WHY WE NEED REGULATING

33 years ago, car aficionados all purchased car alarms. These alarms went off in piercing decibels until the car was tilted to be towed or the battery ran out. (Batteries would last long enough to blare the noise for 3 - 5 hours.)

At the time, I was living in downtown Berkeley, raising a toddler and a baby. The car alarms in the parking lot across the street would go off and howl for hours, usually during nap time. This was not because of robbers, but because children thought it great fun to set off the alarms.

Every time I heard that a friend was buying a car alarm, I would talk to them about how everyone seemed to just ignore the alarms. I pointed out that if the police were called, they would just order the car be towed so that the alarm would shut off. One and all bought the alarms anyway. Not a single person cared about the social costs of the loud alarms ringing for hours. They just cared about their own car.

Then California required that no car alarm could be installed in a car if the alarm sounded for over 60 seconds. 

We are still woken in the middle of the night by our selfish neighbor's car alarm. But at least the horrible sound only lasts for a minute.

I believe we need a new regulation regarding the word 'milk'. I am particularly concerned with 'almond milk', which is basically flavored water. At least 'soy milk' has protein.

It is an open secret that most children's cereal contains no protein, with REAL MILK (from a cow) providing that necessary ingredient.

It is easy for a mother to think that the supposedly healthy almond 'milk' is good for her children. Instead, the mother may be sending her children to school hungry for the protein necessary to learn and to grow.

I have reached the conclusion that if a movie/TV person recommends any diet, then that diet is almost certainly very bad for your body.

TRUMPERY TWEETING

Anyone who has knowledge of the ability of hackers to get personal data becomes really paranoid about other people learning their darkest secrets. This paranoia often surfaces at 3 in the morning.

I can understand a person new to the spotlight of politics becoming worried about blackmail from hackers.

The latest from Wikileaks is a good/bad thing. It lets the rest of us know just how paranoid a person is power needs to be.

For instance, attorneys with that hackable TV in their conference rooms need to be really certain that they have downloaded all of the patches. Even if all the janitors cleaning the attorney offices are trusted people, it is still way too easy to put a thumb drive into the TV. Now that the problem is known, I do not think the courts are going to by sympathetic to attorneys who did not take security measures and allowed confidential information to be accessed by hackers.

Most of you are WAY too careless regarding your phones. Once a spy gets physical access to your phone, they can hack your phone in various ways.

One of the reasons that US law enforcement is divided into different agencies, is so that each agency can only get information within his jurisdictional area.

We all have to realize that much of WWIII is going to be fought on the internet.

ISIS recruits using the internet. Terrorist make plans and carry out attacks using burner phones and internet communications, rather than dangerously meeting in person.

If we do not have excellent internet spying, we will be unable to stop the bad guys before they blow up innocents.

This means that the intelligence community must be trustworthy like our armed forces are trustworthy. Just like our armed services obey the Commander in Chief, the intelligence community obeys our Commander in Chief.

Just because someone can do something does not mean that they will do something.

All companies need to patch the holes through which hackers hack. Unfortunately, some of them deny they are hackable. An Apple icon called TATSU turned my iPad into a brick, and I had to pay the deductible for a new iPad, while the Apple geniuses informed me that no one can hack Apple.

**** Note: the adjective trumpery means showy but worthless.

STOPPING PUTIN'S NASTY GAMES

Putin enjoys playing a worldwide game of being the 'bad boy'. As we all know, bad boys get WAY too much attention.

Putin believes that attention to Russia makes Russia a more important country.

Because Putin has less money, he needs to get his attention fix at a discount rate.

The easiest way Putin gets attention is to fund 'rebellions', especially if the distraction of violence will slow or stop natural gas and/or oil production.

Not content with the violence in Syria, Putin is now funding violence in Libya.

We used to counter the violence caused by Putin by offering aid to countries to fight insurgencies, to train troops, to feed and educate people. This is so much LESS expensive than building aircraft carriers and fancy new planes.

Giving aid to countries is also more effective in keeping us safe. We may have nuclear weapons, but we wisely hesitate to use those weapons. If providing food can stop violence, then we should provide food. If our embassies are funded, the ambassadors have a chance at negotiating a truce to stop the violence.

Our President is worried about wire-tapping of Trump Towers. He forgets that there are at least two people on a phone conversation. I am fairly certain that we tap the phones of Russian operatives. The Russian operatives know this, and should have been more careful in their conversations, if any, with the Trump election campaign.

Unfortunately, our President is going to allow Putin a free playing field around the world.

Saving money by refusing to adequately fund foreign aid and our embassies, will make the entire world less safe.

WHO KNEW FOREIGN POLICY COULD BE SO COMPLEX?   %<)

WHAT EISENHOWER KNEW

After World War II, the general who led our troops in a resounding defeat of the Nazis, came home and started building our interstate highways.

