Extortion

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POSTNOTE: Jan 23, 2019: There will be more on this issue within the Jan. 20, 2020 post.  Check there about Feb. 1.

POSTNOTE Dec. 9, 2019: Last Thursday we went to the film starring Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.  It is highly rated, deservedly so (I give it a “10”).  Early on, you learn that this is not what you expect a film about Mr. Rogers to be.  Early on, there is specific mention of “forgiveness“.  See the film, it will fill in the blanks.

The topic in the headline is addressed, briefly, below, beginning at “Back home….”  Between Thanksgiving and today, there is evidence that the threat is being activated; unrelated, but pertinent, my mac has auto-updated the new operating system – neither requested nor unusual.  I do not plan to change e-addresses; but e-mails for the time being will be infrequent.  Anything received that appears to be from me, should not be trusted on first glance.  This space is unrelated to the e-mails, and should be more trustworthy (though nothing is certain).

Give yourself a Christmas gift, and see the Neighborhood film.  It is a film with lessons for all of us, including myself.

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This is written the eve of Advent.  The topic, Extortion, seems unlikely at this season.  But hopefully will make some sense at the end.

Thanksgiving Day was a delightful afternoon with family.

During the afternoon one of my grandkids, 17, was showing me a feature of her iPhone.  She had taken a photo of me, and she attached it to some other persons body, and it looked very real, and it was instant – the old photo shop on steroids.  Of course, it was amusing, but at the same time, scary.  If kids can do this, what about adults who are extremely savvy with technology?

The same afternoon, I had brought along a “real” camera – Grandpa’s box camera he had probably bought in 1910, and used until he died in 1967.  My son-in-laws had been kidding me about my regular camera, the ypte one rarely sees these days.  Here’s a photo of the old camera, the real deal, taken today:

1910 Box Camera

These old cameras were used with great care and discretion.  A roll of film might have eight exposures, and possibly one roll would be used in the course of an entire year.  There was one school picture a year, probably taken with a single camera; if family groups came together, maybe there was one photo.  You wouldn’t know how the pictures turned out until the roll was developed, often many months later.  Those single images made up the history of families, unlike today explosion of instant and careless photography that can be used and misused.

Back home, a few hours later, at home, separately, life changed instantly.  In came a piece of junk e-mail from someone I’d never heard of, from some other country.  This was a well-written business style letter, demanding several hundred dollars in bitcoins with a threat to send something to my entire e-list if I didn’t pay up in 50 hours.  It was a distinct threat.  I’ve had this happen once before.  I’m still piecing this together.  It appears that my computer was pirated and misused, including to tale a few seconds of film of me two or three years ago, taken without my permission.  They had activated the camera on my computer.  They apparently have been lurking quietly in the background somewhere in the world.  I had been hacked, I was told by the letter write, and apparently internet criminals have decided they can make a few bucks off of me.  I won’t pay them a nickel, and whatever the personal consequences of this piracy I will pay.  The perpetrators were and remain invisible.  The e-mail address was situated in Ukraine, but that’s all I can tell for certain.  These days you take nothing for granted, unless you actually know well the person(s) with whom you’re corresponding.

I take all the precautions but apparently they’re not enough.  No system is completely secure.  Things are getting worse and worse.  My e-mail account has apparently been compromised, and is apparently not remediable, so I’ll have to work around it for the time being.  What is regular for me, will no longer be regular.  I don’t relish this, but it is apparently necessary.

I’ve had e-mails supposedly from myself, including my correct e-mail address, which I didn’t write or send….  I don’t respond to any of these, but it is scary.  On the home telephone line, these days, come hundreds of spam phone calls, some of them, recently, using our name and home phone number as the originating number.  They’re mostly pitching insurance, and their content always identical.

I use e-mail a great deal.  The extortionist said they’d commandeered my e-mails and if I didn’t pay up, the humiliating film would be distributed to them all.   I shall see.  I’m doing what I can to stop this, but I will not succumb to threats.

