If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it. George Orwell, 1984

Warning: My humor is appropriate here only for adults.

Friends, the unthinkable has happened. I knew we could expect a couple victories here and there, but the polls, once again, were wildly off the mark. I suspect this happens particularly when pollsters fear so much predicting the wrong outcome that they simply assign uniform probability. That is, if two candidates are running, the worst case scenario for prediction is exactly 50%/50%. One can create all the clickbait in the universe, but claiming that spread means there is nothing to say. Perhaps they’re conservative in their estimates for good reason, but we’ve had ample reason to believe otherwise.

On Tuesday my husband and I watched the election coverage well into the night. It became an intoxicating, surreal experience as we watched impossible race after impossible race falling to the Democrats. The vindication is staggering.

I many thoughts here, so if you read to the end, you get a little Halloween treat. Assuming you like satire (except this was a genuine exchange!)

Why Am I Outraged?

Before proceeding, let me say a few things. This is cautionary, and I’ll touch on why we shouldn’t read all things into this victory later in the post. For now, I’ll preach.

When I was a child, we were taught that blacks asking for recognition of their right to exist and have dignity were just baddies wanting to skip the line. Even my high school guidance counselor cautioned me that being a white boy would hurt my chances of getting scholarships. I did pretty well, thank you very much. We were told that homosexuals wanted to convert boys into sissies, that I shouldn’t be friends with girls when I was a first grader, and that Jesus would burn us alive forever if we strayed too far from his flock. I was confused by these things, and it required a fantastic series of events to change course. My father, stepfather, and others in my family embraced greed above all, even without two pennies to rub together in their holey pockets.

As I’ve written before, I was raised in a city–Gainesville–nestled within Cooke County along the Red River. It was and remains a red district, though we had a DINO representative named Ralph Hall when I was a kid. My family attended Assembly of God and other evangelical charismatic offshoots through the years. But my parents’ divorce in 1987 led to the church shunning us, and we were on our own in matters of the soul and spirit. I was one of four children, and our interpersonal difficulties were part and parcel of the gender discrimination our mother faced, the alcoholism of our domestic abuser father, and the slow torment of a stepfather who sponged off us while giving little in return. I survived because of the love and support I received just at the right times. I recount this for a reason–Texas contains many decent people who want to see this world mended. It isn’t just a backward place where spurs and cowboy boots replace generosity, humility, and compassion. Those people exist, and some still live today. Good and bad, we can sort it out. So here goes–

First, I’m gay. I remained in denial until I was 15. I concealed it from almost everyone until I was 18. I concealed it professionally until I was 26. My brothers ridiculed how I talked, picking on me as much as the constant array of bullies at school. It was a hellish, brutal time, and I had no idea what was going on. I stopped going to the lunchroom, I never visited the school restrooms, and I didn’t use my locker so I could get from one class to another with as little interaction as possible. Years later, when I told my grandmother, she just said, “Let’s get some barbecue.” She, my uncle, my mother, and my aunt all accepted and loved me. My grandmother was the most constant of grand oak trees–she was the person we could consistently turn to for help, acceptance, and love. I had always been a sensitive, loner of a child. I could self-entertain, I was very different from my older brothers and younger sister, and I was a lover-not-a-fighter type kid. I was bullied endlessly at school, and it only let up a little when I was both very well respected for my academic achievements AND taller than almost anyone in our graduating class. But it was very difficult–I knew I was gay starting in 1994, but it was five years before I broadcast it to the rest of the family. My perspective on the world always differed from others, and that became galvanized into my adulthood.

Second, my teachers and other elders adored me, and I adored them. My high school mathematics teacher showed interest in me and built me up. I was his best student in forty years of teaching. My college history professor Pat Ledbetter, an incredible woman of five degrees, a heart of gold, and a love for her fellow humans opened my eyes to the realities of the world. I can remember weeping after more than one class because of the barbarism perpetrated against third world countries both deep in the past and in the much more recent 1950s-1990s. My teachers cared for me, my grandmother’s friends loved me like family, and my grandmother herself connected with me in a way never possible with any other.

