Why did Marty McFly cross the road?

Two Service Members Dead After Apache Helicopter Crashes Near Fort Hood
August 12, 2026

A.I. is definitely becoming more helpful.  I was thinking of upcoming election possibilities and a few recent events, so a common Han Solo quote passed through my head, "don't get cocky."  That's just a given so there's nothing else to go on at this point on the election cycle so of course I started recalling that scene in Star Wars, Han and Luke shooting off tie fighters as they escape the Death Star.  Then it occured to me that, earlier in the movie, Luke had snarked about what a great pilot he was and of course that's why the rebellion needed his help to destroy the Death Star but was this his first actual combat experience?

There was the middle part of the movie on the Death Star, the escape and then attacking it at the end, how many people did this naive farmboy kill over the course of the movie?  Ignore the millions of people on the Death Star itself because that's morally too overwhelming to contemplate, I'm just thinking about direct combat itself.  Those he specifically intended to remove from existance because they were in his way, like he's starring in an action movie or something.

So I asked A.I. on the internet and it gave me a quick and detailed answer.  Two questions really, one on storm troopers on the Death Star, the other on tie fighters on the escape and attack.  It's a bit ambivalent and I'm not going to bother checking the actual movie for clarification.  Leia kills one, Han kills a total of seven and two more are killed by Luke and Leia.  Luke blows up two tie fighters in the escape, two more in the attack and it's arguable there's a third with Han.

I'm sure Star Wars fans have worked this out over the years but my point was I came up with a random question and internet A.I. had a quick answer that was really good, even identifying as many storm troopers as possible by ID number and others who died during the movie but weren't directly killed by the main characters.  That's a good f*cking answer.  If you were a teacher giving a test and a student gave you this answer for a question, at the very least you'd see nothing wrong with it.  If all the answers were this good, that's a perfect score.

This is happening more in the areas I pay attention to with A.I. which is mostly what they're doing with music.  Last night I saw a new post on youtube, someone had made an A.I. Aerosmith song, "Cold Hard Lovin'."  To this day they're still one of my favorite rock bands although I can't remember the last time I actually listened to them so this one grabbed me.  And it sounds like Aerosmith.  The music came across a little clunky, A.I. is not capable of producing that undefinable quality of a band jamming it out, but it was serviceable.  Joe Perry could do a better solo but it still sounded like him.

The vocal sounded even more exact.  Another A.I. quirk is that it can get the tempo of the vocals really off, there are tracks I thought sounded great but turned off once the vocal got too irritating.  There's making a stylistic change, then there's just getting the basic song wrong.  But this actually helped with the Steven Tyler-style, the lyrics could get more intricate so the vocal can be more appealing to the listener.

So this is an effective re-creation of Aerosmith when it was good.  I don't know how A.I. can overcome that sterile sound that comes from being a machine and not a real band.  There's also the lack of a catchy hook, that part of a pop song - usually the chorus - which grabs a listener.  It's something you can always remember about the song.  I don't know how it will be able to solve that problem.

Judge Releases Illegal Alien With Lengthy Rap Sheet, Brutally Murders California Man One Day Later
August 12, 2026

□ [“Rod Stewart Cancels Remainder of His US Tour After Cardiac Surgery"]

These old people are finally going away although some still insist they'll be back.  Neil Young and Mike Love have cancelled tours, Roger Daltrey and Don Henley say they're on the last one.  I'm not sure Keith Richards has been seen since the new Stones album came out, Mick and Ronnie have done the promotions I've seen, and their tour was cancelled before it was started.  Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still out there, as far as I know.  Billy Joel and Aerosmith had to suddenly stop because of medical issues.

I'm sure there's a thrill to having a football stadium full of people happy to see you.  I'm in no danger of ever knowing what that's like so I can't speculate.  I do wonder what financial issues these people are facing.  They don't have hit records anymore, I'm not sure how many actually own their songs so that's less money coming in.  We don't know if most of them have invested in other businesses, companies which aren't centered around a rock star.  How much of this is a need to be get mass applause and how much is an actual need for money?

I always assume this is part of a demon-worshipping cult but leaving that aside, they're all surrounded by people who all have their own expenses.  Mansions aren't cheap and the servants need to be paid.  It gets worse if you find more expenses, another mansion, a new car, a new wife.  The people who've been in the band for a long time expect this to keep going too.  This isn't an industry where people are known for making long-term plans, at least financially.

