schizophrenic" implies one mind which is in conflict with itself, whereas GM consists of hundreds of thousands of employees who have routinely held sharply conflicting opinions about all sorts of things, EV's being just one example. GM is a very different company than Tesla, which is basically a cult built to do the Will of Elon. Was the EV-1 designed and built by very enthusiastic GM employees? Yes indeed. Was it at the same time viewed with horror by other GM employees, further to the Right politically, who saw it as a hippy monstrosity? Without a doubt. I also have no doubt that many at GM are very happy that their company has committed to zero emissions by 2035, and that many others believe that global warming is a hoax, perhaps Chinese in origin.

Like the rest of the world generally, GM is moving toward a more enlightened stance on the environment, while being hindered by many individuals dragging their feet, some out of conviction and others out of greed. The situation is complicated, and some parts of GM are fighting other parts.

Speaking of complication: that same Norway which is doing such a fine job of switching over to clean energy usage domestically, is also one of the world's biggest exporters of oil.

Stupidity and Global Warming

There's a meme going around: a picture of some Country & Western-looking German woman playing a guitar, with the claim that she said (in German),

"I don't think that global warming is nearly as dangerous as human stupidity."

There are several things wrong with this statement, whoever said it.

For one thing, the cause of global warming is human stupidity. It makes no sense to say to people who are battling global warming to say, "Don't worry about global warming -- human stupidity is much more dangerous!" when they're battling a direct product of human stupidity. If you say to researchers who are looking for a cure for AIDS, "Don't worry about AIDS -- viruses are much more dangerous!" all you've accomplished is to demonstrate that you don't know nearly as much about AIDS or viruses as the people whose very important work you're interrupting in order to say stupid things to them.

A statement which in itself is very stupid is not necessarily the best course against stupidity. Not every single time. Not in my opinion.

Also, asserting that global warming is less dangerous than human stupidity goes directly against the record of human life, which shows us thriving for many thousands of years despite many thousands of years' worth of very widespread and uninterrupted stupidity. Stupidity has certainly made our lives less pleasant in many ways, but it hasn't killed us yet. On the other hand, if it were not dealt with at all, global warming would kill us all in much less than a thousand years.

Global warming is now being dealt with, on an ever-larger scale, at a rate which just might possibly save our lives. But this is happening, not because people suddenly got smarter, but because energy generation which doesn't generate deadly levels of carbon and other toxic emissions suddenly got much cheaper, and continues to get less and less expensive.

If alternative energy saves us from killing ourselves off -- and it looks as if it just might -- then it will not have been our wisdom which saved us, but our greed. We will have remained just about as stupid as we were, just about as stupid as if, for whatever combination of economic reasons, alternative energy had never become cheaper, and, therefore, it never made the headlines nearly as much, and so it wasn't able to prevent us from killing off our own species with fossil fuels. Once again, our stupidity will not have been enough to kill us.

Yes, I think it's very important -- and almost hopeless -- to struggle against human stupidity. But if, for example, I and another person were stranded somewhere in a vehicle, and a grizzly bear was attacking the vehicle, trying to open it up so that it could eat me and the other human inside, and the bear was making progress, gradually making bigger and bigger cracks in the glass in the windshield and windows -- Ah say Ah say if I were in a situation like that, and the person next to me inside the vehicle said to me,

"I don't think that that grizzly bear is nearly as dangerous as human stupidity."

then that person would be showing a profound lack of a sense for what is urgent and what is not. Yes, it may very well have been human stupidity which got us into that predicament. But solving the problem of human stupidity -- assuming we were somehow able to solve it, there inside that stranded vehicle -- would not save us from that predicament. The problem we would have to solve, in such a situation, is the bear. If we didn't solve that problem, we would never be able to solve another problem.

Arnold And Francis

What do a former Republican Governor of California and the Pope have in common?

They're both intensely interested in something Trump says doesn't exist: global warming. They're both promoting alternative energy as energetically as they can.

Of course you can't sell sunshine and wind with big profits the way you can do with petrochemicals. Who cares if it's killing us all, with oil, with Trump, and Putin, there's money to be made!

But -- is there, really? Are the Dakota and Keystone pipelines going to be able to pay for themselves if demand for petrochemicals is drying up, because everybody is switching to solar and wind and tidal and geothermal and biodiesel and vegetable oil and switchgrass and corn ethanol and hydroelectric and nuclear? Not every item on that list is popular with environmentalists, but every one of them isn't petroleum. And with the possible exception of hydroelectric, nuclear and corn ethanol (the only ones on the list which aren't popular with environmentalists), each one is growing fast.

How does this leave us with expanding demand for oil such as that there is any economic reason for Trump's energy policies even if we leave "secondary" considerations such as the health and survival of the human species completely out of the equation?

The oil companies lied to us for so long about the effects of their products. I think they may be lying to us now about the long-term demand for their products. Losers. Sad.

I'm Glad Republicans Are Denouncing Trump

I'm glad that Republicans are denouncing Trump, because I want the biggest possible Democratic landslide in November. But the denunciations are hypocritical, because the only thing Trump is doing wrong from a Republican perspective is saying and doing things publicly which they say and do behind closed doors, away from live cameras and microphones -- usually, hello, 47 percent Mitt! Hey, by the way, when are we going to see your tax returns?

