It Had to Be

 IT HAD TO BE

Well, we've finally learned the real story.  Biden is responsible for screwworms in Texas.  Screwworms are those worms that eat cows - very concerning.  Apparently these worms came from Mexico in the form of the screwworm fly.  As with many insects, worms first had to be in the form of a flying insect.

Since screwworms are flying insects, they often evade the border patrol along the US-Mexican border.  Under Biden, apparently, our immigration officials, local authorities, and such made little or no effort to deny access to the United States of these nefarious insects.  No differentiation was made between one insect and another; no distinction was made between one species and another and because of this lack of concern we now have this issue. 

As a result of this very lax enforcement, we now have cows in Texas being eaten by screwworms.  It is up to the current administration to act and act promptly to eradicate this menace.  It is properly a function of ICE now and with all this new funding, surely the issue of the screwworm can be resolved.  With a new $70,000,000,000 to work with, we can resolve the issue with new policies and rapid enforcement.  Do not allow these flies across the border!  Stop illegal entry!

Now you say, hey wait a minute!  How do you keep a fly from crossing the Rio Grande?  Well, you know they come in at night, coming in low, evading the radar.  We simply weren't prepared for this onslaught and it's Biden's fault for not getting the equipment we needed, where it was needed, when it was needed.  

The current Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, was quite clear though; the drug cartels have had a role to play in this new menace as well, but only because Biden didn't do anything about them either. Unfortunately, the Secretary did not elaborate on the methods by which the cartels assisted in importing this menace to Texas.   I suppose that information is classified. 

The Secretary did suggest that these insects may not have just flown in but were brought in by illegal immigrants with dogs.  After all, a dog could have been infected as it swam the Rio Grande or hid in the back of a semi.  Reading of current events one can always gain some new knowledge, can't one?  Who would have thought illegal immigrants were bringing their pets with them?

Once again lax enforcement due directly to Biden's lack of concern for the health of the cows of Texas is clearly responsible for this crisis.  There is no escaping the facts and of all people the current Secretary of Agriculture should know and have the data to support any supposition of blame.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

The Kybo Solution

THE KYBO SOLUTION

As I have often confessed, I am a criminal defense attorney. I am familiar with many if not most of who are termed the "homeless" citizens of Newton.  One of the reasons that I always found jury trials interesting, and not just for the defendant, but for the community, was for the jurors  to learn just how many people in their community are "homeless".  They have no idea until they see it for themselves and are required to listen to the witnesses, many of whom are indeed homeless currently,  have been homeless in the past, or soon will be.

But to partially alleviate the lack of housing, a new housing option has arisen: storage units.  I have recently determined that at least three of my clients are residing in storage units.  Normally these have electricity so a denizen of such a facility can charge his phone or have a light of some kind.   Both very helpful.

One must confess that a storage unit is probably preferable to a tent, especially with electricity available.  This leads me to the subject of this article however - - kybos.  The city should either rent or purchase kybos for placement in various locations throughout Newton.  A leading complaint about the "homeless" is they bother both homeowners and business owners looking for a place to go to the bathroom.  Currently a person seen going to the bathroom in public will be arrested.  And if you are arrested, the probability is that you will lose all the stuff you have been able to accumulate during your homelessness.  This benefits no one.

Hey, you might even have a jogger or two as an appreciative user  and there are folks out there working on our streets, building houses, pouring concrete, shingling roofs that could use a place to pee occasionally as well.  It's just not the "homeless" you would be helping out here.  You know, guys setting a pole for the light company have needs as well.  

I can't imagine a kybo wearing out very fast.  It's relatively cheap and would be something that would be an actual benefit to the many citizens of Newton who find themselves in need of immediate relief from whatever cause.  This should be put on the agenda for the next city council meeting and acted upon directly.  It is a no-lose issue.  It would be of immense benefit to my clients who have to bother an acquaintance to find a place to defecate when, after all,  it may be of some urgency.  It would alleviate much personal suffering.

To repeat, Newton has a large number of "homeless" people  - many of whom are available to discuss these issues, if you are so inclined - on the third floor of the courthouse on a Wednesday morning.  Most with a little prompting will be willing to engage in conversation.  If they can make it to court on a Wednesday morning, most do, they are at least getting by with only occasional stints in the county jail. 