Third, the family of my husband is the most diverse family I’ve met. Indians, blacks, whites, and Mexicans descended on Kelly and me when I first visited them out in Arizona back in 2004. I worked at Bell Helicopter Textron, surrounded by whites, blacks, Mexicans, and Asians. My cohort at the university was diverse, as were the professors themselves. When I returned to school, I was able to understand the Indian accent on English because of Kelly’s father.

Fourth, my grandmother cared for the elderly in her home until 1994. I met the older generation, and I was enchanted by their tales of the bygone era, the ability for words to fly in the face of time, and the incredibly broad range of their perspectives.

So, here’s my outrage, fellow Texans, southerners, Christian nationalists, and everyone else: I was born into a way of thinking and doing, and I grew out of it. I learned. The world will teach us if we care to listen. I got the fuck over it, and you must, too. You’ll never be a Christian until you understand Christ. You’ll never understand the marvel of diversity until you experience it. You’ll never know the joy of generosity until you give. It’s time to move on–get your hands dirty and join us. This world can be yours, too.

So, let’s get to it!

Results So Far

Here are rough cut results lifted from Wikipedia:

Pollsters are Wrong

Pollsters everywhere confront the same problem. They all, Nate Silver included, offer you subscriptions to read their completely onyx crystal ball. It’s guesswork, and, as I said before, 50%/50% tells you absolutely nothing. I could do the same, but as Chomsky said in an interview ages ago, I don’t foresee anything. I didn’t expect the tsunami, even though I think I’m as equipped as the next person to create a platform for lasting change. I think the problem is weak correlation, and so far, the pollsters haven’t created a full-proof system to detect results. This was seismic. Lichtman’s keys probably is more the type of system needed to predict electoral changes like this. The dumbells who drafted the mid-decade GOP gerrymander should be shot from a cannon for wielding their powers, first for evil, second for incompetence. I’m ashamed of either, but the former weighs more heavily in banning them from using even a calculator ever again.

What came before can’t predict what is now without a system to remove as much random noise as possible. It takes little education to know this. Democratic elections remain the only true way to measure people’s preferences, or at least those of the people who vote.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

My home state of Texas not only elected James Talarico to the United States Senate (breaking a 23-year-long streak of GOP ownership of those seats), and Gina Hinajosa was elected governor, the first Latina to hold the mansion. Greg Abbott was bounced out of office after decades of delivering for the wealthy and wrecking the education system, and–wait for it–Talarico defeated Trump’s lunatic fringe pick of fraudster, fabulist, and philandering Ken Paxton by double digits! Within 24 hours, we knew that Democrats won every statewide race in my old stomping grounds. We took back the Texas Board of Education! I’m utterly shocked and elated, even as I write this. Take a gander at the Senator-elect, a bright, young, energetic man with a mission. He was raised by a single parent, as was I for much of my childhood.

I believed Talarico could win, but Gina Hinojosa’s win against long-standing (sitting; okay, that was low brow.) Greg Abbott suprised the living holy hell out of me. Texans truly have had enough of the lies and nonsense.

In 2025, Trump directed his toady Governor Abbott and the GOP scumbags in the state legislature to redraw the Texas districts to eliminate five seats occupied by black Democrats. Trump spake, and the sleazy Abbott barked, rolled over, and salivated as he delivered those seats unto his new god. In this election, Republicans lost ALL five of those, despite their new lines making it possible to ride Trump’s double-digit victories in 2024. I told my husband many months ago that the GOP would lose where they didn’t think it was possible. And I was correct. In fact, they lost almost every single district they tried to steal, and it leads to one inescapable conclusion: you cannot disenfranchise black Americans, and you should fire your fucktard data analysts who did the redrawing. (Well, they belong in prison as far as I’m concerned.) The problem with such a program in a nation in which demographics shift, and in which some people actually have a community that has their backs, the predictive value of 2024 was worthless.

