The other day, my Google account signed in to create a new Substack. I decided against it, but I have a truckload of thoughts building up, so I thought I’d air them out and get them out of my head. See if they make any sense to you.

Google and my words

The reason that I chose not to do a substack isn’t because I dislike substack. Google, though? Them I don’t trust. I used to be impressed by Google Maps and Google Earth and how cool knowledge was with the internet. At that point, Google’s motto was “Above all, do no harm”. When it became “Above all, make some money by sharing data with anyone who asks”, somehow it changed from being hippie to being scary. Under the Trump administration, I don’t want the government to know where I live, or when I post, or what an article supposedly said via A I.

The unapologetic apology

There is a thing corporations and members of this administration do that drives me up a wall. When an airplane falls, for example, that company’s press statement says “We take our passengers safety seriously”. Clearly not or you wouldn’t need to tell us about it. When Pam Bondi, or Kash Patel or Todd Blanche talks about the Epstein files, they invariably say “The Department takes the law and survivors’ protection seriously”, clearly they don’t, or Congress wouldn’t be asking the questions. Especially when this comment is followed with more stonewalling, it becomes a challenge to the questioner: “Are going to call me a liar?”. Yes, I would. Congress needs to do the same.

Efficiency doesn’t mean “good”.

AI means we can do anything we want or can imagine quickly. There are all kinds of things I can imagine, like things in a horror movie, that I don’t want to be real. Making nightmares possible efficiently is not a problem I have. Stopping and thinking about what we’re doing before we do it allows us to be human. If I’m in a speeding boat or airplane or spaceship and I don’t check to see where I am or where I’m going, I will definitely get somewhere I don’t want to go.

But all the money is on the horse who is glowing. Random investors, the media, and oligarchs worldwide are spending billions or trillions of dollars on AI Data Centers or programming or AI generated memes. The idea in all the haste is that “they’re going to get rich. I want to before someone else does”. Amazingly, money spent on an item does not mean it has that much value or that the people spending it are any smarter than you or I are. Using no intellect doesn’t make you smarter. AI people seem to have missed that.

Ripping apart souls before they are formed leads to societal collapse.

I’m not talking about abortion here. I’m talking about actual, living , breathing, out-of-the womb children here.Little kids are building up a sense that the world is safe by seeing mom or dad or their friends or teachers on a consistent basis. Feeling unsafe is the cause of anxiety. Anxiety often leads to violence. Separating children from their parents or the things that are familiar to them, isn’t just cruel, it’s stupid and self-defeating regardless of who is doing it. People who enjoy being cruel don’t realize that they are poisoning the ground the live on and will not have joy from it — especially in a country where guns are worshipped and the right to live safely is not guaranteed by the Constitution, while guns are. If you want to live in a society in collapse that you can’t control, separate growing children from their families.

Some thoughts about Donald Trump

It occurred to me that me that his orange face — intentionally put on — is like clown makeup. We are drawn to it because it’s different and supposed to be funny. That would be fine if he were funny. He’s not. Even his face tells lies.

He is a branding genius. The fact that people had to call it “The Big Beautiful Bill” because that was its name is an absolute stroke of genius. It forces people who are talking about to lie. While it certainly was big, it was not in any way beautiful. Making people hungry, homeless, unemployed, poor, and attacked by their own government is never beautiful. He lies on a big scale — no beauty there.

Being male is only half the equation for humanity.

There is a biblical quote that asks, “How can you do it alone?” Pete Hegseth and his ilk want to be white men alone. Being a “leader” alone is also called “taking a walk”. If he (and they) want to impress the rest of the population, they have to be near the rest of the population. If they want to have comraderie, they need to have friends. Lessening the ranks of those in the service cuts down on the chances of that. Being mean is not attractive. Taking away their rights doesn’t make them your friend. The whole plan that Hegseth is selling is inherently self-defeating. It looks dumb because it is.

The concept of “solitary executive” is a contradiction of “democracy”. If no one is above the law, someone saying “I am above the law because I am the law” isn’t possible. It is mutually exclusive. Every time a lawyer or a judge says that we should consider the solitary executive model, the simpler version is “We want a king”. The whole Revolution was built on the idea of not having a king. It’s fairly obvious. Arguing about the unarguable is what John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas want us to do.

If you think that you are one of those people who are going to get away with all of this behavior, you won’t.

You have hurt too many people in places they didn’t even know they had. Whether the law catches up with you or not, people who could be important to you will hate you.

Sometimes the only way to win is to not play.

Peace,

John