Further to the Foregoing
08:49 Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 1.33°F Pressure: 1027hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 11.72mph
Words: 223
Two weeks ago, I posted The Fourth Reich.
Today it occurred to me that Tom Homan is a good fit for Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA, the Brownshits, er, I mean Brownshirts. It seems CBP is little more than a militia loyal to Donald Trump, and, like Rohm, Homan doesn't have an "official" position within the administration. The SA was a party organization.
The video is a bit tedious to listen to, but it is informative and you'd do well to watch the whole thing. I started it at Rohm's introduction.
It's not a perfect fit, nothing ever is. But again, history doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme.
A day after The Fourth Reich piece, I posted All Nazis All the Time, where I mentioned:
ICE detention centers are concentration camps people!
So I was pleased to hear Heather Cox Richardson say the same thing in last night's Politic's Chat. She makes her concerns very clear, and says far more than my claim, which I view as merely a blinding glimpse of the obvious.
There are still people who stop listening or reading if you make any reference to Nazi Germany or Hitler in comments about the Trump administration. Not all of them are MAGA, some of them are just unwilling to believe the evidence before their very eyes. They're fools.
✍️ Reply by emailSnow Cone
Current Wx: Temp: 0.01°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 10.25mphWords: 2
Palate cleanser.
✍️ Reply by emailthe marmot is not on strike
07:15 Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.16°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 10.25mph
Words: 95
Because the marmot is not an economic activity.
So I'm here scratching personal itches, and maybe providing a moment of distraction for those who may have some free time disengaged from the economic activity of the state.
If you're looking for some tips on becoming a better member of the resistance, look no further than Beardy Guy Musings. Guy's pretty hardcore. Maybe not as hardcore as Stephen Miller, (strong Goebbels' "total war" speech energy there), but pretty hardcore.
If you're shopping for gas masks tomorrow, Kottke posted a link to this guide from The Verge.
✍️ Reply by emailBetteridge's Law of Headlines
07:11 Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.16°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 10.25mph
Words: 25
Does Tim Cook even care about Apple’s image anymore?
History will not be kind to Tim Cook.
Capitalism destroys your soul. Consumes it. Annihilates it.
✍️ Reply by emailChain of Events
06:29 Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.41°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 10.33mph
Words: 283
I was thinking about how I was going to be buying books going forward. I buy a lot of used books from eBay, which is just a front-end for a lot of online used book sellers anyway. But sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for as a used book. I looked around and Barnes and Noble is online, as is BAM (Books-a-Million). Made a mental note of that and stopped thinking about where I was going to buy new books.
Then I read this piece in Kottke (who is observing the general strike today), which led to this piece in Vox, which led to this article in The Atlantic (link may or may not "work" as I'm copying the "free" link from Vox). But also in the Vox piece was a link to the book it's about, The Dual State, which you will note is a link to bookshop.org.
Now I know where I'm going to buy my new books.
I've set up a bookshop.org account, and named a bookstore in Ithaca as the one I wish to support. I've also ordered The Dual State (yesterday). The last book I ordered from Amazon, last week, is supposed to arrive today. It was Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics Sixth Edition, by Alfred Korzybski, which is the book that gave us, "The map is not the territory," and which influenced Dr. Douglas E. Kelley, which I learned about from The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, which was the basis of the movie Nuremberg.
Everything is connected.
And I'm beginning to develop a genuine problem with where I'm going to put all these books.
✍️ Reply by emailDelete Amazon
05:59 Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 1.17°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 10.33mph
Words: 232
Slept better last night than the one before, though my Apple Watch still bitched at me that I wasn't doing it right.
Anyway, while I was awake I wondered what I could do as part of the "general strike," to convey some sort of signal that I'm not ok with what's going on.
When I canceled Prime, I don't know how much that conveys to Amazon corporate. They probably track those metrics, but they probably don't obsess over them since it's a yearly subscription fee, and most people probably "get over it," and re-up. So, what could I do that might be more of a signal that I was done with Amazon.
Then it dawned on me.
Delete the app.
It's not that strong a signal, because you could always still use the browser. But I suspect the Amazon app is just infested with as much spyware as they can get past Apple, which is probably more than we know.
If a lot of people deleted the Amazon app on their phones, that might be a signal they might receive.
So, I deleted the app and I'm putting this out into the ether.
Maybe you can't stay home from your job. Maybe you have to buy gas or milk or whatever. But how much inconvenience is it to delete the Amazon app?
I say go for it.
And fuck Jeff Bezos.
✍️ Reply by emailStreets of Minneapolis The Boss
13:31 Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 16.84°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 13.76mph
Words: 43
Mental Health Break
11:19 Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 13.73°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 14.5mph
Words: 249
This video was remarkable, to me, for many reasons. First, it's just sort of the opposite of nearly all of the other stuff I've been watching recently.
Second, I love stories about farming. It's kind of a new thing, but certainly related to the kinds of things I learned when I was on the St Johns County Soil and Water Conservation District and the history of soil conservation; but most recently, moving to a farming region very similar to where I grew up.
Third, it's very well done. It's calming visually, and the narration is informed and interesting.
Fourth, it's about New York, where I'm still kind of settling into my relationship with the people and the landscape. This place feels so much different, and better, than Florida. Florida has some very lovely places, but it's all being destroyed, despite the vigorous efforts of very dedicated people. I think New York has some respect for nature, the landscape. Perhaps that's only because it hasn't been subjected to the same developmental pressures that places in the Sun Belt have experienced. It's good that there are cold winters here. Cold limits the spread of pests and parasites.
This is a video about an Asian-American farmer growing food for Asian-Americans, and people who love Asian food. It's a wonderful story, and something of a tonic for the soul. It's 14 minutes out of your life that will leave you feeling calmer, somewhat hopeful and maybe just a little bit joyful.
✍️ Reply by emailSnow 1-28-26
09:12 Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 6.93°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 11.12mphWords: 319
Shot this yesterday with the iPhone over by the garage. I liked the contrast and texture. Feels like winter.
Another sleepless night.
Part of the reason may be that Mitzi and I have started working out with a personal trainer again. He has a full-time job, so we can only work with him on weekends and after five on weekdays, so yesterday's session was at 5:30. Got home a little before seven. Leg day yesterday. Knees are complaining this morning.
I'm shocked by the rhetoric from right-wing media. I should unsubscribe from Media Matters for America. Part of me wants to believe that I shouldn't look away; but a bigger part is just reactive in a very negative way. There seem to be people who want more violence, who want more conflict. And there is no national leadership to try to tamp down the incendiary rhetoric.
Part of me wants to believe this is a kind of "extinction burst" - type phenomenon, though I'm not comfortable with that kind of framing, coming from an area of which I have little knowledge. It does seem congruent with, "It gets worse before it gets better," which is nearly tautological, as the slope of the curve remains negative until it reaches an inflection point of some kind. And we've been here before, many of us believing that January 6, 2020 was the inflection point we were waiting for. Today it feels like Alex Pretti's murder should be that inflection point, but it doesn't appear as though it will be.
I've written to my congresswoman, who is a hard-core MAGA supporter, so I know it's just a pointless effort in futility.
I write blog posts in my head as I lie away at night, but when I finally get out of bed I seem to lack the energy or the enthusiasm to commit them to bits.
Maybe later, we'll see.