Southwest-Side Story

The story erupted across the Southwest–my do nothing representative Juan Ciscomani suffered a humiliating defeat, crushed under 52.9% to his much smaller 44.9%. He, like the leprechaun Mike Johnson, insisted as the ship sank that he was the better candidate with a proven track record. I’m still waiting to hear it. Crickets. It’s as silent as a Trump rally before the fat orange-sprayed loaf of rotten bread makes his appearance with a rambling talk about his whatever-the-fuck ballroom, arch, and probably golden urinals Melania and Ivanka are forced to use on camera. (Zitron said that boomers are always excited about their home.) Back to Ciscomani–I would award him MOST INEFFECTIVE SWING STATE REPUBLICAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. In moments like these, I wish I was willing to use ChatGPT to generate the funny images in my head. But my prohibition remains in place. Anyway, the swarthy bastard proudly posts pictures of himself as a little league coach, even as he voted to conceal the Epstein files to protect the pedophile squatting on the White House. His only answer to Mendoza? She wants men in women’s sports. Kick the trans, kick the trans, kick the trans. He is a fucking coward. Jail is what he deserves. Let’s see what happens. That’s a love story in pictures. I’ll bear my old age and inappropriate commentary: Mendoza has more “man” in her little finger than does the wilting moron who grins with the orange fucker and lets his wide within 1000 miles of the philandering rapist. Mexicans are rapists, sayeth Trump. Trump is the racist, and the Mexican Ciscomani is happy for it all. Ugh, I’m sick to my stomach.

In Arizona, our governor Katie Hobbs successfully defended the governor’s mansion against Trump’s handpicked Andy Biggs. Despite a meager margin in the election in 2022 pitting her against Kari Lake–the most delusional and ridiculous party candidate in all my life–Hobbs scored a victory in the double digits. Kari Lake still claims she won the election, but I think she was actually Queen Elizabeth II’s named successor but slighted from her royal birthright. As chancellor of Germany and queen of the penguins in Antarctica, Fabulista Dominata Kari must be exhausted with all the travel, or hell, with just keeping all her many titles straight. Empress of Penguins, Mother Superior to Burgess Meredith, Pharoah of Waxen Mummies, Second Uncle to Paul the Apostle, and Emissary to the Dark Side of the Moon. She won all those things! ALL OF THEM! I could riff all day.

Instead, look at Governor Hobbs, the picture of decency, kindness, and stellar eyes!

Deb Haaland was the first female Native American to be elected governor in this nation’s history, and it is New Mexico that did the deed–500 years after losing their continent to the white satan, they can finally claim a momentous victory. Their communities are the stuff of legends, casting off centuries of cruel oppression from the colonial overlords. Few peoples can speak so clearly to the ravages of authoritarianism and its many accompanying pustules–racism, greed, psychopathy, and cynicism. The Palestinians come to mind, or peasants under the iron boot of Stalin, or the slaves held here in America, or Indians under British rule, or victims of the Holocaust, or Africans under apartheid. So maybe there aren’t so few.

Southeasterly Winds

The Democrats scored Lady Belle Lindsay Graham’s seat, denying her politically inexperienced sister a full term. Graham himself was just a tragedy–in 2015, he opined that Trump was a poison pill for the GOP, and supporting him would lead to the party’s ruin. Ten years later, he golfed with him, parroted him, and oozed himself into arguing, like Marco Rubio, absurdities that indicated senility. Graham’s legacy will only be saccharine obeisance to the most dangerous man in the world. Rubio thinks he can run for president, but his eyes are bigger than his stomach. No one in Trump’s cabal of sociopathic nincompoops will grab the gold in the 2028 Republican convention. Hell, the wilting daisy’s ghost might be their best bet. See her bare them vicious fangs and claws–you go girl! His epitaph should read, “a gal willing to go all the way with Trump”.

Instead, we get the picture of sanity, compassion, and intelligence in the pediatrician Doctor Annie Andrews. The ship might not sink with her helping to guide it.

I will call it–I believe Mississippi has elected Scott Colom to the U.S. Senate, and that would be the first African American governor since Reconstruction. As readers of this blog might recall, Reconstruction was the brief period following the Civil War in which African Americans ascended into leadership positions thanks to the National Guard protecting the ballot box. After the North-South Compact of 1877, the troops abandoned their oversight, and decades of Jim Crow ensued. Even today, the fight continues against racism so prevalent that it hides in plain sight. Colom gives me hope, and it’s funny that his competition personally denied him a seat on the federal bench. Payback’s a bitch, Marie Pick-a-Different-Protein Antoinette.

