The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Friday
Jun242016
The Commentariat -- June 24, 2016
Afternoon Update:
An Idiot Abroad. Jenna Johnson & Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump celebrated Britain's stunning vote to leave the European Union on Friday during a visit to Scotland, saying that the people of the United Kingdom have 'taken their country back,' musing that it could benefit his Turnberry resort and arguing that running a nation is a lot like running a golf course.... For a candidate who has struggled to prove that his grasp of foreign policy matches that of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton..., Trump could have used the moment to substantively address a momentous global event. Instead, he provided a widely broadcast infomercial for his newest luxury golf club.... As reporters pressed Trump on the referendum, it was not clear if Trump fully understood what had just happened." -- CW
Paul Krugman: "Well, that was pretty awesome -- and I mean that in the worst way. A number of people deserve vast condemnation here, from David Cameron, who may go down in history as the man who risked wrecking Europe and his own nation for the sake of a momentary political advantage, to the seriously evil editors of Britain's tabloids, who fed the public a steady diet of lies. That said, I'm finding myself less horrified by Brexit than one might have expected -- in fact, less than I myself expected." -- CW
*****
See also yesterday's Afternoon Update for significant news developments. (You could probably skip the one about the New York Times' acknowledgment that there are no Trump Steaks.)
James McAuley of the Washington Post: "Scottish leaders who overwhelmingly supported Britain's membership in the European Union warned Friday of possible renewed bids for independence after British voters turned their backs on the 28-nation bloc. Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, said a second referendum on Scotland's membership in the United Kingdom was a possibility in the immediate future." See also "Ignoramus-in-Chief, Ctd.," below. -- CW ...
... ** Heather Stewart & Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: "David Cameron has resigned as prime minister after the British public rejected his personal entreaties and voted to leave the European Union.... Cameron promised to remain in post until the autumn, to 'steady the ship', but said: 'I do not think it would be right for me to be the captain who steers the country to its next destination.'" -- CW ...
... Youkyng Lee of the AP: "European and Asian stock markets crashed Friday as Britain's unprecedented vote to leave the European Union rocked world financial markets and also sent oil prices crashing and the pound to its lowest level in three decades. Investors dumped European shares as soon as the markets opened, following earlier drops in Asia. Britain's FTSE 100 plunged about 8 percent while German index tanked 10 percent. France's index tumbled about 7 percent." -- CW
** ... Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "Britain has voted to leave the European Union, a historic decision sure to reshape the nation's place in the world, rattle the Continent and rock political establishments throughout the West. With all but a handful of the country's cities and towns reporting Friday morning, the 'Leave' campaign held a 52 percent to 48 percent lead. More than 17 million people voted in the referendum on Thursday to sever ties with the European Union, and about 15.9 million to remain within the bloc. The value of the British pound and stock prices in Asia plummeted as financial markets absorbed the news." -- CW ...
... Here's the Guardian's liveblog of developments. -- CW ...
** New York Times Editors: "The impasse that made Mr. Obama's program [to give temporary protection to some undocumented immigrants] necessary -- the absolute refusal by congressional Republicans to reform an unjust system -- persists. The case, United States v. Texas, should never have made it to the Supreme Court. But such is the power of the Republicans' spite." -- CW ...
... CW: There is a direct philosophical connection between the Brits' isolationism & our own. Our only hope for a decent future is that the British outcome is reversed here in November: that at least 52 percent of Americans will vote to "keep America great" & 48 percent or fewer will hew to "Republican spite."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The bitter fight over President Obama's immigration policies moved quickly from the courtroom to the campaign trail on Thursday, as the White House and its allies sought to turn a legal setback at the Supreme Court to their political advantage ahead of the November elections.... Even as Obama acknowledged that he had reached the end of his efforts to overhaul border control laws, he and other Democrats, including ... Hillary Clinton, saw an opportunity to gain some advantage in the political fight over immigration reform that has roiled the 2016 campaign.... Clinton, who has said she would seek to expand Obama's executive actions on immigration, called the Supreme Court's outcome 'a stark reminder of the harm Donald Trump would do to our families, our communities and our country.'... In a statement, issued in both English and Spanish, Clinton referred to Trump's characterization last year of Mexican immigrants as 'rapists' and 'murderers,' and she pledged to introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill within her first 100 days in office.... The politics will be far trickier for GOP candidates, including Trump, in the general election." -- CW ...
