ROLEY

Author: Kris Roley

  • Friday, January 10th, 2025

    • If you accept that Trump was never going to jail under any circumstances, then let’s focus on what happened today. The verdict was upheld, a sentence was passed. I’m not sure if this is appealable to a higher court from here, I think he would have to show something happened to prevent him from getting a fair hearing? If it’s not appealable, then the bottom line is that Donald Trump is now and forever a convicted felon. Make all the jokes you want about ‘getting away with it’, he didn’t. In a (very) small way, there has been accountability. Trust me, he’s livid about this.
    • If you want to know why you’re in a cult, part eleventy: MAGA has jumped to naming all the people who also have convictions, like MLK, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela… You could hear the sound of millions of goalposts moving. Like I said the other day. “STOP PERSECUTING ME!” said the guy in charge.
    • I listened to the Supreme Court arguments for TikTok today. IANAL, but it appears to me that the government is dressing up a free-speech argument as a national security threat. What the government is accusing TikTok of doing is using an algorithm to show you content. It thinks China can manipulate that algorithm to show you what it wants you to see. The trouble with this argument is that an algorithm is an editorial slant. That’s ANY For You/Discover/We Think You’ll Like/Related Page at ANY content company. Facebook does the same thing, lest you forget. There are two questions to answer: Does a threat to national security trump the 1st Amendment? Second, if TikTok poses a national security threat, then show us the threat. I can think of a greater threat to national security than this, and it’s not hypothetical. It’s real, and it’s taking office in 10 days. That opinion has been and will be all over TikTok, and I think that’s the real reason the gov’t wants it gone. Speaking truth to bullshit? Well, we can’t have that, can we?
    • I put together my new desk chair last night, and I realized upon sitting in it that it does not recline. It’s one of these ergonomic chairs that adjust in a few ways, but reclining is not one of them. It’s probably very good for my back if I can keep from slouching forward. This is just one of the ways I don’t human very well I suppose, but we’ll see if this chair helps my posture. I’m practically a hunchback on my best days.
    • With any luck, a super-duper pod this weekend. Stay Tuned.

  • Thursday, January 9th, 2025

    • A small correction to my half-baked meaningless babble about the jack Smith report yesterday: It has been pointed out to me that even if the concerige judge Cannon gets overturned, it will be appealed to SCOTUS, where Concierge Justice Thomas will accommodate them. So, if you’re asking the overall question “Did the insurrection work?’ the answer is yes. Yes, it did.
    • The more I think about it, the more I believe that while we should be afraid of what happens when these people in power have no guardrails, it might be the best thing to happen to our society in the long term. This came to me when I saw a post by Nancy Mace, AI’d to look like a knight in armor in front of a ladies’ room door. She also felt free enough to call people on the left dumbasses, which is usually something left for the rabble to do. Watch this space.
    • Re: Meta. I’m torn about what to do with my Meta accounts. Some people in my life I can only contact through Meta, so I need to keep the account. I rarely use it for posting anymore, so he’s not getting money or clicks from me. I think I can remove the Instagram/Threads accounts on principle. I was concerned about where to post photos to share, Glass (paid) or Pixelfed (Fediverse), but I’m forgetting First Principles here. I have a place to share my photos: MY place.
    • A little PSA from my day job: Here’s a hypothetical: If you call the bank on behalf of your elderly parents or in-laws, and we can’t get permission from them, we can’t talk to you. Also, you can’t DO anything. In most cases like that, the bank would need a Power of Attorney. So, don’t turn around after the bank tells you that and try to make a withdrawal online on, say, a day when you think no one is paying attention. We’re paying attention, and you just got the account frozen. No withdrawal for you. We need the POA. Period. Thanks for playing.