Former SPLC CFO Arrested for Fraud, Secretly Funneled Payments to White Supremacist Groups
August 12, 2026

□ [“Karoline Leavitt Departing Role as White House Press Secretary"]

I'm not sure how much she's really done but I'm also not sure what a press secretary can really do.  She seemed nice but I've said that before.  I've been going through my older posts and I sure liked Nikki Haley, look how that worked out.

I know Trump got his reputation from hosting a tv show where he kept firing people but I had really hoped he'd pick people who stick around through his second term.  The military establishes its policy on people being replaced and I hope Trump has incorporated that here but I still don't like it.  Partially it's getting used to new people and partially it's that for jobs like this, they start out likeable and trustworthy, that's a good way to make mistakes.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I'm not sure what the point of a press secretary is in this internet age.  The executive branch would still need people to deal with the media in general but Trump makes his own public statements and gets a lot of questions.  But maybe he's just the exception that proves the rule.

Turns Out Texas Group Called ‘Republicans for Talarico’ Was a Completely Fake Scam
August 12, 2026

□ [“Hasan Piker Explodes After Francesca Hong’s Defeat ‘Outlaw Thanksgiving and Outlaw Boomers’"]

I'm not bothering to listen to the video but the transcript just seems to be an incoherent rant.  Hong lost the primary in Wisconsin and apparently that's a big deal for some reason.  There were several primary elections this week and this is the one getting the attention but it sounds like there were multiple problems going on, all centering around attempted voter fraud for Democrats.

Because this is all within the Democratic Party, they can't blame Trump for everything (although I assume they're trying.)  Hong was doing great in the polls, with saying Thanksgiving should be banned and then saying she loves Thanksgiving, stuff like that, but then the voters didn't turn up for her.  I think that just shows how untrustworthy polls are as a rule.  If you want to know how a thousand people think, ask them.  Don't call ten people to check a few boxes on your questions and think that says everything you need to know.  Even withou that, I assume leftists have complete control over them as possible.  They want the control, they want to write the narrative and they believe they know what everyone is thinking anyway.

There's other scandals, forged signatures on ballots in New Jersey, missing USBs that contained the election results in Wisconsin.  That's why I think this is largely an exercise to determine how leftists steal elections so Republicans can prepare for November.  Furthermore, it's also increasing internal conflict among leftists.  Partially it's about those who didn't know about the fraud, partially it's those who thought it would work for *their side.*  There's the internal deals being made, 'you support this and I'll support that.'  There will be leftists who refuse to participate because anything else is "fascism."  As we saw with Hong, they'll immediately pretend to not-be-leftists and say anything it takes to seize power, even some Democrats must be appalled by that.

So I'm thinking that the Trump administration has actually planned this out, setting the left up for disaster.  If there's any sane Democrats left, they'll be driven away, as we see with some of their bigger names speaking out.  Then there's the motivation to just stay out of it and let other people fight over this, that'll also reduce the votes in November.  Then there's the leftists fighting each other, getting crazier and crazier, while encouraging people to vote Republican to shut them up.  I am requiring myself to stay pessimistic but this looks like it could be a huge mid-term victory and the left won't even be able to steal any elections.

UK Cop Tries to Arrest Man Carrying Baseball Bat He Bought Out of Store, Crowd Defends Man
August 12, 2026

□ [“Star Wars Cancels Another Upcoming Movie After Mandalorian and Grogu Flop!"]

At this point, we don't know how many movies are left that Kathleen Kennedy put into development which haven't already been cancelled.  I'm not sure this one even had a name, it was something that had no connection to Star Wars so there really was no reason to use the logo.  At least for now, production is still continuing somewhere, just without the logo.  It's Hollywood so there's no reason to think it'll ever happen but it probably has a better chance now than it did in the Star Wars franchise.

The new movie didn't get much attention even when it came out and seems to have been completely forgotten already.  I realized something today which others must have noticed but I can't recall anyone even caring enough to mention it, this movie did worse domestically and internationally than 2018's Solo movie.  That one is still remembered as a bomb, this one failed even more and nobody even noticed.  The franchise was so big for so many people for so long and it just vanished.

In theory, they could try to fix it with simple cgi movies of the main characters having an adventure.  But even if someone came up with a perfect idea for that, there's no way it could get through the giant corporation, and then through Disney, and then through the *woke* agenda.  There's no way to appeal to anybody, much less everybody.

Senate Candidate Abdul Mohammed El-Sayed Suggests Violence Against His Republican Opponent
August 12, 2026