... Soumya Karlamangla of the Los Angeles Times: "The Supreme Court decision Thursday effectively blocking President Obama's immigration programs also comes as a blow to California legislators who have been fighting to offer health insurance to people living in the country illegally. Immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization can't enroll in Obamacare and make up a large portion of those who remain uninsured in California. But an unusual state policy allows those granted temporary relief from deportation to sign up for Medi-Cal, the state's low-income health program. If the court had upheld the deferred action programs, more than half a million unauthorized immigrants in California could have become eligible for state-funded health insurance...." -- CW
Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Democrats' 24-hour gun-control protest marks a turning point in Congress as a major escalation in minority battle tactics, lawmakers in both parties said Thursday -- and a move that brings fundamental risks for the institution. Already rank-and-file Democrats, energized by nationwide publicity and praise they received for occupying the House floor over demands for a gun vote, are saying they'll likely use the same strategy again." -- CW
Reuters: "Volkswagen AG will pay more than $10 billion to settle claims by nearly 500,000 owners stemming from its U.S. diesel emissions cheating scandal and fund efforts to offset pollution.... A source said that owners will receive an average of $5,000 in compensation along with the estimated value of the vehicles as of September 2015, before the scandal erupted." -- CW ...
... Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "That Democrats are willing to gum up the House in an effort to pass new gun control legislation is indicative of the change in the congressional Democratic Party over the past seven years. It's a geographically smaller party, with many more liberals and a proportionately greater number of representatives from dense urban areas. Where once it counted NRA backers like Michigan's John Dingell among its longest-serving members, now it's dominated by liberals like [John] Lewis, with few if any ties to pro-gun activists." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Neal Gabler, on Bill Moyers' blog: "... the Republican Party, with its history of dog-whistle racism, sexism, homophobia, nativism, and gun addiction, salted now by incipient fascism, has been legitimized by the mainstream media for years.... Now the MSM routinely rebuke [Donald] Trump, but that easy critique allows them not to have to rebuke the Republican Party itself, whose values, if not his often-changing policy pronouncements, are virtually identical with Trump's, minus his oft-changing policy pronouncements. It is the politesse of a Paul Ryan that Trump lacks in expressing his hostility, and it is that politesse that has conned a gullible, frightened media.... Television news still has the longest national reach, and it will never call out the Republican Party no matter what it does, much less examine its values." Thanks to Joel M. for the link. -- CW ...
... CW: Gee, Neal. I don't know how you can say that. ...
... David Bauder of the AP: "CNN snapped up former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski three days after he was fired, and he began his new career as a political commentator Thursday by not answering a direct question about whether he'd agreed not to disparage his former boss.... The Associated Press has reported that Trump requires nearly everyone working in his businesses and presidential campaign to sign nondisclosure agreements preventing them from releasing confidential or disparaging information about him.... Before signing with CNN, Lewandowski met with executives at MSNBC about a possible job there but the network decided not to hire him...." -- CW ...
... OR, as Rebecca Leber of Grist tweeted, "You can read Lewandowski getting fired as a means to shift his salary from Trump campaign to CNN." -- CW ...
... ** Erik Wemple of the Washington Post has four questions for CNN about the Lewandowski hire. CW: ... all of which make it pretty funny that Trump calls CNN the Clinton News Network. ...
... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed provided a helpful Midtown Manhattan map, noting that the Trump offices from which Lewandowski was forcefully escorted, are only 13 min. on foot from CNN's studio. -- CW ...
... CW: No one should be surprised. This is the same network that also thought it would be a good idea to hire a commentator who called a guy (who just now jogged past my front window) a "goat-fucking child molester." Luckily, I no longer keep goats or have kids of any species (tho I once did, on both counts).