  • Wednesday, January 8th, 2025

    • Remember this as you read stories about buying Greenland, taking control of the Panama Canal, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”, that Woody Allen had this nailed years ago. I stand by my prior statement that he returns to the scene of the outrage and makes it part of his shtick. That doesn’t make him less insane. The man operates solely from self-interest and is unable to see anyone or anything outside of that context. Again, a narcissist isn’t affected by anger or opposition. What they cannot stand is silence, and/or the possibility of being humiliated in public.
    • This business with Jack Smith’s report would be an excellent example of his aversion to being publicly humiliated. He’s trying to stop the report from being released or stall it until after the inauguration. Then his AG pick can spike it if she’s confirmed. At the very least, Bondi will do what Bill Barr did with the Mueller Report. (EDIT: The concierge judge Aileen Cannon has acted as expected and blocked the release of the report, deferring it to the 11th Circuit, and ordered that the block remains in effect until three days after the circuit court makes their decision or is otherwise resolved. This ruling is a clear sign that Cannon knows it’s likely to be overturned on appeal, but the three-day buffer ensures no release before the inauguration. Make no mistake: The person practicing ‘lawfare’ has always been Trump. Every accusation is a confession, as the saying goes. )
    • All of this to say: There is no magic bullet. There is no damning report, there is no allegation of criminal behavior that will get Trump another impeachment for the next two years at least. No one is coming to save us, as they say. Stop listening to people who want you to believe otherwise.
    • I don’t give a fuck what Mark Z. says. When you get to the chewy center of it, he did not create Facebook for some lofty moral purpose. He was dragged into doing ‘the right thing’ every single fucking time Facebook has been called on the carpet. He’s slime, he’s always been slime.

  • Tuesday, Jan 7th, 2025

    • I need to see this out in the discourse if it isn’t already: “STOP PERSECUTING US!!! (said the people in charge)”.
    • Would someone please tell Nancy Mace that the extra is getting tiresome? Four years ago, your fellow cult members were wiping shit on the walls and crushing cops in doorways. You braved the snow. We are not the same, you wilted cabbage. Have a Coke, a smile, and a fucking seat.
    • If you’re not dialed in on the various blog content management systems that exist, this may not mean anything to you, but there’s been a little bit of drama surrounding WordPress lately, enough of it to the point that I started looking around at alternatives. I ruled out Squarespace immediately because I’ve already seen that movie and I don’t need all the bells and whistles. I’m not thinking about making this a monetary success anymore, I just want to have fun. I’d like to draw your attention to two other systems I looked at recently:
      • micro.blog — This platform is for regular content creators but allows it to be your social hub. You can subscribe to your RSS feeds and then share the content you post everywhere to, well, everywhere else. That’s fine if you want to use your social networks to promote your content. I don’t, at least not for right now. Also, almost all the people on micro.blog that I read had a primary blog elsewhere. That seems redundant to me.
      • Ghost — This platform allows professionals to share their content like a newsletter, allowing monetization. It’s Medium without the posts about how to make money on Medium.

        WordPress, for all its drama, is likely the best option for most people if you’re just…y’know…blogging.

  • Monday, January 6th, 2025

    • Everyone knows what day it is and is well aware of what happened on this day. There was a point when we all agreed that it was horrible, but that was short-lived. Today, we saw how it’s supposed to be done, lest we forget.
    • If you believe we’re merging with Canada and buying Greenland, I can’t help you. He got a rise out of us. It’s covefe. It’s “the calm before the storm.’ It’s the Sharpie. I keep saying that his fear is not being shamed, he has no shame. His fear is the day he bleats out some insane rant, and hears nothing in response. No reaction. No anger. Nothing. Trust me, it drives people like him nuts. I know this from experience.
    • I started the studio redesign this weekend. I have a new L-shaped desk for my Mac and my WFH stuff. I still have much to do, but I must confess that I overlooked something: This desk does not have a lip or space for my mic desk clamp. Looking for solutions. That’s why there was no podcast this weekend. I’ll resolve it as soon as possible.