The new technology is wonderful, but it has a very serious downside, and I am experiencing it as I write.  I want to publish this on the last day of November, so that I can have a fresh start in December, in Advent.

Let’s work for a better world.  Merry Christmas….

Grandpa Busch at center, with shotgun.  At left, his Dad; at right his younger brother.  1907, at the new farm in ND.

Happy Thanksgiving

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Here, snow is predicted, perhaps lots of it, beginning tonight.  People are planning for either trips, or being snowed in.  If a theatre near you has “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”, take it in.  Probably good to reserve your seat in advance.

Nov. 22, 1909. A postcard to the ND farm

In 1909, Thanksgiving was on November 25.  Out at the farm, my mother was four months old; her older sister, Lucina, was two.  Seven more kids would be born later.  My grandparents Busch, 28 and 25, had been on the farm since they were newlyweds in 1905.  Next farm over were the Berning’s, their brother and sister, 29 and 23 respectively, who’d come west from Wisconsin in 1906.  Their daughter Irene was one; a brother Irwin, born in 1907, had died at 6 months.  I’ve been family historian for many years.  No one has ever said where Irwin was buried.  Possibly at the farm?

Later came 11 more children.  That’s 22 children in all from two couples on three quarter sections (480 acres) of North Dakota sod.

No specific record remains of those early Thanksgivings.  In 1909 in rural North Dakota, there was not yet a local church, no cars, no phone, some cows that needed to be milked….

Memories of others precede our own.  What are some recollections elders passed along to you?  Or which can you pass along to the next generations?

POSTNOTE 2: Another View, which I agree with: No Thanks.

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Plans at this screen:

Dec. 4 – A year after my heart surgery, some thoughts.

After Dec. 8 – The World is my Country on TPT Channel 2.  This film is free on-line through Sunday Dec. 1.  Details here  (See #3).

About Dec. 12 – My personal thoughts about Impeachment and the current state of America.

On the latter two, I solicit your comments, which I will simply hold until the posts are actually published.

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POSTNOTE; An Interpretation of an Interpretation

November 17, our visiting pastor, a retired Priest who is a gifted homilist, told a story.

Recently he had seen an award winning international ad, whose star was a mother cat and her three kittens.

They were out on a stroll down a sidewalk, and Mom cat saw a large dog walking towards them.  She quickly led the kittens underneath a porch, and went back to attend to duty with the dog, who she bravely approached, and when in confrontation distance rose up, and in her finest and loudest voice went “RUFF RUFF”.

The dog turned tail.

Confrontation over, the Mom went back to her kittens and gave them some advice: “learn a second language”.

It was ‘roll in the aisles’ moment.

The Priest finished his message: it’s a bit like the relationship between temporal and spiritual language.  They are different, perhaps, but they complement each other, rather than compete.

 

 

The World Is My Country

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Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019: the beginning of free week for The World Is My Country.  #3, below.

This is about the film The World Is My Country, the inspiring true story of Garry Davis in his youth, told by Garry Davis when he was 90.  I hope you read this brief blog.

I rarely urge anyone to “read this”.  This is an exception.  Please read and share.  It will take only a few minutes.  For your ease, I’ve provided all the links which appear in #1.

  1.  MOST IMPORTANT:  The general description re Sunday, December  8 (Minnesota Public Television), and Nov. 20-28, 2019 (anywhere). World is my Country007.  The links included in #1 follow:
  2. The brief clip about the one hour film is here (2 min 41 sec).  At the end of this clip, there may be three additional clips from Arthur Kanegis, one a personal commentary to Greta Thunberg – the one with the photo of Mr. Kanegis.  I found this commentary very moving and interesting.
  3. Sign-up for full film (one hour) preview Nov. 20-28, (possibly till Dec. 1), here.  This on-line feature is accessible anywhere.  An expanded version of the film is 84 minutes, and was the version shown at the World Premiere in 2017.  It is also available.
  4. Channel finder for TPT (Minnesota Public Television) for Sunday, Dec. 8,12 noon, only in Minnesota area,  Click here.
  5. Minnesota short subject re 1971 World Citizen Declaration here (scroll down to 3rd).
  6. Response to World Premiere April, 2017 here.
  7. Where updates will be posted, here.

