floundersgreatadventure

As the title says I’m still waiting for someone to realize that Trump could be the least of our worries in the future. Sure, he’ll destroy whatever he can of Democracy and attempt to re-wright our history in his vision. But, if everything I read and hear from the scientific community is even half accurate we don’t have a lot of time left if we’re going to survive as a people. Things I read about 10 or 12 years ago that said this event or that was at least 35 or more years away are now upon us and unless you have a rocket you and I could be doomed. If not us our kids and grandkids are facing a harsh reality that no one believed could or would happen in our lifetimes. I’m 77 years old and I don’t expect to live forever so I don’t think I’ll be personally affected by everything my generation has done to this planet. The sad thing is except for a few isolated groups young people don’t seem too concerned and politicians refuse to believe it. I think the reason is that somewhere along the line people have come to believe it can’t happen. You know governments don’t think more than 8 to 10 years into the future and even right now our presidential candidates aren’t thinking about the planet their only concern is self-preservation. Trump wants to be president not because he thinks he has the answers, but because he doesn’t want to go to jail. He doesn’t believe anything about climate change or the havoc it is about to bring to our lives. He only cares that the McDonald’s near his home is open. The others have similar desires that don’t come into reality. I have lots of people saying I’m just a nay-sayer. Maybe that’s it but if any of you would take the time to look around at the weather and what nature is up to you might come around to me and what the real scientists are thinking and saying. This is FATS and LUCY saying CIAO from Medellin Colombia.

Donald Trump can go on National TV, radio, and in the national press and directly or insinuate threats to judges and prosecutors and to anyone who disagrees with him and nothing happens to him. If I or anyone else was to do the same thing to him they would have people screaming for them to be arrested or locked up as a threat. Trump should not be able to get away with this simply because he’s a politician running for President. Trump only wants to be President again so 1 he can get revenge on those that don’t support him. 2, so he can make all these lawsuits and charges go away. He also likes using his super pack money to pay his legal fees. Whatever money Trump has he has because he uses other people’s money to pay for his mistakes. We here not only believe he’s a crook and liar as well as a bully. We believe if he loses this bid for the presidency the truth will come out and he will be destroyed. If he wins we will be watching the destruction of Democracy and because the Republicans have o many like thinkers we’ll never get it back. Desantis and the rest are trying to reverse laws that Americans bled and died for in our revolution in our streets. It may come down to that again but even if the good guys win in such a confrontation the country will never be the same. You know during the war protests of the Viet Nam era people on both sides were told if they didn’t like it leave. It may come down to just that but now that fascism is on the rise again and in a few years there may not be a safe place for people who believe in the principles of Democracy. This is FATS and LUCY saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

