Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3
Musings on life, the theatre, technology, culture and the occasional emu sighting
Send this to your friends, your enemies, and anyone else who needs some sense knocked into their heads.
If you’re struggling like I am with the fundamental changes happening in this country as we hit the 4th of July, play this ad from John Cena about what it means to be an American.
Don’t just play it, send it around. Every day. Each and every day. Especially to those who’ve lost the plot.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Pay attention! The time is now. Not November.
Pay attention!
Below are three links to articles I saw upon waking this morning. If these don’t wake you up inject some damn caffeine into your veins.
First up. Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, not yet clothed in a brown shirt, tells us “that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Pay attention!!
Next up. Phillip Bump gives us The Perfectly Valid Presidential-Immunity Murder Hypothetical. This should be a gift link, but if it’s not or doesn’t work, it might be time for you to learn that there are a million ways to get around paywalls on the Internet. At the moment.
Pay attention!!!
And finally (for this post at least) Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes take on the SCOTUS decision in A Decision of Surpassing Recklessness in Dangerous Times.
Pay attention!!!!
And if you think the political cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon above might be too much, I’ll just say again
Pay attention!!!!
The time to act, the time to work is now. While we must vote, if you wait until it’s time to vote, you’re already losing more than we’ve already lost.
Pay attention!!!!!
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Going to be surreal celebrating USA independence from a king after the Supreme Court ruling.
I’m struggling through this political mess we’re in and shared some of my thoughts in Rome Magazine on Medium. I hope you take a minute of your time to read it.
The irony of the Supreme Court giving the president immunity most monarchs would die for may be rich, but it’s also extremely sad, given the timing. Yes, I’m still in a state of profound disillusionment and yes, I’m working to figure out how to change that, but I’ve got to be honest. There are moments when I’m not sure if it’s worth the candle, much less lighting up some fireworks this 4th of July.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Now we pick kings and queens and not presidents.
It’s over folks. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that we elect kings and queens and not presidents who are subject to the law. We now live in an autocracy, or a dictatorship, or perhaps it’s just an unreal reality show.
It’s a byzantine ruling picking the nits between personal and official acts in the way only lawyers can pick nits, but the essence of it is this: Given how our legal system is what it is, a president can act, stall for time and never be held accountable for it legally. Sure, Congress can impeach (this will ratchet up that clown show), but that only removes someone from office. Legally a president can do whatever they want as long as they can use the legal system to mask personal actions as official acts. I hate to tell you, that’s easy to do. Nixon is rolling over in his grave.
Folks will call it a mixed bag. Folks will debate the what if’s. There are no what if’s. The Supreme Court of the United States just told any president, including Donald Trump that they can grab the country by the pussy. Just declare it official.
Turn out the lights. The party’s over. The world and the history of humanity just changed.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Steering clear of politics (mostly) here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.
It’s a tough weekend to put this Sunday Morning Reading column together in the wake of last week’s U.S. Presidential debate. I’ve never seen so many knees jerk so violently at once leading me to assume there are quite a few bruises caused from crashing them against computer desks. So, I’ll be avoiding politics this morning. Perhaps. Maybe. We’ll see.
Did you know that milk is the latest front in the culture wars dividing America? Tony Diver tells us how.
Yes, it’s political but no, it isn’t about recent events specifically, so once again I highly recommend you check out The Split by Steve Radlauer and Ellis Weiner. The Split, now up to Chapter 34, is a terrific serialization of all things political, social, and well… all things.
James B. Stewart and Benjamin Mullen take a long look at the future of streaming in The Future of Netflix, Amazon and Other Streaming Services. It’s a worth your time kind of read even though it takes awhile, but it more than hints that none of the titans of this industry has a clue.
The entertainment industry isn’t the only place run by folks without a clue. Check out The Federal Reserve’s Little Secret by Rogé Karma. Apparently those folks pulling the strings on interest rates don’t have much of one either.
And speaking of titans of industry and god-like powers David Todd McCarty thinks If Someone Asks If You’re A God, You say Yes.
On the Artificial Intelligence front Wired has been doing some good work lately reporting on on that front. Check out Lauren Goode and Tom Simonite’s This Viral AI Chatbot Will Lie and Say It’s Human.
Also check out Elizabeth Lopatto’s Perplexity’s Grand Theft AI. Sounds human to me.
Joan Westenberg has an interesting think piece on the misconstruing and appropriation of the message of George Orwell’s 1984 in “This Is Just Like 1984.” Great piece.
I said I’d avoid the political hot potato of the presidential debate. It’s not that I lied, or changed my mind, it’s that this piece is too good to not recommend. Check out Natasha MH’s view in The US Presidential Debate Reminded Me of My Divorce.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.You can also find me on social networks under my own name.