PERSONAL:  My only stake in this film is that I hope it is seen and discussed very broadly, especially with and among young people whose future is ahead.  The film is thought-provoking.  I first heard about The World Is My Country at a small meeting with producer Arthur Kanegis in June 2011 (photo below taken at that meeting).  Later, I asked and received permission to show an early rough draft of the film to a group of a dozen high school students in November, 2012.  I wanted to see how young people would react to a story told by an old man of 90 years, about what he had done in the late 1940s forward.  Succinctly, the kids were attentive and engaged, even with a longer film, in very rough form.

PLEASE SHARE.  The first event begins Wednesday, November 20, available via internet (see #3 above).

Arthur Kanegis explains concept of The World Is My Country about Garry Davis at University of Minnesota, June, 2011.   Counter-clockwise from 1:00: Dennis Dillon, Arthur Kanegis, Joe Schwartzberg, Gail Hughes, Bharat Parekh.  Dick Bernard taking photo.

 

COMMENTS (See end of post.  Comments received by e-mail are being saved in a draft folder, and will be posted in total sometime after the public broadcast on TPT on December 8.  Look back about Dec. 12.)

 

 

 

The Eagle

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COMMENTS (beginning Nov. 14, also note the very end of the post for on-line comments):

from Richard in California, overnite: What a Democrat Party Hoax!

Response from Dick: I have a diverse list (ideologically, virtually all are people I know or have direct context with).  The list is fairly large.  Normally there are few responses, none of which are censored, unless the writer specifically requests.  It occurred to me, with Richard’s, that the angriest responses, most always around ‘politics’,  generally come from elderly, white, men, frequently ‘immigrants’ to the west coast from the midwest.  It is just interesting.  As with Richard, above, the reasoning is five words long – in other words, even less than surface, totally emotional.  Guilt by accusation, not by evidence.

Just Above Sunset overnite: Stories Being Told about Day One of the Hearing in D.C.

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More on the Eagle, at end of post.

Shortly the crowd enters the modern day coliseum, unlimited television screens all across the world, to watch the gladiators compete – the made for television round for the impeachment of the President of the United States.  This is the third such contest in my lifetime: Nixon in 1974; Clinton in 1998; now Trump.  Yesterday, the gladiators theater was the U.S. Supreme Court, and the legality or illegality of sending DACA’s back to Mexico or wherever – the Dreamers on Trial.  That wasn’t on television.  Then there’s the matter of finally killing “Obamacare”; refusing to deal with climate change, neutered by pulling out of the Paris climate accords.  On and on and on.

Killing Obama’s legacy is the aim, and along with it making people like myself politically irrelevant, the latter a Republican objective for many years.

This eagle, which has appeared on this page on several occasions, comes specifically to mind today.  I might watch the spectacle, off and on, when or whether remains to be seen.  As noted, I’ve followed this for years already.  This is a matter of the meaning of our United States Constitution.

“Messenger of Peace” – Eagle at MN Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen MN Oct 2008.

This eagle, like all birds that I know of, functions only when its two wings are fully functional and work together.  Of course there’s a tail – a ‘rudder’ – as well, and a body, and a head.  To thrive, they all must work together.  There are no useless parts.

A one-winged eagle is a dead eagle, regardless of how powerful its reputation.  So is a one-winged country; or a planet ruled by “heads” (autocrats).

And we are in a time, where one wing has come to near fulfillment of its aspirations to make the other wing irrelevant in the functioning of our country, and our world.  As in life itself, a body in disequilibrium is doomed.  And the public hearings which are about to begin will provide an opportunity to learn, and if we are smart, we will listen carefully, since the hearings are really about all of us as citizens of this still-great country.

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About the eagle:

11 years ago, about this time of year, my friend and colleague Mary Lou Nelson (pictured below, in pink) chose to gift to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska her favorite sculpture, which she named Messenger of Peace.

