The State of Michigan pays 600 million dollar tribute

 I continue following the Flint water contamination scandal and see that the State of Michigan will have to pay 600 million dollars to Flint water consumers.  The astonishing fact is that it was a crisis in which no one died of lead poisoning, nor any physical or mental damage was ever demonstrated. The children of Flint are no more mentally retarded than comparable AfroAmerican children of say, Detroit.  A similar fright of lead poisoning in Hong Kong was dismissed by the judge - in China one has to demonstrate the damage. The Flint case is a monstrous case of misjustice, where a fanatic, violent, ignorant but voting minority extorts from the majority compensation for fraudulent damage. Of course, Governor Snyder did NOT poison anyone as the pic says, but America is a democracy, so anyone can accuse and convict anyone. In former times. Snyder would have had to drink hemlock like Socrates. 

MI, the state agreed to pay $600 million to compensate consumers. Now, it appears that cost is rising as a court case progresses, and Michigan will have to be creative in how it comes up with the funds to settle it.

“A landmark settlement in the Flint water crisis came a step closer to reality … when attorneys in the class-action lawsuit presented the agreement to a federal court with an additional $41.2 million,” according to a recent report from The Detroit News. “The $641.25 million settlement, if approved by the court, would largely go to victims of the water crisis that emerged after Flint residents learned their drinking water had been contaminated with lead after a source switch to river water in 2014.”

Flint residents would be eligible for some of the compensation if they received a water bill or had to pay a bill from the local utility in a given timeframe, ingested or came into contact with local drinking water for at least 21 out of 30 days of an “Exposure Period,” or were exposed to water from the treatment plant and subsequently diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease in a given timeframe.

The Flint Crisis provides material for meditation. 

(1) The imaginary lead poisoning has been definitely linked to the Legionella contamination, which was real. The local hospital's water system was poorly maintained and colonized by the pathogen. Ten or so elderly patients died. Nothing to do with lead poisoning, but now it has been totally confused and Legionella victims are counted with the nonexistent lead victims. An evil lawyer succeeded in mixing up the two issues.

(2)  Michigan tax payers, hard working Northern European folks, will pay the "compensation" to Flint Africans. In other words, the politically powerful Black community has imposed a 600 million dollar tribute on the State of Michigan. I dare to say it is a war tribute, imposed by violence and fear of violence (which is the same thing).

(3)  What is the background of the Black's war against the Whites? Say I am a Black American teenager. Whites are inferior to us Blacks in everything: We are taller, more muscular, more masculine, more sexy, live longer. We can run, jump, sing, dance and tell jokes better than they do. Why, then, they get all the goodies and the nice girls? It is obvious, they got magic. And they have thrown bad magic on me and my folk. Magic sounds primitive, so call it "systemic racism". What is systemic? It is something that you cannot see,  like magic. It is because that magic that they pass exams, although they are weak and soft, they get the good jobs, surf through life with such unbearable ease. Think a second about the injustice of it all and you feel the impulse to burn down the town. 

Ella

 

Israel, the Expensive

 The local currency, the Shekel, has hardened in the last weeks, strengthening the buying power of Israelis. The catch is that Israelis cannot leave the country, and if they do, they will be sent to isolation for two weeks. A nice holiday in Scotland would be very cheap for me, but I cannot make it.  Why the shekel is so strong? One, the ongoing devaluation of the dollar (to pay for the epidemic) and two, Israeli export successes.  Pic: Governoress (?) of Bank of Israel Karnit Flug.

Was the killing of Martyr Fakhrizadeh a Remote operated or Autonomous Robot Killing ?

According to Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), no hit man was involved in the assassination, adding that the distinguished figure was killed in a complicated operation that involved electronic equipment without any assassin at the scene.

This assassination in enemy country shows a tremendous technological advance, with the probable use of a self-driving car and a remote operated machine gun. And intelligence when the target can be hit on that road, and identification of the prospective martyr among the dozen body guards around. This operation demonstrates how much Israel has advanced since killing that Hamas chieftain in Gaza two years ago. In Gaza a tender full of toys was used to penetrate enemy territory with armed personnel on board. The ruse was discovered and the Israelis had to be evacuated with another vehicle - under fire. The Fakhrizadeh operation was better planned and executed. Probably it cost less than 200,000 US$. It means that no enemy is safe anywhere. The robot pictured is real and works for the Dallas Police, and already has killed human evildoers.

Protein folding

 A British computer company has solved the problem of protein folding. I met this area in Tel Aviv University, chatting with a young researcher. He explained to me what he was doing but I not see the relevance of the issue, he looked just another sitting in front a computer. That was forty years ago. 

This advance in artificial intelligence means that in one or two generations, all what will be left for humanity to do is Facebook: cooking and baking, sports and computer games, entertainment. Maybe not: competition and war will require us to advance evermore. I can see no end nor purpose. I would like to believe in God that has arranged all this and it means good. Depressing.

High Quality Cannabis

 

Already I have planned two cannabis farms, but newer things are appearing in the horizon. In Tzipporit, the Galilee, an indoor vertical farm is being erected with an investment of ten million dollars. The IPO has been announced and the demand is strong. Traditional open air agriculture is passe. Cannabis needs new lines with high content of desired molecules. Dr Chaim Tzaban's dream of developing a suitcase export agriculture (meaning export oriented very high value plant products) is slowly becoming reality. 

The place is in the middle of densely populated Arab area. The villages have spread and from the satellite one can see house upon house in a disordered pattern, with no open air cultivated land left. The Galilee is becoming an urban Arab slum. 

(Personal: My childhood friend Victor Haar is dying in a hospital in Buenos Aires. Corona virus. An irreplaceable loss, at my age cannot make new friends.) 

Our Ally the Saudi King

There is an Arab saying that "Christians secretly fear Jewish power because the Jews crucified their Prophet, while Muslims have no fear because the Prophet Muhammed defeated the Jews in the battle of Khaybar".  Thus, normal, peaceful relations with the Muslims are possible and are only a question of time and opportunity. And the time has come, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the kingdom on Sunday. I foresee the time when the Americans get tired of protecting the oil fields, as did the British seventy years ago, the role may well fall on Zahal.