Author Archives: Hue White

The classic play returns to the boards at St. Paul’s Gremlin Theatre (later note: this website appears to be seriously out of date), put on by the production company Theatre 55. If a bit rough around the edges, let it be known that the company, already constrained to players over the age of 55 where possible, was ravaged by a flu pathogen midway through its run. The effort, skill, and talent is still there, though.

Oh, and Audrey II ! Such a great special effect she was!

I am sad to report that the last two showings are tomorrow, so if you’d like to see Little Shop Of Horrors on stage, don’t wait, get your tickets now!

It’s been a month and a bit since I last wrote about the stock price / market cap, yes, yes, different ways to express the same thing, of the stock of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., aka DJT. Last time we peeked in at this soap opera of a company, their only real product is its primary stock holder, President Trump, and perhaps the social media site, Truth Social, they provide. Their primary competition, due to similar styles, is the Elon Musk-owned X, née Twitter, with other social media, such as Facebook, being secondary competition due to differing styles of social media or, in the case of BlueSky, having lower profiles. X’s main draw seems to be transitioning from its style to its owner, incidentally, but I do not use X, so I cannot be authoritative.

The stock price of DJT five weeks ago was $39/share, roughly.

It’s been a month of the Presidency for President Trump, during which he’s drunkenly, metaphorically speaking, fired Executive Branch employees. Probationary employees come in great numbers and are least protected, so they’ve been fired first, but inspectors general, who are tasked with finding corruption and mistakes, and are thus a huge threat to a lifelong conman, have also been a favorite target. He hired the aforementioned Mr Musk to search computer systems for signs of corruption and waste, which are the lodestones[] of the political right.

Mr Musk has been notably prolix on the topic, but reportedly inaccurate. The media and, hopefully, everyone else has learned not to take Mr Musk’s pronouncements seriously.

One could credibly argue that President Trump is executing on many of his promises, although there are notable exceptions, such as admitting that inflation is not an easy demon to slay; he’s taken to blaming the previous Administration for necessary consequences of his own actions.

So what, if anything, has this meant for DJT? Is it skyrocketing in response to him keeping some promises?

This is the month Yahoo! Financial view of DJT, and so we can see DJT is down 21%; if we do the math for more than a month, $39 to $28, it’s more of a 28% drop. DJT has not been good to its buyers, but very good to its shorters. A $28/sh price translates to a market cap of $6 billion+.

So what’s happened? That’s always speculative, isn’t it? BlueSky’s profile has elevated in the last month, as it gains national media mentions. Incidentally, several of my friends, long-time (35+ years) social media users, have announced they are leaving X and Facebook for BlueSky. At the risk of sounding, well, old, this same sort of thing was happening forty years ago: Manage a site so that the users cannot trust the managers to treat them fairly, and, at some point, the herd picks up tents and moves to a different site. The “moat” that business analysts often discuss is quite fragile when it comes to social media, with threats from within (enshittification) and without (troll attacks).

Between the two threats, you have to wonder if all social media sites are going to become body farms, and we’ll all go back to interacting in Real Life. I presume Truth Social will remain popular, to the extent that it is, only so long as President Trump remains popular. At some point, its population will consist only of the top-level parasites who don’t understand why everyone else left. DJT will become worthless.

But that’s not quite the point. How shall we read the goat entrails that is the chart, above? I suspect that at this point, the Trump fanbase, MAGA, has bought all the DJT they can afford; professional investors have evaluated DJT, classified it as having little future, and either are not buying it or are even shorting it. Amateur investors, seeing President Trump’s popularity beginning to slip, are not buying. See this CNN/Politics story on a recent Georgia townhall in which a Republican congressman had a cool reception. It’s tricky to evaluate such townhalls, since they’re easy to flood with partisans, but I thought it interesting.

DJT is in decay mode. That doesn’t mean it’ll continue to decay. If DJT’s parent company has a trick up its sleeve, or announcement of a business alliance, or some other bit of news, it could easily leap upwards. Alix Breeden on Daily Kos has a take on its future, and, as it’s informed by more research than I have time for, it may have some interest.

As ever, I’m not a financial advisor, I’m just a worn-out software engineer with 4 decades in social media, some of it technological, some of it as a user, some of it as an author, some of it as a manager (not commercial). Find yourself a financial advisor. This is just honest opinion on a social media site that has no interest in screwing you over.

