Poked my head up, looked at the news. Everything is still nuts!

I did notice there was a Democrat who’d filed some paperwork for impeachment of Trump. The guy is Rep. Shri Thanedar.

Rep. Shri Thanedar.YAWN!!!!

I’m surprised that hasn’t been a Daily event.

Oh wait, I guess it’s hard to write articles of impeachment, if you’re protesting to bring a gang member back from El Salvador, or inciting Judges to make questionable rulings, or advocating for the mutilation of children, to pander to your wackjob base.

I know it sounds stupid, but my God, I just want stability!

I swear it’s like a never ending Carnaval ride. The car I’m in has one wheel with a bad bearing, another one with a chunk out of it, and clowns jumping at me round every bend.

I can see my Über Democrat stepfather nodding his head winding up for the, “See this is what you get when you don’t vote Democrat,” gloating. Until I finish the thought.

It’s been like we’re circling the toilet bowl since the Obama Administration. Okay honestly, Bush² may have been when things really started to go off the rails.

Now in Trump² it’s beginning to look like Democrat obstructionism, lawfare, and not having a better idea will continue.

But wait, there’s more! For a limited time, we can have more rioting and looting, incited by Democrat leadership. Yippee!

State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas.I want to be clear, I don’t regret voting for Trump. Had the Democrat party offered a superior candidate, I would have voted Democrat.

They didn’t. They offered Kamala Harris and a buffoon, who would have continued on with policies that weren’t working.

For example: Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas.

Th 1863706216.Kamala Harris was a terrible AG for California. A do nothing Senator. She was a horrible Vice President and clearly out of her depth. Waltz, was no better. He might actually have been worse. (Hard as that is to fathom!)

Minnesota Walz 92383-748774340.That being said, my vote for Trump was a vote that I feared would likely result in 4 more years of the Democrat party showing their asses and obviously not getting the message.

We can’t continue on as we’ve been. Our spending is unsustainable.

Offshoring industries, likewise offshores jobs, (not everyone is suited to work a fast food counter,) we were spending too much money on illegal immigration, at the expense of our own citizens. I don’t care if illegals were paying taxes, they’d simply supplanted citizens who also would have been paying taxes but were now unemployed.

The underlying problem may well be corporate greed, but yelling about it, then increasing regulations, offshoring jobs, and not fixing the problem wasn’t improving anything. Nor was moving toward a globalist government or economic model under the direction of the WEF.

The WEF is not and likely, never has been, our friend. Looking at the larger picture, I sincerely wonder if they’re anyone’s friend. Many of their policies seem aimed at creating dependency. Particularly when smaller countries are examined.

There are a number of cases where productive countries who were feeding their people, and exporting their goods, (in other words doing okay,) joined or implemented WEF policies, and suddenly found themselves with people starving in the streets. What followed was insurrections and revolutions.

Yet the travails of the American People were ignored. The January 6 protest, (In Democrat Parlance, an “insurrection that was worse than 9/11″,) was the American people essentially asking, “What the FUCK are you people doing?”

That too fell on deaf ears.

Politicians choice to ignore the will of the American people led directly to Trump, both times!

The Biden years led directly to a large percentage of the American People demanding an accounting of just how much government corruption there was. DOGE is the result of that demand. 

The Democrat party is in disarray. Trump moving at breakneck speed as he has done, is about cutting the parasites out of government and keeping them so off balance that they couldn’t keep up with events enough to mount a defense.

At the risk of invoking NAZI imagery, Trump and his administration mounted a Blitzkrieg, not just against the Democrats, but against corrupt politicians in general.

Have you noticed how many Representatives and Senators have decided not to seek reelection? In the run up to the midterms, I think we’ll see a lot more from both sides of the aisle doing the same.

But now, as the first 100 days come to a close and the Blitzkrieg comes to an end, I suspect that my prediction about a second Trump Presidency will turn out to be true.

The Democrats, other corrupt politicians, organizations, lobbyists, and whatever cabal of corporations, have begun to regain their footing. They’re not off balance anymore.