  • Friday, January 3rd, 2025

    • I wonder what Mike Johnson had to give those two congressmen to keep his job. The old curse is that we live in interesting times. It’s going to be an interesting two years.
    • I try not to spend every waking moment in my office. So, I take my iPad Pro into the living room. I try to be social while I do what passes for research and writing. The fine folks at WordPress have an app for that called Jetpack. For the most part, I like it. The only problem is that I can’t copy the format of an earlier post. It considers every line in a post to be a separate block. I wondered if it works in the iPadOS Safari Browser, it does not. Finally, I went to my iMac, and it works there. If I copy the template from the iMac into my Notes app and copy it from there it works. I wonder why there’s a difference.
    • One of the things I’m looking forward to is playing with some new toys from ShiftCam. I have a new SnapGrip, the Stand Max, and a Snap Pocket light. These attach magnetically to my iPhone for photography and videography. Over the next year, I intend to use my iPhone exclusively, because it’s less bulky and easier to pack. I hope it means the device is easier to use. If the process has more friction, I won’t use it. It doesn’t seem difficult, so it’s up to the space between my ears.

  • Thursday, January 2nd, 2025

    • Watching the events of yesterday, I’m reminded that often the fastest and loudest takes right after some act of violence has taken place is usually made by people who don’t know what they’re talking about, or by people who are paid to be the fastest and loudest and STILL don’t know what they’re talking about. This includes a small but merry band of alleged ‘journalists’ that are more interested in engagement than accuracy.
    • We can boil all social media down to one sentence we’ve all learned: I don’t know who needs to hear this, but… No one needs to hear anything on social media. What we’re doing is attention-seeking. That’s the addiction. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but see it for what it is. Even blogging is a cry for that same attention, but there’s no bigger test of quality. The leap of faith you take with a blog is writing things people want to read. Or, you choose not to care and write it anyway. I’ve chosen the latter. It’s not that I don’t care what you think, it’s more like I don’t care to filter my opinion and I feel it’s more appropriate to do that here.

  • The Verbs, January 2025

    Watching: 1923, from the Yellowstone series (Paramount +)

    Reading: The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

    Jamming: Live 1978-1992 by Dire Straits

    Podding: The Black Dahlia Serial Killers by Wondery

    Working: Right here on this site. I’m just working on creating content for now.

  • Wednesday, January 1st, 2025

    • As much as I’d like to write some flowery New Year’s related prose here, I will resist the urge. I never live up to it anyway.
    • From a numerology standpoint–if you’re inclined to believe that stuff–this would be a ‘4’ year for me, where I lay a foundation for whatever is to come. I’ve been through one of these years about a decade ago. I did not get the message, or this stuff is just cyclical. It’s probably as much a bunch of hokum as astrology. To be fair though, the day I was rear-ended by a drunk driver in 1988, my horoscope said that ‘evening would find you in a bit of a scrape’. So, I’ll stay open to the Universe, thanks.
    • I don’t want to spend the next year–or four–obsessing over the dementia patient and the techpolitburo. If anything, this is where being a card-carrying member of Generation X may come in handy. Maintain an overdeveloped sense of cynicism, sarcasm, and dark humor, and get on with it. Wolverines, Bueller, and Amen.

  • PODCAST: Roley Podcast for December 15th, 2024

    SEGMENT 1

    Don’t Look Back In Anger.

    SEGMENT 2

    “If Y’all could just get back to the Culture War and fighting each other instead of the Upper Class, that’d be great”. CEO’s, probably.

    When you cheer because ABC settled a lawsuit over the difference between rape and sexual assault, that’s got to be the weakest flex ever.

    Look. I don’t know how we will cope through the next four years. I sincerely hope this bunch will be as incompetent as the last bunch and that we all live through that incompetence.

  • Wednesday, December 4th, 2024

    I have but one takeaway from today’s US v. Skrmetti oral argument, but it’s informative: The TN GOP is all about parental rights until they don’t fit the agenda. In this case, the government knows better than parents what’s in the child’s best interest. These drugs harm a child’s body irreversibly. So does being pregnant at a young age, but y’all aren’t concerned about that one in Tennessee, are you?

    On a related note, Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs is mulling a run for Governor of Tennessee. Politics has become pro wrestling in suits so I suppose that’s logical. Surprisingly, the one guy in 30 years who made you believe he was a redneck rattlesnake, wasn’t. Go figure.