… but a defensive reaction. Here’s Erick Erickson:

Donald Trump has fired Colleen Shogan, the Archivist of the United States.

He’s impressed by Ms Shogan’s “defiance” of President Biden when it came to the ERA count. And so…

This was a mistake. Donald Trump just fired the woman who stood up to Joe Biden and also who made veterans a priority for the National Archives. The Archivist should be a non-partisan position precisely because of the pressure brought by Joe Biden, and Ms. Shogan showed she had the fortitude to defy political pressure.

And it’s all in the last sentence, because President Trump cannot tolerate dissent, not even potential dissent. After all, dissent has to start somewhere, and dissent will be the origin of his downfall, so you gotta stamp it out wherever it’s located, even if it’s not active.

I’m unsure as to whether Erickson doesn’t understand his broken President Trump, or is merely covering up.

Readers may recall I mentioned a DoJ official by the name of Emil Bove as being a likely candidate for being in the news just a day or two ago. Lo and behold, he’s begun fulfilling my open-ended prophecy / prediction:

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) either has an absolutely terrific sense of humor, or she’s playing President Trump like a harmonica, or … stroke that ego! Anyways, she’s filed a bill, H.R.1395, with the title

To amend title 5, United States Code, to designate Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day as a legal public holiday.

Yep. No kidding. I think that’s worth a Landgrebe Award Nomination. Or possibly she should be on SNL.

Flow (2024) is a hard movie to describe. Lacking dialog, the audience must interpret the scenery and actions of the animals that appear, because there are no humans, and the film implies that, in this alternate Universe, they either never existed, or they’re gone without explanation. The cities the animals encounter in the course of their quest for survival look like some of the cities built by the old South American civilizations: monumental stone work, pyramids, and etc, and the South American capybara, a giant rodent, is among the lead characters.

It’s all animated, and seems to be of superior quality, although my Arts Editor did mutter something about Water doesn’t look like that! at one point. The animals seemed quite accurate in their movements; the behaviors, on the other hand, are a trifle difficult to believe unless we accord the lead characters, which are a cat, a dog, a capybara, a lemur, and a secretarybird, an increasing intelligence as time passes. That’s not unreasonable.

Near the end, the movie seemingly lapses into incoherence. Perhaps more sagacious viewers than I grasped the meaning of the last few incidents, but the lack of satisfying explanation, while not necessary in every story, see Last And First Men (2020), just increased my frustration in this particular case.

All that said, the art is excellent, and the story is engrossing. I can’t quite Recommend it, but it’s darn good.

Now-former Southern District of New York lead prosecutor Danielle Sassoon’s opening paragraph from her resignation letter to AG Bondi:

On February 10, 2025, I received a memorandum from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, directing me to dismiss the indictment against Mayor Eric Adams without prejudice, subject to certain conditions, which would require leave of court. I do not repeat here the evidence against Adams that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed federal crimes; Mr. Bove rightly has never called into question that the case team conducted this investigation with integrity and that the charges against Adams are serious and supported by fact and law. Mr. Bove’s memo, however, which directs me to dismiss an indictment returned by a duly constituted grand jury for reasons having nothing to do with the strength of the case, raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.

Sassoon and, presumably, the balance of her team, of which six followed her out the door, are Republican. Good for them.

Emil Bove is a name to mark and watch for. It would seem he sees himself as the power behind the throne. I think he just made himself into a target for those who like to fill prisons with corrupt government officials.

And he sounds particularly morally depraved.

Steve Benen’s coverage of the firing of Inspectors General (IG) by President Trump and the reaction of Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Durbin (D-IL), both IG supporters, is convenient:

“We write to you today concerning the reported firing of Inspectors General (IGs) from 18 offices,” the senators’ correspondence began. “Congress was not provided the legally required 30-day notice and case-specific reasons for removal, as required by law. Accordingly, we request that you provide that information immediately.”

I spoke directly to Grassley’s office — just hours before the public learned about the White House firing the USAID inspector general — and the senator’s office confirmed that the president and his team have not responded to the senators’ request for “immediate” information. [Maddowblog]

My question is this: when will President Trump try to fire Grassley and Durbin, and will the Republicans understand the magnitude of their error in supporting President Trump even then?

I guess my camera got out of control.

They are cute pictures, though, but I wish there was more contrast. As the sculptures are lit in colored lights at night, that might have been a better choice.

