Yep, but not just “look over here.” He wants them to move their resources and position their defenses to respond from an attack in those areas. That will potentially leave them out of position to respond quickly to whatever he actually does.

Oz pledged in writing to close out by July 3, 2025 his stake in iHerb, an LLC that sells folinic acid supplements.

Oh look! A pledge from one of the lying liars in our government.

Interesting. Never heard that term before. Thanks.

Ex-urban? Did some cities disappear leaving middle schools still standing?

I can’t seem to edit my original post but I wanted to another series of classic sci-fi compilations I have. These were published to honor works that were published before the institution of the Nebula Awards.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, 1929-1964 - Includes the Roads Must Roll by Heinlein and Nightfall by Isaac Asimov.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-A - Includes The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth, and Who Goes There by John W. Cambell Jr. Who Goes There is the story on which John Carter’s 1982 film The Thing was based.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-B - The Big Front Yard by Clifford D. Simak, The Martian Way by Asimov. This one also includes The Machine Stops that is included in the first compilation I recommended so there is some overlap.

If you like Classic SciFi, allow me to recommend The Ultimate Science Fiction Mega Collection: 24 of the Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time

It includes 24 public domain works by numerous authors such as Verne, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Wells and others. It includes the initial John Carter of Mars books by Burroughs, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and many more.

It also includes one of my favorite stories, The Machine Stops by E M Forster. This story just wows me. It’s about a society that lives in little apartments in huge underground arcologies that are all run by The Machine. It provides everything they need including food and air. While the arcologies are huge, the people never go outside and rarely if ever leave their pods (apartments) or see each other outside of video chats on social media. Many of the people have come to see The Machine as God.

The Machine Stops basically predicts modern social media and all it’s isolating and deleterious effects and it was written in 1928 before the electronic computer was even invented!

Greedy corporations have captured many regulatory bodies around the world. In the USA in particular, virtually all political decisions are made in support of corporate profits. In essence, we are heading the wrong direction at this point. In order to achieve the goal in this meme, we would need to somehow overcome those corporate influences and completely reverse the course we are on now. This would take decades at best and more than a few of them.

Sadly, the clock is running out on us and I very much doubt we have enough time remaining. Climate change and pollution levels are nearing tipping points will start us on a downhill race towards ecological disaster that will likely wipe out much of humanity. I give us maybe 20 years before the struggle for survival starts to overwhelm any other human motivations. If or when we come out the other side of that crisis, then perhaps the cultures that rise out of the chaos will be wiser than we are now.

My family: Sell a comic book.

My wife’s family: Buy some popcorn.