✍️ Reply by emailProfiles in Courage
19:08 Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 8.2°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 69% Wind: 3.83mph
Words: 108
"I think if we are serious about putting our faith in action, we need to say 'no,' each one of us," Tobin said. What saying "no" looks like today, he continued, is by telling the truth about what is happening and honoring those whose lives are upended.
"One way that we say 'no' is that we mourn, we do not celebrate death, and, what is probably worse, we do not pretend it doesn't happen. We say names. We pray for the dead," Tobin said. "We mourn for a world, a country, that allows 5-year-olds to be legally kidnapped and protesters to be slaughtered."✍️ Reply by email
Montour Falls 1-28-26
13:55 Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 16.3°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 54% Wind: 8.21mphWords: 32
Got my hair cut today then went to Montour to shoot the falls. Beautiful sunny day. Cold, but no wind, so it was nice.
If it weren't for nature, I'd go nuts.
✍️ Reply by emailProfiles in Courage
12:57 Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 15.1°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 56% Wind: 10.22mph
Words: 148
Patrick J. Schiltz, Chief Judge, United States District Court, District of Minneapolis.
It is important to emphasize that what the U.S. Attorney requested is unheard of in our district or, as best as I can tell, any other district in the Eighth Circuit. I have surveyed all of our judges —some of whom have been judges in our District for over 40 years —and no one can remember the government asking a district judge to review amagistrate judge's denial of an arrest warrant. I have also surveyed the chief judges of all of the districts in the Eighth Circuit. I have heard back from almost all of them, and all of those responding have said that, to their knowledge, no district judge has ever reviewed the decision of a magistrate judge to deny an arrest warrant.
Read the whole thing.
And then read this.
Seriously.
Read it.
✍️ Reply by emailProfiles In Courage
12:50 Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 15.1°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 56% Wind: 10.22mph
Words: 22
Stella Carlson, an articulate spokesperson for the truth, and a brave woman who stood her ground with a whistle and a phone.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Boss
12:35 Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 14.11°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 11.34mph
Words: 41
Cancel Prime
07:49 Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 6.06°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 9.26mph
Words: 185
I canceled Prime this morning. Now, it's not as satisfactory or satisfying as canceling a month-to-month in subscription, since it's paid a year in advance. So it'll effectively be canceled in May.
Fuck Amazon. Fuck Bezos. Fuck anyone making shows to air on Prime.
It's not just Melania's vanity project, apparently AWS hosts the database of "domestic terrorists" these ICE and CBP cretins have been populating with the personal information of all the protesters they've been seizing and then releasing. Read Heather Cox Richardson's piece from last night.
I've been buying from Amazon less than in years past. I'm confident that I can get by without Amazon in my life. It'll be a little more inconvenient, maybe a bit more expensive, but... (and I type three periods just to piss off the typography "plain text" prima donnas)
Fuck Bezos. Fuck Amazon. Fuck Prime. Fuck DHS. Fuck ICE. Fuck Trump.
Will that get me a record in the NSPM-7 database?
Free speech? It's on life support. If we want to keep what's left of it, we're going to have to fight for it.
✍️ Reply by emailTaughannock Falls 1-27-26
14:09 Tuesday, 27 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 12.9°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 60% Wind: 12.73mphWords: 712
I had to get out of the house today. The sun was shining and it was beautiful around 9:30 when I decided to drive to Taughannock and take some pictures of the frozen falls. It took me 30 minutes to get dressed. Two pairs of long underwear, three pairs of socks, insulated boots, sweatshirt, down vest, and winter parka. Felt like I was wearing a spacesuit once I was finished.
As these things go, the clouds had rolled in by the time I got to the overlook, where this shot was taken. They plow the driveway, but not the parking lot. Fortunately, there was only one other person there when I got there, so I just left the Maverick in the driveway.
You get to the overlook first, before you reach the lower falls entrance, and I wasn't sure the trail was going to be open. You could see footprints down below though, so after I took a few shots at the overlook, I drove on down to the lower park.
The ticket machine was out of order, and a park employee was there working on the bathrooms. He said it was my lucky day, so that saved me about $10.
I parked the Mav and began walking through the snow to the trail. There was about 14"-16" of snow in the field, but the trail itself had been plowed. My lower back was barking at me from yesterday's snow shoveling exercise, but I pressed on.
I only encountered one other hiker on the way to the falls, and he was carrying a tripod on his shoulder, so another photographer, naturally. Took some shots along the way. I'll put some up on Flickr later.
There were a few points where I left the trail and trudged through the snow to get a different composition. The clouds were disappointing, but the ice was amazing. There's a lot more water in the stream bed in winter, and most of it was frozen.
When I got to the falls, the bridge was cleared but the far side wasn't. A lot of folks had been there before, so it wasn't like I was breaking new snow. It was very cold, around 10°F, and the snow crunched underfoot. Other than that, it was silent except for the few places where you could hear running water.
I took several shots, and noticed the battery on the E-M1X was complaining that it was low. I noticed it was only about 60% when I left, and the cold kind of reduces the voltage as well. So I didn't mess around too much at the falls.
For some unknown reason, trudging through the snow near the falls seemed to stretch out the knots in my back. By the time I got back over the bridge, my back felt fine. There was a bench there, so I did a few stretches on it as well. It felt much easier hiking back than it did the other way. Ran into an old man trudging up the trail. Didn't look dressed enough for the cold, and he wasn't carrying a camera. But he said hello and kept on his way. Near the end I ran into a young couple just starting out. Other than that, it was a pretty solitary affair.
I had to do something for my mental health. I think if the sun had stayed out, I'd have enjoyed it more. But it was still good to be outdoors. The snow is still fresh and everything is beautiful. I'd been telling myself that I needed to get out there and get some shots while the falls were frozen before it warmed up again, and I'm glad I did. I'd be kicking myself if I hadn't.
I've got an appointment for a haircut tomorrow before lunch. After the haircut I plan to run over to Montour Falls with the E-M1X and get some shots there. I won't have to hike in a mile either, I could do it from the road, but it's a short walk to the base of the falls from the street. The I think I'll have some lunch at Jerlando's Pizza.
Clouds notwithstanding, it was a beautiful drive and hike. Glad I did it.
✍️ Reply by emailFurther to the Foregoing
08:49 Monday, 26 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 10.92°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 68
We never lost power. The fiber blipped for a few minutes, switched to iPhone hot spot and kept right on doom-scrolling. Basically just hunkered down and read and watched YouTube.
Started watching Steal on Prime last night. After we finish that, I'm going to cancel Prime because fuck Jeff Bezos. Apparently ICE uses AWS and Prime is platforming Mrs. Trump's vanity project and fuck that shit too.
✍️ Reply by emailNot So Bad
Current Wx: Temp: 9.91°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 4.43mphWords: 224
Just got back in from shoveling snow and spreading some salt. 10°F, but shoveling snow will still make you work up a sweat. My toes were still cold. Some fancy Sorel insulated boots and two pairs of alpaca socks and they're still cold. Had the kid come by and plow out the driveway. I went out to pay him, clear the porch and the garage door, get the snow off the Maverick (there was a lot of it), and put some salt down on the porch. Moved the Mav over to the plowed area, but probably didn't need to. I'd shoveled a lot of the snow out from around the front tires, and the part that piled up behind it from the plow. It backed right out. Pulled forward into the cleared area, making sure Mitzi has room to get the RAV4 out of the garage.