Presidential Race
Carrie Dann & Danny Freeman of NBC News: "Asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe whether he will vote for [Hillary] Clinton in November, [Bernie] Sanders responded 'Yes.' The Vermont senator, who has not yet formally ended his 2016 campaign, said that stopping Donald Trump from becoming president must be an overarching goal." With video. -- CW
Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "... it's really past time for [Bernie] Sanders to put an end to his candidacy.... While the Sanders crowd continued to talk about revolution, Representative John Lewis led a sit-in of his fellow Democrats on, literally, the floor of the House to express outrage at the Republicans' continued blocking of even the most obvious forms of gun regulation.... The chilling scene in the House was just a taste of what Sanders followers will risk if they do not throw their undeniable enthusiasm behind [Hillary] Clinton and other Democratic candidates, and the G.O.P. holds Congress and wins the White House in November.... [Sanders should] put his abundant skills as a candidate behind a presumptive Democratic nominee who is less adept at campaigning." -- CW
John Hudson of Foreign Policy: Robert Kagan, "a prominent neoconservative intellectual and early promoter of the Iraq War is headlining an official campaign fundraiser for Hillary Clinton next month.... The move signals a shift in the Clinton campaign's willingness to associate with prominent Republicans and is the latest sign of how far some GOP defectors are willing to go to block a Donald Trump presidency.... According to an invite obtained by FP, the 'event will include an off-the-record conversation on America's continued investment in NATO, key European allies and partners, and the EU.'" CW: Good work, Hillary. Let's talk about your Iraq War vote again. ...
... The Week: "Stalwarts of the Republican foreign policy establishment have started endorsing Democrat Hillary Clinton over GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump, and on Thursday, the Clinton camp is announcing the endorsement of several Republican business leaders. There are some frequent Democratic supporters among the more than 50 business executives whose backing the Clinton campaign is highlighting -- Google's Eric Schmidt, Warren Buffet, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, and Barry Diller, for example -- but also longtime Republicans like AT&T Service's Jim Cicconi and Dan Akerson, a former top executive at GM and Nextel." CW: Good word, Hillary. Let's talk more about your billionaire friends.
Michael Biesecker of the AP: "Former Secretary Hillary Clinton failed to turn over a copy of a key message involving problems caused by her use of a private homebrew email server, the State Department confirmed Thursday. The disclosure makes it unclear what other work-related emails may have been deleted by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.... Clinton has never outlined in detail what criteria she and her lawyers used to determine which emails to release and which to delete, but her 2010 email with [top aide Huma] Abedin appears clearly work-related under the State Department's own criteria for agency records under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act." -- CW ...
... Scrub-a-Dub. Stephen Braun of the AP: "The AP review of [Hillary] Clinton's [State Department] calendar -- her after-the-fact, official chronology of the events of her four-year term -- identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors and loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were either not recorded or listed with identifying details scrubbed." -- CW ...
... Lester Holt backs Donald Trump into a Jackie Gleason homina-homina moment:
... CW: He knows it must be true because he read it in the Right Wing News.
Ewan MacAskill of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has expressed full-throated support for the Brexit referendum victory during a visit to Ayrshire in Scotland.... [He] said there were parallels with the US and elsewhere. 'People do not necessarily want people pouring over their borders,' he said. 'The UK will be stronger for it. They have taken their independence back. They can block anyone coming in they do not think is appropriate.'... The Brexit result has justified his visit, with Trump able to claim he backed the winning side. A small group of protesters was restricted to a car park, well away from the press conference. No senior British or Scottish politicians were present, regarding him as too toxic. Initial plans to include a visit to a golf resort in Ireland were shelved when neither the president or any other senior politician would meet him." -- CW ...
... Ignoramus-in-Chief, Ctd. James Vincent of the Verge: "Donald Trump praised the Scottish this morning for '[taking] their country back' in the UK's vote to leave the European Union. This is despite the fact that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, with 62 percent of the population backing the Remain campaign. However, this wasn't enough to change the total outcome of the UK vote, which backed the decision to leave 52 percent to 48 percent." -- CW
Trump's Bad Day. Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's campaign announced Thursday that he has forgiven more than $50 million in loans he made to finance his presidential bid, converting them into contributions in an effort to reassure GOP donors that he is personally invested in the effort.... By turning the loans into donations, Trump's campaign cannot repay the candidate, even if a surplus arises. The campaign, however, can continue to reimburse Trump's companies, and those of his children, for campaign-related expenses, including travel." CW: We'll have to wait for the next round of financial disclosures to find out if the Trump campaign announcement is true.