Now they’re going to capitalize on the hatred they’ve created toward Trump and those who voted for him. They’ll engage in impeachment, and another summer of “Love”.

They’ll try to back Trump into a corner wherein he’ll have little choice but to deploy national guard to restore order and execute one of the primary responsibilities of the Government.

It’s in the freaking preamble of The Constitution of The United States.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The 35 words of the Presidents Oath of Office are;

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

If you read the preamble, and take it literally. The part about insuring domestic tranquility will most likely be where Trump goes.

The primary responsibility of the Government is to insure safety of the citizenry.

If/when the national guard rolls on the streets of Chicago, New York, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. Trump will be labeled a NAZI, a Dictator, an Emperor,  then the corrupt politicians and their henchmen will take him off at the knees.

They’ll tie his administration up in endless hearings thereby deleting any benefit of his administration.

We’ll have 3 years, and 265 days of endless bullshit. The country will remain polarized, the economy will stall, and we’ll all suffer for it.

The corrupt will run out the clock, they’ll present someone with great hair, a winning smile, and a mouth full of honey.

That person will talk about unity, peace, better jobs, the homeless, the poor, the disadvantaged, and how evil Republicans are. They’ll appeal to emotions like revenge and retribution.

That person will “win” the next presidential election. Then, they’ll say, “We have so much unrest, we’ll need to keep the nation guard in place until things calm down.” They’ll blame it all on the Trump Administration and probably set up a “Tip” line, so that “Good” citizens can report insurrectionist speech, while extolling the virtues of weeding out the evil in our midst.

And then, we’ll be living in a police state. Or there will be a revolution.

My money is on Gavin Newsom as the Democrats choice.

So it’s with this running as a simulation in my head, that I say I want to go back to freaking stability!

I’d like to go back to the ‘80s or ‘90s where sure, there were problems and issues but at least I lived my life pretty simply. I literally never thought about the government except at tax time, or if there was some monumentally stupid thing happening.

I worked, I was generally happy, global issues were beyond my control or concern, and it was quiet.

Back then I couldn’t conceive of the insanity of today. Orwell, and Rand, were fictions. The sun was gentle, the beaches were clean, the ocean warm, and my culture, future, and country, were secure. Or so I thought.

I suspect I was running the simulation in my sleep. I don’t remember dreaming about any of this, but when I woke this morning, Jesse was cuddled up next to me with his head on my arm.

He doesn’t typically engage in that kind of cuddling behavior, he’s more of a, “We’ll sleep when we’re dead,” kind of dog.

But if I’m sick, hurt, or restless while sleeping, he tries to comfort me. I have to give him credit, he’s really a sweet dog, even when he’s a pain in my ass.

I hate like hell that I have no choice but to disrupt his life, and mine, with packing up and finding some other place that we can afford to live. I can’t compete in a job market where standing behind a counter running a cash register requires a fucking Master’s Degree. 

That is the level to which higher education seems to have been devalued. I’m seeing more and more simple retail positions here where Masters Degrees are required. I guess it’s the only way an employer these days can make certain you’re able to read, do basic math & count back change.

That’s another post for another time…

Okay Snow? Really? What the heck?

The snow probably won’t stick but there have been big fluffy snowflakes for about the last 20 minutes.

It figures! I’ve already put away the Cold weather gear for the year.

I’m thinking that I’m going to use the suspend function on my Apple Watch today. The forecast looks like we might have rain or snow for the whole day. Even Jesse isn’t interested in being outside. 

He’s curled up next to me snoozing.

I’m really glad that I didn’t start getting the trim ready for painting.

Oh goody! Google is at it again!

I knew it was coming. I just didn’t think they’d move this quickly.

According to an email today, and it was confirmed in the news Google is discontinuing support for Gen 1 and Gen 2 Nest Thermostats. 

At first thought, I was like no big deal, then I read further into the email and found that not only are they no longer updating the internal software, they’e also going to be killing remote access to the unit.

Basically, my smart machine is going to get just as dumb as a regular thermostat but will retain scheduling ability. 

