Tuesday, January 14, 2025

The World Is Fine Except For People.

Solaris isn’t talking to me this morning. You see, Sol likes sleeping on top of me, typically on my shoulder or hip as I tend to be a side sleeper. Last night was no different. Normally, he approaches from the foot of the bed, finds a comfy spot, and snuggles in. Sol also gets up and wanders around the house during the night. Again, a very typical cat thing to do.

This morning’s problem occurred, though, when he was blocked from taking his normal route back to my shoulder. There were dogs in his way. Sol decided the best solution was to jump over Hamilton, which should have been fine, in theory. However, I was in the middle of a WWII-themed dream when all four sets of his claws hit my hip. My response was instinctive. Thinking that Nazis were attacking me, I yelled (for real), and sent poor Solaris flying into the bedroom wall.

If my scream woke anyone else, they haven’t said anything. Sol retreated to the relative safety of my desk chair. I got up and gave him hugs and he eventually came back to bed, settling back down on the same hip he’d attacked. That was at 4:10 this morning. The tone for the day has been set.

We’ve hit that point in the four-year cycle where a lot of people and businesses are making decisions and changing directions as government shifts. Like many states, Indiana has a new governor, an ardent supporter of Felonious Punk who will likely be eager to do the orange one’s bidding. Yet, it’s the new Lt. Governor that has everyone, including many Republicans, concerned. Starbucks now requires that one buy something before using their bathroom or hogging their wifi. There are far too many better places to get coffee, so the only people I see being negatively affected are those whose Depends are already at a breaking point. Amazon is ending its ‘Try Before You Buy’ option for Prime members. I never thought this was a good idea in the first place, as return costs were overwhelming the system. One can still return garments in the usual fashion, so I don’t see a significant number of people losing anything.

At the same time, I’m noticing that a number of people are planning to leave Meta and some other social media platforms. For many, the combination of a million-dollar donation to Felonious Punk’s inauguration and ending its fact-checking policies is too much to bear. I get it. In some ways, I ‘left’ Facebook over a year ago when I started posting my morning updates here so they wouldn’t get flagged. I still scroll through and look at your pictures and such, but I spend little consequential time there outside of when I’m taking a shit.

Here’s the problem with a wholesale departure from a platform: all that remains are the dregs of online society. The misinformation problem gets worse because there’s no one to call out or block those who share it. Good people leaving Meta platforms ultimately end up feeding the monster rather than hurting it in any noticeable way. I’ve already seen an increase in the number of Russia- or Iran-backed fake profiles. While I report and block them as fast as I see them, I know there are thousands more that I don’t see, and that’s a problem.

I also see more people falling for conspiracy theories that, if one looks at them with a modicum of reason, make no sense. I see you making statements like, “There’s too much that doesn’t make sense for some of those theories to not be true.” Really? That reminds me of people who still say they believe the myths of some holy book because science is too much for them to comprehend. Both attitudes are steeped in a willful ignorance that demonstrates a lack of critical thinking by people who have deluded themselves into thinking that they’re being thoughtful and critical.

No, I’m not leaving anything more than I already have. Seeing pictures of your babies and family adventures brightens the days when I have difficulty walking across the floor. There’s still good on social media, we have to curate it for ourselves.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department released Jack Smith’s report yesterday. You can read the whole thing for yourself. Short version: the orange one is guilty as hell and would be indicted if he weren’t about to be a sitting president, again. Therefore, I will, from this point forward, refer to him only as Felonious Punk. Everything he does, everything he says, needs to be couched in the knowledge that this individual knowingly and intentionally broke the law. I will also continue to point out that I’m not the one who re-elected his punk ass.

Now, I have to try and prepare myself for another round of stupidly cold weather. We have enough food, blankets, and clothing for everyone. My biggest concern is the safety of the kids while they’re on city buses. Tipper has already told me of one event where the bus was unable to avoid sliding into an intersection. The bus is still probably safer than a car, though. I wish I could trust the dogs to take themselves outside, but if you’ve met Hamilton you know that’s never going to be possible. Fortunately, he doesn’t like sub-zero windchill more than the rest of us.

Pour yourself another cup of coffee. The day is still young. Remember, life isn’t all that bad as long as you have enough medication.