    Since we’re on the subject of pro wrestling, I have never liked that walking hot dog Hogan. I have never liked good guys. Bad guys were WAY more interesting. I was a Piper fan. I was a Jake Roberts fan. These days, the line has blurred because we’re not interested in good/bad anymore. These aren’t superheroes, they’re people. Since the Attitude Era, we’ve realized that characters who evolve and have reasons for their actions are more interesting. CM Punk, Karrion Kross, and Hangman Adam Page are great examples. I have one exception to this: Bray Wyatt. I miss him more than anyone I’ve ever rooted for. Hands down the best character since The Undertaker. I’ll die on that hill.

    I’m beginning to think that anytime someone beats their chest loudly on TV and says that they’re not going to back down, wait 24 hours or so. I don’t know who was first, but I’ve named this Agnew’s Law. How long before Agnew’s Law applies to Hygiene Hegseth? he came out today saying he’s not backing down and said all the attacks on him came from anonymous sources. His mom, for example… Wave bye-bye to the E-Ring, Hygiene Boi.

    Something to pay attention to in the House of Representatives: Jerry Nadler (D) NY, has been the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee for a long time. He has announced he’s stepping down and endorsed Jamie Raskin of MD to take his place. This is interesting because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has said she might run for ranking member of Oversight if Raskin gets Judiciary. There are many reasons to root for this happening, but let’s focus on two. First, James Comer is the Chairman and is going to lose his damn mind dealing with her. Secondly, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert are on Oversight and at least one of them will try to take AOC on. Take my advice: If this happens, Start watching C-Span, particularly the oversight hearings. They might get lively. There is one thing the House GOP might try, and that is to try to use something AOC says out of context to strip her of committee assignments. I predict MTG will be the one to pull this stunt to ‘own the libs’. Watch this space.

  • Monday, December 2nd, 2024

    There’s an old joke that Gallagher—yes, the watermelon guy—used to tell about the first humans on the planet. They were all nomads. They’d settle somewhere, look around, and say, “Hey, I like it here. ” Then, a few months later, they didn’t like it so much. The root of the problem was that indoor plumbing hadn’t been invented yet, so after a while, it was time to pack up and move somewhere else, preferably upwind.

    This is how I feel about the office/studio where I spend my workday. I did a little decoration in 2018 to keep myself from going nuts when Devin was in the hospital, and if I’m honest, there’s nothing wrong with it. I’m just bored with it and I want to do something else. I keep getting ideas from YouTube from other creators who have done amazing stuff with their office, but I have to remember that these folks have a name and sponsorships. They also have that one other thing…money. I don’t have big money, so anything I do will be piecemeal. I’ll figure out a design and the cost, and then start collecting the parts. I think this would be a good thing to document on video. Stay tuned.

    I think the moment that Meghan McCain decided to weigh in on the Hunter Biden pardon was the moment irony hurled itself into the sun. I’ve read what most everyone has to say about the pardon, and every one of their paychecks depends on them being on whatever side they’re on. In the end, I’m going to remind you of the sage wisdom of Dick Cheney: So what? You know what Joe Biden did? He saved his son in the only way he could, because he could. He couldn’t save his first wife and daughter, and he couldn’t save Beau. He saved his son Hunter. If you can’t have a sliver of sympathy for that, you’re beyond hope. The only thing I can’t stand about this is that Bobo/Butthead/ThreeToes are going to co-opt a talking point I am sick of: No one is above the law. So, for those of you who missed the takeover of the term “Fake News” the minute Trump said that to Jim Acosta from the podium, you’re in for a fun time.

    Just so we’re clear, there are 20 plus seasons of various Law & Orders and assorted NCIS-es to keep your mind off this bullshit.

  • PODCAST: Roley Podcast for December 1st, 2024

    SEGMENT 1

    Christmas wrapping (thyself around a telephone pole).

    Lynnhaven Mall Exit Swerve.

    I don’t complain anymore. I’ve been to New York since then.

    Taxi Story

    Navigator Story

    ——-

    SEGMENT 2

    All the news that’s printed to fit.

