not that help.

I recently heard someone says something along the lines of…

I don’t need AI to create art so I have more time to do the dishes and laundry. I need AI to do the dishes and laundry so I have more time to create art.

And, yeah, if that isn’t the truth.

But, bigger, it does ask the question, where can we save time and what kind of time do we want to be saving?

We pay $9.99 for Amazon grocery deliveries. It’s at our door when we get home.

Ina Garten says why don’t you buy the pre-cubed squash for your soup.

Just a thought… what kind of help are we looking for in life? Have we even thought about it?

Fuck no.

I couldn’t agree more here.

“I saw a demo of AI and I thought that’s what people think animation is, giving prompts and the computer does it.  A.I. has demonstrated that it can do semi-compelling screensavers. That’s essentially that. The value of art is not how much it costs and how little effort it requires, it’s how much would you risk to be in its presence? What would you do to be int he presence of starry night at Museé d’Orsay? Would you go to Paris? Yes. Would you stand in line for three hours? Yes. And then you will have five minutes in which you will be monumentally moved by that. How much would people pay for those screensavers? Are they gonna make them cry because they lost a son? A mother? Because they misspent their youth? Fuck no. It’s not going to happen.”

Guillermo del Toro

window seats

So airlines are being sued because they sell window seats that don’t have windows. (I’ve had the unfortunate luck of being sat in a window seat without a window and it sucks.)

United has asked the judge to throw out the case because… are you ready for it….

A window seat does not mean there is a window.

Wait, what?

So, a window seat is just a seat next to the aisle seat.

My god, is this really the world we’re living in?

the sheriff brings it!

This old speech from David Harbour (from Stranger Things) has been going around and, wow, we need it all. Watch it, read it below.

“But this award from you, who take your craft seriously, and earnestly believe, like me, that great acting can change the world, is a call to arms for our fellow craftsmen and women to go deeper and, through our art, to battle against fear, self-centeredness and exclusivity of our predominantly narcissistic culture and through our craft to cultivate a more empathetic and understanding society... by revealing intimate truths that serve as a forceful reminder to folks that when they feel broken and afraid and tired, they are not alone. 

We are united in that we are all human beings and we are all together on this horrible, painful, joyous, exciting and mysterious ride that is being alive.

As we act in the continuing narrative of Stranger Things, we... will repel bullies, we will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home, we will get past the lies, we will hunt monsters, and when we are at a loss amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak, the disenfranchised, and we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy. We thank you for this responsibility.”

what is a christian?

If Trump is a Christian and Anthony DeMello was a Christian, I have no idea what the word even means.

Honestly. It’s completely worthless.

share…

If we’re not sharing, we’re screwed.

Sharing power.

Sharing wealth.

Sharing knowledge.

One of the key advancements of civilization was the advent of money - which allowed humans, for the first time, to specialize in something. We suddenly had experts. We had craftspeople. We had people who could dedicate their lives to something and if multiple people did that in different fields, we all excelled.

And now, we’re suddenly going backward. Power and wealth to a few and knowledge something everyone believe they have as much as the next person.

I don’t like any of this. At all.

sommelier

I was at a restaurant the other day and the sommelier came over and started telling us about how this wine would pair with this food… you know.

I eventually just looked at him and laughed. What does he know?

Yeah he studied for years, has tasted millions of wines, and taken tests that very few do, but, I mean, what could he possibly know that I don’t?

And this is the problem with the culture in our country right now.

More drugs

It’s been said way too many times but, for some reason, last night it really hit me.

Money and power are drugs.

But, think about it for a second. They really are.

As in, addictive, dangerous, destructive, and the more you get the more you tend to want.

I’m not saying that money is bad but I am saying that billionaires are addicts and to think they are someday going to just leave their addiction is a bit naive.

Yeah, AI is shit.

I’m truly starting to agree with our boy Vince, from Breaking Bad fame. Even if you don’t, it’s hard to argue his points.

"I hate AI. AI is the world’s most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine. I think there’s a very high possibility that this is all a bunch of horseshit. It’s basically a bunch of centibillionaires whose greatest life goal is to become the world’s first trillionaires. I think they’re selling a bag of vapor."

BIG America.

