Yevgeny Prigozhin turns away from Moscow - 25 June 2023

Ending his quest to take on Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin has ordered his Wagner Group to stop their advance on Moscow.  Lukashenko of Belarus claims he has negotiated a peace between Prigozhin and Putin such that Prigozhin will go to Belarus and Putin will drop the charges of rebellion.

I am not involved in diplomacy, but I do not think this is the end.  Putin will return to Moscow and restore his reign, but Prigozhin is not to be found.  No one knows where he is and he has not commented on the (supposed) agreement.  I have two predictions, one for Prigozhin and one for Putin.

For Prigozhin, I predict a defenestration.  Wherever he shows up, it will be at the foot of a tall building with many windows.  It may have happened already or it may happen six months from now, but he will show up dead or show up not at all.  Putin will express regrets.

For Putin, I predict replacement.  He has been shown as weak and cowardly (fleeing to one's hideout is not a signal of bravery).  One way or the other, Putin will be deposed, probably by the end of 2023.  Some new gangster will take his place, and although I cannot guess who it will be, it will not be Prigozhin.

Time will tell. The situation is changing rapidly and reports are squirrelly.  

Prigozin's Wagner Division invades Russia - 24 June 2023

Noting the event, the mercenary Wagner Group has left Ukraine to invade Russia.  A column is moving toward Moscow.  Putin has fled to his stronghold.  Senior government ministers are leaving (one has flown to Turkiye).  The Wagner groups in Venezula and Syria are unstable and may be leaving soon for Russia, leaving al-Assad and other dictators with reduced support.

It seems unlikely that Prigozin will unseat Putin, however one of them will not survive this.  Furthermore, it is predicted that this is only the first wave and that Putin will succumb to a second, third, or fourth wave.

Ukraine seems happy.

Just putting this post here as an historical marker so that we can remember how it started.  Or should I say, how it ended?

US Supreme Court faces a legacy of self-redemption or of corruption - 23 June 2023

SCOTUS, the Supreme Court Of The United States, has faced some recent tests.  No, I am not referring to the infamous confirmation shows for the last 2-3 justices, but rather to the recent relevations about Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito.

Clarence Thomas had rambunctious hearings when he was nominated.  Anita Hill came forward with shocking allegations that would have derailed any other nominee, but Clarence Thomas cruised on to confirmation.  I do not remember Sam Alito's confirmation hearings, but I suspect he was better coached and trained such that the hearings went more smoothly.  The most recent three,  Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh, were a sorry bunch, both through their own antics and with contributions from Senator Mitch McConnell as supported by the Republican members of the Senate.  These are old news.

In the last month or so, journalists have uncovered allegations (being formal here - just allegations) that Thomas has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of "gifts" from a Republican billionaire named (ironicaly) Crow.  Crow took Thomas and his wife on all-expenses-paid junkets around the world and bought the birthplace home of Thomas - and gave Thomas' mother free rent to live there.  Is this bad?  Yes, but Thomas failed to report these gifts even though he is required by law to report such gifts.  More recently, he was given a window to restate and refile his attestation paperwork, and he has blown through the deadline.  

While Thomas is redoing his paperwork, journalists have uncovered similar allegations (being formal here - just allegations) that Alito has accepted thousands and thousands of dollars of gifts, including an infamous salmon fishing trip to Alaska, none of which he reported as required.  Alito claims some wordplay that exempts him from reporting requirements, claiming an trip in a private jet is some sort of infrastructure?  It is hard to explain his position because it is stupid.  

Both Alito and Thomas offer explanations that the law is complex.  If true, then they are not qualified for their current positions and honorable people would resign.  If we assume that they are smart enough on the law to hold their jobs as the ultimate arbiters of the law in the US, that SCOTUS gig, then they are disengenuous and honorable people would resign, again.  It is quite clear that honor, impartiality, and the appearance of impartiality mean more about theatrics than actual compliance to Alito and Thomas.  Even if the allegations of corruption are merely appearances and not actual corruption, these two men have failed.

Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., has a choice: he can redeem SCOTUS, impose ethics standards, and evict Alito and Thomas based on severe ethical lapses, or the Chief Justice can continue to oversee and overlook corruption on SCOTUS.  It strikes me that this is not a difficult choice, but the fact that Roberts continues to dither suggests that he is willing to tolerate severe ethical failures, making him a co-conspirator of the failings.

God Save SCOTUS,

Deeper and Deeper into Stupidity - 22 June 2023

Money does not make you happier, more attractive, or healthier and now we have a demonstration that money makes you stupider.  Elon Musk (once the richest man in the world) and Mark Zuckerberg (another multibillionaire) lead some of the world's most well-known companies.  In theory, they earned their wealth by the sweat of their brow in an ultracompetitive high-tech marketplace.  (Personally, I do not think they "earned" their wealth and it is not the result of their superior products, but these are topics for another day.)  

According to press reports, Musk and Zuck have agreed to a fight.  Yep, you read that right - the headline reads

Mark Zuckerberg Says He's Down to Fight Elon Musk in a Cage Match

 reference - https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-twitter-meta-cage-match-fight-1850563649

It is hard for me to believe that these two guys could get more stupid.  They are trolling at Trumpian levels of stupidity.  I hope they do not hurt each other, but I hope they learn serious lessons.  Let me correct that: I hope the viewers of this debacle learn serious lessons.  Musk and Zuck are beyond learning.  

#birdbrains

ChatGPT AI replacing workers - 2June 2023

Reports are being published of actual workers being replaced by ChatGPT and other AI bots. Long predicted, this seems to be happening to real people in real jobs. The Washington Post reports that Copywriters and social media writers are the first up against the wall. Although the immediate burden falls upon the frontline workers and writers, this is a gross failure of management. Again, we see the bean counters are running the companies and the consumers and workers pay the price. This is a failure of management because, as we well know, chatbots are routinely wrong, they make up content, and what they produce is of very low quality (in the sense of writing quality). The article even states clearly that the chatbots “hallucinate”, meaning that they lie. In essence, the managers deciding to dump the humans are admitting that marketing, including much of social media, is a liar’s craft.

In Henry VI, Part 2, Shakespeare says, “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers”, but maybe we should look at marketing managers and social media influencers first.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/chatgpt-took-their-jobs-now-they-walk-dogs-and-fix-air-conditioners/ar-AA1c23Tf