John Rogers

But they could have it! It just requires intentional sucking for a period of time. Which is more the hurdle than the effort.

You should!

We shall find a Secret Thing some day.

The only reason I would ever crave immortality is because I'd love to have the time to become a really great carpenter.

"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard

Cooking! Yard work! Putting up a fucking shelf!

One of the defining quotes of the century.

FWIW as a non-supernatural humanist, I follow you and enjoy your writing.

There has never been a President that has worked as hard as me! My hours are the longest, and my results are among the best. I’ve stopped Eight Wars, saving many millions of lives in the process, created the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country, brought Business back into the United States at levels never seen before, rebuilt our Military, created the Largest Tax Cuts and Regulation Cuts, EVER, closed our open and very dangerous Southern Border, when previous Administrations were unable to do so, and created an “aura” around the United States of America that has led every Country in the World to respect us more than ever before. In addition to all of that, I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks — Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results. I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country. In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to “ace” this Examination and, in fact,

most do very poorly, which is why many other Presidents have decided not to take it at all. Despite all of this, the time and work involved, The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am “slowing up,” am maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true, and knowing that I work very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before. I will know when I am “slowing up,” but it’s not now! After all of the work I have done with Medical Exams, Cognitive Exams, and everything else, I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean “THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.” They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it. They have inaccurately reported on all of my Election Results and, in fact, were forced to apologize on much of what they wrote. The best thing that could happen to this Country would be if The New York Times would cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful “source” of information. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Every part of this is bonkers. The intro is bonkers. The transition to his health is bonkers. The mention that other presidents didn't need cognitive exams is bonkers. The claim that this screening test is somehow hard is bonkers. The idea that criticism of him is treason is bonkers. All of it.

6) Art is, in the end, a way of taking a feeling out of my head and trying to jam it into yours from across space and time. There may be some tasty junk food made by AI eventually, but without intention, our appetites to make will be unmet, and we will eventually move on. 6/6

5) AI, which is good at bullshit, may thrive because we have made a society run on bullshit. But in the end I cannot believe we will all become nothing but consumers. People MAKE. An not in the Randian "makers and takers" sense, in the yearning, stretching toward the infinite sense.

4) Ages ago I noted there's just a vast gap in experience, in language, in the very ideas between the very rich, the techbros, and the rest of us, as deep as, say, THE ARRIVAL aliens. We do not use words with the same meaning. Don't even have the same value in and from the human experience

They are separate Secret Things!

3) The effort is the juice! The effort is the high! Mastery of a skill is an unparalleled buzz. "Having written" is nice yes, we all joke about that, but *the making is the pleasure*. Men who've never experienced that, trying to steal it because ironically *they do not know its value*, is a sin.

2) That adrenaline dump, the release when you're done, or where I was today, looking at my watch, thinking I was running out of time but only an hour had passed, in complete flow state, just hacking away at sentences, solving problems, and we both said: "Why would you give that up?"

1) I was having drinks with @gregrucka.com who is in LA for VERY SECRET REASONS and we were discussing this post, because he had just finished A Thing and I am in the middle of A Thing and write all day, literally 9 to 5, and we were talking baout how THAT felt ...

A.I. and the Fetishization Of Ideas In writing and in dispensing my (very dubious, probably shady) writing advice, I am often keen to note that ideas are bullshit. Most writers treat them like precious gems when really, ideas are lik…

I said it before, will say it again -- generative AI fetishizes "ideas" while sneering at effort, execution, and education. That, despite Gen-AI being built on and out of other people's effort, execution and education.

Known by the French as "the Plan américain".

Federal agents arrest citizen observer watching ICE detain neighbors on her north Minneapolis block Susan Tincher, a 55-year-old American citizen, appears to be the first observer arrested by federal immigration enforcement officers since the agency launched an immigration surge in the Twin Cities l...

“She has marks on her neck and wrist from where agents restrained her. Agents cut off her wedding ring and held her in leg shackles at Whipple Federal Building for about five hours.”

Her crime: witnessing ICE, from a distance.

We’re on our own, folks.

Just one of the stupidest things that has happened in my lifetime

A great deal of AI hype is coming from con artists who understand exactly how much easier it’s going to be to use the same cons over and over once they achieve their dream of a world in which nobody understands how anything 1) works or 2) has ever worked.

You Can’t Fight Fascism While Defunding Libraries “Libraries embody everything that we need right now to fight back against fascism," says Sara Heymann.

If you are looking for a way to help out, libraries are community centers, resource hubs, among other things; they do so much on many fronts. Getting involved with your local Library & helping it is one of the best things you can do. Great post on this topic: organizingmythoughts.org/you-cant-fig...

Reminder that not only do library systems have physical media (& many also lend tools, electronics etc), your library card may give you access to streamers Kanopy and Hoopla. We just watched Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of The Rainmaker via a hoopla the other night. Pretty good!

How billionaires took over American politics The current concentration of wealth is unlike anything in history. So is billionaires’ involvement in politics.

“How billionaires took over American politics”

The concentration of wealth among the richest Americans is unlike anything in history — and so is billionaires’ influence in politics.

The USA has over 342 million people.
Only 902 billionaires.
It's when we say it's over.

🎁 link wapo.st/4rG7WHH

Allston car wash workers speak out about their detention A seventh employee, the only one sent out of New England, was released Saturday.

“More than a month after several employees’ sudden detention at an Allston car wash, the seven who have been released spoke out about what happened when immigration enforcement agents detained them at their jobs.”

#Massachusetts #AbolishICE

One theory I have is that competence, self-control, responsibility, and expertise have all been feminized, leaving “masculinity” with the realm of impulsivity and petulance. So the divide is not really between “femininity” and “masculinity” so much as between adulthood and childishness.

“You’re really not going to like the ending of your childhood, either.”

I like this proposal to progressively tax high CEO-to-worker pay ratios. This is what every tax should consider—how it can shape behavior in a desired direction.

I'll add that I think this should be paid in newly issued shares into a national UBI-paying fund that all corps should pay into annually.