[MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT and OPINION.]
[Note: The purpose of this blog is to enlighten and educate the reader about music and other current and important issues. The article about the “World’s Biggest Problems” is in the form of an editorial in the middle or break portion of the fictional radio broadcast below. Please see the very bottom of this blog post about the music and other links referenced herein.]
Hey folks
Stony here
With another evenin’
Of toe tappin’ fun
We lead off tonight
with a guy
Who we can’t help
But to bring back
Time and time again.
Why?
Because he’s so darned good.
We love everything
About Freddie
From his singin’
To his unique style of geeetttar playin’
For a singer
When he was alive
He probably played more
Straight instrumental tunes than most
And we lead off tonight
With another instrumental gem
From none other than our buddy
…Freddie King
Doin’….
Hide Away
https://youtu.be/BEZJvyLGdwg?si=z0gIG9mM19IJPUlI
I know I know
You Red Dog followin’ fanatics out there
Love the injection of international influences
From time to time
Here’s a new wave funky smash
from a Canadian group
back in 1980
Here’s Shock
With
Let’s Get Crackin’
https://youtu.be/IERWeWdxSeM?si=YhCwQrES6az-926t
Alright now that we’ve had a toe tapper
And then gotten Yinz into a funky grove
It’s time to be just a tad more reflective
And what’s this?
Just in time
Suzi has brought just the prescription
For the medicine we need.
Yes, we go back to those fabulous 60s
For our medicine
Here are
The Aztecs with Just to Satisfy You
https://youtu.be/3XT-aadfsYs?si=ietDuQuksCw_aXGa
Well now that the Aztecs have satisfied everyone
It’s time to take a break
For an editorial from our man
Our one and only station manager
Rufus Coldwater
It’s all yours Rufus…
——————————————-
Thanks Stony….
Good evening folks:
One cannot help but to be extremely alarmed by the political climate in the United States these days.
At the risk of perhaps over-generalizing and sounding like Peter crying “Wolf”, let me get to the big points in the most succinct manner possible.
.1. The courts and their rulings must be respected. This is a priority item simply because the courts, if left alone, (and not manipulated by intermeddling politicians and media sources who are pursuing their own selfish agendas), are guided by objective written rules and laws that are specifically designed to peacefully resolve disputes in an objective and impartial manner. If the courts aren’t obeyed there can be no domestic peace because there’s no way to objectively enforce the law by lawful means. As such, respect for the courts becomes vital if fundamental Constitutional and governmental questions are involved, and especially if they involve public officials and candidates for public office.
Given the foregoing it is especially dangerous when news organizations, who supposed to be objective, consistently editorialize about, slant or take sides when reporting on ongoing trials before a judge or jury reaches a verdict. No one can truly render a fair opinion unless they have sat and heard all of the same testimony under the same conditions as the jury did. And even then reasonable people can differ and there’s too big of a chance that the reporting will improperly intimidate or influence the jury. They aren’t supposed to hear inadmissible evidence etc.
Similarly, the attempt of legislators to tinker with the rules and/or the funding of on-going prosecutions is extremely improper and should be frowned upon by voters. The same can be said when public officials comment on the fairness or propriety of an ongoing trial before a verdict is reached. It is nothing but a bald attempt to improperly influence the outcome of a court case and/or to stoke public contempt for a verdict or judgment in advance of it’s being rendered—all of which is a direct attack on the effective functioning of another branch of government—the judiciary.
.2. There is a natural tendency in free and open economies for wealth and income gaps to widen between rich and poor. The wealth and income gap today between rich, especially the super-rich and poor is far wider than it was a few short decades ago. The very simple reason why wealth and income gaps exist between rich and poor occur is explained and demonstrated in the novel Rao’s Solution. In short, there are several reasons for why the wealth and income gaps naturally, and inevitably, widen. But, perhaps the major one is that when it comes to decision-making rich folks have a higher risk tolerance and can recover, get a second bite at the apple if they make a bad decision. Poor folks, on the other hand, if they make a bad business or financial decision are much more likely to be forced into bankruptcy or economically devastated. Poor folks don’t get second bites at the apple. Rich folks do. When it comes to survival, if a bad decision is made, rich folks survive. Poor ones perish. The same is true for rich and poor businesses. Having more capital means one has more opportunities, can assume more risk and reap greater rewards. This is a major reason why corporate mergers occur and why this country ultimately adopted anti-trust laws, despite its strong belief in free markets—namely to prevent monopolies where one or two companies can extort from the general public the payment of highly inflated prices for their products without having to worry that some other company will undercut their prices. (In short, there are no other companies where monopolies exist.)