Richard E H Phelps II

 

What We Call Crime

 WHAT WE CALL CRIME

What we call crime changes regularly or I should say added to.  Our current emphases have been with us for a while:  money, sex, drugs.  Many forms of obtaining money, engaging in sexual activities, or the ingestion of substances that make you feel different from how you normally feel are deemed criminal.  

I know these things because I represent the people who are determined to be  criminals: those engaging in activities that the people in charge deem to be "not acceptable".  A civilized society has always determined that there are some activities that are simply not to be allowed.  I like to refer to Old England, the medieval England, where there were few crimes, but those were pretty self-explanatory and clearly proper.  

Where personal property was hard to find and impossible to replace, stealing it was a serious matter.  Then there were the standard crimes of rape, assault and battery, murder and a few others thought necessary to live in peace and harmony with one another.  One really couldn't find complaint in these crimes - any decent society would have the same.

But here, in the States we have thousands of crimes and we are deemed to know them.  Not knowing them is not a defense.  Tough luck if you do something that is considered criminal.   And since there are thousands of crimes and police everywhere, criminal defense is a profession with opportunity.  I am very fortunate in my choice of professions - that of criminal defense attorney.  Always busy.

The people we elect to represent us, our legislators -  this seems to apply to all legislatures - make new crimes every year, but then they wonder why crime is increasing (in their mind it is always increasing) and it is for a very simple reason.  If there are more crimes, there are more criminals.  One would think that enough is enough already, but no - there is never enough crime.  When one looks for justification in all these new crimes, one has to wonder what is the purpose.  The drug crimes deserve special attention though.  Why is the ingestion of a particular substance illegal and worth many years in prison including substances that are required to be prescribed?

The reason is that "drugs" ruin lives; and consequently, if you are determined to ruin your life, our legislatures have decided it  will be ruined by prison, not illegal substances.  You'll have to admit nothing ruins a life quicker than incarceration.  This is uncontrovertible - - jail is detrimental.  At least if you were getting high, you were enjoying yourself - having a decent experience hopefully.  There is not much that is enjoyable in jail.  

Having considerable association with people who use methamphetamine or other substances determined to be either illegal or illegally obtained, I believe I have a relatively objective view of this situation.  I have known and currently know hundreds of people who are presumably committing daily criminal acts by ingesting things the possession of which is deemed criminal.  They all seem pretty normal to me and not particularly ruined.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

Homelessness

 HOMELESSNESS

I'm sorry, but I object to these fruitless discussions about homelessness.  If some person or persons live in a camper beside the road or in a tent in a park, they are not homeless.  Their homes are in a camper beside the road or in a tent in the park.  Simply because they don't have two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a kitchen does not qualify them as homeless.

Once again, some city council person complained about some guy with a grocery basket full of his worldly goods hanging out in various places, normally close to a fast food dumpster.  After all, a guy has to eat and there usually is plenty of food found in various dumpsters.  You just have to know where to look.  This guy is perfectly content which, usually, is the real cause of the city council person's complaint.

These people are not homeless; they simply have habitation habits not consistent with yours.  If they wanted to work at some menial job for minimum wage so they can afford some dump called an apartment, they can do so.  Hardie's, Burger King, McDonald's, KFC are all hiring all the time.  Go ask and you will receive.  Pretty simple really.

What we really object to is that these people object.  They object to our expectations.  We have come to expect that since we spend our lives in activities that in no way benefit us except in cash so that we can eke out an existence from a job that may be gone next week, they should have to do the same.  After all, we just signed a humongous loan to buy a $350,000 house that will be gone in the first windstorm and will cost me any  money I might  accumulate in insurance costs to reimburse me from that first windstorm.

I saw a photo of the campers lining the ocean side streets of Malibu with a huge smile.  These people have it made - - beautiful climate, leisure, ocean on one side and a road to town on the other.  What more could one ask for?  What is even more delectable: the multi-million dollar mansions across the street, most of which are only inhabited by the people who take care of them, have owners worth millions if not billions who hate those people littering the neighborhoods in which they have invested, causing a depreciation in the value of their very expensive houses.

It's not that these people are missing out on anything important.  What do most of us do anyway at home besides finding something to eat, go to the bathroom, either watch TV or surf the net after dinner, and then take some medication to help us sleep another night.  Oh, I forgot, mow the yard and wash the car that you owe $40,000 on.  What's so great about that when I can do exactly the same thing (no mowing or washing) by the ocean without huge loans to pay on every month.  If you need a little extra cash for a vacation, just drop in to the local Pizza Hut for a few weeks and wait some tables.  It's all good.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

What's Next?

