Shortly after 1:00 this morning, Vittoria Elliott, Dhruv Mehrotra, Leah Feiger, and Tim Marchman of Wired reported that, according to three of their sources, "[a] 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies [SpaceX and X], has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government." According to the reporters, Elez apparently has the privileges to write code on the programs at the Bureau of Fiscal Service that control more than 20% of the U.S. economy, including government payments of veterans' benefits, Social Security benefits, and veterans' pay. The admin privileges he has typically permit a user "to log in to servers through secure shell access, navigate the entire file system, change user permissions, and delete or modify critical files. That could allow someone to bypass the security measures of, and potentially cause irreversible changes to, the very systems they have access to." "If you would have asked me a week ago" if an outsider could've been given access to a government server, one federal IT worker told the Wired reporters, "I'd have told you that this kind of thing would never in a million years happen. But now, who the f*ck knows." The reporters note that control of the Bureau of Fiscal Service computers could enable someone to cut off monies to specific agencies or even individuals. "Will DOGE cut funding to programs approved by Congress that Donald Trump decides he doesn't like?" asked Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) yesterday. "What about cancer research? Food banks? School lunches? Veterans aid? Literacy programs? Small business loans?" Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo reported that his sources said that Elez and possibly others got full admin access to the Treasury computers on Friday, January 31, and that he—or they—have "already made extensive changes to the code base for the payment system." They are leaning on existing staff in the agency for help, which those workers have provided reluctantly in hopes of keeping the entire system from crashing. Marshall reports those staffers are "freaking out." The system is due to undergo a migration to another system this weekend; how the changes will interact with that long-planned migration is unclear. The changes, Marshall's sources tell him, "all seem to relate to creating new paths to block payments and possibly leave less visibility into what has been blocked." Both Wired and the New York Times reported yesterday that Musk's team intends to cut government workers and to use artificial intelligence, or AI, to make budget cuts and to find waste and abuse in the federal government. Today Jason Koebler, Joseph Cox, and Emanuel Maiberg of 404 Media reported that they had obtained the audio of a meeting held Monday by Thomas Shedd for government technology workers. Shedd is a former Musk employee at Tesla who is now leading the General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services (TTS), the team that is recoding the government programs. At the meeting, Shedd told government workers that "things are going to get intense" as his team creates "AI coding agents" to write software that would, for example, change the way logging into the government systems works. Currently, that software cannot access any information about individuals; as the reporters note, login.gov currently assures users that it "does not affect or have any information related to the specific agency you are trying to access." But Shedd said they were working through how to change that login "to further identify individuals and detect and prevent fraud." When a government employee pointed out that the Privacy Act makes it illegal for agencies to share personal information without consent, Shedd appeared unfazed by the idea they were trying something illegal. "The idea would be that folks would give consent to help with the login flow, but again, that's an example of something that we have a vision, that needs [to be] worked on, and needs clarified. And if we hit a roadblock, then we hit a roadblock. But we still should push forward and see what we can do." A government employee told Koebler, Cox, and Maiberg that using AI coding agents is a major security risk. "Government software is concerned with things like foreign adversaries attempting to insert backdoors into government code. With code generated by AI, it seems possible that security vulnerabilities could be introduced unintentionally. Or could be introduced intentionally via an AI-related exploit that creates obfuscated code that includes vulnerabilities that might expose the data of American citizens or of national security importance." A blizzard of lawsuits has greeted Musk's campaign and other Trump administration efforts to undermine Congress. Today, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the minority leaders in their respective chambers, announced they were introducing legislation to stop Musk's unlawful actions in the Treasury's payment systems and to protect Americans, calling it "Stop the Steal," a play on Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. This evening, Democratic lawmakers and hundreds of protesters rallied at the Treasury Department to take a stand against Musk's hostile takeover of the U.S. Treasury payment system. "Nobody Elected Elon," their signs read. "He has access to all our information, our Social Security numbers, the federal payment system," Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said. "What's going to stop him from stealing taxpayer money?" Tonight, the Washington Post noted that Musk's actions "appear to violate federal law." David Super of Georgetown Law School told journalists Jeff Stein, Dan Diamond, Faiz Siddiqui, Cat Zakrzewski, Hannah Natanson, and Jacqueline Alemany: "So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they're playing a quantity game and assuming the system can't react to all this illegality at once." Musk's takeover of the U.S. government to override Congress and dictate what programs he considers worthwhile is a logical outcome of forty years of Republican rhetoric. After World War II, members of both political parties agreed that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. The idea was to use tax dollars to create national wealth. The government would hold the economic playing field level by protecting every American's access to education, healthcare, transportation and communication, employment, and resources so that anyone could work hard and rise to prosperity. Businessmen who opposed regulation and taxes tried to convince voters to abandon this system but had no luck. The liberal consensus—"liberal" because it used the government to protect individual freedom, and "consensus" because it enjoyed wide support—won the votes of members of both major political parties. But those opposed to the liberal consensus gained traction after the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision declared segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. Three years later, in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, sent troops to help desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Those trying to tear apart the liberal consensus used the crisis to warn voters that the programs in place to help all Americans build the nation as they rose to prosperity were really an attempt to redistribute cash from white taxpayers to undeserving racial minorities, especially Black Americans. Such programs were, opponents insisted, a form of socialism, or even communism. That argument worked to undermine white support for the liberal consensus. Over the years, Republican voters increasingly abandoned the idea of using tax money