In soccer, the most humiliating mistake a player can make is the own goal — kicking the ball into the net you’re supposed to be defending. For Republicans, their own goal was Donald Trump.
Terrified of his MAGA voting bloc, Republican congressmen abandoned their constitutional duty of checks and balances. They kissed the ring, rubber-stamped his Cabinet picks, and confirmed judges without scrutiny. In doing so, they surrendered their power — not to the people, but to one man.
The result was a Cabinet filled with incompetence. Loyalty tests replaced qualifications. Pete Hegseth, among others, became emblematic of this rot — a figure whose reckless decisions may one day be judged in the harsh light of accountability. Meanwhile, scandals were buried, Epstein files delayed, and oversight abandoned, all to avoid the wrath of Dear Leader. This wasn’t governance. It was capitulation. And like any own goal, the damage was self-inflicted.
The consequences of this submission are now plain. By elevating loyalty over competence, Republicans enabled chaos, and did nothing to lower the cost of living for working-class people. Families struggling with rent, groceries, and healthcare found no relief from a party too busy protecting Trump’s ego to protect their constituents. The GOP’s obsession with appeasement left ordinary Americans footing the bill for dysfunction.
And then came the moment that crystallized the absurdity: Nobel-snubbed Donald Trump accepting the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize.” A made-up gold trophy, a medal, and a certificate — handed to a man whose tenure was marked by division, not diplomacy. It was a parody of statesmanship, a photo op masquerading as honor. The image of Trump smirking beside a bewildered FIFA official will live on as the perfect metaphor for the GOP’s descent — a party so committed to the illusion of victory that it mistook satire for achievement.
Now, the scoreboard is shifting. Miami just elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in 30 years. That victory is more than symbolic; it is a crack in the dam. Gerrymandering won’t save the GOP in 2026 when voters connect the dots: Republicans chose to confirm incompetence, cover up corruption, and ignore the economic pain of working families. The floodgates are opening, and history will remember not just Trump’s failures, but the complicity of those who enabled him.
The irony is rich. In their desperation to protect themselves from Trump’s base, Republicans scored against their own team. They weakened their brand, alienated moderates, and set the stage for a blue wave in 2026 and a blue tsunami in 2028. Miami is the first ripple, but it won’t be the last.
The GOP thought they were defending their net. Instead, they kicked the ball straight in. And history will record the Trump era not as a victory, but as the greatest own goal in American politics.
In 2025, President Trump issued a wave of controversial pardons that raised eyebrows across the political spectrum. While presidential clemency is a constitutional power, the pattern of recipients suggests a troubling trend: those with wealth, influence, or political loyalty were far more likely to receive mercy than those without.
The Donors and Allies Who Walked Free
Juan Orlando Hernández: The former president of Honduras was convicted of trafficking over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. His pardon followed lobbying efforts by Trump ally Roger Stone. Roger Stone, by the way, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on December 23, 2020. He received a full and unconditional pardon for his conviction related to charges of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and other offenses connected to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Stone had been sentenced to 40 months in prison, but his sentence was commuted and then fully pardoned by Trump.
David Gentile: Orchestrated a $1.6 billion Ponzi-style fraud targeting over 10,000 investors. Praised by Trump’s pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson.
George Santos: Convicted of wire fraud, identity theft, and campaign finance violations. A vocal supporter of Trump.
Changpeng Zhao: Founder of Binance, convicted of money laundering. Binance had promoted Trump family crypto ventures.
Trevor Milton: Founder of Nikola, convicted of securities fraud. His business aligned with Trump’s economic messaging.
Rod Blagojevich: Former Illinois governor who attempted to sell Obama’s Senate seat. A former contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Devon Archer: Convicted in a $60 million bond fraud. His ties to Hunter Biden were used by Trump to fuel political attacks.
BitMEX Co-founders: Pardoned for violating anti-money laundering laws. Their crypto influence aligned with Trump’s push for digital finance.