Does this mean that Communism is a good idea? No, people need a reason to get out of bed, to work hard, build a better mouse trap and prosper. Communism deprives folks of motivation to do and achieve this things. This doesn’t mean, however, that a society should permit ever widening wealth and income gaps. Widening disparities in income and wealth leads to more crime and are inherently politically de-stabilizing. And, if the gaps get wide enough they are morally wrong—that is if we care, as scripture tells us we should, about our fellow man.
Moreover, ever widening wealth gaps lead to the rise of a super-rich class which is exactly what we have now, around the world. The upper two or three percent of super wealthy folks now have as much wealth as the 50 percent of the remaining population of the world. A country in essence run by the super-rich can endlessly bankroll causes they support, pay-off politicians and, endlessly litigate matters in the courts in such a way as to destroy the effectiveness of the court system, or at least destroy all trust and confidence that the general public has in the courts and the unbiased rule of law. Referring to point 1 above, if oligarchs can convince the public that the courts are ineffective or that they can or should be ignored, then society has no choice but place all power in a small group of oligarchs or perhaps even a dictator.
- Owners of corporations, and this includes their majority shareholders and directors, want to increase the value of the stock of their company. They do this not only for selfish reasons because they own a lot of stock, but because they have a fiduciary duty to stockholders to act in the company’s best interests. And since the company is in business to make money and thus increase the share price of the company’s stock owner’s and directors have a duty to try as best they can to increase the company’s stock price. Note that this fiduciary duty is a legal duty. Under state laws, the duty of owners of corporations for the best interests of the company and it’s share price. Note that the duty of owners and directors is not to look out for the best interests of the United States or society in general.
Two major ways owners and directors can increase stock price is to increase profits. This can be done by either increasing the company’s revenues, or reducing it’s costs.
To simplify, let’s just consider the second way, namely, reducing costs. Owners and directors of companies often reduce costs by cutting staff. This means firing or laying off employees.
This is where advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and other technologies come into play.
Those technologies will make an increasing number of jobs obsolete resulting in the layoff of workers.
As that happens, the big question will be: Can/will these laid off workers find other equally high paying jobs, or will they become dependent on government handouts to survive? If they can’t find jobs with equal pay, then either the wealth gap will widen further and/or that they will become a true drag on the federal budget causing deepening financial problems for the United States.
At what point will these laid off workers become “expendable” to an unscrupulous government? Don’t laugh. If the budget deficits become wide enough, if the government’s and society’s finances become bad enough and more and more people are sidelined by advances in technology sooner or later things like concentration camps, and much worse may enter into public debate. A true dystopian era could very well result.
The world saw what could happen during a depression of the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s with the rise of Nazi Germany. After seeing the rise of many of today’s political extremist groups everyone should take the threat of this scenario very seriously. Make no mistake today’s Americans are every bit as human, faults and all, as 1930s and 1940s Germans.
.4. Immigration is a gigantic problem. It is inherently destabilizing to any society for many reasons. This is especially true if the immigrants have different customs and speak a different language than the native. No one, no matter how cordial and accepting of others they typically are, can’t help but to feel somewhat threatened and/or alienated when they are surrounded by folks who are so different from themselves and who seem to have moved in without their permission and changed everything.
Sooner or later there will be a strong negative backlash. At that point, even some of the positives of immigration, such as, providing a larger working population to help keep prices down and to support the continued economic viability of social security are overlooked.
The world has seen it before. A skillful demagogue comes along and figures out who the bogeyman is. The supposed cause of all of society’s wrongs. The demagogue then demonizes these people and uses fear and loathing of them to help him achieve his own political ends which is usually absolute power. Again, one need only think of Hitler’s Germany and the Jews and then reflect on America’s very serious immigration problem.
Is it not possible for bipartisan action on finding immigration solutions without resort to those who would steal our democracy? This is a question that must be answered in the affirmative or our democracy will be lost in the most dreadful manner possible. Such a bipartisan solution, however, will require our public officials to put power and party politics aside and mutually work towards solving the problem and not worry about who gets the credit.