to help Americans build wealth. When majorities continued to support the liberal consensus, Republicans responded by suppressing the vote, rigging the system through gerrymandering, and flooding our political system with dark money and using right-wing media to push propaganda. Republicans came to believe that they were the only legitimate lawmakers in the nation; when Democrats won, the election must have been rigged. Even so, they were unable to destroy the post–World War II government completely because policies like the destruction of Social Security and Medicaid, or the elimination of the Department of Education, remained unpopular. Now, MAGA Republicans in charge of the government have made it clear they intend to get rid of that government once and for all. Trump's nominee to direct the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, was a key architect of Project 2025, which called for dramatically reducing the power of Congress and the United States civil service. Vought has referred to career civil servants as "villains" and called for ending funding for most government programs. "The stark reality in America is that we are in the late stages of a complete Marxist takeover of the country," he said recently. In the name of combatting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the Trump administration is taking down websites of information paid for with tax dollars, slashing programs that advance health and science, ending investments in infrastructure, trying to end foreign aid, working to eliminate the Department of Education, and so on. Today the administration offered buyouts to all the people who work at the Central Intelligence Agency, saying that anyone who opposes Trump's policies should leave. Today, Musk's people entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provides daily weather and wind predictions; cutting NOAA and privatizing its services is listed as a priority in Project 2025. Stunningly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today that the U.S. has made a deal with El Salvador to send deportees of any nationality—including U.S. citizens, which would be wildly unconstitutional—for imprisonment in that nation's 40,000-person Terrorism Confinement Center, for a fee that would pay for El Salvador's prison system. Tonight the Senate confirmed Trump loyalist Pam Bondi as attorney general. Bondi is an election denier who refuses to say that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. As Matt Cohen of Democracy Docket noted, a coalition of more than 300 civil rights groups urged senators to vote against her confirmation because of her opposition to LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights, and reproductive rights, and her record of anti-voting activities. The vote was along party lines except for Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), who crossed over to vote in favor. Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency is the logical outcome of the mentality that the government should not enable Americans to create wealth but rather should put cash in the pockets of a few elites. Far from representing a majority, Musk is unelected, and he is slashing through the government programs he opposes. With full control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans could cut those parts themselves, but such cuts would be too unpopular ever to pass. So, instead, Musk is single-handedly slashing through the government Americans have built over the past 90 years. Now, MAGA voters are about to discover that the wide-ranging cuts he claims to be making to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs skewer them as well as their neighbors. Attracting white voters with racism was always a tool to end the liberal consensus that worked for everyone, and if Musk's cuts stand, the U.S. is about to learn that lesson the hard way. In yet another bombshell, after meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump told reporters tonight that the U.S. "will take over the Gaza Strip," and suggested sending troops to make that happen. "We'll own it," he said. "We're going to take over that piece, develop it and create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something the entire Middle East can be proud of." It could become "the Riviera of the Middle East," he said. Reaction has been swift and incredulous. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, called the plan "deranged" and "nuts." Another Foreign Relations Committee member, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), said he was "speechless," adding: "That's insane." While MAGA representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) posted in support, "Let's turn Gaza into Mar-a-Lago," Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) told NBC News reporters Frank Thorp V and Raquel Coronell Uribe that there were "a few kinks in that slinky," a reference to a spring toy that fails if it gets bent. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) suggested that Trump was trying to distract people from "the real story—the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people." — Notes: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-payment-system/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/musk-cronies-dive-into-treasury-dept-payments-code-base https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/technology/musk-allies-ai-government.html https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/feb/04/donald-trump-tariffs-live-blog-news-updates-canada-trudeau-mexico-china (This is the Treasury protest.) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/pam-bondi-confirmed-trump-attorney-general https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/04/elon-musk-government-legal-doge/ https://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/americas/el-salvador-migrant-deal-marco-rubio-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/world/middleeast/trump-gaza-take-over-reactions.html https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/cia-workforce-buyouts/index.html https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/doge-noaa-headquarters Bluesky: trisresists.bsky.social/post/3lhezjt6kmc2r X: You're currently a paid subscriber to Letters from an American. If you need help receiving Letters, changing your email address, or unsubscribing, please visit our Support FAQ. You can also submit a help request directly.
© 2025 Heather Cox Richardson
|
05 February 2025
Fwd: February 4, 2025
See HRC's report, below. This is totally shocking. It's a coup. Period. Democrats need to draft a letter to Trump telling him he is violating all manner of laws by allowing this to occur, demand that he stop at once; and then proceed with the impeachment resolution. It may take months... or it may never happen... that the great majority of Americans are aroused to demand that the Trump administration's coup d'état be stopped, whereupon there's at least the hope that, one by one, Republicans will come around to voting to impeach. But this is not normalizable... either we stop them, or our country is no longer going to be a republic. There may not be much... or enough... time, but the hour is at hand for patriotic Americans, at the risk of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, to stand up and say No! You will not violate the Constitution and destroy our republic! We, the People, will not stand for it. There is no alternative.
DEMAND IMPEACHMENT
04 February 2025
Demanding Impeachment
This is my letter to my representative in the House, Janelle Bynum. I intend to send a version of it to her, and to both my Senators, every week until something changes.
