Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Seeing is not believing

Posted: December 27, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Merry Christmas to all, on this, the third day of Twelvetide. The head of the Church of England put out her annual Christmas message, speaking of hope and recounting tales of heroic nurse Florence Nightingale as inspiration in the battle against the Wuhan virus. But it was her second message that counted as the true harbinger of the coming era.

But Queen Elizabeth did not actually give a second message. British Channel Four created a deepfake Queen, talking about the importance of family (as the camera focuses on photos of Harry and Megan – famously splitting from the Royal Family to reside in North America – and Prince Andrew – who has scandalized the Royals by his friendship to the pedophilic vampire Jeffrey Epstein).

Deepfakes are synthetic digital videos or photographs in which one person in the image is substituted for another and, with the help of artificial intelligence, so creates an incredibly lifelike, but fake, representation.

Channel Four’s deepfake Queen’s real message focused on trust, and suggested the audience should not always trust what it sees on our screens – and then proceeded to show a supposed TikTok video of the Queen dancing to club music on the top of her desk.

The ridiculousness of what the video depicted served to highlight Channel Four’s message about the unreliability of media these days, where the ability to create lifelike images has never been greater. Seeing is no longer believing.

After November’s election, “South Park’s” Trey Parker and Matt Stone created a deepfake President Trump in a gauche Christmas sweater bemoaning fake elections for their web series “Sassy Justice.” Again, like the Queen’s, this deepfake’s utter absurdity made its phoniness transparent. But as this technology grows in popularity and in usage, that of course will not always be the case. In fact, the reader can be sure that nefarious figures will use the tech for nefarious means.

Case in point: the Chinese Communist regime recently promoted a fake image of an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife at an Afghan baby‘s throat through Twitter, and using a network of fake Twitter accounts to spread and promote the image. Tensions between China and Australia have deteriorated in the wake of the Wuhan pandemic, Australia forbidding Chinese tech giant Huawei from installing 5G wireless technology, and Australian criticism of China’s violations of its 1997 Hong Kong accord with the United Kingdom. The fake image was tweeted out by Chinese senior foreign ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao.

With the credibility of government officials crumbling to ever greater ruins with each passing day, deepfakes give the mindful observer just one more reason to disbelieve everything he hears and sees. It may not be the message of hope the Queen wishes to impart, but then, who’s to say the Queen’s first Christmas message was any truer than the second? Can’t trust anything these days.

[Note: updated to include title and correct a typo on 12/27/2020.]

Merry Christmas

Posted: December 25, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

That’s all

well and this…

After nearly six month of petty partisan bickering the Republicans and Democrats finally agreed on a stimulus package to help the American people who are suffering due to the Coronavirus lockdowns.  The package they came up with is a major slap in the face to every single American, a slap that is all the more brutal because it comes just days before Christmas. 

Shame on the Democrats for being the party that blocked the second round of stimulus for months while Americans suffered just so they could score political points.  Shame on the Democrats for stuffing the stimulus package with so much garbage that help foreign countries and Democrat special interests far more than the American people.  Shame on the Republicans for going along with this travesty.

It would be far better for the American people if these small minded, cowardly politicians did not lockdown large segments of the American economy.  These lockdowns do, at best, hardly anything to stop the spread of Coronavirus.  These lockdowns do far more harm to the American people than any possible good they could do. If it wasn’t for these lockdowns the American economy would be roaring and no stimulus would be needed.

This Breibart Article describes the monstrous pork filled betrayel of the American poeple passed by both parties.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive $900 billion coronavirus relief and stimulus bill on Monday evening, mere hours after the nearly 6,000-page legislation was released.  It was unlikely any members read the entire legislation.

The bill, which included $1.4 trillion in stopgap spending to prevent a government shutdown, was ostensibly the result of bipartisan negotiations that reached an agreement less than 24 hours before. It includes $600 stimulus checks for American households and a temporary expansion of federal unemployment benefits by $300, half the amounts paid earlier this year.

But the legislation also includes many hidden provisions completely unrelated to coronavirus, many of which appear to be the work of individual legislators, acting at the behest of specific lobbyists and interest groups who seized the opportunity.

Here is only a small sample of goodies foreign governments will receive from the stimulus bill. The list is from this Breitbart article.

  • For some countries, Christmas came early:
  • $169,739,000 to Vietnam, including $19 million to remediate dioxins (page 1476).
  • Unspecified funds to “continue support for not-for-profit institutions of higher education in Kabul, Afghanistan that are accessible to both women and men in a coeducational environment” (page 1477).
  • $198,323,000 to Bangladesh, including $23.5 million to support Burmese refugees and $23.3 million for “democracy programs” (page 1485).
  • $130,265,000 to Nepal for “development and democracy programs” (page 1485).
  • Pakistan: $15 million for “democracy programs” and $10 million for “gender programs” (page 1486).
  • Sri Lanka: Up to $15 million “for the refurbishing of a high endurance cutter,” which is a type of patrol boat (page 1489).
  • $505,925,000 to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama to “address key factors that contribute to the migration of unaccompanied, undocumented minors to the United States” (pages 1490-1491).
  • $461,375,000 to Colombia for programs related to counternarcotics and human rights (pages 1494-1496).

This Breitbart article documents a rather egregious betrayal of the American people.

A year-end spending package meant to provide Americans with economic relief during the Chinese coronavirus crisis includes using United States taxpayer money to fund border security in foreign countries.

As part of the more than 5,590-page spending bill, the deal provides the country of Jordan with “up to $500,000,000” in taxpayer money “to provide assistance to the Government of Jordan to support the armed forces of Jordan and to enhance security along its borders.”

The title of the American Thinker article Republicans and Democrats come together to rob American taxpayers says it all.

Late Monday night, in a huge, secretive rush, Congress passed a combined virus relief and omnibus spending bill that’s almost 6,000 pages long and, in less than a year, will spend $2.3 trillion that does not exist.

The bill’s length alone is enough to justify a second American Revolution. It should have been a simple bill: Checks for Americans in need (with provisions to prevent the French Laundry and its ilk from ever receiving another penny of taxpayer money) and basic funding for basic government. I’m thinking maybe 100 pages, max.

Here is more from the American Thinlker article

What’s in this super-secret bill that Monoparty doesn’t want us to see? People are frantically trying to acquaint themselves with its contents but a few hours is not enough time to familiarize oneself with the details of a document more than 5,600 pages long. The broad outline is that $900 billion, or 39% of the $2.3 trillion, will go to Covid relief, with the remaining $1.4 trillion slated for funding the government through September 2021.

For Americans hurt by the Democrats’ (and some Republicans’) sustained attacks on the American economy, there will be a $600 stimulus check for people earning less than $75,000 per year or married couples earning less than $150,000. I may be speaking out of turn here, but I don’t think $600 will make a big difference to people in the upper brackets, while a larger check would make a huge difference to people in the lower brackets.

Thank you for the Christmas slap in the face Democrats and Republicans.

“Christmas Eve Dick, Christmas Ebenezer”

Posted: December 24, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

There are plenty of other days to commiserate over what is going on but let’s instead follow the example of Mr. Fezziwig and remember what day it is today and what day it is tomorrow with some help:

From the Muppets

And Albert Finney

and George C Scott

And Alastair Sim colorized

and Animated

and more animation

And Reginald Owen

and if you want the original Dickens unfiltered

I can be angry about the left this weekend. Today let’s celebrate.