Kurtis Lee of the Los Angeles Times: "Donald Trump is working from a short list of possible running mates, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Thursday. 'The list when I left was very, very short,' said Lewandowski, who appeared on CNN in his new role as a contributor for the network after being fired Monday from the campaign. 'It's no more than four individuals. ... They're household names." CW: If you recall, Gabriel Sherman reported that Trump fired Lewandowski because his only "plan" to bolster the campaign was to leak the name of Trump's running mate. Apparently, that's still his only plan.
News Lede
New York Times: "Ralph Stanley, the singer, banjo player and guardian of unvarnished mountain music who was also a pivotal figure in the recent revival of interest in bluegrass, died on Thursday. He was 89."
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Reader Comments (13)
Brexit might be good for us. The nightmare that will take place in the UK over the next few months will show the effect of making the 'UK great again'. No more immigrants and no more money.
I just saw this on facebook, posted by Jaideep Krishna:
"Upcoming risky events in Europe:
Brexit to be followed by Grexit. Departugal. Italeave. Fruckoff. Czechout. Oustria. Finish. Slovlong. Latervia. Byegium,
until EU reach the state of Germlonely."
Have to do more reading on the Brexit vote to understand better what motivated the exit-ers, but so far seems to me both Marie and Marvin have it right. We do love those walls to huddle behind.
Sent this to the local newspaper a few weeks back.
"They weren't called "Know Nothings" because they knew nothing at all.
They knew what they didn’t like.
They didn't like all those immigrants pouring in from a Europe in turmoil.
They didn't like Catholics and they didn't like Jews, and they really didn't like the Irish escaping the potato famine arriving on American shores by the hundreds of thousands. They didn’t much like Germans either.
Arising from the anti-Catholic American Nativist Party of the 1830's, the Know Nothings, as they came to be called, didn't keep all those dislikes to themselves. By the 1840's they were expressing themselves politically, electing mayors in Philadelphia and New York.
But the ballot box alone didn’t satisfy. The Know Nothings were not averse to violence. In 1844 their paramilitary arm, the Wide-Awakes, burned Catholic churches in Pennsylvania and destroyed a Catholic library and an Irish fire station. Hundreds were hurt and dozens killed in that summer's Philadelphia riots.
That violence gave them their name. When questioned about their riotous behavior, their leaders cautioned them to say, “I know nothing.” Ignorance and anonymity are a mob’s best friend.
The Know Nothings reached their political zenith in the 1850’s, controlling the Massachusetts government and electing mayors in Chicago and San Francisco, where they found another group not to like, the Chinese.
Ten years later, overwhelmed by the immense conflagration of the Civil War and the fiery idealism of an Emancipation Proclamation that granted freedom to millions of former slaves, the political party known as the Know Nothings had disappeared.
History doesn’t repeat but it does echo.
Despite all they knew they did not like, in the most important sense of all the Know Nothings didn’t know much.
Like the Soviet Union only last century, they thought they could halt history by building a wall."
Man, oh, man––this morning I can relate to the now dead Ralph Stanley's "Man of Constant Sorrows." The Brits done it, didn't they? Hard to fathom, but on second thought FEAR can be an awful huge factor. Here is John Oliver's take on this before the actual outcome but the lovely chorus at the end sends its message:" you gotta be bat shit crazy to leave."
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/john_oliver_on_brexit_brits_bat-shit_crazy_leave_european_union_20160620
And over on Fox–-for awhile––the breaking news was: "Britain Leaves the U.N." We need to forgive them. They know not what they do.
Yesterday Andrea Mitchell had Ben Carson on her show asking him what his take was on the King's blabbering about Hillary's non-existant religion. Now, I ask myself, what the hell would Andrea be doing asking Ben Carson. True to form, the good doctor did not disappoint:
"Well, (long pause) I think one's religion should be private but it (long pause) should be manifested publicly."
This reply left poor Andrea gob smacked but she managed to get herself up from the floor and ask did Ben think the voters understood what the King was saying here or something to that effect and Ben said:
"The average American knows where Trump is coming from."
By, bye Ben,–– Andrea quickly ended the interview and looked for all the world like someone had just smacked her in the face.