It's nice to see Republicans distancing themselves from Trump, but it's too bad that non-Republicans are giving them too much credit for doing so, saying what swell people they are. Do you see any Republicans anywhere denouncing the systematic Republican interference with the attempts of ethnic minorities to vote? Has there suddenly been a huge drop in Republican support for oil companies? No, because, of course, that would mean a big drop in financial support by oil companies for Republican political campaigns, and, just in case you hadn't noticed, Republican politicians are for sale.

Is there a big wave of Republicans suddenly acknowledging the findings of climatology and supporting wind, solar or other clean energy? Are Republicans suddenly in favor of affordable health care care for everyone? Women's right to choose? LGBT rights? Spending on education and infrastructure? No, no, no, no and no.

In fact, in a way it's not so great to see Republican politicians distancing themselves from Trump, because they're doing so out of a desire to be elected or re-elected in November, which doesn't fit in at all with the aforementioned Democratic landslide.

Don't suddenly forget who these people were their whole careers long, right up until they spoke out against Trump, and who they continue to be.

"Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities[...]"

That's how this story about a recent survery begins. 97%. What immediately came to my mind is how badly I want information concerning the other 3%. How many of those 3% are working for the petrochemical industry and its thinktanks and lobbyists, how many graduated in the top 50% of their classes when they got their science degrees, how many got those degrees from places like DeVry and Bob Jones University, in short: how many of those 3% actually agree with the 97% but are lying for big bucks, and how many are dumb as rocks?

But the crucial demographic is not 97% of scientists but 50% of consumers and voters. Once 50% of the people even in places like Oklahoma and Alaska understand, really understand what's happening, oil-company execs and Republican politicians will have to start looking for new careers.

How bad will things have to get before we're at that point? In some discussion of what to do, oh what to do about the enviroonment, I've mentioned options such as disallowing all privately-owned motor vehicles, and met with the flat response, from usually-rational people, that the public -- the Amurrkin public at least -- would never allow the gummit to shut down their cars, trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATV's, private planes, mopeds, lawn mowers, etc, etc. What these debate partners of mine don't seem to grasp is that we are headed toward huge climate changes very quickly -- Hell, we're there -- and that the bigger those changes get, the bigger the public's willingness will be to address the problem with measures which now might seem unthinkable.

So let's start thinking about these things now, shall we? Why wait? Which would you rather keep, your air-conditioning or your car? Pristine countrysides free of wind farms, or the right to shower? Would you rather start taking the bus today, or fight to the death for drinking water 20 years from today? Things are the kinds of things we need to be thinking about, sooner rather than later. Cause we're in deep shit.

Arizona Lawmaker: "Our Schoolchildren Aren't Dumb Enough Yet"

That's not an actual quote from an Arizona legislator. It's an attempt on my part to fathom what State Senator Judy Burges is thinking. Here's the story in the Arizona Daily Star: AZ bill would let teachers dismiss global warming

Here are some more fake headlines attempting to capture the real spirit of what's going on these days in the great Grand Canyon State:

Arizona Legislature Weighs Changing Name Of State To "Bizarro World"

A Clever Plan to Distract Children From 130-Degree Summer Highs In Phoenix

Drill, Baby, Drill!

The Bill Has All The Markings Of Model Legislation Written By The American Legislative Exchange Council, A Conservative Business-Backed Organization, To Suppress Certain Issues Like Global Warming (Actually, that one's not fake, it's a quote from the Daily Star story, reporting the opinion of Andrew Morrill, president of the Arizona Education Association. Hang in there, guys!)

Global Warming Is A Hoax Invented By Al Gore And Barack Obama To Take Away All Our Guns And Turn America Into A Commie Intellectual Jewish New England-Elitist Islamist State

Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Just Me? (Buh-DUM-Bum)

Sealing Our Borders And Fracking Will Reverse Global Warming, AZ St Sen Explains

A List of Some People I am Not Like

Anyone who thinks that Harrison Ford is the star of The Fugitive,and not Tommy Lee "gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and dog house" Jones. But then, I am unlike Harrison Ford fans generally. Ford looks uncomfortable. That's his entire acting repertoire. (I know: sometimes he grins, but that's not acting, that's just -- icky.)

Dan Brown fans, believers in Bible Codes, people who think Merlin is more than a fictional character, (People who think Geoffrey of Monmouth wasn't an a-hole.) people who like that new McDonald's commercial in which the kid who just got his driver's license is sadistically tormented by his family, (At the very least, some McDonald's executives must have liked it, and presumably some people are under the impression that it is going over well with large segments of the population, otherwise why would it be airing so often?) (Why would anyone want a kid who just got his driver's license to snap while he's behind the wheel?) fans of McDonald's generally and anyone who doesn't at least wince at most of their commercials, people who don't think they have enough crescents, if there actually are any such on Earth, (People who don't watch a lot of TV.) people who like Celine Dion, Kenny G, Air Supply, Milli Vanilli, Heather Locklear, Angela Lansbury, Micky Rooney, James Cagney, Frank Capra, Milos Foreman...

People who don't listen to what scientists have to say about crystals, pyramids, psychics, ghosts, huge ancient alien construction in stone on Earth, global warming, the history of the Jews and of the Old Testament and of the Holy Grail and the Merovingians and the Priory of Sion and the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Catholic Church in general and the Masons -- in short, there are many who walk among us than whom I am quite different. In a word: morons. The Earth is rife with them, like Newman with fleas. I must keep in mind that they are everywhere: on the highways and byways and the sidewalks, in the bookstores and publishing houses and in the TV networks and on the editorial boards of periodicals and web presences, in the United States House of Representatives and on my block.