I was at the presentation, and as I remember her story, she had seen the sculpture by Chester Comstock several years earlier, and was one of those items she had to have (we all know the feeling!)  Her husband heard her, and later surprised her with the gift, which she treasured.  Comstock, at left in the photo, had titled his work “Hunter”, so I suppose there was some discussion about changing the Eagle’s name.  I am not certain why Mary Lou chose the name she did, but I did know Mary Lou.  While the eagle is, like all creatures in the wild, constantly on the lookout for its next meal, and is atop its particular food chain, it likely isn’t interested in accruing more than its immediate sustenance needs….

Mary Lou, who died in 2016,  was a long-time activist in peace and justice activities in groups like AAUW, United Nations Association and Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers. Mary Lou Nelson 001

The dollar bill includes an Eagle in its symbolism?  Readers Digest has an interesting discussion of the symbols on the dollar bill, including the eagle.  Check it out.

Mary Lou Nelson (in pink) with her gift to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, October 2008

POSTNOTE:  Comments are solicited.  I have no interest in watching the show on television.  I’ve been paying close attention to this for a long while.

Armistice/Veterans Day

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Today is the day I wear my dog tags, from U.S. Army days, 1962-63.

Dog Tags. U.S. Army 1962-63

I’m a vet, as are my two brothers, as are many relatives.  My event of choice each year since 2002 has been Armistice Day of the Veterans for Peace.  This mornings Minneapolis Star Tribune featured a column co-authored by two men I know, personally, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Mike McDonald.  You can read it here.

Actually, my first recognition of Armistice Day was November 11, 2001.  We were at Gatwick Airport in England, awaiting our flight home, and at 11 a.m. an announcement asked for two minutes of silence in recognition of the 1918 Armistice.  I still find it hard to believe the absolute silence in that International Airport.  It stuck with me and the next November 11, I believe it was at Ft. Snelling Cemetery, I attended my first Vets for Peace observance, and repeated the story of the previous year.  World War I was no picnic….

This year I’ll hopefully be at the Capitol steps in St. Paul, when Larry Johnson completes an 11 mile walk from Minneapolis, and those of us in attendance will walk down to the facsimile Liberty Bell at the Veterans Service Building for a ceremonial bell-ringing, 11 bells, 11 times, at 11 a.m. on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

This past year I have three specific memories of War.

  1. June 30, my sister, her husband and I represented the family at the Walsh County Historical Museum in Minto ND, where a fragment of the USS Arizona was dedicated, a gift from Joseph Voorhees.  I had never met Joseph, who mysteriously made contact through a comment on my blog page several months earlier.   It turned out to be very much for real, and Joseph and his brother, Thomas, met us at Minto on the appointed day, and the completely legal fragment was dedicated to the memory of our Uncle Frank, and Floyd Wells, another Walsh County sailor, who had died at Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, as well as to the memory of their parents, Joseph and Deloris Voorhees.  Their Dad had been in 82nd Airborne, and engaged at Battle of the Bulge and other missions as a demolitions specialist.  It was a moving day.

June 30, 2019 Walsh County Museum Minto ND fragment of USS Arizona presentation. The USS Arizona fragment is in the frame.

June 30, 2019 Minto ND Walsh County Museum Presentation

2.  In early October I was at a gathering of descendants of early residents of Hugo-Centerville MN.  I had not been there before, so knew only the person who had invited me, and the guest I had brought.  There were the usual stories, including one from a man who talked about the feet of a relative – perhaps his Dad, or Uncle – I don’t recall the specifics.  This man, a war veteran, a farmer, was never seen without his shoes on.  And after a while, the kids naturally wondered.

As I recall it, at some points he was seen without shoes, and his feet were hideously disfigured, a consequence of war-time ailment untreated, or inadequately treated too late.  I wish I had paid more attention to the details.  It was an incredible story of the lingering effects of a long-ago war.

