Epic shit on all counts.

Re: the AI dynamic. I've been going on a lot of job interviews, and my anti-AI stance is killing most opportunities.

However, every time it gets brought up, I can't believe how my dumb ass is more knowledgeable about the whole of the subject than the people demanding I use it.

“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”

I'm more distracted by the fact that he's still wearing the jacket from his eighth grade chorus recital.

alright let’s get something more pleasant going. what two books would you leave out on your coffee table so a reporter can mention you have them. doesn’t matter if you’ve read them. for me it’s Pale Fire (which I did read) and Ulysses (got like 15% of the way in)

Except there is no risk for these villains. There are no consequences, only opportunities.

Genuinely surprised and pleased at that twist.

We would have been instant friends.

I hate the right wing laundering cycle.

In any other society, these people would have to accept the consequences of terrible decisions. Instead, they go dark for a few months and get a fresh coat of victim-colored paint from national media.

Rest up. The world will still be burning tomorrow.

Takes me right back to Day One of DOGE.

I was talking with another former contractor last night, and we still can't get over how much taxpayer money was lost by canceling in-process contracts and deliverables, money paid for product never received.

But it was never about that, was it?

Exactly. Preying on the emotionally vulnerable is a special kind of villainy, and the awareness of the impermanence of the thing -- knowing it will fail, glitch, be bought by others -- introduces a new level of cruelty.

There was an episode of FBI: Most Wanted that took this to the extreme.

The antagonist had built an AI of his dead wife, but then a venture capitalist bankrupted him, stole the program, and turned the data (aka the man's wife) into a porn chatbot.

So I see this and think, "Sorry, grandma..."

That would be blaming capitalism, and that just isn't possible.

Much better to concoct a fiction that illegal immigrants who come to the country with barely the shirts on their backs and no legal documentation somehow manage to hornswaggle banks into low-interest mortgages.

One, big, rolling red flag. Gross.

Someone in my neighborhood bought a brand new truck snd slapped a Trump election sticker on it same day. Way to ruin your investment, pal...