I see right-wing pundit Erick Erickson is baffled and frustrated that there’s no left-wing riots against which he can rally his own folks:

Where are the riots? Where are they? Online, the left says there is a coup. On television and in the paper, they’re calling it a “constitutional crisis.” Democrats are demanding progressives get angry and take to the street. Elected Democrats have called for violence to fight Trump — they want rage. In the summer riots of 2020, and at events like the 2020, 2016, and 2012 Republican Conventions, protest organizers dropped off brings and pipes on street corners for the protestors. None of that is happening now. ANTIFA is AWOL.

Maybe, just maybe, it is because USAID is not around to fund leftwing non-governmental organizations. Let me explain:

Come on, summer!

And if you want to listen to him, go follow the above link. I didn’t.

So it’s important to note that, at least to the eyes of independent conservatives such as Andrew Sullivan, the ANTIFA organization, which is Dr. Kendi’s antifascist organization, has collapsed. I did not follow them, so I don’t know if the claims of corruption were true, but ANTIFA has been mighty quiet of late – a non-factor as one might expect an organization lacking a true, a factual, raison d’être, to become.

But that’s not at issue, and I only mention it to suggest Erickson’s looking to put up the quills in his listeners’ backs. There’s nothing like violence to transform folks’ controlling passions from reason and rationality to the emotions of fear and rage. The latter, as is widely known, are far more easily manipulated by “leaders” of unknown morality and goals.

And what must concern those running the whole show, giving Erickson and his analogs their marching orders? That thinking people, observing President Trump’s actions, his partial abdication of position to libertarian nut-case Mr Musk, the failure of his minions’^[1] to find evidence of the actual existence of popular-to-the-right conspiracy theories, the rising prices of various items, the protection of corrupt individuals such as Mayor Adams (D-NY <- Yes!) of New York City, the refusal of Senate GOP conference members to vote against such travesties of nominees as now-AG Bondi (R-FL)^[2], now-DNI Director Gabbard (who-knows-what-Hawai’i), now-Defense Secretary Hegseth (Fox-News), and now-HHS Secretary Kennedy (beats me – how about Publicity-Hound)^[3]… breathe … and they may start thinking that it’s time to relieve some members of Congress, and even Mr President, of their positions before the United States implodes. Heavens to Betsy.

Bizzaro-theories are marvelous tools for manipulating voters, but for those theories that can actually encounter reality^[4], it’s a disaster when that occurs. Tariffs are foreign taxes? According to economists, that’s bizarro. What’ll happen when they’re actually applied? Inflation recurs at 10%+? Then what?

But to get back to Erickson, he’s in an impossible situation. President Trump is a corrupt and mendacious individual of record magnitude, and he’s a product of the Republican Party; responding that he was a Democrat for most of his life is one of those responses which will actually redound on your head, as Trump got no traction in the Democratic Party, only in the Republican Party.

If he was honest, he’d step out and condemn Trump, Hegseth, Musk, and all the rest. Even those he considers friends. They’re all power-chasers with no moral constraints.

¹ Annoyed at the ambiguity? Do I mean President Trump’s minions, or do I mean Mr Musk’s minions? If this ambiguity bugs you, good for you! The truth of the matter is that I intended that ambiguity, because I mean both! I suppose I might have substituted their minions for his minions, but that might imply a false equality between the two. However, in the spirit of ambiguity, I shan’t say which is the inferior.

² I wonder if former Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is beating his head on a countertop somewhere out of frustration, as he was President Trump’s initial nominee for AG, but bowed out as the Senate made noises about rejecting him. Or is he looking around and saying he doesn’t want to be part of the Trump shitshow? No, if half of the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz was true, being part of a shitshow is Gaetz’s raison d’être. Look for bruises on his forehead if a picture of him shows up soon.

³ Notably, Senator and former GOP Leader McConnell (R-KY), the man who bears a disproportionate load of blame for this utter debacle, has voted against the three last nominees. He’s still to blame for abandoning his responsibilities of upholding Senate rules and traditions and not lying. Senators Murkowski (R-AL) and Collins (R-ME) voted against Hegseth as well, but they are permitting foolish loyalties to dictate their votes concerning other nominees.

⁴ For an example of a theory that can’t negatively meet reality, think Sasquatch. There’s no dispositive falsification possible, just pointing out that no convincing evidence has ever been presented.