3.  Finally, last Saturday night, we were at at the 9th annual Building Bridges Awards Banquet of the Islamic Resource Group, an event I’ve attended almost every year.  The MC opened the meeting, attended by over 200 in suburban Brooklyn Center, remembering the indigenous original occupants of the land on which the hotel stood, and then recognizing all of the veterans of service in anticipation of todays.  It was a very appropriate and solemn touch.

At the gathering, I found myself thinking back to the first Awards dinner I had attended, and why.  The answer turned out to be easy to find: it was at the beginning of my blog dated September 5, 2010: “The abundant insanity (that’s what it is – insanity) around the proposed (and approved) Islamic Center in lower Manhattan caused me to revisit a significant time in my youth“.  (I hadn’t paid attention to this issue since 2010.  Here’s a very long synopsis viewed Nov. 10, 2019.)

This business of war and peace is very complicated.  We seem perpetually prefer war while saying we are for peace.  Armistice/Veterans are synonymous this day, which just happens to be the first day of the week dominated by public hearings on impeachment of the President of the United States.

Pay close attention.

COMMENTS (additional in blog comments below the photos): 

from Molly:  I found this very moving… a brief clip, illustrated with old photos, of Leonard Cohen reciting the WW1 poem, “In Flanders Fields.”  Blessings, each, and prayers for peace on this Armistice Day.

from Fred:  Enjoyed, very much, your thoughts about Veterans Day. Growing up when I did, nearly all of the men I encountered from my father’s age cohort— family, friends and Dad—were veterans. Most never talked about their experience since nearly everyone had been part of the war effort.

Among the most interesting of these men was Irwin “Danny” Danielson. He had fought in WWI and, although married with children, enlisted in WW2. Just a very patriotic guy. Danny was a terrific heavy machinery mechanic so they signed him up despite his age. He served in the Seabees and was stationed in the South Pacific.

POSTNOTE: The Vets for Peace bell-ringing at the Veterans Service Building was accomplished, in spite of near gale force winds and frostbite weather (under brilliant blue sky).  The number attending was low, but more than normal because another group was there at the same time.  I have not yet got “the rest of the story”, but the other group, there to ring the Liberty Bell, included former Governors Al Quie and Jesse Ventura (second photo below).  There certainly was enough room for both groups, who were cordial to the extent one can be social in very frigid conditions.

 

Vets for Peace group approaches the Veterans Service Building Nov. 11, about 10:40 a.m.

Former Governors Albert Quie and Jesse Ventura ring the Liberty Bell Nov. 11. Several others took their turn. The rope wasn’t very cooperative, breaking or coming lose on several pulls

Vets for Peace Bellringers, Nov.11, 2019

 

Heroes for a better world.

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First, a fond farewell to Burt Berlowe,  whose niche was as a peace writer, always a presence with the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) Our world is a better place because of Burt:

“Dear MAP Friends,
On the afternoon of Monday, October 28th,
Burt Berlowe passed away.
His peaceful spirit and passion live on!!!
There will be a Memorial Service for Burt
on Saturday, December 7th,
from 4 – 6 pm
at the Loft Literary Center
OPEN BOOK. (An International Peace Site)
1011 Washington Ave. S.
Mpls., MN. 55415
Martha Roberts
MAP Leadership Team”

Mary Lou Nelson (in pink) with her gift to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, October 2008

Pre-Note: In 2008, Mary Lou Nelson (in pink). a long-time advocate of the United Nations and peace-making, donated a favorite sculpture to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  The sculptor, Chester Comstock, had originally named the Eagle, “Hunter”; Mary Lou re-christened the work as “Messenger of Peace”.  Of course, the eagle can fit both definitions.  Look at the eagle talons on a $1.00 bill.  The eagle still flies at its adopted spot outside the main building of the arboretum.

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Tuesday, Nov. 11, is Armistice Day (aka Veterans Day), and my friend and colleague Larry Johnson is going to do an 11 mile walk ending at the State Capitol area, with he and colleagues ringing 11 bells, 11 times at 11 a.m., replicating Nov. 11, 1918, when the supposed “war to end all wars” ended.  If you wish to join him on any part of the walk, he plans to leave from the Minneapolis Main Post Office at 6:30 a.m.; be at Court West, 2610 University Avenue, about 7:45 a.m., and at the Capitol steps at 10:15, where those assembled will walk down to the Liberty Bell by the Veterans Service Building…continued at the end of this post….