Henry Cuellar and wife: Facing federal bribery charges. Trump framed their case as DOJ overreach.
Michele Fiore: Convicted of charity fraud involving police memorial funds. A vocal MAGA supporter.
Scott Jenkins: Involved in a “cash-for-badges” scheme. Tied to Trump-aligned law enforcement circles.
Let’s, also, not forget the 1600 MAGA-merch-wearing insurrectionists who were pardoned by Trump for their attack on the Capital and Capital Police. He called them heroic patriots.
These pardons share a common thread: political loyalty, economic influence, or usefulness to Trump’s narrative. While no direct bribes have been proven, the optics suggest a system where clemency is granted not based on justice, but on proximity to power.
Meanwhile, over 80 Venezuelan boatmen—accused of drug smuggling but never tried—were killed in U.S.-led maritime strikes. They had no lobbyists, no campaign donations, no celebrity connections. They didn’t “Pay to Play.” They paid with their lives, and Trump and Hegseth should pay for their “Kill them all” war crimes with Impeachment and prison.
Yesterday’s No Kings Rally wasn’t just a protest — it was a reckoning. A mosaic of causes, signs, and voices, all bound together by one unifying thread: We the People have been stirred to action. Not by policy differences. Not by party loyalty. But by the cruelty, the malignant narcissism, and the corrosive influence of Donald Trump.
Fascism began as a Roman metaphor: a bundle of sticks (fasces) symbolizing strength through unity. One stick breaks easily. A bundle resists. Mussolini twisted that into authoritarianism. Hitler weaponized it. And Trump? He tried to make the bundle serve only him — demanding loyalty, punishing dissent, and mocking the vulnerable.
But yesterday, we reclaimed the bundle. Not as a tool of domination, but as a symbol of democratic resistance. Many years ago, Chief Tecumseh taught the same lesson with arrows. The Founders echoed it with E Pluribus Unum. And yesterday, the signs told the story.
The signs and speeches were about:
Protecting reproductive freedom
Defending LGBTQ+ rights
Expanding healthcare access
Preserving Social Security and Medicare
Combating climate change
Supporting veterans and mental health
Raising wages and strengthening unions
Reforming immigration and criminal justice
Fighting voter suppression and gun violence
These weren’t isolated chants. They were verses in a shared anthem: We the People demand better. And we demand it together — because cruelty in power has a way of clarifying what really matters.
And then came the sign that stopped me cold: “They’re eating the Epstein files.”
It wasn’t just funny. It was surgical. A jab at the elite’s appetite for secrecy, distraction, and self-preservation. As the files trickle out, the public appetite for truth grows — and so does the suspicion that someone’s chewing through the evidence.
This wasn’t a rally of factions. It was a rally of fusion. The bundle is back — not in the hands of tyrants, but in the grip of citizens. We’re demanding accountability from Government, and we’re doing it together.
So next time someone asks what the rally was about, tell them this: It was about E Pluribus Unum. It was about We the People. It was about refusing to be ruled by cruel tyrants ever again.
Be there for the next rally. Courage is contagious.
As America prepares for the No Kings Rally — a celebration of democratic resistance and constitutional humility — it’s worth asking: what kind of kingdom are we resisting?
Recent headlines suggest we’re not just dealing with a president. We’re dealing with a monarch-in-waiting, armed not with a crown, but with a blacklist.
He’s already renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War — now he’s eyeing the Department of Justice for a makeover: the Department of Vengeance.
Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to punish his political enemies. He’s called himself “your retribution”. He’s floated criminal referrals for Letitia James, who dared to hold him accountable for civil fraud. He’s targeted James Comey and John Bolton, not for crimes, but for defiance. And he’s done it all while testing the waters of public appetite for vengeance — a campaign strategy that doubles as a loyalty test.
This isn’t justice. It’s grievance cosplay.