Conservatives, by ideological bent and temperament, believe in preserving what has worked well in the past. They are a useful brake on non-conservatives who tend to propose all sorts of odd things in response to issues of the moment, particularly those that are misperceived or misunderstood – accidentally or deliberately.

So I’m not quite sure why journalists and ideological opponents haven’t used this reasoning on the Republicans to point out they’re a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to the name of the Gulf of Mexico. I mean, it could have just as easily been renamed to a far more ancient name,

House of Chalchiuhtlicue

… at least according to Wikipedia. I suppose I could call up a cousin of mine who happens to have a doctorate in Central American history and see if he knows the issue, in case you don’t trust Wikipedia, which I can understand. The hot issue du jour does cause relevant Wikipedia pages to change content galvanically sometimes.

So I just needed to vent after reading this screed concerning Google (they get no bold as a punishment for their ruinous behavior) running around showing how obedient it is to the will of President Trump, rather than the somewhat cloudy traditions for naming bodies of water. They used to Do No Evil! These-a-days, it’s all about the money.

Steve Benen notes the imminent practical demise of the CFPB:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau probably isn’t the most well-known federal agency, but it’s one of the best examples of progressive governance in the 21st century. From taking on banks to the student loan industry, payday lenders to mortgage companies, the bureau — an idea first championed by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — has championed Americans’ interests since its inception.

Writing for MSNBC, Helaine Olen recently explained, “Over its almost 13 years, the agency has stopped numerous financial ripoffs and returned billions of dollars to the public. Its mere existence provides an ongoing demonstration of how the government can effectively stand up to big money interests and protect the American people.”

And so:

In theory, it would take congressional action to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. After all, Congress created the CFPB, and it would fall to Congress to kill the CFPB.

In practice, however, [Russell] Vought, one of the key authors of the right-wing Project 2025 blueprint, has a different approach in mind: The White House’s budget director appears eager to effectively eliminate the watchdog agency by gutting it from within.

It appears that, until the Democrats – or their successors – regain control of the White House and Congress, the CFPB will be out of action. Why? I’m not sure. It could be a requirement of the business world that they not have to be monitored by the CFPB; or it could simply be a retroactive attempt by the Republicans to take away a victory from the Democrats in a bow to the Gingrichian principle of the same general nature.

Of course, this is about as effective as a retroactive abortion.

But what’s to be done in the meanwhile? For my readers, I recommend a full review of your service providers: bank, insurance, Internet, all that sort of thing. And then reconsider them.

For example, I’ve always felt that the most attractive targets to hackers in the banking sector are the big banks, so when it came time to pick out a bank after my first place, a Savings and Loan, became inconvenient (was bought out? didn’t have a convenient branch? I don’t recall), I ended up going with one of the smaller banks in the state. A little research indicated nothing of worry, so that made it easy, and I’ve not looked back.

A trite tale? My Arts Editor used to work for one of the biggest banks around, and each time they are sued for their little tricksy efforts to increase profits, I get to hear about it. “All about the money,” and not all about the community. I’ll not be using any bank in the super-heavyweight class if I can at all avoid it.

Some services you won’t have a lot of choice. My Internet provider does not have a good reputation, but I don’t have a lot of choice – oh well. But checking out your various service providers can pay off.

It strikes me that the MAGA crowd may be not only moving into a treacherous and unfamiliar political geography, but that their unflinching support for the President will leave them vulnerable. President Trump is not likely to be President in four years. I don’t know it for certain, and I don’t know the method of his exit, whether its resignation, 25th Amendment, or chased bodily from the country by angry citizens, an old-fashioned Greek tradition.

But it doesn’t matter. In the end, the MAGA crowd, which has been enjoying, if only in its own eyes, an enhanced social position with their leader in the President’s seat, may suddenly experience a roller-coaster drop in social position, as the President seems to be trying to destroy his reputation.

It’s something to keep in mind. Clinging madly to the President even as his reputation falls down a well will not preserve their social position, it’ll destroy it. Past performance is not a predictor of future performance, as the financial professionals’ saying goes. Don’t cling to your stocks in the buggy-whip company when the President goes over the edge, if I may mix my metaphors recklessly.