Larry and I, both military veterans, are among the billions of people who think war is insane.  Few would disagree.  At the same time, while peacemakers are everywhere,  we seem all but invisible: enemies and war and their relatives, like fear and resentment, are always reliable sales pitches, dominating thought and conversation..

Over the years I’ve gotten to know, or know of,  many peace people.

Most recently, I received a recollection about a person few would know, whose name is Lucy Law Webster.  She was honored at the Citizens for Global Solutions national gathering last weekend.  I may have met her one time.  Here is her recollections (a dozen most interesting pages), brought home by one of our local delegates, a very impressive recounting of a life for international understanding and peace: Lucy Law Webster001.  Her memories are newly minted.  Her awareness began right before WWII.

An earlier hero in the same organization, Stanley Platt, began noticing things when he was an elementary school child during WWI.  He wrote about this in his own brochure about 1986: Stan Platt ca 1986001.

Heroes will always continue to come forth.  At AMillionCopies the page is dedicated to Lynn Elling and Joe Schwartzberg, each military veterans, each of whom contributed tens of thousands of hours to the cause of a better world.   In my present day, a hero is Jim Nelson, who has devoted over 50 years to groups like the United Nations Association (UNA) and Citizens for Global Solutions MN, whose most recent project was a year long project funded by the Minnesota Historical Society to preserve the history of the UNA.

The list goes on and on in the present day – men and women.

50 years from now, somebody will come across some archival memories of others, as each of us in todays world become someone’ future voice of history.

If you’re been thinking about getting active, here are some places to begin.  Especially, if you’re in the range of local public television TPT Life (Minnesota)  check out the film on Garry Davis, World Citizen #1, “The World Is My Country.  Sunday, December 8, noon.  This is an important film, a celebration of peace, spirit and determination, and full with food for thought.  

Get involved.

Armistice Day (continued)…  In a Guest column for the Sun Post Newspapers, Larry Johnson expanded on his thoughts.  The entire column is here.  He emphasized these paragraphs from his column: “Before the bells ring [on Tuesday] read this statement: “The Armistice of 1918 ended the horrendous slaughter of the ‘war to end all wars.'”

When the Armistice was signed on Nov. 11, exuberant joy broke out worldwide.  Bells rang 11 times at that 11th hour for years, and then the practice faded away.  Now we ring them again at that sacred moment, remembering soldiers and civilian killed in all wars.  Further we resolve to work and pray for peace, until the assault on the will of the creator is over.“

Voting

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Yesterday was election day in a few places.  Where I live, we voted on only a single issue: for three local school board members.  Our district has 63,565 registered voters.  The highest vote among the 10 candidates was 3,415 votes: thus, the most successful candidate got the vote of about 5%, 1 of 20 or so registered voters in the school district.  6,982 (9%) actually voted, as each voter could vote for three.

My personal assessment – that only one of the three candidates I voted for won – is that any of the candidates on the ballot could have done a good job.  They were well qualified.  I hope they all remain active.

2019 was an ‘off-off-year’ for election.

One year from now, 2020, will be another story.  Yesterday there was a single issue on my ballot; next year, many.

As always, the end story will be voter turnout.  Conservatively, over one-third of the registered voters will not even vote, well informed or totally uninformed.

The strategists know exactly the demographics and the patterns and the techniques. They are well informed.

 

Deep Fake

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Friday, November 1, 2019, is Day One after the Impeachment Inquiry Vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.  I always recommend Just Above Sunset.  This morning’s, “Shuffleboard in Florida“, is one I specifically recommend for weekend reading.    (The ‘hook’ for me was the first four paragraphs, which aren’t directly relevant to the following – see postnote if interested.)  The ‘meat’ starts with paragraph five.  Whether you like it or not, you’re part of the history of our future as a nation.