The so-called Department of Vengeance isn’t a real agency, but it might as well be. Trump’s allies have proposed purges of federal institutions, loyalty oaths for civil servants, and even a new “Department of Government Efficiency” — a euphemism for gutting agencies that don’t kiss the ring.
Let’s be clear: this is not about restoring order. It’s about rewriting the rules so that dissent becomes disloyalty, and accountability becomes treason.
And yet, the system resists. Grand juries refuse to indict political targets. Judges push back. Juries — those pesky peers — still ask for evidence, not vendettas. The machinery of democracy may be creaky, but it hasn’t collapsed. Journalists, too, are standing up. They walked out of the Pentagon after they refused to sign agreements that they would only write approved stories.
So, as we gather for the No Kings Rally, let’s remember: the crown isn’t just a metaphor. It’s a warning. When a leader builds a Department of Vengeance, he’s not just settling scores. He’s auditioning for tyranny. Trump is a wannabe Fascist, but like John Bolton once said, “To be a fascist, you have to have a philosophy. Trump’s not capable of that. You know, Adolf Hitler wrote a profoundly troubling book called Mein Kampf — My Struggle. Donald Trump couldn’t even read his way all the way through that book, let alone write something like it.”
Nonetheless, Dumb Donnie wants his revenge fantasies. We just want to keep our republic. Join the rally and help us.
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, is most often associated with the quote: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” Goebbels’ propaganda strategy was repetition, emotional appeal, and the manipulation of public perception.
Jen Psaki recently aired a chilling montage: 36 Sinclair-affiliated newscasters in 36 different cities reciting the same exact script, word for word. It wasn’t a blooper reel—it was a broadcast strategy to “flood the zone” with their message. “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” Ironically, their message was “We’re concerned about the troubling trend of false news…” Obviously, the irony was lost on them. What are the odds that 36 different opinion influencers in 36 different cities all had the very same word-for-word opinion about a current problem? You have better odds of hitting the Powerball Grand Prize. When 36 newscasters in 36 different cities say the same exact thing, it’s not journalism—it’s choreography.
This isn’t just lazy journalism. It’s tactical repetition—a propaganda technique. Joseph Goebbels believed that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth, not through evidence, but through echo. The modern Republican messaging follows this blueprint with eerie precision. When a false claim emerges—whether about elections, vaccines, or climate—it’s not debated. It’s deployed. Within hours, the same phrases surface across Fox News, congressional tweets, and local radio. It’s not persuasion. It’s programming. This isn’t about disagreement. It’s about manufactured consensus. The goal isn’t to win an argument—it’s to flood the zone with noise until truth becomes indistinguishable from fiction.
It starts with Centralized Messaging: GOP operatives distribute talking points like marching orders. The purpose is Repetition Over Reason: The same phrases—“weaponized DOJ,” “rigged election,” “woke indoctrination”—are repeated ad nauseam. Then comes the Emotional Anchoring: Lies are tied to fear, patriotism, or outrage, bypassing logic and triggering tribal loyalty. The final step is to Flood the Zone. Currently, the Republicans are blaming the government shutdown on Democrats. Not with nuance, not with evidence, but with a synchronized chant: “Democrats are shutting down the government to give billions in healthcare to illegal aliens.” It’s an outrageous lie. A loud, coordinated, cynical lie. But it’s everywhere—on cable news, in press releases, across social media. The goal isn’t persuasion. It’s saturation. “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”
This isn’t new. But the scale, speed, and shamelessness of its practitioners are unprecedented.
When truth becomes optional, democracy becomes ornamental. Plato warned that unchecked rhetoric leads to tyranny. Goebbels promoted it. And today’s Republican echo chamber is actually proving that it works in real time. They were able to get a twice impeached, convicted rapist and felon elected to the highest office by spreading lies without caring if they were true or not, “They’re eating the dogs!”
We don’t need censorship. We need media literacy, moral clarity, and the courage to call the repetition of lies what it really is: a weapon.