In Georgia, voters reelected Jon Ossoff–not that anyone is surprised. He’s a doll to behold, and his temperament and bearing are presidential. The big surprise in Georgia’s returns is the election of Keisha Lance Bottoms, the state and country’s first black woman governor. Stacey Abrams did us proud by paving the way!

North-by-Northeast

The story is similar as we hop about the nation. Maine booted Senator Susan Collins–after six terms of handwringing, cringy anguish as she demonstrated no insight, backbone, or commonsense–to the curb. They replaced her with a fifth generator logger Troy Jackson. He’s blue collar, and frankly just perfect. She claimed in one of their debates that–wait for it–it is inappropriate to ask a nominee to the federal bench about hypothetical decisions in future cases. I don’t know what planet she’s on. Troy Jackson, yes, was pro-life until 2013. But he can admit he was wrong. She can’t. The principle of not asking a future justice how he might rule makes little sense in the context of an issue with millions of lives at stake. Then again, Kavanaugh was credibly accused of rape, and that wasn’t a problem for Collins, either. Well, she’s down and out–cue Bessie Smith.

In a fever of change, we had the first openly gay man to win a Senate seat–and it happened right there in New Hampshire. My heart swells with pride, and I remember my wedding day back in 2014. Here is Senator-elect and his husband on their own beautiful day.

Westward

Nevada elected Aaron Ford, the first African American governor west of the Mississippi River, per NPR.

Aside from the astonishing success in Texas, I would point to three more races of colossal import. First, I cannot overstate the importance of megachurch Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton’s victory in the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas. A Democrat hasn’t held that seat since 1932. It also looks favorable for a victory in the governor’s race in said state. See his interview on The Bulwark. He is decent, thoughtful, intelligent, and ready to do good after the manner of the Savior in which he places his faith. Jesus preached many things that most Christians ignore, and the path can be challenging for greedy cynics who remain certain of satan’s power but wouldn’t help an old lady cross the street. I would argue that they are not Christians in any sense of the word.

Michigan elected the first Muslim American to the U.S. Senate. Abdul El-Sayed is an epidemiologist who decided politics was a better way to lobby for change. Kelly knows I have a bit of a thing for the swarthy, haha.

There are many more firsts in this election. Listen to PBS for more on that.

How Do We Interpret This

I’m guilty of misdirection. SEVERELY SO! So, I’ll state it as clearly as possible–this isn’t a victory for diversity in its primary justification. I’m thrilled with the shifting sands. Absolutely thrilled. I wept when Hinojosa’s victory was announced. I wept for Deb Haaland’s victory. I wept for Keisha Lance-Bottoms and the Stacey Abrams and the Rosa Parks and every woman of color who ever refused to accept the paltry role and power they had. I need only remember my childhood. There still was the colored school, the colored park, the colored pool, and the part of town they were allowed to have. This was years after integration had started, but the tokens of racism and hate remained all around us.

A massive realignment of political preference has occurred independently of the rage ancient white dinosaurs carry that anyone anywhere is ever an anything. That is to say, when push comes to shove, fears about diversity die. Big girl blouse Ciscomani’s constant parade of ‘men in women’s sports’ critiques of Mendoza were a perfect example. The lesbian veteran beat the pious little prick by double digits–Tucsonians don’t give two fucks about sexual orientation when it comes to gigantic bills, fewer jobs, and less pay. Economic concerns, corruption, tech sector overreach, and illegal and unjust war probably play the biggest roles, and the three are not orthogonal to one another.