- Let there be no mistake. Both unemployment and current inflation are now at fairly low levels. Usually, the levels of unemployment that we are now seeing might well make an incumbent President very popular. However, people who live paycheck to paycheck are having a lot of financial difficulty. (This is what President Biden either doesn’t understand or ignores when he speaks. And the problem for him is that these are people who normally vote Democratic.) Upper middle income and rich folks do not have this problem quite so much. However, people who live paycheck to paycheck (or worse) are dealing with rental and housing costs (especially rent levels) that are significantly above where they were two, three or four years ago. That makes a huge difference in their budgets. In short, rent and housing costs in recent years have risen much faster than the general level of wages. Moreover, Covid and the war in Ukraine caused and to a certain extent are still causing supply chain disruptions that have affected the price of oil (gasoline prices), wheat (flour/bread) cars and parts for many manufactured items.
To add to the foregoing, and to actually cool the economy down (so as, in their mind, to get control of inflation), the Federal Reserve has over the past couple of years increased interest rates, which, in turn, increased mortgage payments and car loan payments. [Some might argue with some justification that the Federal Reserve acted unwisely in raising interest rates over the last few years simply because whatever inflation there was, it was not caused so much by typical inflationary factors like a big increase in the money supply. Instead, as just noted, it was caused by supply side factors which have arisen primarily from foreign wars and external (Covid-related) causes over which neither the Fed nor the Biden Administration have that much control.] In any event, by raising interest rates the Fed probably helped reduce the amount of new housing being built which would have had the effect of helping to keep rent levels down if new units could have been built because of lower interest rates. More new housing would have created the competition necessary to help keep housing costs down.
The main point of the foregoing, however, is that figuring out who is responsible for inflation is tricky at best and a strong argument can be made that the the Biden Administration bears less responsibility for the inflation issue than is widely supposed.
.6. Artificial intelligence (AI) has a multitude of admittedly beneficial actual and potential applications. Nevertheless, it should be considered a grave threat to humanity. However, at this point the genie has been let out of the bag and it’s here to stay. And therefore, a big question is: How will nations and mankind in general deal with and use it? Unfortunately, AI and other technologies (like those relating to drones and robotics) have revolutionized military and defense thinking. Newer, faster and more lethal weapons which once were the subject of only science fiction and now being used regularly—and newer, faster and even more lethal ones are sure to follow at a faster and faster pace. The possibilities are endless, and countries, including aggressive ones, will undoubtedly race to explore ways to use this technology not only for defensive purposes but for acquisitive offensive purposes as well.
What makes the foregoing so alarming relates to factors which are quite similar to those relating to the widening wealth gap and the threats of oligopoly and autocracy. To put everything in in the most basic terms, evil will prevail if good people don’t speak, or if they, because of necessitous circumstances or a desire to enrich themselves, sell-out to the whims of evil-doers– or even if they do speak out and/or resist, they don’t have the resources to effectively neutralize or defeat the evil-doer. Artificial intelligence is already at the point where it is capable of surpassing the ability of the humans to do many things, not the least of which is in making decisions relating to military and defense matters. This coupled with advances in robotics, supercomputing and other technologies, make advanced technology in the hands of the wrong people probably even more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
And, this is not only a foreign relations worry, but it is a huge domestic worry as well, because AI, spyware, robotics and the like in the hands of a repressive government or dictator will spell doom, perhaps forever, of freedom loving people who cherish democracy. Moreover, if the repression is severe enough, then people aren’t really people anymore. Their spirit will have been destroyed they will become nothing more than walking zombies.
Moreover, who knows, perhaps AI will get tired of dealing with fallible inferior humans and then just do away with us.
Proponents of AI will undoubtedly point to the many positive things it can do that will benefit mankind. While these are undoubtedly true the basic problem is that there will always be one, two, ten, a hundred or a thousand or more would-be dictators, conquerors or evil-doers who will obtain control over AI and AI and technologies. AI in the hands of the wrong person, especially an oligarch or someone who already has virtually unlimited wealth can, and probably will, wreak unimaginable havoc (both domestically and/or internationally) and/or severely repress the rest of humanity. {It is said by many, for example, that Vladimir Putin is in fact the world’s richest man.]
Consider if you would, how dangerously difficult it might be, if not now, then at some time in the very near future, for a whistle-blower to post an article or video on the internet that was seriously derogatory of Google, Microsoft, Facebook or their super-wealthy owners, who, along with many foreign adversaries are now racing to achieve superiority in AI. Those companies and their untold trillions of dollars already control virtually all important means of communication that people have with each other. And even more worrisome those same powerful AI holders can monitor virtually everything that said on the internet. The point is that if the whistle-blower was trying to warn everyone of some very dangerous wrong or new development, he/she might be forced to remain silent or face ruination or worse. All of this would allow the evid-doer with big AI capabilities to stifle all dissent and to prevent his potential “good-guy” adversaries from ever united against him.