Think about your exit strategy from MAGA, and do it now. There may not be time when the bottom drops out. Figure out what it would take to declare that you’ve forsaken MAGA and the President. It’ll be hard, but despite the proclamations of the President’s supporters, it all rings hollow. They’re there to pick over the remnants.

FAFO:

The phrase is more commonly known as “(Eff) around, find out.” It’s long been used as a Gen X version of warning “actions have consequences, so choose your’s wisely.”

It more recently has been shortened to the slightly polite acronym FAFO, but with the same unapologetic caution to know what you’re getting into. [Asbury Park Press]

This one has exploded on the scene recently to such an extent it’s not worth quoting any particular source. It’s worth noting that every generation has some phrase of rough equivalence, such as Quit horsing around!, dating from a more patriarchal era. It’s no doubt reflective of the home era.

I don’t normally have consecutive WOTD posts, but since the previous post degenerated into a political observation, I figured I got a pass on this one.

Missional:

“Missional” or “missional living” is a Christian term that in essence describes a missionary lifestyle. Being missional includes embracing the posture, the thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to reach others with the message of the gospel. The term “missional” gained its popularity towards the end of the 20th century with the influence of Timothy Keller, Alan Hirsch, and others, as well as the Gospel and Our Culture Network. Their basic premise is that all Christians should be involved in the Great Commission of Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20).[Got Questions]

Noted in “PCA Members, I Don’t Think This is Wise,” Erick Erickson:

But as someone who takes the law and our obligations under it seriously, I find it bad that a missional organization would advise people to avoid showing documents with “country of birth or citizenship” to escape the consequences of coming into the United States illegally.

I’ll be interested in further commentary from Mr Erickson. So far under the new Administration, Erickson’s been a mitigator: Oh, this isn’t so bad, it’s all commonsensical, what illegalities?, the left will riot so keep your head down! He doesn’t address the usurpation of the division of powers, or attempted rupture of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

I’ve entertained the hypothesis that his lust for power causes him to OK anything that brings in more power, all while he’s trying hard to keep his little flock together; I have no idea if he’s being successful.

But when religious organizations begin leaking away, even his mother organization, that has to make him uncomfortable. He was furious with the Episcopalian bishop that rebuked President Trump, and with Wheaton College when it withdrew congratulations from Wheaton College^[1] graduate and right-wing extremist Russell T. Vought for winning the position of Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Erickson’s remarks concerning Bishop Budde were particularly instructive:

The most surprising thing to learn about Bishop Budde is that she is married to a man. That is not very on brand for Episcopalian bishops these days. I had a few people tell me there used to be a girlfriend in the mix too, perhaps that is just idle gossip, but a throuple would be very on brand for what is now a post-Christian denomination that is in as rapidly declining as it is running away from Christ. Funny how Christians are leaving behind all the denominations that left Christ behind.

Classic arrogance, no? And given the Christian arrogance that we see these days, is it any surprise that all the arrogant ones leave those institutions that might constrain them?

But, Mom! All the other kids are jumping off the cliff!

Anyways, the next month or so should be very interesting.

¹ My Arts Editor’s father lectured at Wheaton.

And now I’m a liar, because here’s more.

… don’t do this:

Well, that’s a barrel of money:

Elon Musk leads an offer to buy ChatGPT’s parent company for nearly $100 billion

In a high-stakes bid that could reshape the future of artificial intelligence, Elon Musk is leading a group of investors who have offered to buy OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, for $97.4 billion.

(CNN/Business)

I wonder what’ll happen if Altman turns Musk’s group down. Ooops, missed this:

In response, Altman said in a post on X, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Given Musk’s temper, I might be looking for bodyguards at this point. Or if Musk, et al, have existential worries in the face of ChatGPT, that too could encourage irresponsible actions.

Remember that unlimited egos engage in unlimited actions.

And here I sit, wondering if I have ChatGPT all wrong – or if they do.

A final batch.

A tribute to the roller derby league …

… that often appears at the State Fair?

Probably melted by now.

Tough to make out …

… but a play on the famous ball and spoon.

This bit of stupidity caused heartburn in the intelligence community:

• Shrinking the intelligence agencies: The White House ordered the C.I.A. to send an unclassified email listing employees hired in the past two years, part of the Elon Musk-led effort to drastically slash the federal work force. The C.I.A., as well as the National Security Agency, began offering employees the option to stop working, then resign effective Sept. 30. The nation’s largest federation of unions started a campaign to push back against attempts to cut jobs. [The New York Times]

I can only wish the list they sent was actually the membership of the Trump transition team. Or all his nominees for Senate-confirmed posts.