Before examining these a little, I want it to sink in–this doesn’t mean the electorate is ready for a gay president. It doesn’t mean a Muslim can be president. I say these things as a gay man. I want someone with the spirit of Pete Buttigieg to be president–he was much like Biden in that regard. I think El-Sayed has a long and prosperous future in politics. Both are young(-ish) men, so the White House isn’t off-limits forever to them. But we cannot miscalculate this–Americans want their problems solved, and they don’t care who solves them. They want corruption to end. But the adversarial blowback will be massive. Psychopathic Christian Nationalists remain perhaps the greatest threat to this nation, and the vulgar, pus-filled tech billionaires will finance every effort on their part to reassert control. The people are a threat to them, and they know it. This was true when I worked for big tech, and it’s still true now.

I will go on record here–the next candidate we run for president must be straight, white, male, and (preferably Protestant) Christian. There are plenty of good guy choices, and they will fight for me and my rights, as well as you and yours. They will protect Muslim communities. They will stop the war in Iran. They will stop the aid to a military power bent on genocide in Gaza. They will stop playing with Putin like he’s some sort of real leader.

We who care about DEI and believe in it must know the difference between a surrogate who also cares and will respond to our pressure, but doesn’t rankle the fringes. If lifelong Democrats switched to Trump because Obama was black, it’s a loss. Those were people we could have reached. Don’t get me wrong–I bawled my eyes out when Pennsylvania was called for Obama in 2008, and that was the clincher. I believed everything in the world had changed. He would spearhead reform to wrest power away from warmongers and prosecute them.

Well, the story was different. Obama governed old school, moving on from the horrendous war crimes of Bush W and Cheney. He went on to committing a few of his own, but we got the Affordable Care Act in exchange. But Obama would never sit right with people who feared not having the master’s whip. Yes, it’s fucking repugnant to me even as I write it. But racism dies slowly, demanding immersion, community, and love. It’s a fever. It’s a disease. It didn’t disappear overnight. It just scurried back to the shadows where it could fester, planning its next adversarial move. Two terms later, we have Trump’s birther nonsense and the DNC’s complacency with respect to Bernie and Hillary leading to an unbelievable victory. And for ten years, we’ve had to listen to the orange fathead. And people have died because of it. Iran could be worse even than Iraq if we don’t stop it.

I know this is hard to hear. I text Noam Chomsky about Obama’s reelection victory in 2012, and how much I though good things would come. His response was something I understand even more now, along the lines of “civil society and its institutions are weakening,” meaning that Americans were more isolated, more atomized, more radicalized than before. Obama likely couldn’t heal this, no matter the good he did as president. I would argue that like Carter, Obama and his beautiful wife Michelle will go on to be great elder statespersons.

All told, the world is in jeopardy, and we must play this correctly.

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

Bernie Sanders recently argued that the inequality of household wealth in America has never been more unfair than it is right now. Elon Musk himself holds more wealth than the bottom 50% combined. People are struggling, even as massive data centers move into their communities to leech water and power away from them. The business lobby salivate themselves into hypovolemic shock when the fabulists and fraudsters in tech leadership promise to automate all workers away. Fake AI is ubiquitous, and it isn’t helping us. Boomers hate it. My generation hates it. Kids are angry that they can’t get jobs. The economy is terrible, we’re in an illegal terrorist war murdering people without any real justification, and each institution in the federal government is headed by the most corrupt people to hold those positions. I’m looking at you, Chief Justice John Roberts, Speaker Mike Johnson, Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and, of course, the orange gas-bag playing with pens and markers during life-and-death cabinet meetings. He loves his ballrooms, monuments, and slathering his fetid name all over everything. “MINE, MINE, MINE.” Jesus, someone lock him in memory care. Say his name three times, and you’ll smell the rot of his edemanous blubbery ass.

Speaking of terrible pieces of shit, Elon Musk is, by all accounts, one of the most hated people entrenched in American politics. With a favorability of maybe 38%, he barrels forward with $446M dumped into Paxton’s unsuccessful run against Talarico. He bribed voters for 2024. He has done perhaps irreparable harm to the essential bureaucracy of the federal government. His business dealings, narcipathic threats to innocents, and rageful, Nazi tantrums leave many ordinary folk nauseated. The reckoning is now coming: Hinojosa intends to reexamine his dealings in the once-was-a-Republic state. No matter the outcome, Musk and his wretched determination to install dupes, crooks, and flimflams has failed. He is a failure. Voters want accountability on these people. Vivek Ramaswamy, another repugnant tech billionaire, lost his bid for governor of Ohio. These faux techies are part of the looming problem presented by runaway griftopia (Zitron’s word).

