Fuggit!!!!
NO, it really isn’t ready for prime-time, but I’m frustrated with the day,,,, my own doing,,, tackling a ‘cast with NO script/mindmap,,, Did it to me-self, I did.
What follows is what ya get for all my efforts (and kitteh-klaw marks on my thigh: another reason I couldn’t keep my head in effort. Thanks Mama!)
This one was recorded straight to the Mac, using my new hardware, and all of it completed without need of changing ‘venue’; No bouncing between phone and computer. The transcript was done by MacWhisper and came out a lot better than the other transcription mode I was using. (and I am leaving it unedited at this stage, its damned close,,, though punctuation, run-ons,,, if you read and listen, it’ll make sense.). Getting my stuff lined up right, now, just gotta get my head on straight, with maps, directions, and GOALS for the point.
Enjoy (let me know if you like ‘the new sound’)
AI terrors and tremors
For those intimidated by AI, Y’all need give this a read.
And for the TL:DR, This isn’t about AI taking over the world, its about P&L’s: profit and loss statements. IF, what I am reading is true, than AI as we know it AIN’T Gonna take over the world. IT IS, gonna make some changes to the world as we know it,
(more…)Words of advice
As another once told me: Everything you want or desire is on the othereside of HARD.
The more effort you exert, the easier things become until they seemingly happen without effort.
But if you don’t put forth that effort first, nothing will ever happen.
More later.
Endarkenment
Still manning the watchtower though I’ve little to nothing to add of late.
But I gots ta thinking about some larger aspects of things while driving twixt here and Charleston last week.
I can’t say how many times I have read or referenced analogy of current events to the Fall of the Roman Empire. And I can’t say that the analogy is wrong, but I am starting to think its off. Just as Malthus was wrong in his day, and for much the same reason: ignoring technology and species resilience.
IMO if we are going to see an Great Endarkenment, we are already well into it. In my observations, literacy is the biggest sign of that. Not that most can’t read, but that they are showing loss of comprehension and serious lack of attention span. If it takes more than 140 characters to express an idea, you are likely to lose 95% of a potential audience. I can’t count how many times I have heard, “in twenty words or less, what’s your point?” or some generalization of such.
With loss of comprehension and attention span, the next victim is critical thinking. We already see lack of Critical thinking skills by the simple fact of so few questioning the Heglian Dialects being shoveled around this year. Even when the numbers are obviously being skewed to perpetuate a fallacy, it seems that no one wants to ‘rock the boat’ and so remain compliant and obedient.
Our forefathers must be so proud of what 200+ years have produced.
What I am seeing that does fit the Fall analogy is the population replacement that took place near the very end of the Roman empire. By the time it was a worthless shell, the population of Rome itself had almost no Roman bloodlknes left. They had outmigrated long before.
We are aeeing that happening now as people leave the outskirta of certain cities to warmer friendlier areas. Its not a diaspora, yet! Come November, I would not be surprised to see caravans leaving said cities, loaded with all manner of desperate and haunted people looking for anywhere NOT at war.
Because we are, ARE, at war. Most people are still in denial of that fact because the body count is still below 100 corpses. When that figure starts to approach 4 and 5 digits,,,,
We are at war for ideals, just like we were back in 1860-65. One side still holds values that may seem cliche and labeled as racist or whatever, but they still hold value to those people (note, I am one of them) and the other side see those same values as the ruin of humanity or some such crap. Where a person stands amongst those two sides is a simple matter of degrees, but its not hard to find the divide these days. Hell, its in your face almost 24/7 now.
I touch upon one course of future in my recent book. When I was writing it, I had no idea just how far or how rapidly we could descend to this stage. I would like to think a “Divorce ” amongst the states could be done amicably, but I am a realistic in my pessimism. A break up is inevitable. And it will be heated and bloody. If it becomes a permanent breakup with this continent housing several nations like Central Europe, or one side dominating the other and a new nation/potentially old nation taking the forefront; who flippin knows but the fickle fates and God.
But Grear Endarkenment; not so much. There may be a slow down in innovation (already there on most fronts) and there may be decades where many formerly first world countries are vying for third world status, but it won’t be the centuries of the Dark Ages. Our technology is to advanced and education to ubiquitous to allow much more than a couple decades of slowdown. The only way this world would see such dark ages again is if the madmen started launching multi-megaton nukes with great abandon, shattering any semblance of our global structure and reducing world population back to 15th century levels(or less). Recall I said our tech and species resilience are the two factors keeping the Endarkenment at bay.
I know; such a lovely topic for a Friday post. Apologies to all.
Anywhoos, some memes to fit some of the above points.
