Please Don’t

I wish I could speak directly to Donald Trump.

If I could, I’d tell him the following:

Please don’t run for President again. It’s nothing personal. The last two, maybe three, years of your presidency I did feel hopeful, I felt that the country was on the right track. I loved your “Mean Tweets” and almost always enjoyed hearing you smack down the media.

I felt that finally someone was at least half way concerned about the American People in Washington and waited with gleeful anticipation for Nancy Pelosi’s head to explode when you pissed her off. That woman literally hates your guts!

That being said, I don’t think you should be president in 2024. Had you won in 2020 I’d have a different opinion and be looking forward to maybe a DeSantis presidency in 2024.

You see, after watching what Congress did in the last year of your presidency and how laser focused they were on destroying you, instead of doing their job, followed by  four years of the shitty Biden administration. I think that, should you get elected in 2024 you’ll be a distraction and unable to force Congress to do the work they were elected to do.

America can’t handle another four years where nobody is at the helm. Or where there’s constant distraction for the business of the nation. I personally believe that you have the best of intentions  and that you’d be trying your level best to steer the country away from the shoals. The Biden administration has in my opinion set course directly for a large reef and lashed the wheel to that course.

Sadly, I think that if you won the election you’d be limited by the enemies you’ve made. There are far too many people throughout the government that would happily throw a monkey wrench into whatever plans you have, no matter how good or beneficial a plan might be. These people are so vile they’d happily destroy themselves just to make sure you don’t succeed. They’re also very willing to take the rest of the citizenry to whatever hell they end up in just to see you fail.

Our government is no longer for and by the people. I don’t know who, or what, our government serves, but it isn’t us. Apparently, there are an unbelievable number of frankly stupid Americans running around that want something much different than the America I grew up loving and believing in. 

Admittedly, I may have a somewhat nostalgic view.

I don’t think another Trump presidency can fix what’s wrong in America. I’m no longer believe that what’s wrong can be fixed. The fractures are too deep, the wounds too infected.

Honestly Sir, I think you’d be better off just walking away. There are times when you just have to let a dumpster fire burn. 

Spend time with your family, enjoy the grandchildren, play golf and enjoy your successes. Don’t expose yourself to the parasites and vermin. They’ll destroy themselves in due time. It’s not for either of us to try to stop the lemmings from running off a cliff into the sea.

You have the wealth and resources to go anywhere in the world. I wouldn’t blame you if you liquidated your financial holdings in America and took your family to another country entirely. Switzerland seems to be pretty free, albeit expensive.

For my part, I’m looking for a quiet corner of the country where I can live in peace, relative safety, have the ability to defend myself, and hopefully die, before the inevitable destruction of America comes.

Respectfully Mr. Trump, all the best.

I’m still on the fence about Twitter

I was on Twitter for a number of years. I kept the twitter account long after I blew away the Facebook account.

Musk and Twitter 2989334710

I don’t remember when I finally got tired of increasing censorship on Twitter, but at some point (Perhaps in 2019 or 2020?) I closed my account and walked away from social media altogether.

At first I really missed the burning bag of shit delivered to my phone all the time, but after 4 weeks or so I didn’t miss it anymore.

Thinking about it now, I didn’t miss the worry. Every time I thought about responding to a post I worried that I would be put in Twitter Jail or banned outright. 

Those of you who’ve read a number of posts in this blog and who are also on Twitter or Facebook can probably see why that would be. I may be wrong in what I post but it’s wrong in innocence, not out of malice. Twitter wasn’t making that subtle distinction so eventually I simply stopped tweeting at all.

There was no speaking out against things that The Majority agreed with, (Even if it was incorrect on its face). Mis-information seemed to become subjective. When people asked about why something was deemed mis-information often they were ignored. 

Some people like Jordan Peterson had their accounts suspended for speaking a simple truth regarding Ellen/Elliot Page. He was told that if he recanted his statement and apologized for speaking the truth, he would be permitted to return to the platform. Peterson categorically refused. He pick this hill to die on, He publicly said, “I would rather die than apologize for speaking truth.”

While I don’t always agree with Peterson, I respected his stance on this issue. Truth is truth!

Since Elon Musk has assumed control of Twitter, there have been changes. Most publicly, there have been Hollywood Types  bailing on the platform. On balance, the actual number of users of Twitter has increased.

Twitter’s moderation seems to be changing a bit. People are saying things that less than a year ago would have gotten them banned. (I’ve been skimming the Twitter website without an account,) some of what I’ve been reading is much like the dumpster fire that Twitter had become prior to Musk’s takeover. Liberals are still able to say horrific things and suffer no penalties. Conservatives are still being fact checked but they’re not being banned as they were.

For me the question is, “has Twitter changed enough?”

I don’t think the changes are sufficient for me to create a new account. 

Frankly, I don’t really want to allow every village idiot from the entire world to spill their bullshit across my phone screen.

 

There are times when technology can be a pain.

This particular instance of technology pain was caused by an aspiring young film maker. He and a couple of friends were up on the street in front of my house.

JARVIS

They were just trying to get a 1 minute video made to be used as part of his application to film school.

The surveillance camera in front of the house was going nuts because it kept seeing humans and movement.

My phone was dinging every few seconds.

They were using a large round diffuser to soften the sunlight and the surveillance camera was seeing the movement of the diffuser, then re-alerting, then the camera was focusing on the humans in the frame and alerting again.

Software is very cool for routine things, but the software in the camera wasn’t quite sure what to make of this situation.

Cortana

Eventually, the dog heard voices as the filmmaker moved away from his subject and was calling direction from further up the street.

I’d been watching the live feed and had a pretty good idea that they were filming, and the camera was always pointed in the models direction. Once the dog heard unfamiliar voices he demanded to go outside to check it out.

Thankfully, The dog didn’t start barking, these people were on the road and not our property so he just howled softly to let me know he saw something odd.

TheTerminator

At this point the filmmaker turned the camera to the dog who was watching from the side gate.

The other half stepped out onto the porch and asked if there was something these folks needed.

The filmmaker asked if he could take a couple of shots of the dog who is photogenic (and he knows he is), explanations were given and permission was granted.

Skynet

It was one of those times I wished I could converse with the surveillance camera and tell it everything was fine. Unfortunately there’s no way to have that kind of in-depth conversation with the device.

On the one hand I’d like a super intelligent AI like Jarvis in Ironman, or Cortana from the Halo franchise. On the other hand, I’m concerned that a super intelligent AI like that would decide in a couple of milliseconds, that humanity was a lost cause and take appropriate action based on that decision. Skynet from The Terminator springs to mind.

I guess I fall into the Steven Hawking camp. He was apparently concerned that AI’s could or would become dangerous. Even Asimov’s three laws might not protect humanity.