And Marvin––your last sentence––"spot on" as those Brits would say or as the Dowager Countess, played by Maggie Smith, in Downton,––her customary hauteur invisible for once–-tells Carson, "We've seen some troubles, you and I. Nothing worse than this."
Here it is, your moment of epistemic closure:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/23/make-america-white-again-a-politicians-billboard-ignites-uproar/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_rhp-card-politics%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
This libertarian/independent candidate in TN, Rick Tyler, wrote a manifesto about "Make America White Again", that is an almost-perfect example of how white supremacists must see the world. It is worth reading if for no other reason than to see how their logic and faith move them toward justifying their racism (but ... they think they're not racists, you are the real racist.)
You see pieces of this logic everyday, but Tyler packs in just about every bit of the credo.
PD,
If Andrea Mitchell had had her wits about her, she would have realized that Carson had provided her with an unwitting key to understanding the nexus of the type of connection seen all too often on the right between a certain type of politics and a certain type, or approach to, religion:
"...I think one's religion should be private but it (long pause) should be manifested publicly."
We'll leave aside the assertion here that one's religion should be private, religious tests having become more and more a concern for Republicans. Even Carson himself has declared that Muslims have no business running for president. If that's not a religious test, there has never been one.
But back to the idea of one's religion manifesting itself through public words and actions.
If that is the case, and I believe, to a large extent, it should be, or that one's personal sense and understanding of morality and ethics should be present in one's public works, then what does the overwhelming wave of bigotry, paranoia, anger, and resentment from the right say about the kind of religion that seems to inform so much of the their public display?
It certainly isn't the sort of Christianity I was raised in. Where's the love thy brother as thyself business? Where's the turning of the other cheek? Where's the feeding of the hungry, clothing of the naked, and housing of the homeless? Where is the unqualified welcoming of the outcasts and the despised? Where is the concern for those in prisons and others cast aside by society at large?
None of those qualities manifest themselves in the politics or policies put forward by Paul Ryan, or Mitch McConnell, or thousands of other Republican politicians and pundits, never mind Ben Carson or Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.
Just the opposite.
And Andrea Mitchell had a chance to ask about that. Too bad she didn't. She might have gotten a story about pyramids and grain silos but it would have been worth a try.
Roger Cohen's NYT opinion piece on Brexit stated
"Fifty-two percent of the British population was ready to face higher unemployment, a weaker currency, possible recession, political turbulence, the loss of access to a market of a half-billion people," and more.
My comment: "Fifty-two percent of the British population was ready to face" etc. Most of these people have no idea what the consequences will be. That requires serious study and thinking. Forget about it and welcome to America.
Globalism. What globalism? What an irony!
Britain has voted to exit, and it appears Scotland may also choose to go the independent route, leaving Great Britain even less great than it already is. Here at home Texas and other states secession talk gets their juices flowing.
In my agricultural county anti-Hispanic feeling bubbles below the surface, occasionally bursting into embarrassing public view.
And if Trump is elected, I contemplate my own secession. I do live close to Canada... Hope they don't get their wall built too soon.
Much more seriously, we're seeing the consequences of vastly disruptive neo-liberal economics applied thoughtlessly across the globe. Burgeoning inequality, millions of homeless, stateless and mostly unwelcome refugees who by their very real presence make a mockery of abstract lines drawn on maps, and multiple realated wars across (so far) two continents, all of which threaten our instinctual tribal loyalties and drive the stake of fear into our hearts.
I say instinctual, because as Marvin says, study and thinking are way down the list, if they appear on it at all.
Trumpathetic
How tone deaf is Donald Trump? Pools of blood were still coagulating on the Pulse nightclub dance floor and all Trump could do was congratulate himself for being right about Muslims. Not a word of kindness or concern for the dead; it's all about Trump.
Then yesterday, as Britain voted for the modern nation-state version of suicide and markets across Europe collapsed, all he could do, while halting his presidential campaign to fly off to Scotland to oversee the pitiful grand opening (a tiny crowd of paid staff and hundreds of protesters screaming at him from afar) of his latest ego project, was to rub his hands in glee about all the money he'll make now that the pound had fallen off a cliff.
