Category: government

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, government, internetLeave a comment

Excellent.

The Proving Ground (2025) is 8th in the Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) series. Possibly the best yet.

A courtroom procedural. Mikey with a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a teenage girl.

It’s set post-Covid. During fires in L.A.

Very contemporary.

… a chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.

Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails.

Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy (The Poet), who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it.

But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimately delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Visiting Taipei City

On By Rick McIn government, travelLeave a comment

My favourite photo of the big city.

At dusk, many photographers were taking advantage of rain water puddles. I quickly joined them.

Sandra had given me a detailed itinerary for my 2 weeks in Taiwan. My default plan.

Most fly into and out of Taipei city, the capital of Taiwan.

Even at the airport, my feeling was that Taiwan is much more like China than Hong Kong or Singapore.

Recovering from a summer cold I picked up in Singapore, I first headed to the Beitou, the hot-spring area.

The public baths were closed for renovation, so I never got a soak — BUT heritage buildings and history information made it a worthwhile visit. Tourism is very well organized here.

The library is impressive. An eco-friendly green building.

I used the GPSMyCity app for a self-guided walking tour.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is huge and impressive.

Here’s the founder himself.

Chiang Kai-shek looks over massive Liberty Square, flanked by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.

All in all, a very impressive tourist attraction.

Longshan Temple is stunning, as well. Quite welcoming of visitors.

Of course, every visitor rides the high speed elevator to the top of Tapei 101. It dominates the skyline.

Finally, if you LOVE SHOPPING, this is the city for you. It’s one of the most important pastimes of locals. Along with FOOD. 😀

My first visit to Taiwan.

Leonard Cohen – In Flander’s Fields

On By Rick McIn government, philosophy6 Comments

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

– John McCrae, 1915

Though thankfully I was never in a war, this is an important day for me. I remember.

Lest we forget – CBC

Remembrance Day (Australia, Canada, Colombia, UK and Ireland), also known as Poppy Day (South Africa and Malta), and Armistice Day (UK, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries; and the original name of the holiday internationally) is a day to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918.

Remembrance Day – wikipedia

HISTORY OF INDONESIA in 12 Minutes

On By Rick McIn government, Islam, travelLeave a comment

Indonesia is the least understood of the world’s large nation. 

Ejducate yerself. 

It’s quite moderate for a Muslim majority country.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. 

Want more?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ultramodern Singapore

On By Rick McIn economics, food, government, human rights, travelLeave a comment

Clean, efficient, safe. An ideal tourist destination for me after chaotic Indonesia.

Almost everyone speaks English. They are very welcoming of visitors.

Yes, some things are very expensive. But you can have a great time spending very little money.

For example, Shimano Cycling World will rent you a high end road bike for $150. Or you can take one of their mountain bikes for free. Nice.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Drone footage I shot of myself was done in one of the parks dedicated to drone pilots. Singapore thinks of everything. 😀

Changi Airport (always ranked in the world) provides free city tours if you have a layover of enough hours at the right time of day.

Singapore’s diversity of cuisine is touted as a reason to visit the country, due to its combination of convenience, variety, quality, and price.

I find it a very green city.

Singapore is an economic success story. This tiny island nation has the highest PPP-adjusted GDP per capita in the world. 

Singapore ranks highly in key social indicators: education, healthcare, quality of life, personal safety, infrastructure, and housing, with a home-ownership rate of 88 percent. 

Singaporeans enjoy one of the longest life expectancies, fastest Internet connection speeds, lowest infant mortality rates, and lowest levels of corruption in the world.

This is the kind of nation fiscal conservatives should study.

Personally, it’s not democratic enough for me.

The laws too strict. Singapore still has the death penalty.

Male homosexual relations were not decriminalized until 2022.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Apple in China by Patrick McGee

On By Rick McIn Apple, books, economics, education, ethics, government, human rightsLeave a comment

I thought I knew the story of Apple. BUT what I really knew was the story of Steve Jobs.

Looking back in 2025 at what made the company thrive, it was 2 other men.

Market chain guru Tim Cook, of course.

But even more so, Terry Gou, who, in 1974, founded FoxConn in Taiwan.

Incredibly ambitious, by 2012 Foxconn made up approximately 40% of worldwide consumer electronics production.

Just one of his many huge factories in China produces the bulk of Apple’s iPhone line and is sometimes referred to as “iPhone City”.

Needless to say, there are many abused workers in those plants. They don’t last many months on the gruelling production line.

Over the years, Gou and others steadily wooed Tim Cook and Apple to move manufacturing to China.

Today over 90% of Apple products are made in China. A huge risk for the company if authoritarian dictator-for-life Xi decides to invade Taiwan. Or shut down exports.

Attempts to move production to other nations have been mostly experiments. Or motivated by politics, not business.