This sucks!

No more ability to control the house temperature if I’m away. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s really nice in winter to have the house in the 50s when I’m away, then tell Siri to warm the house up to something comfortable before I actually get there.

If you’ve got a regular schedule that can be programmed. If you don’t have a regular schedule then you come home to a freezing house and crank the thermostat to warm it up quick.

With either the preprogrammed schedule, or the remote commands, the temp is increased in shorter bursts over a longer time. It’s a bit more balanced and efficient.

I knew Google was going to do this. To their credit they have discounted their newest version of the machine but I’m not interested. Yes It’s a nice machine, expensive, but given how Google is behaving and that they want me to have a full Google account instead of the old Nest account I’m not inclined to get deeper into Google.

What I want is an ecosystem that just talks to HomeKit and does so locally between devices inside the house. I don’t really like even low level stuff like house controls bouncing all over the internet. I was willing to put up with HomeKit, and Google so long as the Thermostat and the Protect smoke were providing what I believe to be a reasonable level of integrated protection.

The night of the fire, the A/C did kick on and distributed the smoke throughout the house. It also fanned the fire. 

But with Google’s recent moves,

I’ve been looking at alternatives.

Regardless of my remaining in this house or not, it’s a good point to disconnect from Google. My Thermostat will get dumb in October. I’ve got until then to make some kind of decision.

Trouble is, most of the smart thermostats want an account, and in some cases they want you to have a paid monthly or yearly subscription. 

That makes me rethink the whole smart thermostat idea. The Nest thermostat saved me money over the years, and while it was under Nest’s control didn’t cost anything beyond the cost of the unit and giving some of my information to Nest via their app.

This new situation may cancel the savings of any potential unit. It might also be a sign that for me, going forward simplicity is the best path.

OH WOW! I’m late to the game on this one.

I admit it.

I didn’t watch or read any of the news over the weekend. I obviously noted that the Pope died on Monday. I’ve skimmed headlines flashing on my phone screen but other than the major stuff, I pretty much ignored everything.

Yesterday, I got a hankering to actually write. That was welcome, and I literally dropped everything to write while the muse was upon me.

Didn’t do too bad either. I’ve got my protagonist and antagonist lined out. I’ve got an interesting ally and the general tone of the story well enough along that I can pick up where I left off. It wasn’t too shabby a start. It was like my brain letting go of everything and just letting the ideas flow.

Today, I got back to cleaning and tossing more stuff, there’s still a lot to go and I’m working on disassembling tech.

I’m boxing up the stuff that makes things effortless, (meaning one cable connection from the computer to any possible peripheral device I might want to use). This simplification of devices means that if I want to use something, I’ll have to actually plug it in. Big Deal!

Anyhow, I had the news running in the background and heard some clip from Representative Jamie Raskin. I’d read several headlines about him on some podcast or other and as usual rolled my eyes.

But when I heard what he actually said, my blood ran cold. His quote wasn’t that the Democrat party wouldn’t look kindly on countries that facilitated the Trump administration agenda, as had been reported on many outlets.

His comment was, “When we come back to power — and we will — are not going to look kindly upon people who facilitated authoritarianism in our country.

Say what? Who the fuck does this asshole think he is?

Does he mean to say that the Democrat party will used their weaponized law fare system to persecute and prosecute average American Citizens who supported Trump? The Trump administration having now become synonymous with Authoritarianism. (Sorry, but the Biden Administration looked a lot more authoritarian on day fucking one, than Trump’s thus far.)

Is Raskin saying the Democrats will take a dim view of anyone who voted for Trump, wore a MAGA hat, drove a Tesla, agreed with Trump, spoke out against law fare, illegal immigration, high taxes, bloated government, wasteful spending, the transification & stripping children of their innocence, the denial of Due Process for J6 detainees, who spoke out against mandatory vaccines, DEI, and every fucking obscenity we barely survived under the Biden Administration? Just a reminder… We still don’t know who was running the country but we all now know it’s pretty likely Joe Biden was not in control.