I'd say we only got about 8 inches of accumulation, higher and lower where the light winds made it drift. I could still make out the grass on much of the lawn. Looks like there's a rabbit under the shed, could see from the tracks where it goes under.
And of course, it's snowing again. Coming down pretty good too. I don't think we'll have to plow again, but who knows.
"It never snows here anymore."
Hysterical.
✍️ Reply by emailChatGPT on Empathy
06:40 Sunday, 25 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 6.19°F Pressure: 1033hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 7.34mph
Words: 89
Another bout of insomnia, wrestling with why a significant portion of the population is totally okay with agents of the federal government openly executing an American citizen on the streets of an American city.
I've never tried this before, sharing a "chat" session, but I thought the responses were informative, reasonable and not especially delusional. So here's a link to that session, I don't know how it'll appear, or if you have to have an account.
Some things to think about.
As if I needed any more of those.
✍️ Reply by emailStand With Minneapolis
15:49 Saturday, 24 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 9°F Pressure: 1039hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 7.36mph
Words: 17
If you want to help, here's a web page that has consolidated a number of crowdfunding efforts.
✍️ Reply by emailICE Nazis Murder Another American Citizen
15:29 Saturday, 24 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 9.23°F Pressure: 1039hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 8.08mph
Words: 66
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse, was murdered by masked agents of ICE today in Minneapolis. Look for the videos. It's murder. An American citizen with no criminal record, with a license to carry a firearm, who did not pull his weapon, was executed by agents of the federal government on the streets of Minneapolis.
Thirty-five percent of Americans will look the other way.
✍️ Reply by emailNazis Walk Among Us
06:18 Saturday, 24 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 0.01°F Pressure: 1039hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 10.96mph
Words: 211
There's nothing wrong with being a white christian ethno-nationalist, I guess. I mean, "at least it's an ethos." The problem comes when these knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers get some power. Then the relentless stupidity of performative cruelty takes the stage as these micro-penises strut and shout and scream to assert their "master race" credentials.
This made me laugh, "CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER!"
They brutalize the marginalized, they harass and harangue their opponents. The only thing we have going for us is the fact that they are mostly incompetent. Not stupid, per se. Incompetent.
They message for their "true believers," which isn't the majority. They message for the people who will never leave them. There are, apparently, a little more than a third of Americans who are totally onboard with the end of democracy and a return to Jim Crow.
I mean, any time you send J.D. Vance out to do damage control, you have no idea what "damage control" means.
It's sickening that one out of every three Americans is ok with concentration camps, and would probably be willing to look the other way if genocide became an agenda item.
But, well, we've all got to get along, right?
Sure.
"I was a good German."
Sure.
✍️ Reply by email"Friction" considered useful
07:42 Friday, 23 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 17.91°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 11.16mph
Words: 858
Loren Stephens also commented on the toxic nature of "social" media.
During my period of unwelcome wakefulness last night, I thought a bit about life before "social" media, and thought I'd expand a bit on what I meant about "a broadcast technology with instantaneous reach and symmetric bandwidth."
These twitter-like platforms, with their users who include highly connected nodes, do represent a form of "broadcast" media. If you've managed to say something provocative, or otherwise stimulating, it gets shared and you can't control who shares it. If it reaches a highly-connected node, it risks going "viral." Sometimes this is thrilling. Other times it's terrifying. I have no idea which experience predominates, but it seems as though everyone longs for "virality," a thought that spreads like a contagion.
Before the advent of social media, there were no broadcast-scale technologies available to everyone. Maybe the most the average person could hope for would be a 'zine. Or maybe a good chain letter. Oh, the evil that would befall he who broke the chain!
So when someone wrote something especially provocative in the editorial page of the local paper, let's say for the sake of argument that 100K people received it. Maybe 20K read the piece. Maybe 2K thought it was outrageous at some level. Of those 2K how many made the effort to get a piece of paper, a pen, an envelope and postage stamp, and sent a reply to the editor of the paper? 200? 100? 50? 10? Beats me, I don't know.
And of those replies, how many got published in the "letters to the editor"? One? Two? And of the original text of the reply, how much was unedited by the editor?
Maybe the author of the original piece that prompted the response got to see all those replies. I don't know how that worked. But they didn't appear in their home. They received them at work, if they received them at all. Maybe some of them included death threats.
When did the replies appear? Instantaneously? No. Days later. Maybe weeks. Months in the case of monthly magazines.
Once the letter was printed, how many people read it? How many clipped it for their "personal knowledge management," or to assemble "the receipts"? Chances are the whole thing was forgotten within a couple of days.
All of that was a consequence of the limited resources of a dead-tree broadcast technology. There were similar processes for over-the-air broadcast technologies, with perhaps higher barriers or tighter constraints.
But we democratized media. Anyone can be a journalist, a broadcaster, an editor. Anyone can search for, and save (forever), provocative things uttered online by anyone. It is never forgotten.
This democratization of the "power" of technology was supposed to be a good thing. How's that working out?
I'm too lazy to check, but I wonder if the incidence of police-involved killings has decreased since the advent of the "smart" phone and social media? Call me cynical, but I rather think not. I would compare it with a similar period after the video of the Rodney King beating. Are there parallels?
I think we can thank smart phones for the widespread introduction of body-worn cameras, when they're turned on anyway. Has that reduced the incidence of police-involved shootings? I don't know, but I'd say that's a second-order effect of the smart phone that can be considered a "positive."
"Social" media was born with the BBSs in the 80s. I don't know, but I suspect that's where the term "flame war" originated.
We removed the friction to respond to something instantly, even at 300 baud at $.05 per minute. It introduced the relative anonymity of online handles, and a the notion that a "person" was little more little than the manifestation of words on a screen. All the "social" cues we'd learned and embodied over millennia were missing, and our id was unleashed. (Should make some pop-culture reference to Forbidden Planet here.)
I've argued for some time that we need to establish some form of "public health" system for "online communities," and I use the word "community" advisedly. We have hygiene standards for public places. They have bathrooms, bathrooms have handwashing facilities. We used to require vaccinations for highly communicable diseases. We have ways of transporting, treating and disposing of human waste. They're imperfect, but they're a world a way from the days of dumping your chamber pot into the street, which is the experience we have today with "social media," and everyone dumping their shit into the "public square online."
A branch of mental health that focuses on "social hygiene," how to get along with other people in a world where the place you encounter the most people is this disembodied experience of being terminally "online."
But that's not likely in my lifetime. And I think civilization has begun its decent and we won't be making any "improvements" anymore. It'll be mostly inadequate efforts at "damage control."
"Know thyself." We invented a technology with zero knowledge or insight into how people would behave with it.
We're learning, but it's much too late.
✍️ Reply by emailWhy "Social" Media Sucks
12:39 Thursday, 22 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 30.56°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 15.28mph
Words: 324
I wish I had the patience and discipline to write like AKMA describes. But, them's the breaks.
Yesterday, Manuel Morales wrote a post called Moral false dichotomies. I read it. Got pretty exercised. Thought about writing a post called Godwin's Law Has Been Repealed (By Executive Order).
