You can always tell what mood your cat is in by which bands they pick on spotify.

Secretary Rubio Criticizes China for Detaining Dozens Cargo Ships in Panama Canal
April 5, 2026

□ [“A Night at Jabba's Palace" | Star Wars Quantum Studios]

I've tried to avoid watching any of the Star Wars A.I. videos being put out.  For the most part I've ignored them but I've had enough curiosity that I actually watched this one which runs for a half-hour.  The story-telling was off but there was an actual narrative that worked from start to finish which went a long way to make up for it.  Set early in Return of the Jedi, after Han has been woken up and Leia and Chewie are imprisoned, it covers Lando trying to set up an escape with Luke as the back-up plan if it doesn't work.  It doesn't and the film ends with Luke heading towards the palace.

The characters and voices weren't great but the attempt was acceptable.  It doesn't add anything to RotJ but it also doesn't cause any damage.  It comes off as an obvious fake but something about it does have a serviceable integrity that, if this is the IP you want more of, it'll do.

I had a similar reaction a day or so ago to find someone was writing their own songs and having A.I. recreate them as Guns'n'Roses.  That was even more impressive.  The quality still wasn't there but it sounded like Axl's voice singing actual verses, not just ranting on and on.  The guitar solo actually sounded clever and the drums, wow, it sounded like Matt Sorum was right there.  You could have released this in 1995 and few people would have thought it wasn't the real G'n'R.  This one was a rock ballad as you'd expect from Axl, I also listened to a hard rock track.  It wasn't as good but it was a decent attempt and I think the main problem was that A.I. just can't recreate the sparkle of real people doing this.

But most of the aspects of creation are there.  The problem is that they're still empty.  The Star Wars characters as stiff animation in poorly-edited footage.  The music comes off as sounds trying to recreate an individual style but with no interest in what the audience thinks of this.  The movie dialogue is often awkward and barely in-character, it's just putting out information to move the story to the next scene.  The music isn't remotely catchy, nothing that you'd find yourself humming after a couple listens.

Still not sure if it's good or bad but this is showing the limits to A.I.  As a tool, it can be very useful but it's artificial, that's in the name.  It can learn but so far it has nothing to base what it knows on.  The best way to put it might be that it literally doesn't have a soul.  Without that, there's fundamentally nothing to build on, no matter how capable it might be at the tasks it is assigned.

Serbian President Vučić:  Explosives Found Near Russian Pipeline Carrying Gas to Serbia and Hungary
April 5, 2026

□ [“Trump Won’t Rule Out Boots on the Ground in Iran — Troops ‘Not Necessary Right Now’"]

This is just getting stupid in more ways than one.  Of course it's an option, of course Trump doesn't want to send troops in, of course he's not going to spill his plans to the media who keeps asking anyway.  That's the first problem.  Another problem is that everybody's getting weird these days.  Including Trump who just posted "praise be to Allah" on his message that he'd blow up Iran if they didn't give in to his demands.  That's not really a message for Easter.

□ [“SEAL Team 6 Rescues Downed U.S. Airman From Deep Behind Enemy Lines"]

Then there's this event.  The pilot had been saved, this was the weapons systems officer, who was a Colonel.  Why would he be the one on this flight?  That makes no sense.  This has come off like a show although it's not clear what the goal is.  I've never been sure about when or where bin Laden was killed, so here's Seal Team 6 again.  Then there's people pointing out that the pilot went down on Good Friday and, wow, here he is again on Easter Sunday.

No evidence of course so I'll just make up a theory that this was a show that's more about getting access to Iranian citizens so we could provide weapons and supplies.  I could go either way on this being set up for Easter, maybe just a coincidence, maybe a deliberate message.  Likewise with Trump's praising Allah, maybe he's just making a joke, maybe it's a signal to those 'in the know.'  I'm suspecting there's a lot more Muslim and celebrity politicians than we know about, either Trump is one of them or he's telling them he knows who they are.

But looking at the news for the last couple days, everybody seems off-the-rails at this point.  I really want to believe there's a reason for it, hopefully pro-American.  It is also noted that this was a good example of the American military wanting to minimize casualties for our side, up to going into danger to rescue a comrade.  The expensive plane?  Gone, the mullahs finally get to celebrate a minor win, but they saved the airman.

France Tries to Ban Major Paris Muslim Gathering for Security Risks - Court Decision Confirms the Event
April 5, 2026

□ [“Even Democrats Want to Forget Joe Biden - Leave Him Out of Easter Message"]

The party needs to post a reminder of 'when times were good,' i.e. when Democrats were in charge, so they pick an Obama pic.  That's not going to age well, just like Biden.  Obama's been out for almost ten years, longer if you consider that they were already prepared for Hillary to replace him even though as veep, he should have had priority.

It's obvious they want to forget him but this isn't going to work.  Inflation's still not remotely as bad as when he was around but the left is trying to say what's happening now is all Trump's fault, ignoring how prices were going down for the last year.  The left and their pet media are also insisting that Trump is totally senile and needs to be removed immediately, ignoring who they spent four years claiming was strong and healthy and smart.

Basically their only hope is that everybody who remembers when Biden was around dies, or at least has enough other problems in their lives that we don't bother to remember him.  We know Biden's not going to last much longer and then the party will act like he was never there.  They'll have to do that to Harris too but no big loss.

To Tackle Europe’s Energy Crisis, Slovak PM Fico Calls for an End to Sanctions on Russian Oil and Gas
April 5, 2026

□ [“Gavin Newsom Spends $20 Million on Consulting Firm in Effort to Find Ways to Cut Waste"]

That's not nearly enough money to spend if you really want to cut waste.  You've got to spend at least three times that much just to make a dent in it.  It's like that $33 billion high speed rail you finished building in 2020, that's just not how it works.  Newsom doesn't even realize this, even though he was San Francisco mayor when it started and was supposed to connect San Fran with L.A.  He's been part of it the whole time and it just gets worse.

He hired this New York-based firm based on an executive order.  He's using taxpayer money and didn't need their consent.  That's how he runs things, which is why he wants more authority and more of other people's money.  It doesn't need to have any helpful results, he just needs to feel good about himself for giving orders.  So the waste continues to build.

I would cite DOGE as the starting point but whatever it is, I think that the opposition to this mentality is being strengthened and reinforced by Trump's executive policies.  Newsom is the most obvious target but now people are looking all over to find this kind of waste and I suspect they aren't that worried which political party or candidate is found to be responsible.  That's the sort of thing that is primarily concerned with results, not feeling good about oneself.

I've also noted that recently Newsom's wife has come out with a bunch of idiotic statements, elitist and authoritarian.  Since her husband is trying to become the nominee for POTUS, she's obviously getting more attention and I think she's just coming off as the one who makes the actual decisions.  This is common among matriarchs, she's not the one who gets the attention so she doesn't get blamed for the results.  We really saw this start 30+ years ago with Bill and Hillary and can point to any number of other power-couples who work this way.  The men are installed to be obedient, the women are ignored or idolized.  That may be why Mrs. Newsom is being noticed now.  They can say "no kings" but are always fine with a "queen."

Houston, Texas Deletes Tweet Referring to Easter as the ‘Spring Holiday’
April 5, 2026