Author: J.C. Cross

NATO warns China

China has been warned by NATO leaders that its strategic economic and industrial partnership with Russia cannot continue without consequences:

“The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation.” (NATO on China the enabler)

This support of Russia probably has some reciprocity in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan. While one war is on Biden’s watch, another may start because of a lack of response.

Xi and Putin don’t care who’s woke.

Deaf and afraid

“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”
– Isaiah 1:2-3

“When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the
whole point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first
begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realised
that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It
made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then,
when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion (“only a lion,”
as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it
wasn’t singing and never had been singing — only roaring as any lion
might in a zoo in our own world. “Of course it can’t really have been
singing,” he thought, “I must have imagined it. I’ve been letting my
nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?” And the
longer and more beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew
tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring.
Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really
are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did
hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song. Soon he couldn’t have heard
anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the Lion
spoke and said, “Narnia awake,” he didn’t hear any words: he heard
only a snarl. And when the Beasts spoke in answer, he heard only
barkings, growlings, bayings, and howlings. And when they laughed
— well, you can imagine. That was worse for Uncle Andrew than
anything that had happened yet. Such a horrid, bloodthirsty din of
hungry and angry brutes he had never heard in his life.”
– The Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis

2024 China shenanigans, part 23

So what’s going with the totalitarians over there right now?

– EU tarrifs on Chinese EVs are making the CCP unhappy and Beijing is discouraging other countries from going to the Global Peace Summit in retaliation. It is promoting a Ukrainian-sponsored peace plan instead.
– The PLA has deployed J20 fighters around the border with India.
– China has been accused of selling more garbage counterfeits goods, this time (intentionally?) to Boeing and Airbus.
– New Zealand is having to deal with security interference and intimidation of Chinese ethnicities in New Zealand.
– PLA is still continuing its expansion into the South China Sea with building up its island bases and nuke vessels of deterrence.

Besides that, they’re “friends.”

The Inbetween Times

“Oh that’s fake.”

Needs some repeating: Deepfakes and fake video are on the edge of indiscernibility. It’s a sea change coming. We won’t know disinformation when we see it.

The public may not be thinking of the immensity of this. “Oh, it’s just online memes.” Memes aside, real news and information are closer to truth oblivion. It’s still a fiction thing. AI has moved beyond audio; AI video will be widely available.

Concomitant with this is the normalization of insularity due to the pandemic’s effects.

Please, get outside. I’ll join you.

Try as you might, the out there becomes life

Neil DeGrasse Tyson brings the truth, the need for reconciliation of the biblical world and science. You can’t be afraid. 13.8 billion years ago the fire brought galaxies to bear.

How can we speak to those who are sold out on the scientific method. Why is this even a concern? The gravity of discussion calls to that high place where we can say “I don’t know.” But fear erupts when we see the whittling away of supposed biblical narrative. But those in the peer-reviewed community don’t get a satisfactory answer to their questions.

I’m not sold, I can’t be. Everything should go on as needed. Everything should cause us to welcome questions.

The new immigration

Recently seen more on European immigration. The scale is very similar to ours. But the type of immigrant is different from the past. How is the West going to survive in the same way at these levels? We and the Europeans were previously able to absorb and integrate people much different than us. In Italy for example, the population has dropped precipitously and other ethnicities are changing the fabric. Culture is changing in each Western nation. It’s a brave new world and I can’t see where it’s all going.

Calling all aliens

The problem of authority.

With models like Google Gemini and ChatGPT how can we determine 1) what is just nonsense, 2) when user generated content is helpful, and 3) when we need guardrails?

First, we need some level of “normalcy.” What do we appeal to? Second, we need to separate user opinion from relation of fact from perhaps, “private journalism.” Third, normalcy and fact checking need to guard against extremes.

The need for nonpartisanship is apparent. We need gatekeepers, but who are they? We need an alien intelligence.

The Heavier Requirement

The sometime appreciation for China’s poverty-reducing measures relies on the CCP’s supposed benevolence in other ways. From our vision outside China, we see:
* the ruthless treatment of minorities like the Uyghurs in the brainwashing camps
* the military drills with eyes on Taiwan, Japan, and other nations in China’s orbit
* the theft of our technology and IP
* the expansionist mindset with the Belt and Road colonies, including spying
* the monitoring of their populace with the social credit and other systems
* the stealthy weapon of TikTok and other Chinese tech companies
* the Chinese police stations in Western countries

The occasional Western fascination with China is a head scratcher. To the Left, the strange kingdom over seas appears more praiseworthy than our democracies. When taken together, I think this confluence of Leftist beliefs about the malignancy of capitalism and the various social issues of “oppressed minorities” has caused a lack of self-awareness in the progressive.

As upholders of true democracy, though imperfect, we must make every effort to see the world as it is.

AI reflex

Open AI caught Google and others off guard.

But the models I am working with are specialized. I had read that specialization is the future. I can see that small language models (SLM) may be the future. I’ve wondered whether certain ideas for language models could be built for purposes that are focused. Within this, I could love to create a Christian history model. It could include images, tables, graphs. Maybe someone has done this? The possibilities are intriguing.

Time for the focus on specialized purposes in AI.

Don’t win, just change the rules

It’s easier to change the rules than follow them. Radical egalitarianism results in:

– The electoral college
– End the filibuster
– Pack the court
– Add new states
– Nationalize voter laws
– Apportion senators by population
– Enlarge the house
– Nullify federal law
– Redefine impeachment

Respect federal, state, the courts — and the people.

On The Demolition of Francis Scott Key Bridge

Should we not look askance of the tearing down? Do the beautiful colors bleed? Not spoken of in prophecy, the fabric of democracy flutters in the breeze. Old ideas not so old, our lifespans but inches on the yardstick. Remember the profundity, remember the novelty, from voice to voice spread the call to arms. Something deep and wonderful.

How to win friends and influence people Pt. IV

IV. Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

Principle I: Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
Principle II: Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
Principle III: Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
Principle IV: Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
Principle V: Let the other person save face.
Principle VI: Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
Principle VII: Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
Principle VIII: Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Principle IX: Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

The message I got here was not making a big deal about mistakes. Lift up the opponent. Be positive about it.

How to win friends and influence people Pt. III

Part III: How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

Principle I: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Principle II: Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
Principle III: If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
Principle IV: Begin in a friendly way.
Principle V: Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
Principle VI: Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Principle VII: Let the other person think the idea was his or hers.
Principle VIII: Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
Principle IX: Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
Principle X: Appeal to the nobler motives.
Principle XI: Dramatize your ideas.
Principle XII: Throw down a challenge.

Sometimes you can