    Rudy Is Losing It https://newrepublic.com/post/188868/courtroom-sketch-artist-rudy-giuliani-losing-it

    The PodBros are coming https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/11/27/2288821/-Yikes-Trump-may-let-podcast-bros-into-White-House-Briefing-Room?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

    The Right’s 24/365 Propaganda Machine Vs…nothing. And you wonder why the Dems lost. Meanwhile, Legacy Corporate Media is rotting.

    The next stars in the Democratic Party—the one we run for office, anyway— need to embrace, even CREATE, new media. They need to start now. Gavin Newsom needs a podcast. Mayor Pete needs to be on Hot Ones. Run with that.

    Jack Smith Report expected to be released before Inauguration Day. https://www.newsweek.com/jack-smith-deadline-final-donald-trump-report-1991904

    Looking at you, Garland.

  • Monday, November 25th, 2024

    The week of Thanksgiving means one thing to me: The crazy people are about to hit the roads. My shopping is pretty much done already, so I try to stay away from the places crazy people go during the holidays. The groceries get picked up or delivered, I give the mall a wide berth, and I try to stay away from anything that looks like an accident waiting to happen. There’s nothing like heading down the expressway at 55 to have a car stuck in the exit lane cut left into your lane with no warning and about 100 feet to make a decision. That will wake you up, trust me. That said, I don’t complain so much about the crazies around here so much anymore, and there’s a good reason for that: I’ve been to New York City.

    I’m good, thanks.

  • PODCAST: November 24th, 2024

    WordPress Upgrade / Changed to Twenty-Twenty Five Theme, clean design

    Yellowstone. Holy crap. Taylor Sheridan is Shonda in boots, apparently.

    My day job. Some of y’all are rude. My fraud story from this week.

    B-Roll. One day I might get to use it.

    Joe and Mika

    Manhattan DA Delay in Sentencing.

    Nancy Mace

    The race to replace mainstream media

    krisroley.com

  • Thursday, November 21st, 2024

    Don’t gloat over Gaetz just yet. There’s about to be a vacant Senate seat in Florida, and I think he got offered a consolation prize to withdraw from consideration for AG. Also, don’t get your hopes up about turning Gaetz’s district blue. It’s been red since Joe Scarborough won it in 1994. Could it go blue? Yes. Could I also sprout enough hair on the top of my head to cover my bald spot? Also yes, but like the former it would take a lot of help.

    I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the disconnect between the Right and Left and how they use the media. Going to give this some more thought before I open my mouth. Clearly, there’s a difference.

    The more I use Bluesky, the more I’m liking it. However, something happened on my Threads account this morning, when I first logged into it this morning it presented me with a toggle switch. Turning it on would allow me to see more political content. Go to Settings > Account > Political Content to get there.

    I’ve noticed something hilarious on Bluesky. Folks on Xitter that cried so much about ‘muh free speech” that an overgrown man-child with more money than God and barely enough self-control bought it, are the same folks who realize that now that they’re talking to themselves it’s no fun. So, they’re coming over to Bluesky….and getting blocked or banned like A Taint. The same thing is happening on Threads to some degree. Why are they so mad? They got the safe space they wanted to be as disgusting as they like. D’ya suppose that free speech was never the problem at all? It’s almost as if they have no actual identity without being assholes. Touch grass, like the younglings say.

    Related: Using Threads and Bluesky (deck.blue) on the desktop is amazing. If you ever had Tweetdeck, it’s that same design. I can’t tell you how much I miss Tweetdeck. 10/10 would recommend.

  • Wednesday, Nov 20th, 2024

    Getting away from the politics and assorted fuckery for a moment, I’d like to talk about how some people think it’s perfectly ok to be rude to the people you’re calling to ask for things. It’s not. It’s the bravery of being out of range. It’s the bravery of not having to look at who you’re berating. It takes zero dimes to do the bare minimum of a human being and just not curse at the guy on the phone helping you. Some of us learned this when we were kids, Some of us didn’t, and for those people, I recommend using a chatbot if one’s available on the website of the company you’re wanting to engage. Sure, AI might take my job someday, but if it can help me avoid talking to an asshole, I’m all for it.