He did take a moment to congratulate himself again on being right about Brexit, a term he didn't even recognize a couple of weeks ago (news that doesn't have the word TRUMP attached to it, doesn't make his morning "briefing", prepared by his cute 27 year old press secretary), tweeting that people were going crazy in Scotland to be free of the EU so they could "take back their country!". Well, er....no. They weren't. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU. Wrong again, Donald, but no matter, in TrumpWorld, it's all good.
Like Dick Cheney's ludicrous prediction that the Iraqis would welcome an invading force with flowers and open arms (still waiting for those flowers 13 years later, Dick...), Trump still maintains that the Scots love him! They can't get enough of Trump. But, er...no. That's wrong too. The Scotsman, "Scotland's National Newspaper" declared that "It’s hard to think of a less sympathetic character in the eyes of most Scots. Despite all his tartanry and trumpeting of heritage, The Donald is almost the anti-Scot personified. Left and right, unionist and nationalist, man and woman, young and old – it takes quite a lot to unite the people of this notoriously fractious little country in a collective shudder. But Donald Trump effortlessly manages to strike the wrong note in just about everything he does."
But in Donald's eyes, as always, he's a hero.
And so far, we've seen what to expect should he win in November, a president whose only concern during a time of crisis is "How can I benefit from this? How much money can I make during this terrible time?"
Very presidential.
Brexit is apparently a winner for the "Texit"s who want to leave the USA. I certainly hope so. I can't wait for the reduction in my Federal Income Tax.
According to newly minted media pundit (wasn't he the guy who just a few days ago was threatening reporters, shoving them around, being arrested after manhandling at least one he considered a "threat" to the boss, and tossing off "...sexually suggestive and at times vulgar comments to ― and about ― female journalists"? What a prince...) Corey Lewandowski, whose previous job was campaign manager/chief enforcer/resident thug and vetter of vice presidential candidates (can you imagine letting Vinny the local leg breaker pick a list of candidates who could be a bad taco salad away from the nuclear codes?) the list of possible VP candidates "...[is] no more than four individuals. ... They're household names."
Let's see, people who would actually agree to bind their political (not to mention moral and ethical) standing to Donald Trump....hmmm....household names, right? Wait, I know! Larry, Moe, Curly, and Curly Joe. Or perhaps Palin, Gingrich, Sessions, and maybe that BFF of the ayatollahs, Tom Cotton.
I'd have a whole lot more faith in the integrity and judgment of the first four.
Oh, and let's not even get into the integrity and judgment of CNN for hiring this shvantz. At least Vinny would have been interesting.
There's been quite a bit of philosophical back and forth lately about the programming being considered for AV's (autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars). Why? You may recall we've discussed the Trolley Problem in the past, a dilemma that tests our moral and ethical choices. The same sort of choice is facing programmers of AV's. Here's how. Say you're in a self-driving car and it appears that an unavoidable accident may kill one or more drivers or pedestrians, but the car is programmed to do something about that. Does the programming opt for saving the most lives even if it means the driver of the AV is killed, or does it save the driver no matter what?
The goal here is to come up with protocols not only for safe driving but for a morally supportable way to handle such dilemmas. A lot of thinking is going into this possible future form of transportation because it involves decisions made by outside forces that affect human lives.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have come up with their own version of a Trolley Problem-like set of scenarios to allow users to test their own approaches and create their own models.
The hoped for outcome of AV's with (or without) this kind of programming is a safer world with fewer deaths. But certainly it does pose difficulties. Issac Asimov created his own thought experiments in his novel "I, Robot", in which robots are programmed to decide who to save and who to let die in moments of crisis.
Just think of the outrage in certain quarters if such decisions were taken away from most humans., if their lives hung on the actions of something that might make a questionable decision. And yet, we live in a world where millions of innocents are a road rage episode or testosterone fueled blowup away from death by gun shot, or being mowed down by semi-automatic rifles whose only reason for existing is to kill many humans quickly, and an entire political party is aligned against taking any steps to ensure a better outcome.
So, autonomous cars are a worry, autonomous people with weapons? Not so much.
Ethics, schmethics. Guns for everyone. Even terrorists.
You have to love free-trade agreements:
Article in Globe and Mail 'TransCanada files $15,000,000,000 NAFTA claim over US rejection of Keystone pipeline.' You could offer a buy-back program for assault style rifles for that kind of money.