Ms. Bynum: I am 71 years old and more alarmed about the future of our country than I have ever been. I believe that we... you.... must labor against all odds with the goal of bringing about the impeachment of President Trump, and his removal from office. However difficult it may be to convince those on the other side that this man, who is clearly trying to undermine the institutions of our government completely and become an actual dictator, MUST BE STOPPED, at whatever cost. NOTHING is more important; no other issues can be effectively moved forward until this crisis is dealt with.
No Republican can honestly claim that had Biden or any Democratic president unilaterally shut down an agency of the United States government, created and funded by Congress for many decades and serving the vital interests of the United States, locking out its employees without notice, that they would not have called for, and voted for, that president's expedited impeachment and removal from office as soon as humanly possible; or that many of the members of the opposite party would not have joined with them in removing such a rogue president for flagrant violation of his oath of office to "take care that the laws of the United States" be "faithfully executed." Because of course they would have. But Trump has now done exactly this. And what will the Republican dominated Congress do unless we work assiduously to convince them to change their minds? Precisely nothing.
Slowly, member by member we... you.... must strive to convince Republicans as well as Democrats that the impeachment of Trump is an existential mandate if our republic is to survive. Everything you can think of to convince them. This is actually the only thing that matters right now. It is that stark. I pray for our country but am not optimistic. PLEASE take this as seriously as a heart attack.
Thank you. [signed]
.............
DEMAND IMPEACHMENT
03 February 2025
This is the end
No Republican can honestly claim that had Biden or any Democratic president unilaterally shut down an agency of the United States government, created and funded by Congress for many decades and serving the vital interests of the United States, locking out its employees without notice, that they would not have called for, and voted for, that president's expedited impeachment and removal from office as soon as humanly possible; or that many of the members of the opposite party would not have joined with them in removing such a rogue president for flagrant violation of his oath of office to "take care that the laws of the United States" be "faithfully executed." Because of course they would have. But Trump has now done exactly this. And what will the Republican dominated Congress do? Precisely nothing. Our constitutional republic is at an end, my friends. It is not a certainty that it cannot be revived, but I would not bet on it.
...................................................................................................
Breathtaking Incompetence
Probably too much to hope for, but it seems at least possible that the sheer breathtaking stupidity and incompetence of Trump, and to a great extent those around him as well, will prevent the worst of what they have planned from actually happening.
02 February 2025
How about this as an international response to what's happening here
Here's an idea:
A bold strategy for the world's advanced democracies—now that the US can no longer count itself among them based on recent actions—would be to starkly rebuke Trump's trade and foreign policy. First, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance should publicly rebrand as "Four Eyes," excluding the US until it can once again credibly guarantee the security of shared intelligence. More dramatically, the G-7 should suspend the US, echoing their response to Russia's Crimea invasion, citing the ongoing trade war and threats to the territorial integrity of peaceful neighbors as violations of international agreements and law. They should make it clear: the US can return once it aligns with the collective objectives of the group. While these moves might appear self-defeating, the fractured consensus within the current framework means there's little to lose. Such actions would not only underscore the severity of the US's deviation from global norms but also signal the death of the "old order," challenging the US to redefine its role on the world stage. The reintroduction of the US to these groups is uncertain, but acknowledging the gravity of the current divide is essential. This would convey the dire nature of the situation to anyone paying attention. There is no advantage in pretending that these developments are normal or acceptable.
What's next?
As the venerated Economist said about the staged and totally stupid water release in California (just to make it seem like one of his tweets wasn't a batshit lie), "this is real Mad King stuff." It sure seems like this level of cray-cray is not going to be sustainable for long. But what is likely to break? Some scenarios I can imagine are truly, truly terrible.
01 February 2025
Something funny
Wanna hear something funny? The Congress could rescind the authority of the president to impose tariffs permanently (it's an Article I power foolishly given to presidents after WWII for "emergencies"), and revoke the ones he's already done, with immediate effect. All sensible people realize they should do exactly that, and immediately. The bill could be about 500 words, take about half an hour to draft and print. We know from past real emergencies that the Congress can act in less than 24 hours if it really wanted to. It would take 2/3 of both Houses to override his presumptive veto. Why is this funny? Because imagining that the Congress would do what the country clearly desperately needs it to do, and what a large majority of the populace favors (or would if you spent 5 min. explaining it to them) is... ludicrous. This is the country we live in. Such a measure cannot even come up for a vote.
Not handling this too well
People keep asking each other how their friends are "bearing up" in the face of Trump's fiascofest. My answer is, not so well. I'll tell you what really scares me. Admittedly, they are demonstrating almost as much clownish incompetence already as was typical of the first term. But here's what's different. And worse; way worse.
1. There is no resistance from Congress. Even the Democrats seem to be mostly just in a holding pattern, hoping it will all somehow go away in a couple of years. (We don't have a couple of years). The Republicans, really for the first time in history, seem to have no interest in their own Article I power, or in preserving it. It is a complete surrender to the Mad King. The vaunted checks and balances have failed. And every indication that the courts likely will, by and large, also come to heel. This is not normal. In the past, when presidents have overextended themselves, even members of their own parties in Congress have resisted; have fulfilled their constitutional function of acting as a check on the unbridled power of the executive. Since World War II this has been at best a precarious balance, with too much power in the executive. But now, the reins are dropped, and the Congress is nearly completely ineffective, having abased itself before a demagogue. Maybe this could change, but that's not usually the direction these things go. The complete prostration of the Article I branch does not bode well for the continuity of our Constitution.