Truth for many
The following is something posted on Fakebook, but I find it hard to argue with many of its points. There is a rapidly growing dysfunction within this country and what many on one side of it seemingly fail to realize, is that the silent majority may be silent, but not without means. When the silent majority ‘wakes’, results HAPPEN, and there is no mercy nor let up until the situation is resolved.If the following ‘offends’ you, before you go off the hook, remember I did not write it, but I find truth in it. You may want to look in the mirror and ask if any of the traits condemned are a reflection of your own.************************************If you are a liberal who can’t stand Trump, and cannot possibly fathom why conservatives would ever vote for him let me finally fill you in. It’s not that we love Donald Trump so much. It’s that we can’t stand you. And we will do whatever it takes — even if that means electing a rude obnoxious unpredictable narcissist (your words not ours) to the office of President of the United States — because the only thing we find more dangerous to this nation than Donald Trump is you.How is that possible you might ask? Well, you have done everything in your power to destroy our country. From tearing down the police; to tearing down our history; to tearing down our borders. From systematically destroying our schools and brainwashing our kids into believing socialism is the answer to anything (despite being an unmitigated failure everywhere), while demonizing religion and faith, and glorifying abortion, violence, and thug culture. From calling us racists every time we expect everyone of any skin color to follow our laws equally, to telling us that our “tolerance” of lifestyles we don’t agree with isn’t nearly enough — no we must “celebrate” any lifestyle choice or gender option (forget science) you throw our direction or you think it’s fine to calls us homophobic or some other degrading slur you decide is okay to call us — ironically all while lecturing us on hate speech. While you gaslight us about 52 genders, polyamory, grown men in dresses sharing public locker rooms with little girls, and normalize the sexualization of young children, you simultaneously ridicule us for having the audacity to wish someone a “Merry Christmas” or hang a flag on the 4th of July, stand for the national anthem, or (horror of horrors) don a MAGA hat in public. So much for your “tolerance.” (See why we think you are just hypocrites??)We’re also not interested in the fact that you think you can unilaterally decide that 250 years of the right-to-bear-arms against a tyrannical or ineffective government should be abolished because you can’t get the violence in the cities you manage under control. That free-speech should be tossed out the window, and that those who disagree with your opinions are fair game for public harassment or doxing, That spoiled children with nose-rings and tats who still live off their parent’s dime should be allowed to destroy cities and peoples livelihoods without repercussions. That chaos, and lawlessness, and disrespect for authority should be the norm. This is your agenda. And you wonder why we find you more dangerous than Donald Trump?Your narrative is a constant drone of oppressor/oppressed race-baiting intended to divide the country in as many ways as you possibly can. You love to sell “victim-hood” to people of color every chance you get because it’s such an easy sell compared to actually teaching people to stand on their own two feet and take personal responsibility for their own lives and their own communities and their own futures. But you won’t do that, you will never do that because then you will lose control over people of color. They might actually, start thinking for themselves, God forbid!This is why we will vote for Donald Trump. Not because he is the most charming character on the block. Not because he is the most polite politician to have ever graced the oval office. Not because he is the most palatable choice, or because we love his moral character or because the man never lies, but because we are sick to death of you and all of the destructive crap you are doing to this once beautiful and relatively safe country. Your ineffective and completely dysfunctional liberal “leadership”(?) has literally destroyed our most beautiful cities, our public education system, and done its damnedest to rip faith out of people’s lives.However bad Donald Trump may be, and he is far from perfect, every day we look at you and feel that no matter what Donald Trump says or does there is no possible way he could be any worse for our country than you people are. We are sick to death of your destructive, ignorant, and intolerant behavior and beliefs — parading as “wokeness.” We are beyond sick of your hypocrisy and B.S. We are fed up with your disrespectful divisiveness and constant unrelenting harping and whining and complaining (while you live in the most privileged nation in the world) while making literally zero contributions of anything positive to our society. Your entire focus is on ripping things down, never ever building anything up. Think about that as there is something fundamentally very wrong in the psychology of people who choose destruction as their primary modus operandi.If Donald J Trump is reelected, don’t blame us, look in the mirror, and blame yourselves. Because you are the ones that are responsible for the rise of Donald Trump. You are the ones who have created this monster that you so despise, by your very actions. By your refusal to respect your fellow Americans and the things that are important to us. You have made fun of the “fly-over states,” the people who “cling to their guns and religion,” the middle-class factory workers and coal miners and underprivileged rural populations that you dismissively call “yahoos” and “deplorables.” You have mocked our faith and our religion. You have mocked our values and our patriotism. You have trampled our flag and insulted our veterans and treated our first responders with contempt and hatred. You have made environmentalism your religion while trashing every city you have taken responsibility for. You scream from the rooftops about “global warming” and a “green new deal” while allowing tens of thousands of homeless people to cover your streets in literal sh*t and garbage and needles and plastic waste without doing a single thing to help them or solve the environmental crisis your failed social policies are creating. But we’re supposed to put YOU in charge of the environment while gutting our entire economy to institute this plan when you can’t even clean up a single city??You complain — endlessly — yet have failed to solve a single social problem anywhere. In fact, all you have done is create more of them. We’ve had enough. We are tired of quietly sitting by and being the “silent” majority. So don’t be surprised when the day comes when we finally respond. And trust me it’s coming, sooner than you might think. And also trust me when I say it won’t be pretty. Get ready.If Donald Trump is reelected it will be because you and your “comrades” have chosen to trash the police, harass law-abiding citizens, and go on rampages destroying public property that we have all paid for and you have zero respect for. If Donald Trump is reelected it will be because we are sick of your complete and utter nonsense and destruction. How does it feel to know that half of this country finds you FAR more despicable than Donald J. Trump, the man you consider to be the anti-Christ? Let that sink in. We consider you to be more despicable, more dangerous, and more narcissistic than Donald Trump. Maybe allow yourself a few seconds of self-reflection to let that sink in. This election isn’t about Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden. This is about Donald Trump vs. YOU.So if on the morning of November 4 (or more likely December 29 by the time the Supreme Court will weigh in on the mail-in ballot fiasco we are headed towards) if Donald J. Trump is reelected? The only people you have to blame is the left-wing media drones and yourselves. You did this. Yep, you!