Trump won the election claiming that immigrants were drug smuggling, rapist, pet eating criminals, and he would get rid of all of them. Instead of putting criminals in jail, on his first day in office, he let 1500 J6 rioters out of jail, including violent criminals who assaulted police officers, leaders of terrorist organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, king-pin drug dealers, and child pornographers. I guess he’s hoping that these thugs will rally to his defense again when he needs to stage his next coup attempt.
Trump also won the election claiming that he would end the war in Ukraine on Day One. He didn’t, and now it’s Day 4.
Trump also won the election saying that he knows how to hire the best people, but he nominated some of the absolute worst possible people to his cabinet and to head the Department of Defense and other government offices. The only qualifications he seemed to care about were sycophantic loyalty to him and a Fox News employee I.D.
Now I hear that Donald J. Musk and Elon Trump are engaged in a jealous power struggle. How sweet. I hope nobody breaks up this fight.
To all those Americans who are worried and afraid of this administration, I offer hope.
Trump claims that God saved him in an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. But, will that same God save him from attacks from within. History has shown us that sometimes the greatest attacks come from that direction. Trump hates real sharks, but he is now surrounding himself with a vicious hoard of deadly land sharks, that would make his buddy Hannibal Lecter nervous. He has hand-picked a group of advisors who have no moral compass, and many are heavily armed gun nuts. He hasn’t learned from history, because he is too stupid to even study history.
Philip II of Macedonia: He was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, Pausanias of Orestis, in 336 BC.
Xerxes I: The Persian king was killed by his Royal Guard commander, Artabanus, in 465 BCE.
Caligula: The Roman Emperor was assassinated by members of his own guard in 41 AD.
Laurent Kabila: The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo was shot by one of his bodyguards in 2001.
Salmaan Taseer: The Governor of Punjab, Pakistan, was killed by his bodyguard in 2011.
Indira Gandhi: The Prime Minister of India was assassinated by her own bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, were both Sikhs. This tragic event occurred in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, a military operation ordered by Gandhi to remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Trump has surrounded himself with predators who will do anything to feed their own narcissistic fever dreams. Alex Jones is a right-wing conspiracy theorist and talk show host known for his controversial views and clashes with various public figures, including Elon Musk. Steve Bannon is also going after Elon Musk. When they’re finished with him, or he is finished with them, there will eventually be a power struggle with Trump himself. Trump’s friends don’t always stay his friends. Just look at his fixer lawyer Michael Cohen. They hate each other now.
Cannibalism is present in the animal kingdom.
Praying Mantises: Female mantises sometimes eat their mates during or after mating.
Black Widows: The female black widow spider is notorious for eating the male after mating.
Lions: Occasionally, a new dominant male lion will kill and sometimes eat the cubs of the previous male.
Hamsters: In certain stressful conditions or if resources are scarce, mother hamsters might eat their young.
Sharks: Some shark species practice intrauterine cannibalism, where the larger embryos consume their smaller siblings within the womb.
Polar Bears: These bears sometimes resort to cannibalism, especially when food is scarce.
So, keep the faith that Trump’s evil oligarchy will not last. It’s survival of the nastiest in the Trump world, and they will eventually start eating their own. In the meanwhile, organize to flip the Congress in 2026, so that we can quickly fix whatever damage Trump causes. In the immortal words used by Abraham Lincoln, “This too shall pass.” As Trump surrounds himself with vipers, he should also be aware of the immortal words of the very mortal Caesar, “Et tu, Brute?”
On Monday, January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump, a convicted felon, who is no longer permitted to own a gun, will be handed the nuclear codes as he is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
There might be a slight rumbling in the cemetery grounds in Plains, Georgia on that day as the flags that have been lowered to half-mast to honor President Jimmy Carter, will be raised to full staff for the day just to accommodate the Narcissist-in-Chief. The predicted cold weather, though, will force the ceremony to be held indoors. Too bad. I’d really like to see all the 77 million Maga-morons who voted for him freezing their asses off on the National Mall as they waited for the price of bacon and eggs to instantly come down. I guess that his staff will just have to Photoshop the indoor ceremony to make it look like a record crowd.