 WHAT'S NEXT?

If one were to pay attention to current developments, one would realize that there are, at a minimum, two things that will change our lives immensely and these two things are   not material:  they exist only electronically.  These two things are AI and quantum computers.  But, they will affect every aspect of our lives.

Let's talk quantum computers first.  These will be with us shortly, within a decade.  From what one reads, these computers will be millions of times faster than traditional computers: the computers that we have had now for approximately 80 years.  If one were to stop and look, one can see for oneself that the computer as we know it has changed the world we live and work in.  It is not the same world as it was before the advent of computers.  Now we will have a method of computing that is unimaginable and our lives will change dramatically because of it.

The human species, us, have with difficulty, been able to adjust to all innovations.  Innovations have always, and presumably always will, benefit some and destroy others.  The industrial revolution is our model for the effects that technology has had. There is no  reason to believe that the future will be different.

The second development, which is occurring now, is AI.  AI will be all-encompassing.  Being a criminal defense attorney, I see it already in the mischievous use of AI to defame, terrify and simply annoy others.  What AI will do to a population that spends its time online can not be adequately digested.  

An acquaintance said to me:  "I went on ChatGPT to find some interesting things to do in Des Moines:  that I could do with my eight year old.  My friend didn't call up an acquaintance, someone in the neighborhood, a cousin or other human being to help find something to do for the evening.  He used AI; he used an electronic knowledge bank.  I was not privy to the results of this effort.

But to think of AI, is not to analyse the result of a query,  but to think of the effect it will have on us as people or as friends, acquaintances, fellow workers, etc.  I no longer need to call Fred to discuss some matter or for suggestions and ideas, I use AI.  Who needs Fred when I have ChatGPT?

So what do you say!  So you don't need Fred anymore, so what?  Is there any reason even to know Fred?  And how are decisions to be made and how will these decisions affect others?  Where is the best place to rob a store?  What is the best way to liquidate a rival?  How was the decision to attack Iran made; was it a person or was it ChatGPT?  

Let's say a major decision has been made using ChatGPT and that decision has had consequences not envisioned nor beneficial, but devastating.  Who do we blame?  Who do we hold accountable?  What this really comes down to is that we need to start thinking about these things collectively.  Our legislatures, rather than worrying about someone being transgender or a book in the library depicting a gay teenager, might start considering how we are going to deal with the tremendous societal changes that are coming through quantum computing and AI and others we may not even be aware of. 

Our lives are going to change and we need to think about what will be happening to us and the people we care about.  This should be a collective effort.

Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo

Bleeding Edge

 BLEEDING EDGE

Thomas Pynchon

Books for Bigots

The second of Pynchon's oeuvre read, as the learned are want to say.  My plan is to complete it slowly, one chapter at a time - - before nodding off.  Having first read MASON AND DIXON and now BLEEDING EDGE, I have a good idea of Pynchon's efforts in immersing himself wholly in different worlds.  Amazing really. 

What strikes me immediately is how much effort his books must require: the absorption of  huge amounts of information, encyclopedic really.  And I have just begun Vineland which again takes an entirely different set of knowledge.  But of course, these pieces are for the purpose of considering the probabilities of Bigots reading the book under discussion, not Pynchon's encyclopedic efforts.

I would suggest that a Bigot reading BLEEDING EDGE could quickly become confused.  Having read a number of novels in my life, it seemed to me as I was reading, that this book got away from Pynchon.  There is a lot here. There are many characters and many subplots, the center being Maxine who operates a small investigative agency allowing her the acquaintance of all those who live on the margins in and out of the Dark Web but never a resolution.  Or, if there is, I missed it.

Highschool age children, an ex-husband or errant husband, reappears; corporations doing extremely secretive and assuredly illegal activities; undisclosed government agencies appearing and reappearing with uncertain motivations; various and sundry computer geeks searching the Dark Web; a sister and  girlfriends married to men involved in the mystical activities of mysterious corporate entities.  Nothing ever very clear.

And then we have 9-11 and descriptions of the city during and after the event with its effect on various individuals.  Having visited New York in October of the year the twin towers came down, it is a pretty accurate description.