2. Trump is even stupider and more deranged than ever, but he's also even angrier. Angry demagogues don't usually play positive roles in history. They tend to readily seize powers the legal system has been set up to deny them.
3. I have (a) every confidence that Trump is ready to do almost anything to stick it to the people he feels have 'wronged' him; and (b) no confidence at all that either the courts or the military will stand up to him when he tries to illegally exercise autocratic power. Which he has already shown a willingness to do, in open defiance of the law. And we've already seen that he cares nothing for the wellbeing of our people or even the stability of our country. He may not actually want the total collapse of our constitutional system, but he seems fully prepared to bring it about, all the while screeching blame of others for what his actions will have wrought. It's his invariable pattern.
I really do believe there's a dangerously high chance that the chaos will just blow up our institutions across the board, as well as the continuity of our democracy, not to mention the fragile peace that has prevailed for the most part in the world since 1945. Could it be worse? Of course, but it's really, really bad, it's just starting so we haven't seen the full extent of the chaos, and it's hard to see any path forward that doesn't involve the worst shitshow in our country in a long, long time, maybe ever. That we have the least qualified and most dangerous man in the presidency, ever, is, to my mind, simply undeniable. Nations do not flourish under such circumstances. If nothing else is clear from history, that is. I suppose things would change quite a bit if he were to die, but that's a slim reed. Violence of any kind, including assassination, would undoubtedly make things worse, and history has never been kind to the courtiers who retreated to the hinterlands and hoped the tyrant king would suffer a fatal mishap. Of course, anything is possible, but that's just not a likely scenario.
Time passes. Things change. But there's no going back (ironic twist on Kamala's slogan), and we will be lucky to see this era pass without a collapse of many many aspects of life in our country that we have hitherto taken for granted. I believe that only a massive nonviolent civil uprising has any chance of keeping the Fall in check, and affording at best a chance of some sort of recovery in our lifetimes. Without it, it's gonna be a dark, dark time for sure. But, I'm sorry to say, I don't see much indication that the people are ready to rise up. Millions marching on Washington? When, in the back of their minds, they think, Johnson and Nixon didn't order soldiers to shoot at the demonstrators (like Diaz Ordaz in Mexico in 1968, at Tlateloco, where something like 400 demonstrators were gunned down, or like Tian An Men in 1989)... but Trump, we all sort of know, would try it, and do we really feel confident the military would not carry out his orders? These are dark times, friends, but they can get worse. And where is the determination to stand up and say no, even at the potential cost of our lives? I honestly don't know, but as an old guy lucky enough to live through a time of relative peace and prosperity, I don't feel sure or resolved. I feel fearful and deeply, deeply pessimistic about our country. It quite literally brings tears to my eyes if I think about it enough.
So, no, not bearing up all that well. Maybe I'm wrong, and there will be a sort of return to norm and we'll bumble along, but somehow I just don't believe it this time. This feels really bad.
Courage.
31 January 2025
The Mad King and tariffs
Huge mistake not to have removed the unilateral power of the president to impose tariffs while we had the chance. (Hard to think of a power more clearly intended to fall in the Article I power of Congress). Now, along with a myriad of other disasters, we will have to live with the consequences, at least until somebody convinces the Mad King that this isn't working out for him (which is all he cares about). I am so sick of this already. Starting to think about moving to a democratic country (since ours no longer is, but probably that train's left the station already!)
But, anyway, to make the point: if (not when) power is restored to a democratically elected government in this country, among the first agenda items should be sharply curtail all or nearly all of the foolishly-endowed emergency presidential powers which are in statutes, not the Constitution. Congress has for far too long ceded far too much of its power ot the Presidency, in unforced errors of monumental proportions. Tariffs being only one instance. And now that the Right Wing Supreme Court has removed much of the ability of agencies to impose regulations, Congress will need to step up and enhance its staffing to draft the regulations necessary to properly govern and regulate commerce and the environment through actual language attached to the statutes, not relying on provisions the court may permit future would be dictators to just ignore. We've got a big mess to clean up, if we ever get the chance.
30 January 2025
IG says hell no!, escorted out of office by cops
We need more of this. It has to be blatantly obvious that there is absolutely nothing normal about what is happening in our country.
...................................................................................................
All Goodness there is makes but one demand of us: that we love one another with all our hearts and without exception. When the People keep this commandment, all falls into place: there is peace; there is plenty; there is happiness; and wisdom ranges far and wide in the world. —Tardig of Escondaria, 3648 CE
29 January 2025
This is how democracy dies
It appears there's pretty good basis for optimism that through special elections it will be possible to take Democratic control of the House before the next General Election, maybe even as soon as this year. The real problem is that there's also every indication that the Trump presidency, including his far-right technocrats, aren't that worried. They obviously intend to govern more or less without Congress. They will simply issue edicts. Their model, explicitly, is the Kafkaesque "illiberal democracy" (actually non-democracy) of Viktor Orban in Hungary.