I’m wondering if all the people Trump nominated for cabinet positions will be there. If so, will there be anyone left to work at Fox “News” that day.
Of course, there will be entertainment. The one remaining member of The original Village People will sing YMCA, so that America will get to see Donald Trump do his “crazy hand jive” where he appears to be giving hand jobs to two people at the very same time.
I wonder if Trump will just use the same dance moves when Kid Rock takes the stage to sing:
Ahhh, they don’t write love ballads like that anymore.
I wonder if the bookies in Las Vegas are taking bets on which Bible he will use for the swearing -in ceremony. It has to be the $60 one he hawks with Lee Greenwood. Product placement, baby.
I also wonder if he’ll bother to bring back all the classified documents he has been storing in his Mar A Lago bathroom. Since he charges his Secret Service security detail an exorbitant amount for protecting him, while he is there, I can only think that he will also hand his new Secretary of the Treasury, a hefty bill for the four long years he has stored the documents. Let’s see, $2,000 a month for 48 months….
I can’t really see much difference between Trump’s new official photograph and his State of Georgia mugshot, but I guess he wanted to show a new suit and tie so he can peddle swatches of the material to his cult followers for $99 a swatch. After all, a buck is a buck, at least until Elon converts it all to Dogecoins.
I’m just surprised he isn’t wearing his pirate ear patch anymore. I guess they stopped selling.
So, America, enjoy the weekend, or like they say, “Eat, drink, and be merry for Monday we die or get deported.”
Remember when Trump changed the course of a mighty hurricane by using a Sharpie pen? Well, his Sharpie pen is still changing the world. The latest change was that the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America.
He’s not ready to stop there, though. In a recent press conference, President-elect, Donald Trump announced his intentions to acquire Canada, the Panama Canal, and Greenland. Remember back in 2003 when we were upset with the French for opposing our invasion of Iraq, and we reacted by swapping out the word “French” for the word “Freedom.” We had Freedom Fries, Freedom Bread, Freedom Dressing, Freedom Toast, Freedom Vanilla, Freedom Manicure, Freedom Doors, Freedom Onion Soup, Freedom Braids, Freedom Kissing, and Freedom Ticklers.
Now that Trump is preparing an invasion to acquire Canada as the 51st State, how long will it be before the far right starts texting things like Freedom Club Whisky, Freedom Dry ginger ale, Freedom Bacon, and Freedom Geese? Maybe, they’ll finally stop shooting Bud Lite cans with assault weapons and switch to blasting cases of Molson Canadian Ale, excuse me, Molson Freedom Ale.
To prepare myself for the world domination plans of the Orange Menace and his ultra rich creepy sidekick, Elon, I watched the movie Canadian Bacon, starring Alan Alda, John Candy, and Rhea Pearlman. In the movie, Alan Alda plays a President with a low approval rating who tries to start a Cold War with Canada to appease defense contractors and boost his ratings. John Candy plays the sheriff of Niagara Falls, who is swept up in the madness and invades Canada. Rhea Pearlman plays a wonderfully psycho Deputy Sheriff who blasts the hell out of the Toronto Tower. I sure hope they never show that movie to Donald Trump while he’s in the White House.
When Trump is finished with Canada, I guess he’ll start on Panama, and be texting about Freedom Hats, Freedom Jack, and Freedom Red. Then, Panamanians will be subject to the same slurs he now uses on other immigrants from the south, drug smuggling rapists who eat your pets. Freedom Red, Freedom Red. He’ll steal your woman, then he’ll rob your head, Freedom Red, Freedom Red.