“In this country, size matters. Who but Americans (and not just the really rich ones) insist on living in houses with significantly more toilets than rear ends? Who but Americans would make the sports utility vehicle their default automobile in an age of climate change?

Who but Americans demand that their refrigerators have a shelf on the door wide enough to hold a gallon carton of milk?”

Read the rest here.

free electricity.

In Australia, they have so much solar electricity that they want to start offering it free to citizens at peak hours.

This, and a million other reasons (healthcare, gun control, tuition, wealth equality) are why, when people say America is the greatest nation on Earth, people laugh.

It’s not. At all. Not even close.

the greatest evil.

The greatest evil is making anyone feel as though they are not worthy. That’s it.

And that evil is more prevalent in religion than almost anywhere else.

Woke?

It’s a head scratcher that so many Christians are frightened and rebuke the notion of “woke” when the entirety of Advent is about waking up. In Mark 13 alone, Jesus says it six times.

Oh Father G, he’s just the best.

I’ve been a bit hard on “woke” myself because, like all things, it’s complicated and nuanced but I will say that if “woke” means “waking up” then I don’t know how anyone can be against it?

Relativism…

You’ll hear the structure, the system, and those leading it, often talk about relativisim as though it’s some kind of evil. We must guard against it?

My question: isn’t relativism just acknowledging complexity, nuance, and change? If truth is absolute - and never changes - then, wow, doesn’t that mean we can’t?

It’s kind of mind boggling that this word that acknowledges all the things that we inherently know to be true about life, has become such a bad word in the certain systems - but, then again, I guess it’s not, because they want things to stay the same as they’ve always been - with them in charge.

Oh Hafiz…

“I have come into the world to see this: the sword drop from men’s hands even at the height of their arc of rage because we have finally realized there is just one flesh we can wound.”

Hafiz. Damn you, that is so good.

mystic politics.

I’m a fan of the mystics - this is not a surprise to anyone.

But, I’m recently realizing I’m also a fan of mystic politics.

In other words, the politics that

a) act as though we’re all tied together

b) acknowledge nuance and mystery

c) value being present and wonder and curiosity

d) resist wealth and power

e) value love over fear, compassion over retribution, and waking up over being hypnotized to sleep.

Yes, I think I’m more Independent than Democrat or Republican, because neither of those parties are all that mystic but, when weighing the Mystic scales, that’ll be the one I vote for.

the goal?

Bernie said it recently (yes, I’m on a Bernie kick) and he asked what is the goal of life? The purpose?

Is it to live well, to live happy, to enjoy life or is it wealth and power?

Of course, we would all say it’s the first, but how much of our life - the actual actions that make of our lives - point that way? Are we really pursuing wellness, wholeness, happiness, and enjoyment (in the purest senses) or are we pursuing wealth and power?

Worth thinking on, I suppose, especially when we’re in a society run by people pursuing wealth and power.

communism, socialism, nordics…

I posted this to Reddit yesterday. So might as well keep track of it here too.

—

Ok, go easy on me. Please.

I get so confused and (almost) sucked into the love of associating all 3 of the above words together that I have to go through this exercise every few months to remind myself of some things. And given Mamdani in NYC, it seems especially relevant - although it always is.

Again, please, I'm throwing this out for people to say where I'm right or wrong because I may not be that smart, but I'm smart enough to know this is all very complex and nuanced and my opinions are certainly wrong somewhere.

1. Communism is not socialism. (The Communist Manifesto is an interesting read.)

2. Communism has no official state. The state has dissolved into nothing as it's no longer necessary... it is the "final" expression of socialism, according to Marx.

3. Socialism is not Nordic Social Democracy.

4. Socialism is ownership of the means of production (wealth and power) by the workers with the state still functioning.

5. Nordic Social Democracy is capitalism with some caveats (but all forms of capitalism that have been attempted has caveats).

6. Nordic Social Democracy has lots of guard rails (in part guard rails to keep the flow of wealth and power moving to a broader group than a smaller group.)

7. Nordic Social Democracy has loads of safety nets (universal healthcare, free education, etc…)

8.Just repeating #5. Nordic Social Democracy is capitalism. All the Nordic countries have tons of millionaires, billionaires, and private capital.