  • Tuesday, November 19th, 2024

    Yesterday, I wondered if Rachel Maddow would have anything to say about their channel throwing themselves prostrate on the tiled floors of the Craptastic Compound to save their access, jobs, or whatever. She did not, so she is complicit in their new surrender policy. We must then assume that MSNBC no longer cares about journalism, or if they ever did. What they care about is eyeballs, ratings, and ad revenue. If that is the case, we should refer to cable news—and MSNBC specifically—as For-Profit News. Up to you if you want to trust anything that prioritizes money over truth, but I won’t. I’ll see if I can find something trustworthy to share. Someone suggested Democracy Now as an alternative. I’ve never seen it, so I have no idea. I’ll let you know.

    The Manhattan DA’s Office recommends to Judge Merchan that Trump’s sentencing be delayed so that the Court can hear Trump’s motion to dismiss. Of course, this case will get dismissed, because we have two levels of justice here. The only ‘Lawfare’ being practiced here is what Trump has proven he’s very good at, using the court’s rules against itself, and getting away with it. He will tell you that makes him smart.

    This might be a rhetorical question, but If a culture warrior falls in the forest and no one is there to hear them bitch about Starbucks Cups, books and other people’s junk, do they make a sound? Was there a race between Boebert, Greene, and Mace to be the first person to drop a bill about Ladies’ rooms in the Capitol? Good to know that lot are taking care of the really important stuff, those utter wastes of space.

    Related: I’m reminded of something Michael Stipe said to Tabitha Soren once along the lines of “The only time you should be worried about what I’m doing with my dick is if you’re sitting in my lap.” I would amend that to “The only time you should be worried about what I’m doing with my dick–or if I even have one–is if you’re sitting in my lap.”

    I suppose that this is just a sample of what we’re going to be in for, at least until January 2027 if we’re lucky.

    On a lighter note, caught the first episode of Dune: Propecy last night. Wonderful bit of world building here. Long before the events of Dune, it’s the early days of the Bene Gesserit. If you liked the Recent Dune movies, you’ll like this. Something nice to chew on while we’re waiting for Dune: Messiah.

  • Monday, November 18th, 2024

    The big reveal this morning–that Joe and Mika went to the Craptastic Compound–should be the death of cable news. At the very least, it should be the death of MSNBC. I wonder what the Monday Prime Time contingent has to say about this, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a big rift between Rachel and Joe. It doesn’t matter. They’ve burned their reputation for something they won’t get.

    One of the things I’ve taken to watching during my recovery (I’ve had plenty of time), is Yellowstone. I didn’t think that was going to be my cup of tea, but like every other person who’s been suckered in by this show, it’s all about the next batshit crazy thing Beth is going to do. I’m starting Season 5 next, I understand I’m in for a ride. The guy who created the show has got another one in the works called 6666, the ranch in which Jimmy spent Season 4. I certainly hope that means we’ll be seeing more of Jimmy. His character arc was awesome.

    Managed to get a little B-Roll of time-lapsed stuff over the weekend. Nothinghuge, just the skyline at what passes for a Downtown here in Virginia Beach, and some shoreline at the Chesapeake Day during the very windy weather on Saturday Morning. It looks good, and one of these days I might have a reason to use it.

  • PODCAST: Roley for November 17th, 2024

    * welcome back

    * Heart attack

    * Evolution of personality.

    —

    * Tyson Fight/ Netflix: stress test for RAW?

    * Cabinet appointments.

    * Changing vote? Too late.

    * Tariffs? 80s Movie out front should have told you.

    * I can ignore it, but there’s a reason I can: They hate all of us, but it’s by degrees.

  • Friday, November 15th, 2024

    I know I mentioned one aspect of this yesterday, but another thing I like about this new design is that it’s clean not only when you’re reading it but also when I’m writing it. It wasn’t always this way with WordPress; the Classic Editor was an insufferable GUI, but it was the best you could do back then. This is true WYSIWYG for both of us. I start a new post with a blank dark blue canvas in front of me. If I go full screen on my Mac, it’s almost like those distraction-free writing tools that were so popular ten years ago. I didn’t see the use in them back then, I do now. I think I can get used to this.