We are in a very dangerous time period in the history of our country, specifically the danger presented by intentionally dishonest political communications.  This is a time without precedent, yet far too many people accept routine political lies as a new normal. The truth will out.  In the end, we will all pay a heavy price for diminishing democracy in favor of tribalism.

So…why “Deep Fake” as the title of this post?

I first heard the word used at the Human Rights Forum on Monday of this week.  (My note, as I listened, is above.)  The speaker was Andrew Zolli, a name worth getting to know.  Among other affiliations, he works with Planet.com .  Andrew’s expertise seems to be understanding and articulating technology.   His brief narrative on Deep Fake, in essence (as I heard it): technology AI (artificial intelligence) has reached a point where “fake” can effectively be created to create the appearance of reality.  On the internet, the term is one word, “deepfake”.  Take a deep dive if you wish.  This one, from Fortune Magazine, is just one example: it merges Jennifer Lawrence/Steve Buscemi, into one and the same.  I don’t know either, but apparently both are well known as actress/actor.  The intent is to show how seamless Deepfakes can be.

Normally, I wouldn’t have paid any attention to “Deep Fake”, but seven days earlier I was at breakfast with a long time friend, who out of the blue said she’d heard from a source she trusts that some Democrat named Cortez said at a meeting somewhere they’d have to eat the babies, or words directly to that effect.  I reacted immediately…

…and said I was going to check that out, which I did immediately on returning home.  (My friend is unabashedly ‘conservative’, as I am ‘liberal’, but it makes no difference.)  It was easy to find the “Babies” allegation just by internet search.  It fixed on a rally of AOC (Cong. Alexandria Octavio-Cortez).  According to Newsweek.com, the first source I felt I could trust, in fact some woman in the audience had blurted out the statement, and that a far right organization, LaRouche, later claimed responsibility.  I didn’t go further.  The fact is, my friend had in fact heard the allegation from some news source; misattributed it to the Democrat; the woman making the actual statement quite likely was a plant in the audience whose sole intention was to disrupt and confuse people like ourselves.  This is one of the oldest propaganda techniques, made far more effective with contemporary media manipulation which can be spread instantly through radio and video clips and deceive the unsuspecting….

My friend and I back and forthed in a friendly manner, and that was that until Monday, at the conference, when suddenly this craziness started to make sense.

Thursday, at coffee, I was looking through another exchange with an internet critic back on July 24, 2019, when I’d done a post entitled “Fools”, and he posted a comment (which you can read in its entirety, there, if you wish).  Towards the end of his commentary he said this “…And now the dems want to kill babies after birth….”  and immediately the above exchanges began to make more and more sense.  The responder lives walking distance from the Reagan Presidential Library in California; my Twin Cities friend lives in the south suburbs of Minneapolis.

During this same time period, another “friend”, who seems addicted to those awful “forwards” and seems to truly hate people like me has been escalating his ‘gifts’ via e-mail.  I’ll never block him, nor do I watch the never-ending videos, which began in 2016.  I only  want to see his headline, which is always outrageous.  I’ll probably get five or so of these today from my ‘friend’, who quite likely will read this post.

What has evolved in Artificial Intelligence and the acceptability of political lies in general is very dangerous to us all, in this time when we rely on snippets of knowledge through instant and fragmentary communication.

Caveat Emptor.  Pay attention and do the hard work of learning the issues and the implications.

I’ll leave the last word on this to Chuck, who posted this comment to my 9/17/2019 post on Drones: “Technology is not the problem…not yet. Every technology has multiple uses entirely dependent upon the heart and mind of the user. Banning or outlawing them will be expensive and ultimately futile as people resist the Nazi like privacy intrusions that will be needed to enforce them. When AI gains consciousness its a whole new ball game.”

