Red Admiral

07:28 Friday, 5 July 2024

Current Wx: Temp: 77.79°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 296

And I'm not talking about an officer in the PRC navy.

Anyway, took that the day before yesterday. We spent most of yesterday hanging around the house. We visited a local apiary with a unique retail store in the middle of a field. Mitzi browsed the merchandise while I chatted with one of the owners about beekeeping, something my Uncle John did and I helped on occasion.

This is not a pleasant vacation. When we often read of feelings of "existential dread," it's almost a cliché. It feels all too real now, underscored by an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness.

It's like we can all see what's coming, it's horrible, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Because, well, life goes on. That is, until it doesn't anymore.

There are genuinely horrible people who are looking forward to taking power in January, and who are telling us all the things they're going to do, which are frightening. What is absolutely terrifying, though, are all the things they're going to do that they're saying nothing about now.

What I find perversely encouraging is that the larger planetary crisis will swallow the political one. In some ways, it'll be a pleasure watching these selfish, mean and bitter people grapple with something they don't understand as it robs them of all the wealth and power they will briefly control.

The suffering inflicted by nature will be on a far greater scale, if nearly as inequitable.

We can be certain that there will be large-scale geo-engineering efforts undertaken, confidently sold to us by tech bros, which will fail spectacularly and yet offer some perverse satisfaction in watching them do so, assuming I live that long.

Anyway, enjoy your summer. Probably the last one you'll be able to.

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Do What You Do Best

08:58 Friday, 5 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 83.32°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 692

I don't watch live cable news, but I've been browsing many of the YouTube channels. I watched Biden's address at his 4th of July barbecue. I think I understand what's going on when he speaks. It's somewhat like when I try to write in handwriting. My brain gets ahead of my hand and I start writing a word that's five words ahead of where the last word ended.

Now, he did forget Belleau Wood. Maybe I would too. He knows he's in the spotlight, so there's the pressure not to fuck up, which doesn't help in his circumstance. He reaches for a word, can't find it and realizes he has to move on and not be seen struggling to find it. It's hard.

I also watched the Hawaiian governor, whose name I can't recall, talk about meeting with Biden and I liked what he had to say. But I also watched a CNN panel on growing interest or movement toward Harris. That Biden is almost certainly "fine," right now, but he's not going to get "better." That we're going to experience more slips, more awkward moments.

This is unprecedented in our history. If we go by precedent, incumbents who don't run again, their replacements lose. Humphrey in '68. Not a large data set.

There's the campaign infrastructure. If the party changes candidates, all that has to get rebooted. Harris is the logical choice because she's largely been vetted before, but it'll all be rehashed again. She will at least have had the experience of enduring it once before, and it's less likely to throw her off her game. She knows how to respond already, it's in muscle memory. There's less media frenzy.

Likewise, I think the campaign infrastructure should be able to pivot to Harris relatively smoothly, though I'm certain she'd bring in her own senior staff and advisors, and how they get along with the remaining Biden people is a question. I think the stakes we're facing would make most of them fall in line pretty quickly.

I don't see Joe presenting well. I think he's fine cognitively, but the duties of the office are demanding enough, add to that the pressure of a campaign and the fact of his age and I just don't think he will be able to assuage people's fears that he's too old.

A Harris candidacy does flip the script on the age issue. We're still saddled with the border and the perception of the economy, but now Trump is the "too old" candidate.

I don't know if Harris can pull together the same coalition that Biden drew. It may depend on her choice of running mate. It's a question. I think she'd mobilize women perhaps more, or with greater enthusiasm than Biden, but I think most of them would be voting for Biden anyway, so it's marginal. But these races seem to be decided on narrow margins. Though we can't forget the absurdity of the Electoral College.

I don't think Joe should resign and give Harris an incumbency. If he steps aside as a candidate, I think he should continue to run the country and address the nation as the president about the stakes of this election. I think, without the pressure of campaign scrutiny, he could be an effective communicator regarding the danger represented by Trump.

We are in uncharted waters. I still believe that many people calling for Biden to step aside are doing so for self-serving reasons. I think if he does decide to withdraw his candidacy, that Harris is the only logical candidate to replace him. I'll support whoever the nominee is, but the sooner we get this resolved, the better.