Throughout the book there  is always the hint of sinister threats and activities that could adversely affect the various characters that come and go and through all this Maxine is apparently investigating the source of all this highly suggestive evil which is the corporate spirit, Hashslingerz. 

Then we have a couple of interesting chapters plugged into the book that really don't seem to have much purpose other than to get your attention.  The first is the chapter where Maxine does a pole dance at the club and goes home with a man who apparently she needs assistance from in her search of the Dark Web and  masturbates him with her feet - - him having a foot fetish.  Just another day's work for Maxine.  Most Bigots with whom I am familiar would find this chapter disturbing.

Then we have a chapter where the mysterious Nicholas Windust orders her to her knees on the floor strewn with debris and does her from behind.  This being done directly upon her appearance in the apartment without any "how are you" or other salutation.  She submits and after, thinks, it actually was fairly enjoyable.  But this chapter nor the one referenced above  do not add any to the story and simply cause you to wonder "What the hell?"

These two chapters are reminiscent of the abduction in Chapter 53 in MASON AND DIXON where Eliza Fields is kidnapped by Mohicans presumably and taken to a Jesuit Monastery in Canada where she meets Captain Zhang and together they escape the Jesuits and return to the area being surveyed by Mason and Dixon.  That was a very puzzling chapter as are the two in BLEEDING EDGE.  And, again, one wonders why they are there other than to renew the reader's attention if beginning to wander.

But they are there and the effect on most Bigots with whom I am familiar would be privately titillating and publicly horrifying in that most Bigots of my acquaintance have contradictory personal and public views of such situations totally opposite from each other which causes high levels of internal consternation which, in turn, they then inflict on those with whom they associate.

Since there is sex, and sex of various sorts, this would not be a book for the general Bigot of my acquaintance which would be somewhat unfortunate in that it does give a glimpse into the lives of computer geeks whose lives are online rather in the daylight dealing daily with actual people.  Writing about a life on line will of necessity become common since that is where most people spend most of their time now.

Again, I will give Pynchon credit in immersing himself in another world and giving us a view of it.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

Are We Sure?

 ARE WE SURE?

Are we sure this is what we want?  The American myth, the American belief, our reason for being is and has always been, a land where people from elsewhere can have a new beginning, can achieve what they could not achieve from where they came.  The Statute of Liberty symbolizes that belief.  

The question is, do we want to lose this belief -  that America exists for the reason that it is a place of new beginnings.  The world has seen us as such - - a place that one can make a new life and prosper.  Throughout our episodes of decimating the Native Americans and the history of slavery and Jim Crow, the world has continued to see us as a place of refuge and hope.  It was, and may, continue to be.

Our current efforts of deportation and exclusion is contrary to the very belief and mythology of America.  Our very reason for being was to offer a place for others to come and prosper.  If one were to look around, that has been a continuous belief in ourselves and our place in the world since the first boat arrived.  And it continues to fulfill that dream.

The current question is this.  If we lose this belief in ourselves and our country; this belief that America continues to be a place of refuge and opportunity, what do we have?  What is to replace our reason for existence as a people and a country?  It doesn't appear we have a replacement near at hand.

We are not cut out to be an empire even though we have the power to be one and some think we are.  Some give voice to the idea that our reason d'etre, now, is to bring America to the rest of the world.  I suppose that would solve the perceived problem of people coming to America for freedom and opportunity.   But this is something we are not very good at - - Iraq and Afghanistan are examples.

The issue as I see it is this:  If we lose our mythology, our national idea as a place of refuge and opportunity, we have nothing to replace it?  Am I missing something, or is there another belief system, another mythology, another reason out there ready to replace the one we have and have had since the beginning.  I don't see it.

Our current administration, the current leadership of this country offers no alternative.  The accumulation of wealth seems to be our only goal.  Some of us have succeeded in the effort to accumulate money and things and houses - - some of us, a minority of us.  Some of us are insatiable; never enough - - the continuous effort to accumulate.  Is this what we are all about?

So to repeat the question, if we lose the idea that we are the land of opportunity and freedom, what do we replace it with?  Our current momentum is to reject this view of ourselves.  No people, no group of people, have ever existed without some idea of themselves and their reason for being.  If we decide to discard our mythology and our reason for being America, we will need to find something to replace it.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo