Ee-ahn’-aw-oh(ng)-oo(ng) for robot to vehicle. And quickly.

I’ve used this so many times. Now I need to employ Wilhoit’s composition as well.

Perhaps both, together.

You make an excellent point.

Perhaps, instead of “celebrating”, the opposite of “[vicious] harassment and [ignorant] hatefulness” is virtuous identification and commitment to learning. Thoughts?

Its centered on the US because they’re harming themselves and everyone else all at once. “Flooding the zone” as it were. What’s there to be done but stand on principle and dominate the narrative.

Inception, followed by a kick.

Thanks for that. And true, Durden was not the best to offer. I meant it to be jarring. I meant it to reach out to the disaffected youth and the millennials and the middle of the road white boys. It is anachronistic. And, you might note, it’s no longer about Douglass in that last sentence. It’s us. We, now, are, and should be, pissed off.

The thing is, black anger has always been regarded a threat. My anger has always been a threat. So, I picked one of my heroes as a picture. One of the first of ‘the other’ to take command of his own photographic image. But the current state of affairs — which has never changed — caused me to co-opt the words that, in some readings (like the one you shared), spurred on the Tea Partiers, the “basket of deplorables”, and the Red Hats. An inversion, or, if you like, a suplex for those words.

It was not the smartest, or most apt move. But, it’s what I chose. And published. And am responsible for.

Thanks for your insight.

Added it to my list of upcoming reads.

That’s an incredible quote. I still need to read more Douglass. Thank you!

Also, nice turn toward the positive there at the end.

Oh, it’s much, much, much less than that.

0.0000416%, 1/24 millionth of the sky.

Here, a .gif on Reddit

It confirmed the cosmic insignificance of Earth, the profound vastness of space and time, and — at the same time — the rarity, beauty, and fragility of life. Human perception, memory, and understanding is tiny. But, it reaches toward infinity.

this portrait of Frederick Douglass—an escaped slave who had become a lauded speaker, writer, and abolitionist agitator—is a striking exception. Northeastern Ohio was a center of abolitionism prior to the Civil War, and Douglass knew that this picture, one of an astonishing number that he commissioned or posed for, would be seen by ardent supporters of his campaign to end slavery. Douglass was an intelligent manager of his public image and likely guided Miller in projecting his intensity and sheer force of character. As a result, this portrait demonstrates that Douglass truly appeared “majestic in his wrath,” as the nineteenth-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton observed.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/145681/frederick-douglass

Alex Jones

Steve Bannon

Stephen Miller

Yeah, a whole-country general strike in America would only last a day, two tops. They don’t have the wherewithal to be good neighbours and politically aligned against monied interests the way a nation-state that has a deeper, older history can.

The history of America is money, interest, and interested money.

Southern plantations, 17th century land ownership, trade in enslaved persons, ranching, gold prospecting… and war.

War against the Indigenous, the French, the Spanish, the Mexica, the French again, the British, the Bolivarians, themselves, and then everyone else, forever.

The way to defeat America is to end its war-making capacity. Explosions, attacks, weathering, budget restrictions, out-competition, and mutually-assured destruction have all failed as gambits. What remains is to undercut the human element — wounding warriors without wielding deadly force. A loss in military preparedness, a disbelief in the stated mission, a war-weariness.

None of these things will stop the US. What will is a general strike, a new constitutional convention, and the reconstruction of the nation from the ground up.

Reside: Auckland or Barcelona, as long as I can make a living there and be in solid with a like-minded group of locals.

Vacation: Lago Atitlán or Lombok & the Gilis. I’ve never been to an island in Oceania, so Indonesia is as close as I’ve experienced. Atitlán is tough to beat as it’s in reach to Xela, Chichi, and the much more touristy Antigua. Plus volcano hikes, kayaks, and lots of yoga spots. Good food, great people, and low cost. I wish only two things: more power to the Campesinos (particularly solar power and less cow dung heating), and fewer military-types on their gap-year.

Party: Seoul, as nostalgia. Or, if I had an unlimited budget, a Berlin, Amsterdam, Prague loop. I’m old. I deserve parties at whichever impact level I choose on that day.

I cannot understate how shit Luc Besson’s Jeanne d’Arc film was. At least, in my memory. I know, I know; everyone’s got an opinion. These are my two cents. This movie really let me down.

The first teaser, which gave absolutely nothing away, was excellent. The cast was solid. I thought, cool, Besson is doing a period piece.

Wow, it was dog shit. Dustin Hoffman’s role helped. But barely.

It was up for international awards. Milla Jovovich went for a Golden Raspberry.

https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart

In August 1976, gold was $35/oz, close to its historical level. By October 1979, it was $380/oz, over 10× increase — peaking (for the 20th c.) in January 1980 at $668/oz.

20× return in 3.5 years.

Gold doubled again in value by December 2010, and again by January 2025 — to $2800/oz.

The all-time high, 20 October 2025, $4377.58/oz.

125× return in under 40 years.

I’ve seen it said: it’s not that gold has gotten more expensive. Its that the USD is debased as a currency against the dollar. The gold standard for USD ended in August 1971.

Diplomacy.

After 9/11, when the world weighed an invasion of Afghanistan, America could have skipped the invasion, taken the Al Qaeda leadership the Taliban offered up, and continued to seek O/UBL. A forensic investigation and specific arrests, extradition, trials, and convictions would have been much better than a disastrous 20 year war that accomplished two things: enriching military contractors and the impoverishment of a central Asian nation.

Diplomacy.

Deposing Saddam Hussein with the same type of pressure that, later, led to the ousters of Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali, and Bashar al Assad. Some might say that 2003 created the pretext for the Arab Spring. I’d counter that time and tide created the conditions. Operation Iraqi Freedom was a pipe dream and an extension on the GWoT piggy bank.

Diplomacy.

Building a better, more sustainable future demands a move away from fossil fuels. Making driving, urban sprawl, warfare, agribiz, and Amazon packages into a socially toxic soup of ideas would have done wonders for green initiatives. Instead a turn away from the largest industries of the time was — and still is — regarded as heresy.

Team efforts.

When people see one another’s skills and can come to have confidence in and rely on each other, that builds bonds. Creative exercises are good ways to achieve this. Co-producing a play or video, painting a room, or making a meal (while not hungry, of course) could be methods that help kids to practice this. We take our kids camping and there are lots of ways for kids to work together and rely on each other. Also, opportunities to exercise independent competence and to do tasks that help the family.

Trauma bonding is a dicier strategy. Could work out. Could end in tears. It all depends how many times you want to have them survive a winter plane crash on a mountainside. By the third time, they’d probably catch on.

For anyone who hasn’t listened to ALL of the lyrics from that song, go. Do it.

Know what works better than boycotts? A general strike. Stop the economy in its tracks. Have a clear, articulated goal. No leadership. No one to arrest. No one to identify as a troublemaker.

The trouble, when systemic, is the system. A boycott is meant to strike at an individual or group of allied organization(s). A general strike is the last level.

Governments tend to be allergic to general strikes. Their reactions are heavy-handed, thoughtless, and reactionary. Howard Zinn recounts several in A People’s History of the United States. But, when primed and done well, it is a demonstration of political will unlike any other. It is a change agent.

I was in Guatemala in 2015 for the one-day general strike that led to the arrest of then-President Otto Perez Molina. His party had been funnelling tax revenues into a slush fund. Look up #noletoca and #LaLinea. He was removed from the presidency, tried, convicted, and served time.

The most expensive thing ever built and maintained is the International Space Station. At $160B over its lifetime, the ISS is a model for the excessively wealthy.

True, it is not primed for self-sustaining flight, and the quarters are very cramped, but a space-faring über-rich individual has to have a Plan B in case they’re not on the same continent as one of their “end of days” bunkers. Those start at $1 million and can run upwards of $300 million.

About the same time as the first private space station comes into service, we will also find that the rocket and tandem-independent space shuttle will also be feasible. Necessity is the mother of invention.