I didn't, because, well, I'm exhausted. I thought his extreme "example" exhibited poor judgment. I don't know where the majority of his audience resides, but it certainly didn't seem like he "read the room," if he was considering Americans.
I also understood the point he was trying, and mostly failing, to make. And it's a familiar lament, it has been done to death, and from my perspective the only value in his writing about it would be to scratch his particular, momentary, itch. Yes, people are intolerant, judgmental, prone to making assumptions or snap judgments, yada, yada, yada, and the internet has only amplified that deficiency in human nature.
Today he wrote about the completely foreseeable, inevitable, reaction and complained about it. Dude, get real. You asked for it. Here's the thread he's complaining about, if you didn't click through the previous link.
This is on a mastodon instance, I guess. I don't know. You know, the "social media" platform without a platform vendor that was going to solve all the problems of Twitter.
The "problem" isn't Twitter, or X, or "platforms" in general. It's people. Especially when people's interactions are mediated by a broadcast technology with instantaneous reach and symmetric bandwidth. This is the bullshit that happens, because people have not evolved to "know how to act" in that kind of environment. And that weakness can be, and is, exploited by faithless actors. Even absent faithless actors, you get train wrecks like this, which may have been Manuel's wish all along. I have no idea, but the whole thing looks sketchy to me.
"I pick bad examples."
Right.
The captain had something to say about that.
✍️ Reply by emailA Light Dusting
08:54 Thursday, 22 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 30.33°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 15.14mphWords: 377
It's a balmy 29°F out there, and the sun is shining for now. Windy though. Stepped out the side door to snap this shot to have something to post. It's pretty out there.
The cold snap is coming. I don't know if there'll be snow, or how much, but it will be cold. I'm going to be charging all the batteries to 100%, though at temperatures below zero, I'm not sure the mini-split will be of any utility. I don't think we'll lose power, we're not going to be having freezing rain, but who knows? I'll probably bump the in-floor radiant heating system up to 70° to heat up the slab for a bit of thermal mass. We can't run that system on batteries, it draws up to 12KW, and the batteries can only surge to 8KW.
Anyway, not worried. Should be fine.
Our enfeebled "chief executive" continues to embarrass us and alienate our friends and allies. His cult of sycophants and lickspittles degrade themselves trying to justify and rationalize his behavior. In any rational universe, well, Donald Trump wouldn't be president, but, otherwise, this conduct would precipitate a Twenty-fifth Amendment crisis. But we don't live in a rational universe.
Saw a piece in The Atlantic about Trump Exhaustion Syndrome. Something that stood out to me, and just added to that weight in the pit of my stomach, was the observation that Trump's 2016 election was viewed by many as something of an aberration. Now it appears that Biden's election was the aberration, and this is just what America is today. Ignorant, bigoted, hateful and divorced from democracy, decency and the rule of law.
Maybe so. Can't say it's not.
Anyway, if you want to do something positive, and imagine yourself flipping the bird to Vladimir Putin while you're doing it, you can send some bucks to the fine people at Pizza for Ukraine. It's a very hard winter for those folks, and your dollars won't be buying pizza, but trying to buy generators and batteries and the like. I've donated several times, most recently this morning. It's just something I can send out into the universe that says I want to help, and fuck Vladimir Putin.
Fuck Donald Trump too.
Carry on.
✍️ Reply by emailSo Far, So Good
10:15 Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 14.72°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 11.16mph
Words: 374
Fixing the marmot gives me something to do in the morning in lieu of doom-scrolling. I think I've got every January in the archive fixed now. Discovered that I had somehow re-exported January 2024 with the corrupted dates, and uploaded it to the server. I'm going to try to remedy that now.
We went to a middle school robotics exhibition or program yesterday evening. Our neighbors home-school their children, but they involve them in a lot of community activities. There isn't a lot of STEM emphasis in the local school district, so some teachers have taken it upon themselves to create extracurricular activities with a STEM focus, one of which is the high school robotics team. We met the coaches last night.
They've been trying to get middle-schoolers engaged, because it's easier to interest them early, before they encounter all the distractions of high school. These middle-school parents, home-schoolers and public alike, stepped up and created a team, and last night was the culmination of this year's effort.
There are organized competitions, but since this was their first year they decided they wanted to give a presentation for the experience, rather than compete.
I was impressed with what they accomplished, and learned that they're resource challenged. I haven't been doing a lot of "giving" since we moved here, partly to save money for the new house, but also to discover what organizations I'd like to support. This is one of the first. I'm going to give them $500 to help them get their equipment updated. There are also entry fees, the yearly "challenge" setup and so on, so $500 won't underwrite the whole effort, but it should give them a significant leg up.
The kids were great, and it was nice meeting the high school coaches. They tried to rope me into volunteering, but I said I served my time as a den leader and assistant scoutmaster. I'm happy to support them financially; but I'm not sure I have the emotional resources to cope with a weekly group encounter with middle-school energy. It's probably a character deficiency, but I'd rather cheer them on from the sidelines than get in the trenches with them.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailTonight's Show
20:02 Tuesday, 20 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 9.66°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 12.17mphWords: 67
These seem somewhat better than yesterday's, with the green below the red, though overall there's probably less activity.
Got the tripod out. No wind, but it was 10°F and my fingers were numb by the time I got the camera secured to the tripod head. This is a 4s exposure at ISO 6400. I have no idea what I'm doing, but it seems like it worked.
✍️ Reply by emailRepairs
09:08 Tuesday, 20 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 8.01°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 12.88mph
Words: 345
There's only so much doom-scrolling I can tolerate, so I have to distract myself. I'm working on fixing the broken pieces of the marmot.
Just how something could alter "system" attributes (uneditable by the user) remains a mystery. I believe Tinderbox uses Unix time, counting "ticks" since 1 January 1970. Whatever happened to the marmot happened to both the system attribute $Created, and the user attribute $PublicationDate, which should be identical in nearly all cases. (There may have been instances when I altered $PublicationDate for some reason, but that would be rare.)
Anyway, there are two discrepancies. One changes the date and time backward 12 days and 20 hours. The other advances the time 12 hours, so it's relatively simple, if tedious, making the manual corrections to $PublicationDate. It's fairly inconsistent which notes are affected and when, so no clues there.
I'm cleaning up some other bits and pieces here and there. I've made copies of the marmot at various stages, so I can get back to a version before I started "fixing" it if I have to. I also bought a 4TB SSD to use as a Time Machine backup, which is online this morning.
There are pieces that are broken at the moment, but I should get them fixed fairly soon. Hopefully.
Once I'm fairly confident I have everything squared away, I'm going to make a backup of all the archives on the server, store those somewhere, then export the whole thing again. Stuff like On This Day... should work correctly thereafter.
While I was at Mom's I talked with Mitzi about just abandoning the whole project. I'm fed up with the internet and the kinds of interactions it facilitates, and the emotions it engenders in me. I get tired of "fixing" things that work one day and don't work the next, yesterday's mystery script failure being the most recent example.
Anyway, here I am, trying to fix the marmot rather than abandon it. I'm not confident it's the right thing to do. It's probably more of habit now than anything else.
✍️ Reply by emailMonsters on Maple Street
08:38 Tuesday, 20 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 5.79°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 12.03mph
Words: 637
(Note that it's 6°F outside!)