That sinking feeling.
Last night I spent good time with good company, all of like minds politically and socially. In that good company is a very good friend of substantial means. At one point he asked me if I was going to watch the debate tonight, or as he characterized it, “the TV event that might decide the future of the world”. I responded that I would indeed be watching and felt his characterization, though extreme, was sadly too damn accurate.
He later said that his financial advisor had called a Zoom meeting of all of his clients for Friday morning to discuss paths forward after the debate and anticipating a SCOTUS decision on Trump’s specious immunity claims. He said his financial guy sounded a bit panicked.
No shit.
Personally I’ve moved beyond panic. I’m now in a state of profound disillusionment. A descriptor I borrowed from Tom Wellborn a fellow traveler on social media. I wrote about that last week on Medium in a post called, well you guessed it, Profound Disillusionment.
I hope you take a few minutes and read it, depressing as it may sound. We live in a country where I fear that if the decaying orange convicted felon, now the candidate for what used to one of two major political parties in this country, but is now just an cover for grifting and cruelty, died a horrible public death, the chaos he’s unleashed can’t be reversed. At least not in my lifetime.
In the light of day last night’s good time feels far too much like commiseration.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Some Sunday Morning Reading and mourning insights to share.
Another sweltering summer Sunday morning so it’s time for a little Sunday Morning Reading with a host of topics mostly dealing with the myriad challenges ahead of us and mourning some that are behind us.
Natasha MH reminds that in the midst of tough times there are ways to conjure magic that’s actually within our power to control in When Space Meets Stoicism. A lovely piece that hits home. Good advice in these unsettling times. Or even settled ones.
Speaking of unsettling, Cody Delistraty takes a look at how we Americans do and don’t deal with grief in It’s Mourning in America.
Artificial Intelligence remains a hot topic this summer and will remain so for quite some time. There’s been some excellent points made on all sides of the issues involved and I can’t wait to be a few years down the road and see how that’s all rolled up and regurgitated by some generative AI engine that probably doesn’t exist today. In the meantime check out some interesting thinking on the matter from Wenzel in Apple Intelligence and the DMA, Dan Henke’s take in Beardy Guy Musings, and Tim Marchman and Dhruv Mehrotra’s chronicling of Wired’s adventures with Perplexity, Plagiarism and the Bullshit Machine here and here.
Most of the above centers on the issues surrounding AI and its potential for abuse of creators. Sadly, history proves the heat around that issue will eventually cool down. Perhaps we should examine the heat all of this “compute” needed to power this abuse takes on the planet. Check out Bloomberg’s AI’s Insatiable Need for Energy Is Straining Global Power Grids.
David Todd McCarty gives us an artist’s guide to learning how to listen in It’s Not All About You. It’s not just advice for artists.
As crazy as the political and tech worlds are these days, the entertainment world is just as nuts, especially when it comes to the covering of it. Winter of Content by Kevin Nguyen is a rich piece focusing on print media’s transition to the Internet from within the crazy explosion of coverage of Game of Thrones. Great read.
And speaking of entertainment coverage and mourning, it’s a fun game for this older guy to track the sad news surrounding an artist’s death. You can tell when a typically young writer knows very little about an artist’s body of work by the ludicrous title choices of that artist’s work they choose to run in the lede of the obituary. I doubt AI summaries of this will be any better than the quick scans of Wikipedia these interns obviously do now. With this week’s passing of Donald Sutherland it was particularly entertaining given the breadth and complexity of his career. However, there was one piece that grabbed my attention that bucked the trend. Amber Haley tells her remembrance of working with Donald Sutherland as a young set decorator proving that not only do small details matter, they tell the bigger story. Check out The Set Decorator and Donald Sutherland.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
AI, politics, culture and a bit of history in some Sunday Morning lake time reading to share.
We’re on lake time this weekend, but there’s always some Sunday Morning Reading to share. Especially when you get to share it from a lovely morning looking over the lake. Lots of AI, some polticis, some culture, and some just fun this Sunday. Enjoy.
It’s Father’s Day weekend, which prompts delving back into memories for me and also comes at a time when the debates around Artificial Intelligence touch a bit on how we collect, save, and share what may have once been memories but might be hallucinations. While this piece from Natasha MH isn’t aimed specifically in either of those directions, it struck some of those chords when I read it. Check out No Proof of Existence.
Speaking of AI, Miles Klee thinks Brands Are Beginning to Turn Away From AI.
Holy moly. Even the Pope is getting into the AI discussion. Antony Faiola, Cat Zakrzewski and Stefano Pirelli take a quick look at How Pope Francis Became the AI Ethicist for World Leaders and Tech Titans. The AP also has a larger report here.