9. Communism, as defined by Marx, has never really been attempted.

10. Communism as defined by the U.S.S.R., was a miserable failure. Socialism, in Venezuela as well.

11. Communism, as defined by Marx, is ownership of the means of production by the workers... and the state dissolves. See #2.

12. Communism, as tried, was, and has been (Venezuela included) state ownership which means, really, the government and its rich friends owned everything and had all the power.

13. Most forms of communism that we’ve seen are, in many ways, actually oligarchies. (Getting scary here.)

14. Oligarchies are the vast majority of wealth and power in the hands of a few.

15. Arguably, this is the U.S. or at least where we're headed fast. A very small number of companies own most of every other company. A very few media companies run the vast majority of media. A very small percent of the population own the vast majority of the wealth which often funds elections, etc… and leads to a lot of power. One could argue the U.S. is operating very similar to communism with just different branding on the wealthy and powerful class. (I know this is a big statement and probably an exaggeration but you get the idea.)

16. Which is ironic, because this is what Marx (who kinda came up with the idea of communism) warned about: capitalism leads to the wealthy owning most of the power and the state serving the wealthy and why his answer was socialism and eventually communism.

17. Which is ironic, because those in power (Democrats and Republicans) are threatened by anything which could chip at their power and wealth and thus run from words that contain "social" like vampires run from sunlight.

18. Which is why it seems they either a) ignore it (like Democrats) or b) call it communism (like Republicans). Both are scared of it and come up with different ways to make sure it doesn't take real foothold of power.

19. Which is why we’re at where we’re at with all these words.

20. Fire departments and Social Security are examples of social democratic programs already operating in the U.S... that are pretty great. There are many others - cancer research, hospitals, much of the stuff being defunded lately that most Americans like.

21. The vast majority of Americans want universal healthcare, free tuition (we used to have this), higher taxes on the extremely wealthy (we used to have this) and services provided by the government.

22. The vast majority of Americans want Nordic style social democracies and yet…

23. Our leaders (on both sides) never really do much for either because, again, they are funded by the wealthy who own all the power and wealth and it would threaten their own power and wealth, because we're closer all the time to an oligarchy.

24. All of this to say, Mamdani is not even anywhere near a communist.

25. All of this to say, if you’re not a billionaire, and you work, and you live in the U.S., and you’re not threatened, and you understand words, you really should be all for a Nordic style of social democracy. Which is maybe why Mamdani has gotten the support he has out of the blue.

Again, love for you all to correct me where I'm right and wrong and I can further try to understand and differentiate the complexities.

acknowledge the problems.

Happy Election Day. I’ve been listening to Bernie Sanders on Trevor Noah’s podcast and (along with lots of other voices) it really is starting to come together. How did Trump win?

He won the same way every demagogue wins: first, he talks about the actual problems. This is the Democrats first mistake. They don’t talk about actual issues that Americans face, and instead focus on peripheral stuff. Second, he offers solutions. The solution is to blame a minor group of people that can’t really defend themselves but at least it’s a solution. This is the Democrats second mistake. They simply side with the group of people being targeted instead of talking about the fact that they are not the actual problem - but they won’t really talk about the problem in the first place anyway - so, it would be hard to talk about solutions.

But both sides suck, because both sides are inherently tied to money and power that come from corporations and big donors and both are threatened by anyone or anything that might take that power. This is the Democrats final mistake: they act exactly like Republicans and bow at the throne of money and power.

He references Mamdani a lot. You have a young, progressive whom people are coming out in droves for and the Democratic establishment won’t support him because he threatens them and their power.

Of course, all of this is contained within the facts of massive inequality in this nation that gets progressively worse every year and gives more power to the rich to control everything.

Listen to the whole thing. It’s sobering, for sure. No real easy way outs. I’m not sure there is any way out?

But it sure as hell doesn’t make me want to be a Republican. Or Democrat.

that’s a small tree.

Yeah is that kind of critique that is absolutely pointless. Why thank you, I just planted it and it’s growing.

Beware of critiques that come without the ideas of time and, worse, come with some expectation of an action because the idea of time is absent.

In other words, never listen to someone who says to cut down the tree because it’s too small. Listen to those that understand trees take some time to grown and recommend water and sunlight instead.