I'm past the executions of the Nazi war criminals in The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII, by Jack El-Hai, which was the basis for the recent movie, Nuremberg.
Toward the end of the movie, there's a scene where Dr. Kelley is drunk on a radio or TV program, explaining that there was nothing "unique" about the Nazis. I suspected the quote came from the book, and I finally got to last night. It's not, apparently, from a radio or TV program, but that's no surprise. Anywhere, here's the quote:
They are people who exist in every country of the world. Their personality patterns are not obscure. But they are people who have peculiar drives, people who want to be in power, and you say that they don’t exist here, and I would say that I am quite certain that there are people even in America who would willingly climb over the corpses of half of the American public if they could gain control of the other half, and these are the people who today are just talking—who are utilizing the rights of democracy in anti-democratic fashion.
He had some other interesting observations. Apparently, Hitler was worried that he might have stomach cancer, yet refused diagnostic tests to rule it out. As a result, he was rushing to complete his agenda, lest he die before it was achieved.
Many important decisions were made hurriedly and put into effect equally as hurriedly.” Kelley had learned, for example, that Hitler told Göring in 1941 that a planned attack on the Soviet Union had to take place immediately because his stomach was getting worse; the Führer feared he had stomach cancer and that he might soon die.
Sound familiar? Trump's public speculation on whether or not he'd get into heaven? Reports he'd had a stroke may have prompted his reflections on his mortality.
Also, the despicable nature of the people who associate themselves with Trump?
The leaders “were not special types,” he wrote. “Their personality patterns indicate that, while they are not socially desirable individuals, their like could very easily be found in America” or elsewhere.
"Not socially desirable individuals." Truth.
“They all worked for incredibly long hours, slept very little, and devoted their whole lives to the problem of Nazifying the world,” he observed. “They worked slavishly and fanatically. It’s too bad,” Kelley added almost ruefully, “we don’t have that much energy to spare in making democracy work.” In addition, Kelley discovered, the Nazis focused on the ends of their labors and did not much care about the means that made them happen. Those ends varied from Nazi to Nazi and ranged from furthering the spread of Nazism to achieving personal power and glory.
The whole thing sounds like the Trump White House.
And there's this:
At Mondorf and Nuremberg, Kelley had interviewed Hitler’s associates, physicians, secretaries, and anyone else with intimate knowledge of the Nazi leader’s life. He determined that “Hitler had a profound conviction of his own ability, amounting to megalomania. He firmly believed that he was the only individual who could lead the Third Reich to success, and at times he seemed to feel that he had been chosen by Heaven for this task.” Anyone who crossed Hitler faced the leader’s fearsome rage. To Kelley, it was not inconsistent with such megalomania that Hitler in private was often kind and soft-spoken with his staff; polite to women, children, and the elderly; and a lover of good food and other simple pleasures of life.
Lest you think this book was written to promote parallels with Trump, it was written in 2013.
It's chilling, really.
History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme.
✍️ Reply by emailG4 Geomagnetic Storm
Current Wx: Temp: 17.28°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 18.72mphWords: 110
It's 16°F outside, 4.2° "feels like" (wind chill). Couldn't wear gloves because I couldn't feel the buttons. Some gusty winds and the cold challenged the OM-3's IBIS at 1.3s shutter speed. (OM-3, 8mm/f1.8 fisheye at f2.0, ISO 6400. Shooting in manual mode with starry sky auto-focus, which works pretty well.)
There isn't much to see by eye, but that may be because I wasn't staying outside long enough to fully dark-adapt. (It's frigid!) But this is the first time I've ever "seen" the northern lights, even if I'm only seeing them in the photographs.
The iPhone did a pretty good job as well.
✍️ Reply by emailTwilight's Last Gleaming
Current Wx: Temp: 16.23°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 10.85mphWords: 40
Last night's sunset.
Typical Monday. Ran the script to create a photo note in the marmot and it failed. Tried to troubleshoot, kept getting misleading error messages. Restarted Finder, same result.
Reboot and everything works as expected.
I hate computers.
✍️ Reply by emailNazis and the Confederacy
11:13 Saturday, 17 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 29.53°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 8.9mph
Words: 153
You may be wondering if I'm suffering from NDS (Nazi Derangement Syndrome), in suggesting that there is a through-line from the Confederate States of America and Nazi Germany, i.e. "losers" never forget history.
Here is a remarkable video of a Zoom lecture, Nuremberg Laws: How The Nazis Were Influenced by U.S. Jim Crow Laws. (It starts about two minutes into the recording and the audio sucks, but it's tolerable.) This is very worth your time to see the connections between immigration, eugenics, white supremacy and Nazi Germany. Spoiler alter: The Germans sent a delegation to America to study Jim Crow and decided it was too extreme for Germany. But they loved the eugenics, immigration and anti-miscegination laws. It also talks about the role of memory.
Great video.
If you don't want to spend an hour watching a video, here's a shorter piece touching on some of the same issues.
✍️ Reply by emailAll Nazis All the Time
07:57 Saturday, 17 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 26.06°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 466
My books are nearly all in storage, including volumes 1 and 2 of Werner Klemperer's I Will Bear Witness. He was an intelligent man who could see what was taking place all around him, who was relatively powerless to do anything about it.
So he wrote his diaries.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose most of my 11 readers if I start writing about Nazis and fascists exclusively, but there's only so many places I can direct this rage and incomprehension at the absence of rage all around me.
Losers remember all the wrong lessons from history, recalling only the humiliation and grievance of defeat, and nurturing it to one day try again.
Winners forget history. "Well, that's over! Glad we got that fixed! Let's go make money!"
ICE detention centers are concentration camps people!
"They're not Nazis. You're being irrational, hysterical. They're just Americans, Americans can't be Nazis!"
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
Jesus H. Motherfucking Christ!
"America must have Greenland. Lebensraum! Er, I mean, "national security!"
I was trying to do something fun in another area, and kept encountering pushback and negativism because, well, reasons I guess. So that stopped being fun. Life's too fucking short.
I played Lode Runner on the Apple IIc Plus yesterday. Made it to level 16. Pisses me off that Total Replay doesn't seem to let you record your high scores. The app never let you save a game in progress. You could pause it, but you couldn't save it. In an emulator you can save the state of the emulator and return to it at any time, but there's no satisfactory joystick experience. Maybe I can use the keyboard? There's like over a hundred levels, I think the highest I ever got back in the day was in the twenties. All my muscle memory is on the joystick though, and that's slowly coming back.
Each level begins paused, so you can look at all the guards and chests and try and figure out an approach or strategy. I seem to recall that back in the day I was pretty confident that the only thing keeping me from finishing the game was the inability to save it in progress. That is to say, I became "good enough" to be able to identify the kinds of routes and the levels of bricks I had to destroy to get to the chests without too much difficulty. You get an additional life with each level successfully concluded, so you can afford to die a few times to figure something out. I don't think we called it "grinding" back then, but that's essentially what it is.
But there's only so much retro-gaming I can do as well.
Anyway. I guess it won't be all Nazis, but pretty damn close.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailThis Is How the World Ends
10:03 Friday, 16 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 18.48°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 10.8mph
Words: 7
PBS Terra posted this yesterday. Sounds familiar.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Fourth Reich
08:15 Friday, 16 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 16.05°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 11.1mph
Words: 482
It'd be comical if it wasn't so despicable how much the figures surrounding Trump resemble Hitler's henchmen. I think we're well past the threshold where comparisons with Nazi Germany are "hyperbolic." They're real.