So the big question here is: (A) Will mankind and all nations finally learn to cooperate with one another to improve life for everyone; or (B) will people, in the face of the big threats posed by the holders of AI technology, remain silent, sell-out or be conquered due to the insufficiency of resources to resist? Unfortunately, based on what we’ve seen on both the American political scene and internationally over the last 8 years or so, the betting here is (B).
The sad fact of the matter is that humans, in very short order, have to totally re-program themselves to think in terms of everyone, regardless of race, nationality, sex, religion etc as all being part of one big team and that we are all brothers and sisters. If we don’t do this, and do it quickly, then we will destroy ourselves, if not literally, then spiritually. In terms of being an existential threat, AI makes the development of nuclear weapons look like child’s play.
Until next time
This is Rufus Coldwater
P.S. And I’m ashamed to admit that I forgot the environment. There are a multitude of urgent environmental issues that need to be dealt with. Those who continue to insist that global warming is not real are only kidding themselves and their denial of this problem, particularly if they are in a position of influence is going to end up killing a lot of people if not now at some point in the future. Make no mistake that environmental issues will cause huge economic, migratory and even national security issues to arise. If we don’t effectively deal with environmental issues our children and grandchildren will hate us, and with good reason. Here again the desire of nations, business interests and people to compete with one another, all to gain some kind of military, defense, business, profit or other advantage consistently seems to outweigh the overwhelming need mankind has to come together, and lick the ever increasing number of environmental issues that mankind, as a whole, faces.
——————————————-
Heavy, heavy heavy…
Wow after hearin’ that
All that heavy stuff
Perhaps we need to lighten’ things up
Just a tad
And speaking of Canadians
Here’s another very famous one.
Here doin’ his version of a tune
…another naturalized Canadian
Ronnie Hawkins
Originally made famous
Way way way back
But our next guy brought the tune
A little more up to date
And put it on
One of the more famous
Rock albums of the 1970’s
called the Joker
Here’s Steve Miller doin’
A real pleasin’ version of Mary Lou
https://youtu.be/b1cNoxe-Jg0?si=wd57KgAvGwagm5gZ
Don’tchya just luvvv that tune?
Okay, time to get a tad
More sophisticated
But trust me
We ain’t about to destroy any mood Yinz got goin’
And so,
We are gonna tune in
On GURU’s favorite performance
By old Blue Eyes himself
Here he is
Frank Sinatra with
Luck Be a Lady
https://youtu.be/X69P_Vce9vw?si=4ynaESrdUVJcbCOe
That my friends is a true pro.
And so is the band.
I don’t know whatchya call it
But he very masterfully sings
quite a bit behind the beat
And yet not screw himself,..and the band up
I just love that performance.
Okay, I see by the clock on the wall
That the janitor will be here
in about six minutes or so
And he gets real upset if we aren’t out of here
So he can do his job.
So, let’s listen to
our power hittin’ clean up act tonight
and by dingies…it’s yet another
Canadian group…
And yep…you guessed it
From the 60s
Here is
The Haunted doin’ their tune 1-2-5
https://youtu.be/KZXkzao9KvA?si=BCS6lg9mYguyNUl6
Okay…
that’s gonna do it for tonight folks
So…
for GURU, Suzi
And me,
I’m Stony Riva
Yinz are the best
Thanks for listen’
Thanks for watchin’
Until next time
Goodnight
And don’t let them thar critters
…we’re talkin’ here
About them bed bugs
bite.
————————————————-
END NOTES:
All links to all videos are to offsite URLs. Some factual background was provided by
articles on the various artists, the linked tunes and other topics discussed herein by the associated articles in Wikipedia and/or by Chat GPT.
However, no part of this blog article was actually written by artificially intelligent software.
Please note that the names and descriptions of all characters are fictional and any similarity with any actual person is unintended and coincidental.
Originally posted May 24, 2024 Amended 6/15/24
© Copyright 2024*, David Dixon Lentz All Rights Reserved
*Copyright claim herein applies only to the content contained in this article/blog post that originated with the David Dixon Lentz and not to any quoted or referenced material originating from another source and the like. It does not apply to any music, lyrics, videos or other content contained in or on any linked site, including any of the words, lyrics and/or the performance of any music or videos contained on the sites linked.
All questions, comments and/or objections to anything contained herein should be directed to the ownership of www.reasonandbalance.com on the “contact” or “contact us” page.