Already, they have illegally usurped the power of appropriation and civil service protections; even attempting to fire federal commisioners without any statutory authority at all (EEOC most recently). And until people in their own party start developing the courage to say 'No! You cannot do this!'... they will do it, and we, the people, who did not vote for this (even most of those of us who voted for him), will be powerless to stop them. This is how democracy dies, and we cannot ignore it. There will be many ordeals, many tests, and if the already established tendency to simply hunker down and ignore what is happening continues, we will fail them. If we fail to resist, even at great cost to ourselves, dictatorship will succeed. We are warned. We cannot claim ignorance.
Who will stop him ?
Courts.... even Republican dominated courts... have long consistently ruled that the president does not have the power to impound Congressional appropriations. (Reagan tried it). Now Trump is doing it, and doesn't seem too worried about getting away with it. We have to ask ourselves, what next? He obviously believes himself to be all but entirely unconstrained by the Constitution or anything else. Just like a certain dictator of the first half of the 20th century whose name began with 'H'. Where will it stop? Nobody knows. But I know this. He will not stop until we stop him.
28 January 2025
Galling beyond belief
We Democrats genuinely believe in fair elections, and have bent over backwards to show we accept the results of the 2024 election, after Trump lied his ass off about the 2020 election being "stolen." But what almost no one can bear to think, let alone say, is very probably the truth, based on careful analysis of the results: But for improperly purged likely Democratic voters and improperly challenged provisional ballots not counted, Harris would have won the election. And most likely we would have regained control of the House as well. Trump not only did not "win by a landslide," in all probability he did not legitimately win at all.
Of course, we need to win elections by such huge margins that this kind of thing just can't happen, but since this may very well mean the end of democracy in our country for a long, long time, it is beyond galling to think that the election was, after all, in fact, stolen. There is literally no chance of overturning the election; we will just have to live with this outcome and hope and pray we are able to retain a functioning representative democracy long enough to ensure a different result in the future. Democracy simply cannot endure when one side lies, cheats, and steals elections, all the while accusing the other of what they have done.
See this (Thom Hartmann YT channel)
Exhausting
It's incredibly exhausting just hearing a list of all the foolish, hateful, stupid, racist, short sighted, mean spirited, and destructive things the Menace and his minions are doing. It seems to be almost all bad, and almost as bad as you can imagine, short of outright Hitler style totalitarianism. Gonna be a LOONG four years. But, well, you can't be this awful and people don't notice. Many of these things are going to hurt ordinary, tuned-out people who voted for Trump because they believed his lies and were and are predisposed to a lot of the racist and exclusivist message. No excuses, but people will see what's happening. When it starts to hurt them, and he continues to spew hatred and lack of empathy even towards them and people they care about. That is how it works. If we survive with fair elections more or less intact (big if), we will see a fundamental change. Some little sliver of hope.
Plus, he's old, sick, demented, and might die. Seriously. J.D. Vance is also really, really bad, but he's not as reactive and just plain stupid. Plus he has the charisma of a toad. So, there's that, too.
...................................................................................................
All Goodness there is makes but one demand of us: that we love one another with all our hearts and without exception. When the People keep this commandment, all falls into place: there is peace; there is plenty; there is happiness; and wisdom ranges far and wide in the world. —Tardig of Escondaria, 3648 CE
24 January 2025
A Chat With ChatGPT about word coinage and definition, and AI/bio collaboration implications
Orthochronometric and Nonorthochronometric film editing (a
word I coined but ChatGPT defined, fairly well, after some prompting:
- Orthochronometric
film editing would then describe maintaining a continuous and linear
flow of time using footage, even if it involves combining clips from
different takes. The key is that the edited sequence preserves a
believable and uninterrupted progression of events, maintaining temporal
continuity.
- Nonorthochronometric
film editing would involve more creatively splicing together clips
from various takes or scenes that may not chronologically follow one
another or even belong to the same temporal sequence. This approach can be
used to create fantastical or magical sequences that defy conventional
temporal logic, allowing for the depiction of events that are out of the
ordinary or physically impossible in a seamless way.
This way of describing film editing captures a nuanced aspect of how editors can manipulate time to create various narrative effects or to enhance storytelling through visual means. It sounds like a useful set of terms for analyzing or discussing film techniques, especially when focusing on the artistic and technical aspects of creating a specific mood or narrative effect. Would these interpretations align with how you intended to use these terms?
...
Me:
Quite well, actually, after a few narrowings of what I was
driving at.
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Great to hear that we're honing in on the concept you're
exploring! If you plan to elaborate on these terms or use them in a specific
analysis or project, it sounds like they could provide a valuable framework for
discussing the creative choices in film editing. If you need further refinement
or examples to illustrate these concepts, feel free to ask!
Me:
This brings me to an interesting series of ideas. Would a readily accessible, even cyber/neuro connected, AI that evolved from LLM potentially become not merely a repository of information and even a sort of enhanced visual memory, it could become a sort of partner in developing the implications of an idea, or even of an artistic image or musical conception? When you answered the question just now, I hadn't really thought about all the implications of 'nonchronometric film editing.' I was just trying to understand how a dog and cat YouTube video was probably made, as it depicted behavior that seemed quite unlikely in actual cats and dogs
...