Did this sitting congressman just threaten at least 1/2, perhaps more of the American People?

He did say the Democrats wouldn’t look kindly on people… Not countries.

I don’t know how to take that comment other than as a threat. You know what? I’m getting damn sick and tired of Government officials threatening me!

We already know the Democrat party will suggest imprisonment for people who do not comply with their asinine edicts. Remember COVID? Anyone remember Biden threatening people who didn’t take the vaccine? How about folks that spoke out at school board meetings? Let’s not forget Maxine Waters telling African Americans to go into restaurants and coffee shops to harass not just Republicans she disagreed with, but every fucking person in the place!

We know Democrats will imprison people with different political ideologies for 3-4 years without trial, bail, or due process. All the while clutching their pearls saying that Democracy and The Constitution are under attack.

We also know that the only time the Democrats are interested in due process is when a fucking illegal alien is rightfully deported.

Representative Raskin should probably consider that most of the American People look upon the last four long years, as having already paid our fucking dues.

If by some unbelievable method, probably involving cheating, the Democrat party regains control and comes for people who facilitated the Trump Administration, they better come loaded for bear.

How the hell do these morons keep getting elected time and again?

Raskin saying what he said, should result in his office being cleaned out and his shit sitting at the curb. He’s supposedly a lawyer.

Theoretically, lawyers are masters of the English language. I will find it hard to believe his inevitable walking back of his words as a misunderstanding, or mischaracterization, or being taken out of context.

Sorry Raskin… I can read, and my hearing is just fine!

There are times when my brain runs in the strangest ways

As I’ve chronicled, I’ve been looking for a job, in my field for a long time.

I read job postings daily. 

This morning, before dawn I was having coffee reading job postings as I do every morning. I apply to those positions for which I’m qualified and comfortable my skills would be well suited.

Recently, I’ve seen a trend where the job posting is clearly misleading.

The most obvious is;

Fully Remote” then further into the posting the requirement is that you live in the city the company is in. Further down the long list of requirements is that the company wants the employee to be in the office some number of days per week. 

That’s not a fully remote job, that’s what companies are calling a hybrid position.

It’s the old “bait and switch” and honestly probably creates an overwhelming response of resumes and applicants that the HR department has to filter.

A variation is where while filling out the preprogrammed application the prospective employee is asked if they’re willing to relocate, and what the relocation time frame is.

In other words they might consider you if you’re planning to move to their location on your own dime.

Again, this is a hybrid position at best, more likely, it’s a position in an office.

I’ve also been seeing a growing number of positions where the position title or description is completely different from the actual responsibilities delineated other down the page.

For example;

Manual Testing position

Then further down, “Must create automated testing using (Program de jour) from user stories.”

Then there are the endless typos or AI generated nonsense sentences  describing the work to be done, followed by a list of every possible buzzword that’s ever been used in technology.

This made me wonder if I’m the only person who finds HR departments nearly useless.

So I did a web search simply asking, “Is any employee happy with their HR department?”

The results were interesting in that, most of the articles returned were talking about working in an HR department, instead of if employees liked or were happy with HR.

It reminded me of the results you’d get during COVID if the question you asked was about alternative treatments.

Rephrasing the question didn’t significantly improve the returned results. There was a peppering of >10 year old articles about dissatisfaction with HR but nothing current.

One Forbes article (from 12 years ago) flatly stated, “Employees will ask for assistance from anyone but their HR department.”

I began wondering if the results were because the search algorithm was overwhelmed by negative articles and decided that it would “Improve” the world by masking reality.

There are people who seem to believe that sweeping the issues under the carpet is better than presenting the truth. The theory goes something like, “We shouldn’t reinforce the negative because that will compound the issue and cause more people to pile on to the beleaguered party.

You see similar results if you specifically look for images of black folks trashing or looting stores or fast food places. What you get is results of anyone but black folks engaging in these activities.

I know this because on the one hand “X” sometimes presents incident after incident, literally showing black folks fighting each other in Walmarts, Targets, or McDonalds.