    Possibly a podcast this weekend. It’s all hinging on whether I can get some other “HoneyDo” projects done first without tiring myself out. That’s something I’m having some trouble with lately. As it gets later in the day, I’m exhausted. I might make it to 9 pm on a given day, but I can not promise. I think it has something to do with the strength that my heart is ejecting blood. My first consult after the heart attack says that it was around 40 percent. That number needs to improve, and exercise is about the only thing that will do it. I can’t go straight back to lifting weights; I’ll never make it. No, I literally have to walk before I can run here. Just to get my heart rate up consistently. It’s all cardio, strangely enough.

    If there is to be a podcast, you will see it here in two places. One is here in a post on the front page. The other, for the more observant of you, will be the podcast page at the top right of the site. What it is to be remains to be seen, and I’ll yeet myself off that bridge when I get there. Hey, here’s a shocker, I’ll do whatever the hell I feel like.

  • Thursday, November 14th, 2024

    If you gave me a list of all the people Orange Julius Caesar nominated to be in the next administration, I would have guessed that he was giving us a bait and switch. It goes something like this: If I give you the most outlandish option I can think of and you say no to that, then you might say yes to my second (real) choice because it seems more reasonable than my first option. That was my opinion until the Butthead from Florida resigned from Congress. That gives a little weight to these being real picks. That said, it’s Butthead. He may just be stupid. As I said on Threads last night, the Senate can do something hilarious, reject him and send him back to Tallahassee jobless.

    Back to my favorite dark blue/gray/white palette, you’ll notice a new design here. WordPress has released v 6.7 and with it the Twenty Twenty-Five theme. It allows me to have a clean and simple blog, and it just serves as a reminder of the evolution of my online footprint over 25 years. Here’s one link for the current domain, and another that goes back to 2001. There’s another shared domain (locnetwork.digitalchainsaw.com) from 1999 to 2001, but the Wayback Machine doesn’t appear to have it. You can see the start of it in HTML, to WP to Squarespace, and back. All sorts of bells and whistles as we went on over the years, and now back to a plain old blog, which is what it should have always been. Also how the owner of the blog should have been. I, like the blog, have gotten unnecessarily fancy and dropped it all in the past few years. The heart attack has accelerated it if I’m being honest. I don’t have any more time to be fancy or waste energy on things or people I don’t need, what you think of me, or me being nice just to keep the peace. That, along with other shit, is what got me here in the first place.

    Consider me not on Xitter (pronounced Shitter) anymore. I’m not deleting my account, but I’m not going to post there actively unless I have to post something every thirty days or so to keep my handle. I don’t want to free my handle up for anyone else, like spammers or fraudsters. I am on Threads and Bluesky. Bluesky has blown up since the election as a Xitter replacement. Threads has more users (Meta, duh) but Bluesky appears to have the old pre-Phony Stark DNA imprinted in the source code. Same handle everywhere, so jump on if you like.

  • Friday, Nov 8th 2024

    When we last talked, I said I was going to be doing some weeding. Let me tell you what that looks like.

    First, I’m once again deleting X from my devices. I think for me the final straw was Phony Stark saying “For anyone, whether in America or other countries, who finds this result shocking, they should reconsider where they get their information. This trend was obvious on 𝕏 for months, but almost all the legacy mainstream media pushed a completely false reality. They lied to you.” Well, I don’t buy that for one second. At the very least, I don’t buy that X of all places has the market on objective journalism, or reality for that matter. I feel the same way about MSNBC/CNN/FNC/NewsNation/NewsMax/Insert Right Wing Propaganda Streamer here. Frankly, the whole system of news gathering and dissemination is broken. It’s been that way for a long time, and the reason is simple: straight news on TV sucks, and no one wants to watch it except for a few freaks of nature. Like me