I’ve compiled a large reading list on Apple’s move into AI that it has now branded as Apple Intelligence. It’s way too early in this game to understand or predict the technology and financial games ahead, but as the previous link suggests perhaps not the ethical. Check out Eshu Marneedi’s Why Apple intelligence is the Future of Apple Platforms.
Fascinating piece by Renée DiResta on how online conspiracy theorists turned her into “CIA Renee.” Check out My Encounter with the Fantasy Industrial Complex.
Joan Westenberg does some comparing of our political life between the 1850’s and now in A Republic, If You Can Keep It: How 2024 Rhymes with the 1850’s. The parallels are black and white. The ability for too many to see where this will all lead not so much, as evidenced by this piece from Gregory S. Schneider and Karina Elwood: A School Board Reinstated Confederate Names. It Split The Community Again.
Anna Spiegel reports for Axios on The Folger Shakespeare Library’s Reimagining. This institution is a treasure and worth a visit. I’m looking forward to seeing it again after the new reopening.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
It’s time to share a little Sunday Morning Reading. Words on Apple, words on politics, words on loss, and some words on photography. Read some words.
This week Apple will hold its annual World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) focusing eyeballs on Cupertino and what everyone expects to be Apple’s big push into the Artificial Intelligence game, now looking like Tim Cook’s version will be called Apple Intelligence. This has been no secret for quite some time. That said, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg seems to have gotten quite a few of the details, whether leaked or planted who really knows, on what’s about to unfold. Check out Here’s Everything Apple Plans to Show at It’s AI-Focused WWDC Event.
As a companion to that check out John Gruber’s take on Gurman’s Epic Pre-WWDC Leak Report. Gruber seems to think it’s indeed a leak and the folks inside Apple aren’t too happy. IYKYK
As I stated the focus will be on AI. I’m thinking it will be just as hard to cleanly view where this is all headed as it has been with announcements from other companies, given that no one has nailed down an AI or LLM that seems to live up to the promises or provide reliably accurate answers. Check out Google’s and Microsoft’s AI Chatbots Refuse to Say Who Won the 2020 US Election by David Gilbert.
Perhaps the best pre-WWDC piece for providing some pre-perspective comes from Om Malik in Apple + AI: What to Expect at WWDC 2024.
Natasha MH has penned a lovely piece about the lives we cherish and the ones taken from us with Weeping For Relationships Made Out of Dreams and Denials. There have been lots of dreams and denials dashed in this last decade. Some very personal and some quite global.
In many ways, Natasha’s piece linked above is a a companion to this David French piece The Day My Old Church Canceled Me Was a Very Sad Day. We’ve gotten far to used to loss and far too accepting of how we’re experiencing so much of it because of the turmoil visited on us by one orange-tinged demagogue. Brenda Wineapple says this is Trump’s Most Dangerous Gift., and that it will never rise to the level of public tragedy. If that’s the case, nothing ever will.
We think it’s all happening to us in the here and now. But while today’s issues are horribly threatening and provoke chatter of Civil War, we’ve had our share of the same from our past. Jon Grinspan takes on a bit of a tour of some long forgotten American history that actually led to our actual Civil War with Long Before the Woke, There Were The Wide Awake.
And as a final Sunday morning palette cleanser check out The 25 Photos that Defined the Modern Age in a piece put together by M.H. Miller, Brendan Embser, Emmanuel Duma, and Lucy McKeon. The pictures are worth thousands of words but the words accompanying the pictures are worth quite a bit as well.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Politically Incorrect AI? Where’s the problem?
Artificial Intelligence is taking its beatings as it weaves its way into just about anything we think might give us a leg up. Recent misfires from Google and Microsoft after big announcements shed light on just how, to this point, reliably unreliable your AI of choice can be. On one hand it’s entertaining. On the other it’s concerning. If there was a third hand I think it would shake towards irony.
MSNBC ran a recent report highlighting inaccuracy scores when AI chatbots were asked political questions and came up with an average of 27% incorrect responses.
It seems to me that a 27% inaccuracy rate is probably within the ballpark of what we hear on any normal day from traditional news sources, social media, and folks sitting at the counter at the local diner. While there are certainly problems, it feels much like AI is doing what it’s designed to do: spit back the nonsense we feed it and it feeds on.
Frankly, I don’t think humans can design any piece of software that will outstrip our human capacity for ignorance that gobbles up the increasingly large amounts of garbage already available. As long as folks can make money from feeding us the fake alongside the real the churn will continue.
Addendum: After posting this I noticed this article in my feeds:
Google and Microsoft’s AI Chatbots Refuse To Say Who Won The 2020 US Election. I guess not answering is one way to avoid an inaccurate answer.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on most social media using my name.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 