Kleptocracy and Crypto-pork: Just Rotten to the Core

Corruption deserved a shout-out. His is the most corrupt administration in history–he pockets literally billions of dollars each year by insider trading. His unilateral economic policies have hurt the working and poor while he and his billionaire buddies make more money. It will take a mountain of lawyers to dig through every scam, theft, and bribe. I don’t possess the strength to go through it now, but if you’re reading this, it’s already something you’re aware of.

Trump is the ultimate kleptomancer, capable of summoning the greatest forces for greed known in this realm and the next. His schemes are forward-facing and unapologetic. He sells cryptocurrency, access, and ridiculous trinket merchandise like Trump passports, Trump bibles, Trump commemorative coins, and Trump Trump Trump fuck make it stop!!!

Congress has refused to act, with Mike Johnson dismissing the lower body every single time a vote comes up to do the right thing. The Senate is little better, towing a line in protecting Trump. Democrats are questioning officials, but it’s mainly a for-show ability without the gavel. Well, that ends in January. Lawyer up, bitches.

My recommendation: Impeach on day one. With two years to his term, he represents the most terrible threat to American and the world in all our long, long history. He’s willing to attack other countries unilaterally. He energizes a psychotic base who will play Halloween-complete-with-masks shoot’em-ups with brown and even a few white people. He sells government secrets to the likes of Jensen Huang, a man so stupid that he falls prey to a Chinese spy who “do him good in bed.” He stops investigations into poison in our food. He’s gutted the CDC, so a pandemic could cripple us permanently. The do-nothing-bumfuck GOP senators in Congress see that John Cornyn, the more respectable Texas US senator couldn’t prevail, and his replacement lost by double digits. We bounced out the governor. In fucking Texas! Ted Cruz isn’t well-liked at all, and he admitted that things need to change; way to go, sir! You could fly to Cancun and never come back! Susan Collins is out on her equivocating perseverating ass. Lady Belle’s seat will now have a Democrat, a pediatrician who actually cares about human beings. The GOP stronghold isn’t safe from the roar of the American people. I think they’ll vote to convict and remove Trump–it may be the only way for them to survive this politically.

I also believe we should impeach John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito. Their grifts are the stuff of legends, and we can replace them when we have the White House in the next term.

Fear the Machine

The truth is after 20 years of working at tech, I can say that most were decent people. Almost none were willing to put their opinions on the record (in fact, I think I’m only one of two or three people I know after connecting with a few thousand), but most just wanted to do what was right. But when they go bad, they really go bad. My manager over at Microsoft Azure was (and is since the company still pays him) one of the nuttiest, most narcissistic, most infantile bosses I’ve ever had. He forced personality tests on his people so he could deride them. He preyed on my health struggles, ridiculed my sexual orientation, and actively sabotaged my work. I had been hired to train the team on data science, and instead, he commanded his other reports to spy on me and report any instances in which I talked to them. It was the stuff of satire. He was bloated, arrogant, and a bellow of laughter at his own jokes–the only joke was him. I had a manager at Uber who threatened me even with physical violence in his dry-drunk delirium. He was a broken person, but undeserving of any team below him. Uber did push him out eventually. Both of those examples I reported to HR. The Microsoft manager could point to nothing since my team on the Ads stack stood by me and were glad to have me. I had one other bad manager earlier on, but of the dozen or so that I’ve had, most were average to exceptional. The bell curve was there, though the left tail was fatter than the right. My experience is anecdotal, but I’m talking about elite tech, not some bumfuck tiny firm in the heartland.

One zombie hemorrhoid of a problem was that management pushed newer tech to attract more from elite tech research. If a person researched a very narrow inequality tied to some set of incalculable conditions, management would require people to try it. Deep learning was an excellent example of this. I hear tell from my old buddies that LLMs have been the ultimate manifestation–a messianic boon to do-nothing execs who brag to their golf buddies about the chatbots reading and replying to emails. These are people who are paid more money than most can imagine. A six-figure salary is huge for most Americans. Try seven or even eight.