Whatever chance we have to navigate the turbulent waters facing this civilization and our children and grandchildren, it is with leadership that at least tries to embrace humane values, that exhibits empathy, that is inclusive and not divisive.

This will be one of the most consequential elections in the history of the United States, certainly since Lincoln; maybe Roosevelt given that Lincoln saved the union while Roosevelt perhaps saved the world.

Who knew we'd live to see such times?

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Further to the Foregoing

09:34 Friday, 5 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 85.37°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 166

I wrote the title to the previous piece after watching Heather Cox Richardson, who, as I wrote before, is my new North Star. And then I forgot to write about it. A "Biden moment," perhaps.

She said that people had been writing to her, asking what they can do. She tells them to, "Do what you do best." She's doing media hits.

I don't know what I do best. Anybody driving ships in this campaign? It's difficult for me to even know what my "best" is. Should I send all my available money to campaigns and PACs? The stakes are that high. I'm not there yet, but I'm struggling with it.

Some say that one of the ways to help with the climate crisis is to talk about it. I certainly do that enough here.

I don't know.

But I do know it's a question we all need to be asking ourselves. How can I help? What is "my best." And how do I do it?

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The Life Performative

09:33 Sunday, 5 July 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 72.25°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 2.57mph
Words: 620

Social media makes us the star of our own reality series. Blogging does too, but most blogs lack the kind of immediate feedback mechanisms of social media platforms. The marmot doesn't get "likes" or "re-" anything, so most of the experience is like shouting into the void.

Which has charms of its own.

But the social media platforms are literally that. Stages, where users perform their online personas. I have to wonder how much of that online presence is shaped by the feedback people receive. It has to have some effect.

We started talking a bit about other note-taking apps in yesterday's Tinderbox meet-up. This prompted a line of thought in my mind, which kind of kept me preoccupied during much of the session.

I always thought it was odd that certain types of apps seem to appear in clusters. Roam, Obsidian, LogSeq, etc. Or "distraction-free" writing environments, like iA Writer, Bear, Ulysses, and probably dozens more.

I think a lot of it has to do with social media. Software applications have become a kind of fashion, and we want to be perceived as being au courant. Smart. Hip. Cool.

Plain text.

Markdown.

Bullshit.

I think some people use these apps to good effect. They become more productive, or something. But I have a strong suspicion that most people just wear them as a set of clothes for a while, and then move on to the latest hot trend.

It's like cameras. Same thing.

I think if you're a photographer, not in the "professional" sense, but in the sense of you're someone who can't not "take pictures," the particular brand of camera you use isn't important. Unless you're a performer, an "influencer." Then you probably want to appeal to an audience of fans, or garner attention and sponsorship from a manufacturer.

If you're a writer, you'd probably write even if the only thing you had was a pencil and a stack of loose-leaf paper. If you feel as though you write "better" with a keyboard, maybe you'd write with any kind of typewriter. Similarly, if you value the features of a "word processor," and the only thing you could use was Microsoft Word, you'd write with Microsoft Word.

Because it's about writing, not about keyboard shortcuts, or user interface "distractions."

If you're someone who "thinks," do you constantly change software applications? Is your "thinking" confined to critiquing "tools for thought?"

There was a guest at one of the Tinderbox meetups some time ago, who has used TheBrain for years and years. Decades maybe. And he has all these "thoughts" collected in TheBrain. Now, I have to give this guy credit, he found his app and he stuck to it. He doesn't flit from app to app.

I don't know. Maybe he does, and he records his "thoughts" about those apps in TheBrain.

But he also couldn't articulate how collecting all those thoughts had changed his life. How it made his life better. He could perform astounding feats of recall; but to what end?

In the end, it seemed to me that it was just a habit, and it existed mostly so he could perform these remarkable demos. He was a performer.

We don't understand what computers are for. Some people do. I don't claim to be among them, though I tend to think I have a better idea than most of these "thought leaders."

I think most people regard computers and software as a kind of signifier, like most commodity consumer products, and use them in that way. At least, the kinds of people who are on "social media," which is all about signification.

Anyway, something about "sound and fury, signifying nothing."

The beat goes on...

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