Finishing with “D. Trump.”

A picture meant to remind the reader of warmer days, relaxing the mind and making it receptive to the essay’s message.

As a software engineer^[1], there’s a certain necessity of developing a literal turn of mind, specifically when coding. Computers, with the possible exception of generative AI^[0], but certainly not during the creation of programs, do not comprehend metaphors, similes, and those other modes of human expression we so commonly use. It’s possible to argue otherwise, but I fear the point might be stretched into a particularly gauche semi-colon, or even a sentence structure that has yet to be invented. The general literality of computers encouraging this facility of literality becomes important to the software engineer, particularly when faced with a few pages of obscure and unexpected errors emitted from a compiler^[2]. The ability to play the computer, real or virtual, involves literal interpretation of the code refused by the compiler in order to amend it into acceptability.

It’s not inaccurate to say that this inclination to literal interpretation is sometimes present^[3] at times that are inappropriate, such as reading communicative prose. This brings me, attentive to writing deficiencies in both myself and others, to the phrase that is bothering me. I shall obscure irrelevancies and personalities for the sake of clarity.

If XXX wins her Oscar…

The internal contradictions are key. If XXX wins implies a future potential state, which is possible but of uncertain predictability. … her Oscar, however, is a subtly incompatible composition. Her implies definite ownership of the award, as if the time of selection has already passed and the lady in question already possesses the honor that is associated with such an award. This might work, logically, if her candidacy was viewed as the overwhelming favorite, but it is not. In fact, the article in question examines the contention that her potential for victory in the contest has been lessened due to personal views on various social issues.

In today’s destructive chaos of frenzied reading, it seems harmless enough, but in such a short phrase, a mere fragment of a sentence, lies the seeds of insanity. I’ve written elsewhere on this platform about the possible consequences of poor writing, namely of poor thinking^[5], a problem afflicting so many of us^[4]. Perhaps the best therapy for those applying pen to paper is to review their proposed writing with a literal turn of mind, correcting all such errors they can find; I shall neither enumerate nor bookend the errors. In this case, I do not know if the writer as relaxed onto a shoal of intellectual sloth, or has carefully chosen the phrase to capture the attention of a reader whose attention may be flagging. If the latter, I wish they hadn’t, as the insanity that many believe afflicts the political left does have a hidden origin in how they express themselves.

Indeed, some would argue that we are all mad, and we know it from self-expression.

⁰ Nor do I propose to investigate it; my interpretation of non-technical articles on the subject suggest it to be little more than a sophisticated party trick, although certain scholarly occupations will find its ability summarize semantic content valuable, although they must beware brutally wrong answers. But I may be wrong.

¹ These days I introduce myself as an obsolete software engineer. At a recent event, a funeral and wake, when I used this phrase on introduction to one couple, they, in unison, said, “Don’t retire!” It turned out, in their separate jobs, that they both depended on old computing systems that still need support.

² Compilers translate human-composed instructions into the native electronic instructions used by computer, aka machine language. Compilers may be the king of such errors, if I may employ the simile, but among the peerage might be found interpreters, which may translate to an intermediate format; linkers, which link together specific programs to general purpose libraries; and other tools of the instructional trade of programmer.

In fact, composition of this blog requires a literal view of HTML, as the HTML-oriented editor delivered by WordPress that I use, which I believe they call their Classic Editor, does not support footnotes. I must insert that code manually.

³ If a modifier to this observation is required, it might subcutaneous, a purely metaphorical description.

⁴ Some folks, including most of those occupying political leadership positions of all brands, should simply tattoo their faces crimson and resign, although their successors might find an obligation to copy their predecessors.

The above may be reflective of those who select such leaders, namely the followers.

⁵ Or perhaps I have consequent and antecedent confused, a not unknown problem when such a situation appears circular. If my reader is uncertain, consider the ‘chicken and the egg’ conundrum, which may even have quantum echos a la Dr. Erwin Schrödinger. How do I mean? I leave that as an exercise for the diligent reader. If any such have reached this divergence from the essay.