Anyway, as I read about the Nuremberg Trials I think about Trump's sycophants and bootlickers. Who in Trump's White House would be Martin Bormann?
I think Susie Wiles is a reasonable fit. Not perfect, she's not as obviously rabidly ideological, but it's clear she has no problem with Trump's vision. No, I think she's more like an enabler and someone who controls access to Trump, like Bormann. Palace intrigue and so on.
Stephen Miller most closely resembles Goebbels, physically. He's also as close to Hitler, er, I mean Trump, as Goebbels was and equally relishes being the spokesperson for the worst of Trump's views. Strong case for Himmler though, too. But I'm going with Goebbels.
Kristi Noem seems like the most logical candidate for Himmler, but she's just too monumentally dumb. But as the Department of "Homeland Security" is being transformed into the Schutzstaffel, it's still a good fit, just, you know, bad casting I guess.
The tough one is Heydrich. I'm gonna go with Tom Homan on that one. Strong case for that little shit, Bovino too. I don't know, tough call.
So, Göring? (See what I did there? It's option-U before you type the "o".) I think I have to go with J.D. Vance, though I think he's not as smart as Göring was. It's mostly an org-chart fit, but the vanity piece matches up with Vance's obsession with mascara or whatever that shit is he puts around his eyes. In terms of, you know, sheer corpulence, it'd be Steve Bannon, but he's just so slovenly and he lacks the proximity to power.
No, I think Bannon is the candidate for Julius Streicher, a cretinous psychopath. That'd be my pick anyway.
Alfred Rosenberg? Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025. Rosenberg was the chief Nazi "philosopher."
Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior, key figure in the Nuremberg Laws? Pam Bondi, though I think she's less intelligent. Mostly because she's head of the "justice" department and owns the FBI.
Wilhelm Stuckart? Todd Blanche. Another architect of the Nuremberg Laws.
Here's a tough one, RFK Jr. I'm going to go with Leonardo Conti.
Well, the list could go on. What seems clear is that despicable people attract despicable people, "birds of a feather," and the like.
History will not be kind to these people. That's assuming that we have a civilization that can afford the study of history. It's likely we'll have one where nearly everyone's efforts and attention will be focused on mere survival, so they may dodge "the verdict of history."
As darkness descends on America, feel free to play along at home. Learn some history. Get an idea of what's to come. It's fun.
✍️ Reply by emailNuremberg
08:42 Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.09°F Pressure: 998hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 15.84mph
Words: 435
I rented Nuremberg last weekend. Not a bad movie to rent, I'm not convinced I'd be inclined to watch it again, though I probably will if it comes up on a streaming service I subscribe to.
Russell Crowe's portrayal of Goering was convincing, though Goering lost a lot of weight while in detention, which wasn't portrayed in the movie.
The movie takes a lot of license, but isn't utterly misleading. Gilbert and Kelley never had a physical altercation. I think the real value of the movie was that it prompted me to buy The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. Kelley is a fascinating figure in his own right.
I'd say Judgment at Nuremberg is probably a better movie about the Nuremberg trials. I'm actually not aware of any others, which is surprising I think. May just be my ignorance.
One comment I read at the Holocaust Museum's web site (Currently down for maintenance until the 19th, because of course.) was that the interest people had in the psychological makeup of the Nazis was based on a desire for some meaningful distance between the Nazis as people and the allies. That distance doesn't exist. There was nothing different about the Nazis, they were just human beings at their worst.
My daughter texted me asking me to recommend a book "to make me smarter." I told her to read Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts.
Therein is a quote reportedly from Rudolf Diels, first head of the Gestapo.
In a conversation with a British embassy official that occurred at about this time, quoted in a memorandum later filed with the foreign office in London, Diels delivered a monologue on his own moral unease: "The infliction of physical punishment is not every man's job, and naturally we were only too glad to recruit men who were prepared to show no squeamishness at their task. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the freudian side of the business, and it was only after a number of instances of unnecessary flogging and meaningless cruelty that I tumbled to the fact that my organization had been attracting all the sadists in Germany and Austria without my knowledge for some time past. It had also been attracting unconscious sadists, i.e. men who did not know themselves that they had sadist leanings until they took part in a flogging. And finally it had been actually creating sadists. For it seems that corporal chastisement ultimately arouses sadistic leanings in apparently normal men and women. Freud might explain it."
Nazis walk among us every day. And ICE is creating sadists to walk among us every day.
✍️ Reply by emailDeliver Me From Nowhere
08:33 Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.31°F Pressure: 996hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 12.33mph
Words: 104
I purchased Deliver Me From Nowhere (Whatever "purchased" means today. I guess I bought a limited, revocable license that might be withdrawn at any time because reasons.) and we watched it last night. It's not a Springsteen biopic per se, as it only covers the months of his life around the creation of Nebraska.
I thought it was very well done, and I enjoyed it a great deal. It left me wanting more, but I'm a fan so I guess that's to be expected. Great performances all around.
I feel as though I ought to undertake a round of intensive Springsteen therapy.
Maybe later.
✍️ Reply by emailMom and I
08:04 Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 21.72°F Pressure: 994hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 12.33mphWords: 410
A pleasant visit, if somewhat sad. Each time I see her, she's just a bit more diminished. Her mind is still sharp, and I'm grateful for that, but her mobility is very limited.
We took her to dinner in her wheelchair at her community dining room. I learned that my brother comes every night to wheel her to dinner and back to her apartment. We met her friends, Lee, Shirley and Marilyn, all in their 90s, Shirley at 98. They all seemed to love Mom and it was nice getting to know them. Mitzi is just a wonderful communicator.
After dinner we watched Airport, which Mom didn't recall seeing before. We had just seen it recently, but I love the movie and I enjoyed seeing it again with Mom.
I got to see two of my sisters. Beth is a nurse and she was there when we arrived. It was fun catching up with her. She has chickens and Mitzi brought a bunch of cardboard egg cartons, which Beth really appreciated. She lives about 45 minutes away from Mom and comes once a week to help out and check on Mom's health.
Diane was there yesterday morning when we got back from breakfast. She's there I think four times a week to help Mom out of bed in the morning and take care of the housework.
I'm grateful for my siblings who have stepped in so selflessly to be there for Mom. There's a wound care nurse who comes once a week to look at her feet, and we thought we had arranged for a palliative care nurse service, but Beth says it seems to have fallen through the cracks, and she's reaching out to another provider.
Mom remains cheerful and upbeat, saying, "What other way is there to be?" She's looking forward to going to Buffalo in July for her granddaughter's wedding. She'll be 93 in September, and that's another goal she's set for herself.
I'm glad we went. The drive out was pleasant, sunny most of the way, and dry. It was raining lightly most of the way home, but temps remained above 40°F the whole way. It's 18°F outside now, and it snowed briefly last night. A nice dusting to make everything pretty again, but no significant accumulation.
Some "work" today on the marmot and a project for the Tinderbox community.
Anything to distract me from the darkness descending on America.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailOn the Road
06:54 Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 31.84°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 14.74mph
Words: 296
Heading to Mom's today, spending the night, back tomorrow evening.