CbatGPT
That’s an intriguing trajectory of thought. As AI technology, especially large language models and their offshoots, evolves, the potential for AI to act as more than just an informational tool but as a creative partner becomes increasingly plausible. Here are a few ways this could unfold:
-
Idea Development: AI can assist in expanding initial ideas into fully fleshed-out concepts by suggesting possibilities that might not immediately occur to a human thinker. For example, your initial question about nonchronometric editing led to a broader exploration of its definitions and applications, illustrating how AI can facilitate deeper understanding and insight.
-
Artistic Collaboration: In the realm of visual arts, AI can already generate images based on descriptive input, modify existing artwork, and even create new pieces from scratch. For film or music, AI can suggest edits, compose music, or simulate visual effects that would be complex or costly to produce physically. This could extend to creating entire narrative sequences or musical pieces that reflect a particular emotional tone or narrative direction.
-
Cyber/Neuro Integration: Looking ahead, the integration of AI with cybernetic or neurological interfaces could enhance human cognitive processes directly, providing not just data, but real-time processing capabilities that expand both memory and cognitive speed. This could make it feasible to develop ideas or solve problems at speeds currently unimaginable.
-
Ethical and Creative Implications: As these technologies develop, they also raise significant ethical and philosophical questions about the nature of creativity, authorship, and even human identity. As AI becomes more integrated into creative processes, distinguishing between human and machine-generated content and understanding the implications of this blending will be crucial.
The example of the unlikely dog and cat behavior in a YouTube video serves as a perfect illustration of how AI can help analyze and understand how such effects are achieved, potentially inspiring new ways to approach video editing or content creation. AI’s role as a partner in creative endeavors is rapidly moving from speculative to practical, promising exciting possibilities for artists, writers, musicians, and creators across many fields.
Resistance is not futile... it is absolutely necessary
We've been on a vacation in Mexico, ignoring most of the news, for the last couple of weeks. I intend to continue to keep the relentlessly negative news from this terrible time at bay, for my mental health (not ignore it, but keep it within bounds in terms of consuming my attention). I hope we will be able to continue to live a decent life, as law abiding citizens who have small-d democratic ideals and seek to bring about change peacefully and through civil processes. But it is already clear to me that, without what amounts to a (hopefully entirely peaceful) mass uprising, our country's whole character is on track to be totally transformed in a dark and ugly direction, probably irreversibly, at least for a long while. We are rapidly headed for actual no-kidding dictatorship and, more than likely, economic collapse. At least to some degree this will be unavoidable. But conscientious people must resist. We must stand up and denounce oppression, defend human rights, and refuse to "go along to get along." Any violence that occurs in this dark time will... must....come from the oppressors, not from the people. We must organize and practice nonviolent civil disobedience, as taught to us by Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, and, especially, by Gene Sharp, whose work needs to be much more widely known. He systematized a whole theory and practice of nonviolent resistance, and we will need all these tools, and need to know how to use them, because the time is now.
This may not be Germany, 1933, but it could be, and it certainly is a time when everything we care about as a democracy-based society is at risk of total destruction at the hands of people who simply do not believe in democracy, and who intend to impose tyranny upon the people. They have all but stopped pretending otherwise, and actual Nazis like Elon Musk are among their ranks. I genuinely believe that only through massive lies taking advantage of the structural defects of our political system were they, much like Hitler in the 30s, able to barely get elected. Another lie they all tell, like some hellish chorus, but remember the truth: it was no landslide, but a bare plurality. Had the 17 million people (including a margin for population growth) who voted for Biden in 2020 but simply stayed home in 2024 not done so, but had turned out to vote, good people who were lulled into complacency and believing the torrent of lies they were deluged with, this wouldn't have happened, but this is how democracy works. As Goebbels himself said in the late 1920s... the democrats (small-d), swayed by vicious and evil propaganda, actually give them the power to end democracy.
We must have courage, like the students in Mexico City in 1968. With tears in my eyes I hope and pray that it does not come to that, but I fear it is likely. Courage!
We must have courage, like the students in Mexico City in 1968. With tears in my eyes I hope and pray that it does not come to that, but I fear it is likely. Courage!
Here is a good rundown of Gene Sharp's brilliant "codification" of nonviolent civil disobedience:
Gene Sharp's principles and practice of civil disobedience are grounded in his belief that power in a society derives from the consent of the governed and that nonviolent action can effectively withdraw that consent. Here's a brief summary of his key ideas:
* Nonviolent Action as a Method of Combat: Sharp views nonviolent action as a method of combat, akin to military warfare, but using psychological, social, economic, and political weapons instead of violence. This includes acts like protests, strikes, and non-cooperation.
* Strategic Planning: Sharp emphasizes the need for careful strategic planning in nonviolent movements. This involves analyzing the dictatorship or oppressive regime, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and devising a strategy that targets these vulnerabilities.
* Concentration of Power: He argues that power in a society is not monolithic but rather dispersed among various pillars such as the military, police, civil servants, and cultural institutions. Effective nonviolent resistance seeks to undermine these pillars and shift their loyalty away from the regime.
* Methods of Nonviolent Action: Sharp catalogued 198 methods of nonviolent action, which he detailed in his book The Politics of Nonviolent Action. These methods range from symbolic protests like public speeches and displays of flags and symbols to more proactive strategies like sit-ins, strikes, and creating alternative institutions.
