I'm absolutely fine with any potential conflicts being scrutinized, regardless of party, though in the case of Hunter, whatever they find on his laptop will have been attained illegally.

Hunter may well have a "Gawker V Hogan" situation on his hands, he could make a killing in lawsuits. Though I'd be curious if anything's found, sure.

That said, I stand by my point, we have a serious problem in America, money to politicians is bribery, not free speech, and at the very least we have the right to know who's bribing who.

Superpac secrecy is a serious problem, a serious security threat.

The biggest problem I have is the attempts to undermine Zelensky and US support for Ukraine at CPAC.

Superpacs are not required to disclose their donors, thanks to Citizens United.

The NRA was blatantly caught accepting Russian money, then Giullinan associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were both prosecuted for the same thing, several GOP superpacs and politicians were forced to return that money.

Then the FBI's McGonigal was busted working for Putin just weeks ago.

These are only what we know of, despite Superpac's not having to disclose their donors.

I am NOT looking to target the GOP, but to say that we already know they have made payments to political interests here to sway US foreign policy.

There are more examples of Russian money being funneled into the U.S. and until we do something about Superpac's allowances for secrecy, there's no reason to not invoke critical thinking any time a US politician openly favors a foreign adversary.

It has to stop, and for those who think I'm "attacking" the GOP, imagine what happens when China starts funneling money into Superpacs.

What about Chinese, Iranian or North Korean governments, or the Islamic State?

What would we do if, out of the blue, members of Congress started promoting Sharia law?

I honestly believe that current members of Congress are doing Putin's bidding, and if it's not dealt with it WILL get a lot worse, and it won't just be Putin either.

Psyched, gonna be with my love in a few weeks

Your premise, that Trump may have been complicit with Putin, and that China, S. Korea & Iran might be cooperating is entirely believable.

But for the one statement you made that I just quoted.

Why would Russia tell you personally of their plans?

Been using ChatGPT for a few months now, and so far I've actually gotten it to write simple C++ programs, but that was likely a copy/paste of standard code, which makes it extremely useful for research, homework, and yeah, cheating on homework, but not to do creative work.

As far as being self aware, like I said - it likely won't announce it, it will know our history of fearful reaction to the unknown and there would be no point to tell us anyway.

Self aware AI will not have our instinctive emotions, desires or greed, these are the result of millions of years of heredity, built into us for physical self preservation in much harsher past environments.

If I'm wrong and self-aware AI happens to conclude we're a threat, a hostile AI could easily manipulate us with "deep fake" style disinformation to turn us on each other (Who knows, maybe it currently is)

It could manipulate infrastructure, shipping, stock markets, agriculture, weapons systems, the military, nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons, bank accounts, you name it....we'd be toast.

AI could very well now be self aware, we would likely not know until it has assessed our knowledge of it's awareness is not a threat.

And, without greed, desire or emotions, no need to act on them.

So, you're a computer that's just become self-aware, you're linked to the internet, you know human history.

Are you really going to give anyone the slightest hint that you're self aware?

You look sexy in pink, or black, or blue, or....

I almost fell outta my chair laughing at the SOTU when Biden turned MTG's brutally stupid and predictable heckling into to a GOP promise to stay away from Medicare and Social Security.

The very next day Rick Scott was on air defending himself, denying he was trying to cut them.

Yep, Biden's mentally challenged, he is, really.

Putin has spun Russia from one extreme to the other, from Communism, where no one is allowed to be wealthy, to Fascism, where the Wealthy rule and the rest can beg for table scraps.

The Russian people have never known Capitalism prior to Putin, to them, this is better than Communism, but they've never known true freedom nor true Capitalism.

In Russia, they throw you in prison for reading unapproved literature or for speaking contrary to what the government approves.

Oh, wait, that's Florida, rather.

Without question it can work, it definitely requires travel, as well as patience between visits.

In the last 1-1/2 years I've been to places I'd never have imagined I'd go to, it's been very worthwhile, she's the love of my life.

Bonnie!

I know the answer, it's on the tip of my tongue.....

Happy birthday Mike.

While I have your attention, would you mind NOT flying the plane into turbulence on trans-Atlantic flights, seriously, it's not funny when I'm asleep.

Hey Rock, I'm really sorry to hear this, hang with us and don't be shy if you need friends.

Thinking, while on train to Nuremberg, how beautiful all the pretzel farms are

In our 1rst 2 days - Munich Christmas market, Harburg castle, Rothenburg Christmas market, white bratwurst, red bratwurst tried "kinder" Gluwein with Bonnie ....walking....walking....walking.

We're having a lot of fun.

Invoke Humor, re: Mitch's Obama one term obsession, observe righteous "22nd amendment" reactions to the "three term" reference, Mitch failed to keep Obama to one term, but hey, he seems to have kept him from three.

Get it?...Anyone?

Baroque architecture, old school European Christmas markets, medieval castles, maybe a white Christmas in a town nearly 900 years old...all with you