Today's On This Day contains a couple of my lengthier, if not better posts, Brittle Failure and Thank You for Your Service. They weren't necessarily on this day because of some glitch that remains unexplained, changing many $PublicationDate attributes, and also altering $Created, which would have been the backstop to correct $PublicationDate, as $Created is a system attribute and presumably unalterable by moi. Whatever corrupted $PublicationDate did the same thing to $Created, and so now the source document, the marmot, is unreliable as to dates. (Also just noticed the dates aren't even on this day, as it's the 13th and those were purported posted on the 12th. Something is screwed up.)
[Update: Ok, found that problem. Agents are set to update automatically. They aren't. For the past few days I've had to select Update Agents Now to force the index page to update. I noticed that the index (main) page hadn't exported because it supposedly hadn't changed. Looking at it in the marmot still showed yesterday's posts. Force the agent to update, and today's post populated. But that had the effect of updating On This Day, and so now the posts are from the 13th, and so the second paragraph of this post makes less sense. Such is life. I've got to go.}
There are two anomalies, representing different lengths of time, and given enough motivation I could go through and correct them using the data from the html files. (I stop exporting months when they're over, so most of them are correct.)
Anyway, just discovered the January 2020 archive is missing. Oy! Only a few posts that month, and I think I can fix all the dates. But it'll have to wait until Thursday.
Yeesh.
✍️ Reply by emailMasked ICE
11:03 Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 36.59°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 9.66mph
Words: 68
Masks hide the humanity of ICE agents, reducing them to mere instrumentalities of the violence of the state. They promote division and "othering," increasing the psychological and cultural distance between themselves and the citizens they purportedly serve.
The whistles, the taunting, the car horns are the actions of a healthy social immune system, responding to a malignant infection. An alien body in social system that must be expelled.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Ephemeral Nature of Historical Memory
09:16 Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 36.59°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 9.66mph
Words: 201
That's a rather grandiose title, I suppose. I'm not exactly clear on what I'm aiming for, but I want to get this post done, so the title, and by extension the reader, suffers. Mea culpa.
I'm struggling with some apparent contradictions or incongruities playing out in the present, from historical antecedents that seem to reach across the decades or centuries to sow chaos today. Perhaps it's a function of whose memory retains vigor, the victor or the vanquished.
In the United States, we have never ceased from grappling with the memory of the Civil War. The Confederacy has retained and nurtured a sense of grievance ever since it suffered a humiliating defeat in its violent rebellion against the Republic.
In Europe, after losing the Cold War, it seems as though at least Putin longs for a return to a greater Soviet empire, with much of eastern Europe under the Russian boot.
But the victors forget.
Does loss engender a more durable cultural memory? Durable, yet unreliable, because the losers must rationalize away the reasons why they lost. The history they recall never existed, but it fuels the sense of grievance, the bitter resentment that then colors their participation in the present.
✍️ Reply by emailRelief
08:44 Friday, 9 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 43.92°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 21.68mph
Words: 110
Fortunate feed items:
"Too much 'I'm brilliant' by the author." I made the mistake of reading The Bomber Mafia, even though I pretty much knew better. I'll never read another Malcolm Gladwell book, but it's nice to have my prejudice validated nonetheless. This actually made me smile when I read it, which is a priceless gift.
"Gluing the hood shut." Another priceless gift. Thanks, Jack.
Here's an example of a blog that doesn't offer a full-text feed, but has a web site that makes my eyes hurt. (And why can't I select Reader View? Is there a setting somewhere that defeats Reader View in Safari? I hate that.) Unsubscribed.
✍️ Reply by emailDepression
07:55 Friday, 9 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 42.96°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 21.88mph
Words: 384
It's nearly impossible to generate any enthusiasm for anything as I witness this country being destroyed by Donald Trump and his sycophants, his mob, his cult.
Who are these people who sign up to work for ICE? Are they damaged? Broken, somehow? Angry? They want to dress up in tactical gear, get guns and run around bullying people? That's what's fulfilling to them?
This "administration." This assembly of clowns. Horrible people. Not a shred of "good faith," or "good will" among them. Despicable people. Liars. Proudly lying. Manifest incompetence masquerading as "leadership." Do they think we're blind? Stupid?
Stephen Miller. Vomitous, arrogant, racist prick. Or, "Assistant Chief of Staff." Because of course.
This civilization is in collapse, and this is just one dynamic of that process. We're not even pretending anymore. "Obey or die," and millions cheer.
Lindsey Graham. Another clown. A caricature. A spineless lickspittle. Proudly submissive, obsequious. Makes me want to puke.
This gets worse, and I don't know that it will ever get better. It just gets worse until it reaches some bottom where nobody cares anymore, because everyone is just trying to survive. I think we've passed the tipping point. It's all accelerating collapse from now on.
Sure, "life goes on." Until it doesn't. There will be a Super Bowl. There may, or may not, be mid-term elections. China takes Taiwan. World semi-conductor supply chains are thrown into chaos. Who knows what happens between India and Pakistan in a world of cascading climate catastrophes. Nuclear exchanges? Probably.
What does an emboldened Russia do?
The tech bros? Delusional. Utterly detached from reality. Or selling swampland to buy time until they can use their fortunes to build their fortresses.
Learn to grow food. Practice good oral hygiene. The future will be full of opportunities for exercise. "Run, hide, fight."
What the actual fuck?
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!
Is this one of those posts I should just delete?
I guess I'll return to "normal" posting later. Pretending that what's happening isn't happening. Writing about how fucked up Apple's UI has become, or the weather, or something super-relevant like that. Oh, like what font the State Department uses. Because that's a hill to die on in some alternative universe somewhere.
And no, I do not feel better now. Thanks for asking.
✍️ Reply by emailRenee Nicole Good
08:53 Thursday, 8 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 35.17°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 2.66mph
Words: 3
Better
08:26 Wednesday, 7 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 34.3°F Pressure: 1006hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 13.62mph
Words: 289
Well, I guess I'm well. Still have a little bit of cough/congestion, but no fits. Actually drove into town yesterday, which is the first time I'd been out of the house, other than to collect the mail, since before Christmas.
It's above freezing and it rained last night so a lot of the snow has melted. Not as pretty as when everything is covered in white.
Spent some time yesterday trying to figure out a problem with the little Automator application that gets the upcoming days' events for the Midwatch entry. Had no luck and was planning to visit the forum at MacScripter.net, but the damn thing worked this morning. 🤷
Cory Doctorow had a relevant blog post yesterday, Code is a liability (not an asset). I think that's true for anything that has some value as infrastructure. There's always a lot of enthusiasm about building something, little to no enthusiasm for maintaining it. Which also explains a great deal about the current state of world affairs.
We watched The Roses last night. Depressing, but not as bad some of the reviews.
We watched Mickey 17 the night before, and that was excellent.
While I'm still ever so grateful that we are no longer Floridians, and I don't miss the place one bit, I'm very happy to see the Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs. While I've never been a huge NFL fan, I enjoyed watching football and followed the Jags as "my" team. When we moved up here, I figured I'd get the chance to follow the Bills, and they weren't so hot this season. But they're in the playoffs too, facing the Jags this weekend. One of them will move on.
That's about it for now.