He supported the Marshall Plan, which helped Europe, including Germany, from starving due to destruction of both farms and the means to get the food from the farms to the people.

He helped Japan recover and become a modern democracy.

He helped our former enemies so that they would become our friends.

He warned that the military industrial complex would continue to lobby for expensive and unnecessary weapons systems.

Russia loves to foster fighting in poor countries. When poor countries can not provide upward mobility for its citizens, some citizens become so frustrated that they embrace terrorism. A small amount of foreign aid can bring peace and emerging prosperity.

By cutting the budget of the State Department, much intel about what other countries are doing and saying will be lost.

The proposal to spend hundreds of billions on defense and nothing on US infrastructure makes only defense contractors rich. It does not help the interior of the country repair and build bridges, roads, DAMS.

The new administration has a love affair with military men.

Even military men are saying that the priorities in the possible new budget are stunningly incorrect.

This is not just about expensive equipment. What is the life of a Navy Seal worth?

Foreign aid and intelligence based diplomacy can make it less necessary to expend the lives of our spies, our soldiers, our sailors, our pilots and our diplomates.

I LOVED 'THE WALL'

I am a life time fan of sword and sorcery movies. 'The Wall' is more of a sword and medieval science movie. I loved it!

Trolls seem to be ruining the intercultural movie experience. 'The Wall' has a Chinese woman protagonist who thinks, fights, and talks often. She is not the love interest. All but two of the roles are Chinese. The Europeans fight better in one on one combat because they have been fighting for their lives since childhood. The Chinese are excellent fighters, but practice is not the same as combat experience.

How is all this racist?

It is amazing to see the Great Wall of China recreated. I noticed that as The Wall ran through the mountains, it provided a quick road through very rough territory. (The top of The Wall is a fairly wide road.)

The Wall has a wall lesson. The bad creatures tunnel through The Wall. With the army concentrating on defending The Wall, the interior of the country is defenseless.

In The Wall, a young, frightened soldier blows himself up to block a passage, giving the heroes time to try to kill the enemy leader. If you wanted a definition of jihadist, then such an action is what being a jihadist means.

If you want to call a Muslim a terrorist, the please use the word, mufsidun. It is pronounced muf-see-dune. It means evil-doer.

Bill Maher has been looking for the correct word to call Muslim terrorists. He can be helpful by using the word mufsidun.

BTW, someone once said that it is unwise to build a wall that blocks your view of the other side.

REBEL vs TERRORIST

In the English speaking world, a rebel is admired and a terrorist is denigrated.

In the Muslim world, we are using the WRONG TERM for terrorist. THE CORRECT TERM IS "MUFSIDUN". If all people used the correct term there could be an instantaneous change in attitudes.

I will quote Nathaniel Burney*, because I do not think I could write a better explanation.

"You can mis-use words yourself, giving an advantage to the enemy.

"'Jihadist,' for example, is the wrong word to use when attacking islamist terrorists. In Islam, the word 'jihadist' has strong connotations of goodness and proper behavior. Calling someone a jihadist confers on them real religious legitimacy. The proper word to use would be 'mufsidun,' which means 'evildoer.'

"In 2008, the local sheikhs and tribal leaders in Iraq began using the word 'mufsidun' when describing terrorism, with real results. Their people began opposing and punishing terrorist behavior, and generally began acting like terrorism was wrong and bad. Even with the significant progress under the military's 'surge' strategy, this single conceptual change was considered the biggest change on the ground in 2008." 

* Nathaniel Burney, author of Primer on International Law

DROWNED BY THE DAMN DAM*

A dam is a potentially lethal weapon. After one builds a dam, one has to continue to maintain the dam. Dams do not last forever, they sometimes need to be replaced early.

Right now, in California, officials are worried about the small possibility of complete failure of the Oroville dam. The latest news is that 200,000 people have been ordered to evacuate.

How did it come to this?

Unfortunately, in California, we have voters who object to paying taxes, and voters who want environmental perfection in any new energy expenditure. This makes it fairly easy to stop necessary funding for maintenance and/or repair of already built systems.

California is not the only US state to have a dam that needs replacement or repair. A dam in Nevada has already failed.

I believe it is time to have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspect every dam in the US, starting with known problems, and with dams where the failure threatens people. I am fairly certain that the POSTUS** has the authority to order such inspections.***

After the Corps inspects, then our 45th president can introduce emergency legislation to fund necessary repairs or replacement.

These dams provide flood control, generate electricity without using fossil fuels, and provide recreation. We often forget that major roads are located along the tops of dams.

It would be fun to be Dumbledore, and have a spell called DAM FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. Then 200,000 people could go home tonight.

* Damn is the special word used when you ask God "to damn someone to Hell." It is considered to be impolite to use this phrase. Dam is the construction that stops up a river.

** President of the United States.

*** The federal government has authority over any moving body of water that is large enough to float a log down the waterway.