I get really tired of writing this stuff and then watching as the world doesn’t give a shit and keeps on heading for destruction. As I’ve said here many times I don’t have answers only theories. I’m not going to stand here and yell MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN or anything else as equably dumb. My feelings are America despite what some people might think is still a great country. I know I don’t live there anymore but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in it. But the Republicans and some Democrats think that by denying rights to LGBTQ people and women and people of color and Latinos America will be better. This is all about people wanting control. I think too many of them have watched the Hand Maids tale and Orwell’s 1984 and believe that’s the way the world should be. Then you’ve got Trump who just wants to use your money to pay for his lifestyle and could give a shit about real-world problems. Look I stay here and write opinions every day but no one care except a few rinds and my pal Lucy, but I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can. This is FATS and LUCY saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Every so often people ask me where is Flounder why is it still named Flounders great adventure? Well, 12 years ago I moved from the United States to Bello Colombia. This was done for a couple of reasons. First, my wife and her family lived there and I had two grown nieces and that was about it for family. Second I wanted to retire and Colombia made it possible. Living in the US I would still be working trying to make ends meet. So, 12 years ago this month I packed up and got Flounder all his shots and left for Colombia. Flounder was 10 years old at the time. At my niece’s suggestion, I started a blog and since Flounder had a habit of sitting in my lap when I was on the computer I named it Flounders great adventure. It started out as a travel blog since we were exploring all the sights in the area. I then added history lessons for the areas we visited. As time went on I started to make political observations and comments. Which of course came to a head when Trump ran and was elected. You get a different view when you live outside the US. I still wrote about other things but I always signed off as Flounder and Fats. When Flounder got to be around 19 he started to show his age. I got a dog to make what I knew was coming easier for me. The dog a Labradoodle name Antonia surprised me by making friends with Flounder. They would share my bed, but as life would have it shortly after that Flounder’s body would give out and I had to put him to sleep. I like to think he hung around long enough to make sure I would have a friend to help make it easier. I decided I would keep the name of the blog the same to honor him. I did change how I signed off to FATS and ANTONIA. Four years later Antonia either ate or was bitten by something and died suddenly she was 12 and I hope she was happy while she was here. I was heartbroken and still am. We still aren’t sure exactly what happened. But a few days later my wife’s son sent me a Photo of a young dog up for adoption. I found out she had been in the shelter for almost two years. We were told it was because she was timid. Well, I decided to adopt her we went to the shelter and Lucy was anything but shy. That brings us to the present. I have decided to keep the title of the blog the same and if it confuses people tough shit Flounder was my friend and companion for 19 and a half years so we’ll honor that by keeping his name on that blog. Lucy a 3-year-old German Pincher will be helping me now. So that’s the story of why it’s called floundersgreatadventure.com. This is FATS and LUCY saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Our politicians are distracting us from the real problems facing us right now. We have just had some of the hottest days in the history of the world, Methane gas is seeping up from ancient deposits, and the planet has shifted around a foot on its axis. These things are indicators that pretty soon it won’t matter who you want to be president because they’re won’t be a planet left to worry about. Now this might seem a bit extreme but unfortunately, it’s not. Have you noticed that all the billionaires are getting into the space business that alone should tell you something? Instead of investing in stopping climate change, they are investing in ways to get the fuck off this planet. Now you can say well why aren’t Trump and Biden talking about and doing something about this. In Biden’s case, I don’t think he cares about anything except being reelected. While in Trump’s case, he’s just trying to stay out of jail. The rest of us are the ones that will have to try and survive. I expect any day now for the religious nut jobs and the Republican far right to start blaming the Gays, Liberals, Blacks, and Jews for all of this. Somewhere along the line, we’ve been duped into thinking that Scientists are not as smart as politicians. I’m an old guy and I feel bad for the younger generation that is going to have to deal with all this shit, but you sort of brought this on your selves by spending your time being self-absorbed and paying too much attention to what’s going on Facebook and Instagram and to what’s going on right under your noses. This is FATS and LUCY saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

If you think they were just movies get your history book out and check the movie titles against history. Start with 80 Days Around The World, 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne, and others he wrote. Look up Hg Wells these guys wrote about things that were only thoughts in their heads and look what happened. We move forward and you watch Star Wars and say that ain’t going to happen but you look at aspects of these movies and you see them being developed now. The problem is we don’t look at the part of the movie that shows the consequences of our actions. I guess by now you know I‘m leading up to artificial intelligence or AI. A great many people have sounded warnings about AI and I‘m one. AI does not just think faster than we do it looks at things differently. AI has no emotions which means it’s not capable of caring or empathy. Its decisions are based upon pure logic and as logical as we think we are we’re not close to thinking in pure logic. A great many scientists believe the greatest threat to Planet Earth is humans. So if were to program AI to protect the earth like they did in the old movie Colossus and the newer Terminator movies we could expect the same results as in the movies the same results the end of Mankind. The developers of AI will tell you that there are safeguards in place to prevent this. You should remember AI is being developed to outpace human thinking so as fast as you place a block to prevent this AI can think of a way around it faster. When you create something that you think is better at something than a human it will eventually replace that human. Computers have already done this in the workplace. Now I know you think I’m being over simplistic in my thinking but just because you invent something doesn’t mean it will stay beneficial to you and not decide it doesn’t need you anymore. This is FATS and LUCY saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.