* Psychological Resilience: Nonviolent resistance often provokes repression from the status quo. Sharp argues for the psychological preparation of activists to endure suffering and repression without resorting to violence, thereby maintaining moral and strategic superiority.
* Political Jiu-Jitsu: This principle describes the dynamic where the nonviolent response to oppression can lead to political mistakes by the oppressors, which in turn erodes their power and legitimacy, and galvanizes public support for the resistance.
Sharp's work is focused on empowering oppressed populations with a methodology and tactics that allow them to effect change and resist tyranny without the use of violence, thereby reducing the destruction, casualties, and moral compromises associated with armed conflict.
We, the decent and pro-democratic people of the United States, whom I truly believe actually are the great majority of the people, must keep all this in mind, and simply not go along. We must strive to spread truth, and the importance of awareness and understanding of what is happening. We must identify and promote leaders from within our ranks who will actually do these things, and outsmart (that part's easy), and outwork those who would impose autocratic and oligarchic power upon us, against our will. We must resist any impetus to violence, but never give up, never give in, and do everything we can to maintain and restore democracy in our country. Again, my friends, Courage!
22 January 2025
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde
I should hope it goes without saying that it is the (gulp) president, and not Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who should apologize.
We cannot accept the end of democracy willingly
Friends, this is not a popular view even among Democrats, but I still think it's true. We went through a period around World War I when the possibility of real autocracy came to the fore, with the Espionage Act, etc. And for decades after the shameful compromise that ended Reconstruction we had a whole section of our country that was, in effect, an authoritarian state. But the turn to authoritarianism, towards legitimization of oligarchic control, towards the complete institutionalization of the disenfranchisement of much of the population, began with Ronald Reagan, and grew steadily worse under Republican and even Democratic administrations ever since. Biden represented a fairly strong attempt at reform, but the re-election of Trump has solidified a historical trend: the end of democracy in our country. Can we restore it? Yes, of course. Look at Argentina and Chile. But it will not happen without major sacrifice, and without far, far more courage and willingness to stand up and say No! than I see in our country right now.
I still believe in the principles, and the great strength, of our small-r republican ideals. We must make reforms to ensure that they continue. But first and foremost, we must win over the hearts and minds of more of us, and we must be willing to stand up, to tell those who would just presume our compliance that we will not cooperate, we will not obey in advance, we will not follow orders that violate our Constitution and our conscience, even at great cost to ourselves. We must have the courage of our convictions, and really mean it. I hope it will be enough, but I am not sure. Please think long and hard about these things before you, as we all want to do, just "hunker down" and hope for the end of these dark times.
I admit that it is easy for me to say this. I am not a teacher who might lose his job if he says that the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, no matter what the autocrats say. That the Constitution does not give the power to the president to make laws or wage war. That releasing people who committed violence in an insurrection is an obvious abuse of the pardon power never intended by the framers of the Constitution. I am not a policeman being asked to commit illegal acts against our own people. I can just stay in my house and try to stay healthy and well. But we all must at the very least speak truth to power.
Benjamin Franklin told someone that the 1789 convention had given us a republic, if we could keep it. Now we are the final test of whether we can, or not. Courage.
20 January 2025
My letter to Tesla
Public Relations Officer
Tesla Motors
1 Tesla Road
Austin, TX 78725
To whom it may concern:
I am deeply distressed, as an American citizen and Tesla owner, by the disgraceful and unpatriotic behavior of Elon Musk, the company's CEO, in twice giving a Nazi salute during the Trump inauguration.
This conduct is deplorably unpatriotic and a slap in the face to the memory of hundreds of thousands of Americans who gave their lives in the most terrible war of human history to rid the Earth of the scourge of vile white supremacist and genocidal Nazism. To emulate the salute of the most evil regime in the entire history of our planet is completely inexcusable.
I join millions and millions of Americans and I am sure many hundreds of thousands of Tesla owners in demanding the expulsion of this vile man from the governance of your company.
It will probably cost many of us a great deal, and undermine what we had believed to be an investment in a better, carbon-free future, but I can assure you that many owners of these vehicles will be disposing of them if strong action to repudiate this inexcusable conduct is not taken, and soon. Of course, failing such action, those of us with a conscience will never again make any purchase to support any business associated with Musk. There can be no redemption from such an extreme gesture in support of genocide, racism, and everything that America is supposed to stand against.
Sincerely,
David Studhalter
For today
I wanted to say something positive, on this particular day, especially, when I will be scrupulously avoiding live media coverage of all news (we're on vacation). I couldn't hope to come up with anything better than this, from the estimable Heather Cox Richardson.
You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left. When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it's just the opposite: it's regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them. It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day's failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did. It means writing in your diary that you "still believe that people are really good at heart," even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did. It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did. It means defending your people's right to practice a religion you don't share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did. Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did. None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It's just that when they had to, they did what was right. On April 3, 1968, the night before the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist, he gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1966, King had tried to broaden the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality into a larger movement for economic justice. He joined the sanitation workers in Memphis, who were on strike after years of bad pay and such dangerous conditions that two men had been crushed to death in garbage compactors. After his friend Ralph Abernathy introduced him to the crowd, King had something to say about heroes: "As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about." Dr. King told the audience that if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed. "Now, that's a strange statement to make," King went on, "because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." Dr. King said that he felt blessed to live in an era when people had finally woken up and were working together for freedom and economic justice. He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America. "I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter…because I've been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!" People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left. Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what. Wishing you all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025. — Notes: Dr. King's final speech: |
—Tardig of Escondaria, 3648 CE.