Value
How does business happen? Value.
You have a product, service, idea, that others VALUE, and you will make income.
Its that damned simple.
So, what’s so wrong with Capitalism? You give, you receive, and if the product or service is lacking, the life of said business will soon evolve or expire. Others offer same or better and Competition ‘improves the breed’. As long as there is competition, things will improve. Remove that, and it all stagnates and regresses or in the longer term, rot from the inside.
What I love about TRUE capitalism is how it follows rules just like evolution does. Environment determines course and growth, and yes, both can be manipulated, but in the long run, the rules will prevail.
What we are seeing now is backlash from ‘natural rules’ against years (decades?) Of manipulation. Economists call these times “corrections”, and I find that term quite fitting. Yup! It’s likely gonna be a painful ride and as long as the corrections are allowed to happen, eveything will improve in the long run. The ‘other option’ is to allow full control by outside influences but that means surrendering ALL of your choices about how you earn, receive, and use your lucre.
No thanks, that, to me, rings of slavery.
Slight lean into the turn here,,,,
I was belittled by an ‘educator’ on.my use of the term ‘Socialism ‘. He swore that we have a freely capitalist country, the freest on the planet.
Umkay!!! Sure. Sell me that bridge outside of Phoenix, the one that used to reside over the Thames in London. (Google it, I ain’t kiddin’)
I don’t think I need to go to extremes in showing examples of where he is wrong, but what we do have is, IS Socialism Lite. One third of our country (may be a bit more now) works for Government or some form of enforcement arm for G. Another quarter are on some form of welfare or Social security. Blue collar is a very small percentage with small business sharing rougly a similar rate. Large business has downsized and outsourced to maximize margins, and investors are mixed throughout all of the above. Roughly 1/3-2/5thss support the remainder; how is this NOT socialism?
Oh, maybe its their use of a dictionary published in 2019, while I use one that was first written in 1790,
And that’s another reason we will see a correction. Trying to hide the truth by manipulation of meanings has similar consequences for backlash. One will be monetary, the other in social reality.
I get it, I really do. I understand the Siren’s song of Socialism. Hell, everything is a business model, Right? What’s not to like about getting a better return of investment for mediocrity. We have an entire group of people in this country that make serious bank on it. I call them politicians.
But I digress…
I’ll give you a short example of what free market ideals can do using an analog comparison
Insurance. (And Heinlein fans already know where this one is headed, LOL)
Say ya want health insurance or Life insurance in a truly free market (no regulations and no guarantees) who do you talk to?
The Bookies. The guys that set the odds at the gaming tables, sporting events etc. That is all insurance really is, some one setting the odds, taking the anty, and taking the chance of losing. If you want a better ‘rate’ you sample several bookies and make your choice. It may cost you (think Lloyds of London costs. And guess what, that is Exactly how Lloyds operates. They’ll give you odds on your flippin VOICE and sell you a package.) But you have your ‘insurance. The disreputable ones won’t last a month and the honest ones will charge and payout as they should. As for taking them to court (have you tried that with ‘modern’ insurance agencies?) Well, in a free market world, there would be no real courts system in place, but you could hire arbitration. Both sides would cover the hire, and pledge to honor the decision no matter how it fell out. The dishonest would try to ‘settle out of court’ to keep things hush-hush. (Gee, sounds DAMNED familiar, doesn’t it?)
Provide Value, be honest, be accountable,
Things we see everyday, but oh so rarely from those on high now.
Dio's Workshop 