The future of tech is grim. Ed Zitron discusses this frequently in his podcasts, articles, and media appearances. The major promotors selling generative AI are heading for the gallows, even as they persuade uncritical tech media of their everyone-should-know-this brilliance. OpenAI and Anthropic will continue to flounder as the true cost of running their tools becomes known. Trillion dollar illusionists of the Theranos ilk are all they are. They mesmerize people with cheap magic tricks, generate buzz and funding, then continue to consult ketamine and ambien for the deeper answers. The larger tech firms who held once immovable, unshakable positions in the pantheon are now facing starvation. For ten years, none created any new incredible tech to revolutionize the industry, and the bloat in their valuation was slowing as expected. Instead of searching for a genuine new gizmo to sell, they repackaged an old idea and raped us with it. Copilot appears everywhere. Stars and AI nonsense are options on everything. Literally every block I create in this blog article comes with an option to let AI do it. (Of course, hell will have to manifest as a real thing, freeze over, melt away, and repeat a dozen times before I will ever use it.) It now clogs search engines, generating lies and fat you care nothing about when searching for the true marrow of it. It’s everywhere, and you have to opt out of it to prevent it from copying everything you are into its models to pick your pocket and control your behavior. Do you want to opt out? You can find instructions here.

My recommendation: Start by enforcing existing law and regulations. This means breaking up monopolies, stopping the data center fever dream, and charging the fraudsters with crimes. Regulations are coming, and it’s time to take back our economic destiny.

War is Probably Still A Lie

War returns, and this time it’s just as ugly, just as immoral, and just as destructive as it always has been. But things are a little different this time. First, Iran is the strongest of the five the defunct thinktank PNAC suggested America destroy and rebuild. Second, there has never been a justification, exit strategy, or strategy of any kind articulated for this war. Third, the closure of Hormuz means everyone’s costs skyrocket. The Iranians don’t need critical infrastructure to build drones. And the more churches, parks, and schools we bomb, the more they will fight for their country.

Since World War II, our own policy analysts studied the results of bombing civilians. Resoundingly, no matter the side, and no matter the reason, you force the remaining civilians to embrace whatever leader they have at the time. Many Germans who weren’t keen on Hitler or Nazism embraced it later when we firebombed Dresden. When the Nazis bombed London, it would have been preposterous to think they would say to themselves, “Gee, that Bloody Hitler is our kinda man.” The Japanese saw Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and it was a challenge to think of Americans in a favorable light. The point is bombing civilians NEVER results in a strategic win. It doesn’t matter what side you’re on. For whatever reason, this is a lesson we haven’t learned. Even if there had been some genuine rationale for bragging about destroying a whole civilization, it doesn’t matter. The fact is this–though we’re pretty certain they never planned to build a nuke, we’ve given the Iranians ample reason to do so. We’ll bomb them when we want, and the mother fucker who did it gets to ooze his orange diarrhea all over the White House for the next two years. There is no justice in a world in which a mass murderer, rapist, pedophile faces no real consequences, while we kill leaders of other countries for no reason at all. Good job, SCOTUS on your wizardry–you transmuted a plumb into an orange turd.

When I was a kid, I had many friends from the World War Two generation. They knew Nazis were evil. Even the racist folks I knew. They believed in a better way. Now, people return to hate with hyenas like Musk, Bezos, and Zuck prodding them along. Dumbass Joe Rogan listeners who hate when their wives laugh at their tiny pricks. Change the channel, please.

We owe it to our victims to make restitution. Murder is murder, and one cannot simply call it “war” to justify it. People die everyday in this world for completely avoidable excuses. That must end, and it doesn’t matter who’s in power–hold their fucking feet to the Soldering iron.

My recommendation: Hand over our war criminals for trials under the UN Charter. Impeach and remove, and reassert sane policy.

Concluding Treat

As promised, here’s a treat you have to see to believe. Again, adult humor here, kiddos! This was a real exchange between the lunatic FBI head and a Trump-loving senator.