16 January 2025
A slap in the face
We are trying not to pay attention to the political situation in our country while we are in Mexico. I felt I had to say to our tour guide today that my heart sinks for what is happening in the US. And that I feel deeply ashamed that the Trump people failed to invite Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum to the Inauguration next week. Possibly because she might well have refused to go, but nonetheless. It is a slap in the face to one of our most important allies.
—Tardig of Escondaria, 3648 CE.
11 January 2025
A little statement of principles
I strongly believe in democracy as the only legitimate governance system, and in universal human rights. At least in theory, by and large, the US has been a force for these things for the last 80 years or so, despite failings and setbacks. Clearly we are now headed in the wrong direction. But equally important are the principles that (1) government must be free of corruption. Zero tolerance. And (2) that universally available high-standards education must be publicly supported. In both of these respects, the US has declined and is headed, apparently, for rapid further decline. To those of us who grew up believing in an ideal of America, this is extremely disheartening.
I point to Singapore as a counterexample of these last two "pillars." In that small country, democracy and human rights have taken a back seat, but in the areas of education and zero tolerance for public corruption, their system proves that these principles are also vital to the health and wealth of a society. (You have to pay your public officials very well, but tolerate no corruption whatsoever).
May we learn from this, and return to governance that makes each of these pillars of good government to be of paramount importance once again. We're going to have a long way to go to rise from these ashes, but, as Timothy Snyder says, we must imagine, and always work towards, a better America. We must never give up. We must never condone or comply in advance with arbitrary authority, with repression, with corruption, or with tolerance of lies and willful ignorance. We must consider these pillars a bare minimum. A floor, from which a prosperous and healthy society must be built. It is those of us who believe in these ideals who must, in actuality, make America great again. Nothing less should be considered acceptable, much less patriotic.
10 January 2025
Baby Girl
In case anyone cares, here's my capsule review of Baby Girl. Well acted, sensual, loved the casual attitude towards outlaw sexuality and interesting take on BDSM psychology, but, as a gay man, wow, way, way too much soft core straight porn. (My partner is less put out). Porn has its place, but "mainstream" movies maybe isn't it.
08 January 2025
Traveler woes... princess problems
I guess I've become an encrusted curmudgeon, but man is it a pain in the ass to enroll to be "travel ready" on an airline phone app (scanning passport, entering all kinds of information and paying for extra bags in advance, etc.... unlike most apps and websites, it was unable to auto-fill saved credit card info., for example). I've always thought I was a little more tech savvy than most people my age (71 going on 72), but this was a genuine hassle. Flying and traveling has become a lot more hassle and less fun than it used to be.
06 January 2025
Fear of unforced catastrophe in the Good ol' USA
It's extremely frustrating that what amounts to mass delusion and ignorant reflexivity have given us a narrowly elected disruptor in chief right when the US is actually enjoying one of its halcyon periods. As Heather Cox Richardson points out today, even with the wealth inequality crisis, the climate crisis, and other serious challenges, the US economy is doing the best it has in this century, we have no military involvement of US troops in any foreign war, we are energy self-sufficient, and domestic crime, violence, and even overdose deaths are all down. As we prepare to invest the mad would-be emperor this month, I fear that we are about to throw all of this away. We still have many geographic advantages and tremendous resources, but it's just so hard to watch us blowing it all for the whims of an actual no-kidding madman.
There is widespread belief among his cult followers that we are in the midst of some kind of economic and political hellscape, but, to the extent we are failing to realize our potential, it's mostly caused by them and the far right demagogues who take advantage of them and promote massive false propaganda to influence them in order to retain power and inordinate wealth to a tiny elite that just plain doesn't support democracy. They believe we are being undermined by hordes of immigrants, when the truth is that immigration by and large makes the rest of us richer and makes our economy stronger and more efficient. But we live in a time when there is no agreed upon truth, which may indeed be our greatest failing and the greatest threat to our prosperity and perseverance.
If you're religious, please pray for our country, and regardless may we all pull together and weather this storm, and learn from it. Assuming we get that chance, which I'm afraid is no certainty.
02 January 2025
A day of mourning on the 20th?
Brad and I will be out of the country on the 20th, visiting the Valley of Mexico. Otherwise, I would probably stay indoors and have a quiet day of mourning, because I am pretty pessimistic about the short term future of my country. It feels like a death. And as a man in his 70s, there is only a short term future as far as I'm concerned. 2024 pretty much sucked for us, personally as well as in terms of public life, and this doesn't augur well for 2025, but we can try to pull out of it and make the best of it. Living 3000 miles from the locus should help make that a bit easier to accomplish.
01 January 2025
Statistical laws of nature
I have discovered three additional statistical mechanics laws, to add to Boltzmann's S=kBlnW. They are best expressed in words:
When searching for a pencil, only pens can be found.
When searching for a permanent marker, only whiteboard markers can be found.
When searching for staples or pins, only paper clips can be found.
All three laws are perfectly commutative, if as little as an hour has passed.
You're welcome, although you will find that while perfectly true, none of these laws is of any use.
"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)
― Spinoza (Ethics)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