✍️ Reply by emailPoints to Ponder
08:11 Monday, 5 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 20.21°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 4.29mph
Words: 361
Finally had a decent night's sleep. Still coughing.
Wasn't particularly inspired, but figured I'd drop by and offer something anyway.
I've mostly adapted to the Apple wireless keyboard, though I'm still having some trouble hitting some keys reliably. I don't think I'll be doing a lot of writing in the stand-up position. Or I need more time to get used to it.
It is nice to crank the thing up and stand for awhile though.
Joan Westenberg hits another one out of the park:
There is a rude but clarifying question here: are you collecting information to use it, or are you collecting information because collecting feels like intellectual work? If it's the latter, you're not building a Second Brain; you're building an anxiety management system that happens to look like productivity.
RTWT, as the acronym goes.
I think a key element of Joan's "embodied" approach to knowledge is, "Write what you remember in your own words. If you can't remember enough to write anything useful, you've just learned it wasn't worth saving."
And it's also the greatest challenge for all of us who swim in a digital ocean, where our faculty of attention has atrophied to the point where it exists only to serve the novelty-craving part of our conditioned minds.
One advantage of getting older is that the whole "future me" project is much smaller, and therefore more manageable. It can feel a little melancholy too, but that's better than anxiety.
Here's a post from Kevin Kelly that feels just ripe with sentiment, good-vibes, wisdom of the ages (sages?), Beat Generation-adjacent, I got my Kerouac thing goin', ain't I precious?
Read that thing. Seriously. Luxuriate in warm, golden glow of deep spiritual insight born of personal experience.
Then think of two words: Survivor bias.
Two words that never crossed his mind. Two words that are a privileged middle finger to every victim of senseless cruelty or neglect. I guess they just weren't manifesting enough, or something.
Anyway, sorry to be so, you know, cruel. But I'd like to extend a little kindness to those whose struggle every day, many of whom don't survive.
Carry on.
✍️ Reply by emailIsn't This the "Singularity"?
11:53 Friday, 2 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 19.44°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 11.12mph
Words: 99
Who knows what words mean anymore, I sure don't. But I seem to recall that one definition of the "singularity" (RIP Vernor Vinge) was that the rate of technological change would exceed humanity's collective ability to make meaningful predictions about it, and hilarity ensues.
Anyway, the Mad Orange King and his court of merry jesters have decided to ban the import of drone parts because of "national security." (Could be the Canadians. Why couldn't it be the Canadians?)
Then I watch a video like this, and I laugh to myself.
I'm supposed to be doing something productive. Damn YouTube.
✍️ Reply by emailYesterday
Current Wx: Temp: 15.89°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 83% Wind: 7.72mphWords: 561
Back at it today. Feeling better. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Cold, but beautiful and a nice way to start a new year. Shot this with the iPhone. Did a pretty good job I think. I have a shot out the back door where there are six ghosts because I was shooting into the sun and it was doing its thing merging multiple images.
Kind of cool? I don't know. Maybe I'll post it later.
We got some texts from old friends, texted with our families and mostly sat around on the couch. Energy levels still aren't back to normal. Watched Ford vs. Ferrari again. Such a great movie. We did the trifecta with F1, Rush and Ford vs. Ferrari over the holiday period. For as much as the automobile may one day be regarded as one of humanity's biggest mistakes, they can afford some compelling dramas.
Highlights from around the 'sphere:
Craig Hockenberry's The Year That Kicked My Ass, was a humbling read. My sympathies and sincerest wishes for a better 2026 to Craig. I have no problems and nothing to complain about.
Joan Westenberg is something else. Wicked smart, outstanding writer, wise, it seems to me, in the way that many wicked smart people aren't. A wonderful read to inspire a tired, despairing, cynical blogger like me.
To Joan's point, I direct your attention to this exchange between AKMA and Chris Corrigan. An example of what the best of early 'aughts blogging was about. (It was also about a lot of other things, but this is a great example of "the best.")
Jack's back, and I'm hoping to persuade him to help me on a little project creating something that might help Tinderbox users take more advantage of the app's remarkable suite of feature. Jack's been a user since December 2004, I have correspondence with Mark Bernstein going back to February 2003, which is about when I launched Groundhog Day. Jack is a programmer, while I'm just a noodler. So he knows more about the app and how to use than I ever will. But that's a good thing, because he's blogger and a communicator.
Chris O'Donnell is out birding in frigid 40°F (😂) weather, but his first sighting is an omen of good fortune.
Noahie continues his online journal of self-discovery. I don't know how I would fare as a young person today. It feels like the challenges are different, harder in some respects. Vulnerability is a strength, I think Brene Brown teaches. Noahie leans into it.
A great video I watched on YouTube about a "repair fair" in Portland has kind of inspired Mitzi and I to see if such an effort already exists in our region, and, if not, how to start one. Not that either of us has much skill in repairing things, but Mitzi has skills in organizing things. And she's a natural social connector. So I think we're going to work on this, even if it's only to promote one that may already exist.
And since we're living in a rural community with at least one eye toward self-sufficiency, I'm going to be ordering some Good King Henry seeds. Great video, informative on a lot of levels. Not a lot of calories I expect, but nutrient dense and low maintenance.
(I guess YouTube isn't part of the 'sphere. Oh well...)
✍️ Reply by emailthe marmot checking in the net
05:54 Thursday, 1 January 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 12.27°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 13.44mph
Words: 427
Popping in here to make sure everything went according to plan, and it appears as though it has. I seem to be on the backside of this thing. Wasn't the worst viral infection I've ever experienced, but it wasn't a walk in the park either.
Most notable, or unusual symptom was cognitive. I had the most bizarre dreams, though I'm not really sure they could be classified as the usual REM-sleep kind of dream. I hardly slept at all.
It was more akin to "lucid" dreaming, where by "lucid," I mean out of my mind. Decidedly unpleasant, though one included my funeral at the Naval Academy with the Pope in attendance, which is just totally weird, and a troubling sign of subconscious delusions of grandeur. (Can delusions be subconscious? Beats me.) Another one was a recurring frustration with a computer program, though I have some idea where that originated. And a third was trying to solve an operational logistics problem with missile launchers, fuel trucks and control stations, solve for the greatest rate of sustained fire. And it was unsolvable because "they" wouldn't give me all the data. (Not that I have an idea how to go about solving such a thing anyway.)
No idea where that came from.
Got a nice note from Noah Valk, thank you.
I'm reluctant to say I'm happy to have 2025 in the rear-view mirror because, let's face it, there ain't that many left up the road. But 2026 will be different than any of the decades past, if for no other reason than we are no longer in Florida, which is a good thing even with winter gales in the mix.
I was thinking about Bodhi early this morning. I often wish I had a dog up here, but I think it might be a bit too much for me now, especially if I get sick or the weather gets weird. Saw a YouTube video of a woman thrown by a storm door caught by gust of wind after she'd opened it. I suppose we could make a fenced-in area for him to go out on his own. I wonder how this wind experience might shape our house plans? Maybe some kind of alcove for the doors? ("Make a note of that, Dave.")
Anyway, the stuff one "thinks" about when one can't do much else.
Still have the cough. Still behind on my sleep. But I can sit at the keyboard, which is more than I could do yesterday or the day before.
So, Happy New Year!
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