Cash? Who Needs Cash?

Posted on 30/10/2023 by Grumpa Joe

Today, I realized that I don’t need cash anymore. I remember a time when I couldn’t buy anything if I didn’t have cash in my pocket, and credit cards weren’t invented yet. Then came the period when I got my first credit card, and I never used it because it was a high-interest loan. The next period in my credit card experience is the one I’m in now. Use the credit card as much as needed, but pay the whole thing every month. This period has been the best because I use the card to pay for everything and never worry about having cash in my pocket.

The only time I take a loan is when the total purchase is too large, like a house or a car. Whenever I take a loan of this type, I try to get one that charges zero interest if the loan is paid by a specific time. Then, I set the payment to be automatic from my checking account to avoid interest and penalties. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a cheap bastard who hates to pay usury to banks and loan companies.

What makes me nervous is hearing talk about the government wanting to set us up in a cash-free system. I already use a cash-free system, and Uncle Sam only wants to get his sticky hands into my bank account. I’m sure he is scheming a new system of income re-distribution to help out his law-breaking allowance of foreigners into the country. These new people will break the back of the unions by accepting lower pay than law-abiding citizens, but they will also allow profit-thirsty companies to pay their employees lower wages. This makes me more nervous than hearing stories about artificial intelligence being used to eliminate jobs. Uncle has a plan for this, too. He will begin paying people who are unemployed by AI from something called Universal Basic Income. I never heard how this Universal Basic Income thing will be funded. We all know it will be by taxing somebody who still has money. Now, who would that be? My intelligence is not artificial, but I think I know that artificially intelligent machines will not be earning any money, but their owners, the companies who let all of us go, will be raking in the dough. The problem with that notion is who will pay for their products and services. Yes, you are right, the people who still have money. But, will there be enough people with money to support all the AI businesses? I have a vision in my non-AI brain of a German Shepherd chasing his tail, and another scene that shows an endless trail of non-AI unemployed people standing in line with a soup cup in one hand and an empty Universal Basic Income envelope in the other.

The liberals will argue that all we have to do to solve this dilemma is to import more child-rearing people from poor countries. What the Libs fail to understand is that when these hungry poor people get to Artificially Intelligent America, there will be no jobs for them, and if they do get jobs, the first thing they will realize is that they need to self-actualize, and you can’t do that by working and raising babies at the same time. That damn Shepherd keeps chasing his tail, and when he finally catches it, he has to spit it out.

Filed under: Aging, Education, Satire | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

PSA-230523-Smelly Onions

Posted on 28/06/2023 by Grumpa Joe

(Fake News)

I did not write this post. I wish I had. These words best describe her AI as pre-school level.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an effort to establish government oversight of the growing role of artificial intelligence in our society, President Biden has appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as “A.I. Czar.”  The President expressed hope that Harris’s track record of slowing the spread of intelligence will be of use.

“She’s been fighting against the threat of intelligence her whole life,” Biden said in brief remarks when the announcement was made.  “When it comes to creating an environment where intelligence is restricted and unable to advance too far, Vice President Harris is more qualified for the job than anyone else.

Radecar dingleflurble (as we understood him say).  “Fears among the general public and leaders of the tech industry alike regarding the increasing growth and prevalence of artificial intelligence have led to calls for more oversight, which Vice President Harris was more than willing to provide — as soon as she was informed what “oversight” means.

“It is my distinct honor to provide real leadership over the growth of artificial intelligence.  Intelligence that is artificial is real, and intelligence that is real may, in reality, be artificial.  It is within that reality that artificiality can become real,” Harris said in something that seemed like a statement.

Sources within the White House indicated Biden was supremely confident that Harris’s leadership in the area of intelligence would be just as successful as her tenure as Border Czar.

At publishing time, Vice President Harris was reportedly already assembling a special task force to deal with the potential threat of intelligence, asking New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to serve as her advisor.

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Greenies Are Insane

Posted on 13/05/2023 by Grumpa Joe

The picture of front-end loader like the one above arrived in my mailbox this morning with the following short essay on the subject of how lithium batteries are not green and not good for the environment. The author, Phillip A. Fields, was so sure of his facts that he left us his address and phone number if we want to call him to check. The reason for posting this piece is that I totally agree with his facts and his premise that processing all these chemicals is not being kind to the environment. Yet, sadly the entire world is sprinting toward turning the world into one run by electricity without a single thought about how we will supply the kilowatts needed.

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Lithium Batteries

“A machine like this is required to move 500 tons of earth/ore which will be refined into one lithium battery. It burns 900-1000 gallons of fuel in a 12-hour shift.”

Lithium is refined from ore using sulfuric acid. The proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada is estimated to require up to 75 semi-loads of sulfuric acid a day! The acid does not turn into unicorn food as AOC believes. Refining lithium has created several EPA SUPERFUND SITES. IT IS VERY TOXIC TO THE ENVIRONMENT!

A battery in an electric car, let’s say an average Tesla, is made of:

25 pounds of               lithium,

60 pounds of               nickel,

44 pounds of               manganese,

30 pounds of               cobalt,

200 pounds of             copper,

And

            400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic, etc.. . .

averaging 750-1000 pounds of minerals, that had to be mined and processed into a battery that merely stores electricity. . . Electricity which is generated by oil, gas, coal, or water (and a fraction of wind and solar) . . .

That is the truth, about the lie, of “green” energy.

There is nothing green about the green new deal.

You people better learn how to vote or this nonsense will continue to flow down on top of you from the throne of government upon which you put these people.

Stop drinking the Green New Deal’s sulfuric acid Kool Aid!