In the meantime, Chinese engineers — many trained by Apple — are building cheaper, better Chinese phones in China. They no longer need Apple.

It’s a precarious situation.

Apple in China is a 2025 book uniquely looking at the company from the viewpoint of China.

In her May 15, 2025 review for The New York Times, Hannah Beech called Apple in China “smart and comprehensive,” praising Patrick McGee’s clever and chronologically organized timeline of how Apple’s expansion to China manufacturing facilities under then COO Tim Cook created a global success but also an “existential vulnerability” for the United States. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t talk about the future.

SOME DAY robots will do much of the assembly.

Calgary Bound

On By Rick McIn government, McCharles family, travel, videoLeave a comment

My parents lived in Parksville on Vancouver Island for the past 17 years.

I’ve spent more and more time with them there over recent years.

Sadly, Dad died in March at age-94.

Mom died suddenly and unexpectedly in May at age-96. That was traumatizing.

My brother Rob and his wife owned my parents home. It’s up for sale as I post.

We’ve packed up 243 Hickey Ave. I purged as many of my own possessions as I could as part of my philosophy of Voluntary Simplicity.

Drove the rest of the junk to Calgary on July 12, 2025.

Woke at 4am. Ferry at 6:15am. Passed North Vancouver at 8:20am. Arrived at my brother Randy’s place in Calgary 9:30pm. No delays en route.

About C$270 in fuel. Nearly that much in coffee, as well. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Weirdly, as executor, my name is currently listed as owner of Dad’s truck. (I’ve not owned a motor vehicle for much of the past 25 years.)

I still consider Calgary to be home.

Of course I’m totally disappointed with recent Provincial conservative governments. Current premier Danielle Smith is too Trump-lite for me. For example, as I post, the rate of measles in Alberta is even worse than in Texas. Smith encourages ReTrumplican misinformation on all kinds of topics.

On the other hand, born and raised in Calgary, I consider anyone NOT born in Calgary to be some kind of vermin. 😀

Unwanted immigrants.

If Trump was in charge of the 51st state, he’d spend a lot of taxpayer money to have Canadians attacking other Canadians. In Canada.

We could round up the invaders and drop them off the other side of the Alberta border. 😀

Happy Canada Day 2025

On By Rick McIn government, human rightsLeave a comment

With that idiot Trump again in office — I’ve never been happier to be a citizen of Canada.

As per the U.S. News Best Countries rankings, Canada is in terms of quality of life, behind Sweden and Denmark.

If you don’t like Canada, you are free to leave. 😀

We don’t restrict personal freedoms as the ReTrumplican governments do in the USA.

Sarcee Meadows Housing Coop Construction

On By Rick McIn good news, government, McCharles familyLeave a comment

For decades my family has had a place in Sarcee Meadows Coop in Calgary.

My Dad ran their maintenance department for years. Later, my brother Rob took over.

My brother Randy and his partner Val live in the Coop now.

I post as there is a massive construction renovation happening. All units are getting new front and back decks. And I saw plenty of work being done on the roofs, siding with new insulation, windows and doors.

All good ➙ BUT it’s a mess while under construction.

It’s a massive complex.

I recall playing tag in the original construction site when we were kids. It opened 1971.

It’s a Trudeau era non-profit housing cooperative. In 2025 it might just be the best value housing in Calgary. Here are the benefits for tenants. This coop worked. Socialism at its best.

Here are a few photos of the mess in C block May 2025. 😀

Sometimes you really don’t want to see how the sausage is made. 😀

Trump declares MARTIAL LAW. “Postpones” Elections.

On By Rick McIn bad news, economics, GOP USA, government, human rights, Islam, things getting worseLeave a comment

An international crisis. Trump uses the excuse to declare martial law in the USA.

He suspends civilian legal processes. Commander in Chief Trump and the U.S. Military are in charge.

It could happen.

The martial law concept in the United States is closely tied with the right of habeas corpus, which is in essence the right to a hearing on lawful imprisonment, or more broadly, the supervision of law enforcement by the judiciary.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday lent some support to calls to suspend habeas corpus as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown after aide Stephen Miller said the White House was considering the idea.

The Hill – May 14, 2025

We know Trump wants to be a Royal like murdering dictator-for-life MBS in Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s first international visit?

To the nation of bin Laden. 15 of the 19 terrorists in 911 were from Saudi Arabia.

Is this really America First? It looks like Trump First.

You know Elon Musk would be 100% supportive of declaring martial law. He’s already openly emulating Hitler who did exactly this in Germany ➙ February 28, 1933, effectively suspended many constitutional rights, creating a state of emergency and giving the Nazis significant control.

Here’s the best discussion on this issue, I’ve seen. Timothy Snyder is an American historian who’s an expert in Tyranny.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.