If you’re an older person, you may understand the terms deep reading and bookworm are virtually synonymous, if you’ve run across the former term at all. You may have been a bookworm, as was I, in your youth, or caught the reading bug in early adulthood, perhaps as part of the time when your brain finished its growth spurt or neuron purge, known to occur in the mid- to late-20s.

Or perhaps you’ve never really been a deep reader, but just skim along so you can say you’re part of the Internet.

If you’re a younger reader, and you’ve actually read this far, this may all sound mysterious, fantastical, even the musings of aliens.

To all of you, young and old, I encourage you to watch this video by Cinzia DuBois, a literature scholar and lover, where she discusses the loss of her ability to concentrate, to deep read, and assigns some blame.

No, go back and watch the video. I nodded along, recognizing symptoms, and maybe you will, too.

If you’ve taken my advice, you may now understand the remark about younger readers being amazed at such thoughts. DuBois’ commentary helped clarify my own thoughts on the matter, and I do have to wonder, after 40+ years of social media, just the measure of wreckage my brain has sustained Just By Trying To Keep Up.

Sound familiar? Do you try to keep up with the fire hose that’s the Internet? Just out of curiosity, is it purely, ah, curiosity that drives you, or is their a social status element involved?

Pick me! Pick me!

My useless contribution is that, of late, I’ve been trying to write fiction, and finding the concentration and drive to do so has been difficult. It’s so much easier to ‘catch up on my reading,’ and I’m not talking about the 20-30 books sitting unread, or in progress, on my bookshelves, such as Great Expectations (Dickens), which I’ve been working on for close to a year. The magazines, as they’re cute when they beg, do get some attention. But, no, it’s really the latest political post, whether it be Benen, Erickson, or Sullivan, which, in the end, are depressing illustrations of mendacity in action, whether it’s the writer or their subject.

So I’m giving some thought to dropping out and turning the Internet into a utility, by which I mean using it for working from home, checking email, and otherwise ignoring it. Oh, yes, and blowing off steam on the blog. Forty years of social media does breed some irreversible habits, doesn’t it?

Call it claiming your life back.

How about my readers? Any urges to just say Screw it and go back to real life? Tell me about it.

This seems harmless enough. Although why a Charlie Chaplin-esque character was inserted into this story montage is a bit puzzling. Maybe the producers owed this actor a favor.

The Canterbury Tales (1972) is an Italian rendition of the old, excuse me, Middle English stories from Geoffrey Chaucer. I don’t know much about Italian movies, but this seemed typical of Italian movies from the era, a messy mixture of nudity, sex, bored women, and weird men.

I was bored. Not much to see here.

NPR reports on a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the fake government department you may have heard of, and a loss from their staff:

A staffer connected to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency resigned on Thursday after now-deleted racist social media posts were resurfaced. …

Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, was working inside the Treasury Department to cut costs and root out fraud, as part of Musk’s DOGE effort. Elez was one of two temporary appointees at Treasury connected to DOGE who have been granted access to a highly sensitive Treasury system that processes trillions of dollars in payments every year. …

“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account [associated with Elez] wrote in September. “Normalize Indian hate,” a separate post from that month read.

In July of last year, the account posted: “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”

Uh huh.

You may have heard of this group that Mr Musk of Tesla, etc, brought to the party to disassemble the government. All youngsters. I didn’t think about this myself until this evening, when it occurred to me that not all people in the cited age range, which I seem to remember is 19-24, are fully neurologically wired.

That is, such people are inclined to poor reasoning and weak adherence to moral norms; many are prone to grandstanding in their desire for attention. It appears Mr Elez managed to get Mr Musk’s attention.

But I suspect not because of his racist views (although some impute racism to Mr Musk), or any sort of legendary computer skills.

But because he hasn’t figured out how much this is a transgression of morality and ethics, systems set up to protect … himself.

The youth are often manipulated by older men precisely because of this vulnerability. Happens with women, too.

Now, programmers are often libertarians, some because they really like the philosophy, thinking about former colleagues of mine … and some because they think it’s cool. Yes, there is a difference, and I bordered on the latter 30+ years ago. Libertarians do like to believe they’re more clever than the average bear, and that’s a lure into the sin of confirmation bias. Just read their writings.

But they’re not. More clever, that is.

So there’s a reason that many or all of Mr Musk’s DOGE team is so young, and it’s not because they’re clever. It’s because they’ll perform Mr Musk’s desires without objection.

Or at least I think that’s quite likely.