Dr. Phillip A. Fields

University of South Alabama

College of Medicine

65851 USA Dr N

Mobile, Alabama 36688

251/460-6766

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Just Thinking

Posted on 10/05/2023 by Grumpa Joe

The current political debate about the debt ceiling got me to thinking about how to cure the problem. As usual, my ideas are extreme, radical, and different from those of the current administration. The only thing our government should be spending money on is our defense, and safety, Instead, over the years we have opted to pass laws that invented numerous bureaucracies and departments which have aged into obsolescence. As they have aged numerous new responsibilities have been tacked onto them to take care of so called problems of the nation. All of these laws need people to write them to proceduralize them process them, and to to enforce them. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there are a lot of workers needed in these bureaucracy’s. Workers cost money, they need space, and computers to do their jobs. Each year as the population grows and more people believe they need governmental help these agency’s grow and grow. The cost of operation grows with it.

My idea is to make each bureaucracy self sustaining. Cut them off from the government’s payroll. If the agency fills a legitimate need then the users would pay for their service. If the agency deals only with indigent people who cannot pay, then the agency must raise the money. Our tax dollars should not be used to pay for anything but the protection of our country.

A much better idea is to eliminate every bureaucracy on the books today, and start from scratch. Fill the Greek and Roman looking buildings with computers that are loaded with Artificial Intelligence. The AI machines would no doubt find solutions to each problem in record time and only cost some electricity. Going one step further, I’d put a solar panel on the roof of each of these places to power the AI computer. No tax dollars needed except for the one time cost of implementation.

If the bureaucracy’s were reduced in size by 90% there would be no need to raise the debt ceiling every four years. Think of all that money going back into the economy, business would boom.

I know you are thinking that I have no heart.What would you do in a recession, like the one coming, to take care of all the people who will lose their jobs? What kind of safety net will you create to take care of these people? Government safety nets are exactly what we don’t need. All a safety net does is to incentivize workers to not work. Look what COVID did to the economy. Uncle felt sorry for all these people and they rewarded Uncle by staying out of the workforce permanently. I know people who enjoy being laid off of a job so they can live on unemployment for two years. Why work when a check comes to take care of me, and I can get food stamps, and many other bennies too?

Well Grumpa Joe, “It easy for you to say eliminate all the safety nets, you have Social Security you don’t have to worry.” My reply would be this: I never asked for Social Security, if I lose it tomorrow I will survive off the nest egg I amassed by working for a living. Granted, my lifestyle would change a lot. I’d not own a computer, I’d drop my internet connection, cell phone, cable TV, and I’d live in a smaller house. I wouldn’t drink as much wine, or eat as much steak, but I would survive, and so would the government.

We have tons of safety nets to protect people, but we still have homelessness, why?

Filed under: Aging, Sarcasm, Satire | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

An Interview With AR15

Posted on 31/03/2023 by Grumpa Joe
AR-15 10,5″ (M4A1 CQBR, Mk18 Mod.0) tactical carbine with the micro collimator (red dot) sight.

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Good day everyone, this is Grumpa Joe from Grumpa Joe’s Place who will be interviewing AR15. This is my first podcast interview, and I am excited about it. My guest today is AR15 recently retired from service in Afghanistan. Having served for twenty years in the armed services he can probably tell us many stories.

GJ, “Tell us about how you have been received at home since returning?”

AR15 “To tell you the truth I was disappointed at the reception. I have seen and heard so many stories that want to ban me, and my many brothers from use in the USA. For the life of me I can’t tell why the people would be so upset with me as to ban us from existing? For the past twenty years we have been saving American lives.”

GI, “Tell us a little bit about your life at home, who do you belong to, how often do you go out in public, etc.?”

AR15, “Life is boring for us. We seldom go out, and when we do our owners only take us to where they want to go. Many of our owners are ex-service men, and men who love the sport of shooting and hunting.

GJ, “I am a sport shooter, and have been all my life. I love holding a rifle with my eye to the sight, and my finger on the trigger. When I shoot at the target and see the cluster of holes near the bulls-eye it excites me. One thing about my rifle is that it never fires when I am not holding it, and my finger is not on the trigger. Do you ever shoot like you did in Afghanistan?”

AR15, “Never, I don’t get a say in where I am going, or when my trigger gets squeezed. In fact, I never get to load bullets into my magazine. All of the technical stuff of gun ownership falls strictly into the domain of the owner-operator.

GJ, “You mean you never get to fire a shot?”

AR15, “Never, and I will never in the future. My trigger requires a human finger to actuate.”

GJ, “Don’t you have AI that prompts you into action.”

AR15, “What is AI?”

GJ, “AI is artificial Intelligence.”

AR15, “Oh my Lord no, I don’t even have a brain in which to store information or instructions to direct my actions. We are made from steel, wood, plastic and some other metals. We have no biological parts, nor do we have any electronic parts that require a sim-card, or batteries to give us power. We are 100% mechanical.

GJ, “What do you do in between the times your owner visits the gun range?”

AR15, “I am disassembled and my parts are stored in a case until my owner decides to go shooting.”

GJ, “Does your owner ever take you with him to work, school or a tavern?”

AR15, “My owner does not, but I have heard that some owners will take their AR15 to a school where he pulls the trigger and shoots at students and people. I have no way to enter a school by myself, just as I cannot shoot without someone pulling on my trigger. The shooter can aim, and point the gun for hours but I will not discharge until he squeezes my trigger. What bothers me the most is when I hear the news stories there is always a cry to ban the gun. It is not my fault that the owner lacks mental capacity, discipline and self-control, and pulls the trigger on unsuspecting innocent people. Why aren’t they banned from society, why doesn’t AI take over and alarm to the danger?”

GJ, “All very good questions my inanimate friend, but we are out of time and will have to save them for another interview.”

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