    I remember CNN at the very beginning, pre-Desert Storm. June 1st, 1980. It was a very different animal. Lou Dobbs’ still seemed like a reasonable human being, for example. It’s evolved into something else, and at long last it’s just not watchable. The cable news networks have a bias just like Elon Musk has a bias. I’m not ready or stupid enough to call it ‘woke mind virus’, because anyone who uses that stupid term has a hard enough time defining what woke is beyond trying not to be a dick to other people. So, I’ve deleted X. I’ve removed any news or opinion based podcasts from my feed. I’m swearing off tv news. What do I trust? Well, I trust NPR to some extent, and I trust the AP. Even then, I’m not going to seek out news any more. I just can’t with this crowd. We’ll never get back to Uncle Walter telling us the way it is, but I wish we could. I feel very strongly about Shepard Smith being able to pull it off, but I don’t hold out hope that he’ll ever make a comeback. He certainly knew where we were headed.

    Now, I realize that I’m in a position where I can ignore all of this and curate what I want to consume. I also know others can’t, because it affects them directly. However, I do know this much: Important news finds us, we don’t find it. I will put my trust in that knowledge, and stay off the goddamn news platforms. I don’t need it.

    I was reminded this week that Tunnel Of Love by Bruce Springsteen hit number one on the charts this week in 1987. I know, you wouldn’t think I’m a fan of Bruce, but I am. ToL is one of his best, and in some way I think it’s better than Born in the USA. it’s a deeply personal album, based on what was going on with him at the time. If you’ve never had the opportunity, I recommend giving it a listen.

    I’ve started S3 of Yellowstone. It tickles the part of me that watched Dallas/Knots Landing/Dynasty/Falcon Crest back in the day. True to the formula, there has to be one character in the series you can’t ignore, and on Yellowstone, that’s Beth. Some of you already know this, but…man. Just…wow. If you don’t know, may I suggest looking for her on YouTube, there are several shorts that cover her character very well. That’s what caused me to go find the show in the first place.

    Provided I have the time, I’m going to start working on what a Roley podcast looks like in this day and age, and how we might accomplish it. It’s time to remove the AC units from the windows around here, and while the day time temps will be livable, it’s going to be in the 40’s at night by the end of next week.

    Monday, as ever, is a coin flip. See you then, possibly.

  • Thursday, Nov 7th 2024

    I’m not going to say that Donald Trump is the leader of a cult, but I’m telling you that he’s cult adjacent. That’s funny to me when you stop to consider that some of the people from my life who are members of the Cheeto Temple are the same folks that said the same thing about me and Rush Limbaugh back when I was 20-ish. Memories are short.

    In the end, it’s really not surprising. We have become accustomed to—addicted by—anger, drama, and chaos. We had four years of Joe Biden and his lack of drama that we missed it. We demand that our media both sides and make horse races out of politics and elections and then cry about it publicly. Privately, we need the horse race, and the drama, and the both sides-ism. We can’t live without it. So, now, we don’t have to. We have four years of anger, drama, and chaos. We get what we deserve.

    We deserve this next four years of hell because of the previous forty where we have allowed the Limbaughs and Hannitys and Becks and Olbermanns and Maddows to tell us what we’re supposed to think. Critical thought is no longer required in this society, just flip the switch on your radio or TV and flip the switch off your brain. “No thoughts to think, no tears to cry, down to the very last breath…we have amused ourselves to death.”

    The other thing I can’t help but think as I see the line of ass kissing from Tim, Zuck, Jeff, Elon, Sundai, and Satya is that we have handed the country over to the Tech Bros. It doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies. The Tech Bros will undoubtedly view this opportunity to remake the US in their incel-infused image, which will solidify the idea that women are less-than, that their way is the only way. They’ll sooner put the torch to this country—to democracy itself—than to admit their eventual failure. Make no mistake, they will fail. They will fail because the country is not a product or a platform, and when you fail at the country level people get marginalized, injured, or dead.

    That’s enough for today. I have some weeding to do, which I’ll share with you tomorrow.

  • Wednesday, Nov 6th 2024

    Breathe.