COMMENT:

from Terrence: Old Lawyer’s Adage: “If the facts are on your side, argue the facts.  If the facts are against your side, pound on the table.”  Dick:  We are seeing this in abundance, already.

from Jeff: Very good post.  (if you have Netflix and want to see a hip comedy on technology, try “Silicon Valley”  from HBO… its silly but very sharp and satirical). Facts : I think the saying is “if the law is against you, argue the facts; if the facts are against you, argue the law; if both the law and the facts are against you, pound your fists on the table.”   Dick: who am I to argue?  Terrence is a retired lawyer.  Jeff is no slouch himself!  Actually, both versions fit.

from JoAnn:   Good morning, Dick.  Thank you for this post.  I was curious so checked another source (NYT and others also commented).  I found this interesting and helpful.

from Jim: Thanks, Dick.  Keep the posts coming.  Thanks again!

from Carol: Did you see this from today’s New York Times? It goes right along with your post.  Do you remember back when “Pictures don’t lie?”  Now anything can lie.  And we have a “president” who is taking full advantage of people’s gullibility for his own purposes, or is too stupid to know the difference (I STILL haven’t quite decided which – maybe both).

More from Carol:  Your post, and the NYT article, have been stirring around in my head – and I have some more comments.  This kind of thing drives me nuts, and it’s not new.  What’s new is the ease of proliferation of these conspiracy theories and hatred.  I think back to my mom, who passed away nearly 30 years ago.  She lived like a little church mouse on her meager Social Security.  But I would go to her apartment and find literature from who knows where, warning her that if she didn’t send money right away, the country was doomed.  (I still remember her “tract” saying that mosquitoes spread AIDS.  Back then, a lot of this disinformation came in those tracts – do you know what they were?  A little sheet of paper that you were encouraged to buy a ton of, and then share them everywhere…  The “original” internet.)  So she would write out her tiny checks, that she couldn’t afford, in order to do her part.  (And of course once you get on a “suckers’ list,” they just proliferate.)

However, she suspected all Democrats of chicanery, and was very suspicious of the fact I was working for a Democratic Attorney General.  (I think she thought Humphrey was maybe the devil – until he got her a refund from her trusted phone company which had been busy ripping her off…)  One day I looked at her and realized that she absolutely could not change.  It would have destroyed her to admit how wrong she had been.
I was raised with this stuff, and so take it pretty personally.  One of my cousins was just visiting and informed me that “Christians are being persecuted all over the country.”  And when you ask for proof, they just get suspicious of… YOU.
I’m a fairly skeptical person, and a firm believer in “trust, but verify.”  However, what is going on now is just nuts.  The mindset has always been there, but the difference, of course, is that we now have a “president” who delights in spreading debunked, cruel and dangerous conspiracies.  He has taken the disinformation swamp mainstream.
My mother used to say, “Well, ‘they’ wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true.”  Well, yeah, they would.

*

POSTNOTE, (to the first four paragraphs of the Just Above Sunset, unrelated to the above):

My family tree (I have been historian of that tree for over 40 years) has me as half-French-Canadian (father), and half-German (mother).  My French-Canadians were around as early as 1618 in what is now Quebec; the German side arrived in the 1840s in the U.S.

23andMe has me as 99.7% European, of which 51.9% is French & German; 23.9% British & Irish.  The analysis fits my understanding of the family history, though the heavy British and Irish influence was a surprise.

Quite certainly, all my early male ancestors in Quebec had some direct familiarity with the military of the day (first one in Canada in 1618).  It was a main reason they came to what is now Quebec.  My last French ancestor arrived in Quebec a couple of years before the English defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham (1759); 17 years later the upstart Americans declared their independence from England (1776).  In the American Revolution  the French-Canadians supported the English (an interesting story in itself); and the French allied with the Americans  ‘south of the border’ (1776 and beyond).

When you do a deeper dive into the history, it becomes ever more complicated, but explains, at least a little, why even today there is still  bitterness of some French-Canadians against the French who, having lost Canada, went back to France, leaving behind a society that had been developing for 150 years.

I won’t try to expand that discussion.  Just look it up.  The history is quite interesting, as were the first four paragraphs of Just Above Sunset!