But when I try to search for the actual incident to find out what the specifics were, why this happened, or who provoked who, there are few, if any results.

This leads me to wonder, is what I’m seeing on “X” some kind of AI hoax, or is the algorithm suppressing reports of the events?

I suspect the latter.

What this suggests to me is that truth may be entirely subjective. This is not because true is variable, but because either people can’t handle the truth, don’t want the truth, or the powers that be choose to obfuscate or shape the truth for their own ends.

3 days ago, entering “Senator Van Hollen” brought up article, after article, about his “Brave” fight to bring a ‘mistakenly deported’ man home from El Salvador.

Now that same search parameter displays Senator Van Hollen’s record in the senate and his biography. Adding “El Salvador” to the search and articles are presented about the Senator’s trip to El Salvador and that he’s defending “Due Process”.

It changed shortly after revelations that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had a standing deportation order, restraining orders against him, from his wife, and that El Salvador counts Garcia among the membership of MS13.

Senator Van Hollen has egg on his face, the public opinion polls regarding the Democrat party and its leadership dropped over the good Senator’s publicity stunt.

Taxpayers are not thrilled that the Senator used their money to demand that we waste more taxpayer money to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States, put him before a judge (spending more taxpayer money) only to have a hearing that will in all likelihood result in Garcia being deported again, (spending yet more taxpayer money).

We could have that hearing in absentia, or via zoom and then decide if Garcia should be returned to the US or remain in his home country.

The good Senator, with the help of the Media is trying to reframe the “Truth” in order to shore up both the Senator’s polling numbers and those of the Democrat party.

There are a few diehard media outlets like MSNBC that still maintain Kilmar Abrego Garcia was “mistakenly deported”. That’s just because their hatred for Trump is so strong that even in the face of a standing deportation order, they must paint the Trump administration as sitting at the right hand of Satan.

I find all of this amusing. It exemplifies the old quote; “This is how civilization dies, not with a bang… but with a whimper.”

When all data sources are tainted, facts are obfuscated, people are divided or polarized by falsehoods and misrepresentation, when truth is entirely subjective… Civilization as we’ve known it, is circling the drain.

The weakness of old age and infirmity means that a younger more aggressive and probably more authoritarian civilization will sweep in to fill the vacuum. 

We have historical examples. Rome, Greece, The Ottoman Empire, and Egypt, all stand as sign posts.

Issac Asimov’s Foundation touched on these themes. Even though it is science fiction, The opening chapters ring true.

Hari Seldon, through the mathematics of Psychohistory told an Empire that it was doomed. Seldon said there was nothing that could stop the fall, but there were actions that could be taken to shorten the darkness between the fall of the current civilization and the rise of the next. 

In the twilight of the Empire, truth was subjective, people believed what was most comfortable or that which gave them purpose or comfort.

I’m amused because no matter where I look, I see evidence suggesting that history, or the fantasy of Foundation is playing out real time.

The “Empire” known as western civilization is falling. As in Asimov’s tale, it’s rotting from within.

Life is imitating art.

So perhaps it’s time to start thinking about creating the First Foundation. Perhaps it’s time to start preserving all that we’ve learned, and locking it away to protect it from the fall so that when our species is ready to reach for the stars again, science, philosophy, medicine, and a dispassionate record of history can guide our descendants forward quickly, instead of spending 1 or 2 thousand years in barbarism.

This line of crazy thinking has led me to wondering if our ancestors addressed this particular problem and how they attempted to solve it. Is there really a library of knowledge under the left paw of the Sphinx?

How would I solve the problem? Stone monuments attract attention. Various religious groups today will destroy monuments they perceive as antithetical to their beliefs. Our own people remove statues they find heretical.

How would I preserve knowledge? Books and libraries are subject to burning. Stone is more durable, but limited from a spacial perspective. A technological solution could work, but is inherently delicate and prone to malfunctions, power issues, or damage. 

Maybe I’ve found a project to fill the rest of my days.

My coffee cup and pot are now empty. Time to get on with the day.

And this is how I get sidetracked all too often.

Have a great day.