I can’t think of anything with Greenland in the name except, well, Greenland, itself. Since those on the far right believe that Global Climate Change is a hoax and the Green New Deal is absolute poison to them, I guess they’ll just change the name of the country from Greenland to Oil-land, or more likely, Trumpland. Oil and minerals rights might be the reason that Trump wants it. Unless, of course, since it is halfway between the U.S. and Russia, he could be planning weekend getaways with his favorite dictator, Vladimir Putin. Suck it, Kim Jong Un.
Trump’s trying to sell his Greenland acquisition idea as a 21st century Louisiana Purchase. To me, it just seems like another con to divert America’s attention from the fact that he can’t lower the price of eggs and bacon and that his 25% tariff will probably even raise the cost of many items.
Many Canadians are worried about Trump’s plan to make it the 51st State, especially since Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister soon after Trump’s announcement. I would like to remind them that in 2024, there were about 240 million eligible voters in the U.S. Approximately 75 million voted for Trump. Approximately 72.5 million voted for Harris. Around 95 million eligible voters did not vote at all. Thus, around 68.8% of eligible voters did not vote for Trump. Trump may have an iron grip on his MAGA supporters but, I want to reassure our Canadian neighbors that the rest of us still live in the real world, and we will oppose him. “Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”
Napoleon Bonaparte said: “Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich,” suggesting that religion serves as a societal control mechanism, providing the poor with a reason to accept their situation and not revolt against the wealthy.
I find this statement to be somewhat true, even if one of the first Bible stories is about Cain murdering his brother Abel, but I find it ironic that this line was spoken by Napoleon. He rose to prominence during the French Revolution. He was only a boy at the beginning, but he knew that it was a time when the poor were merrily sending the rich off to the Guillotine, and he was on the side of the people. Those mass murders, however, only proved to be a temporary band-aid for the serious problem of income inequality. We still face it today, and it’s only getting worse.
A recent story in the news reminds me of the TV show Leverage, which centers around a prominent Insurance investigator, Nate Ford, who is played by Timothy Hutton. Nate has saved his company millions of dollars by recovering stolen artwork. His son, Sam Ford, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and Nate fought tirelessly to get the insurance company to cover the experimental treatment his son needed. However, the company refused to pay for the treatment, and Sam tragically passed away. This devastating loss led Nate to leave his job, get divorced, and spiral into alcoholism.
Then, Nate decides that he will dedicate his life to helping others who are facing overwhelming odds. The show follows a five-person team of thieves, led by Ford, who use their skills to carry out heists to help ordinary people fight against the rich and powerful, to correct corporate and governmental injustices. It’s a modern-day Robin Hood story, except that his team does not murder anyone. Eliot Spencer, the muscle on his team, will beat up bad guys left and right, but he doesn’t kill anyone. They are not vigilantes like Batman. They only provide “Leverage.”
They’re not like Paul Kersey, the character played by Charles Bronson in the 1974 film Death Wish. Paul Kersey was an architect who became a vigilante after his wife was murdered and his daughter was raped during a home invasion. That film follows his journey as he takes the law into his own hands to fight crime in New York City.
New York City is a hot spot for real-life vigilantes. Bernhard Goetz, known as the “Subway Vigilante,” was famous back in 1984. The Guardian Angels founded by Curtis Sliwa still patrol neighborhoods of New York. In a recent case, Daniel Penny, a former Marine, was acquitted of murder in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway. And now, we have the intriguing December 2024 case of Luigi Mangione who is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, an insurance company. This is the case that reminds me of the show Leverage, even though the TV Leverage cast members never resorted to murdering anyone.
Mangione, who was not insured by UnitedHealthcare, targeted Thompson possibly because of the company’s size, record of denying claims, and his own painful back injury. This incident has reignited discussions about healthcare and insurance, much like the issues Nate Ford faced in “Leverage.”
Luigi, I assume will plead Not guilty, even though he has said, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
That reminds me of a terrific scene from the play Chicago. Cell Block Tango, where the six accused murderesses sing, “He had it coming.”
As of this moment, it looks like Luigi has quite a growing following, as almost everyone knows somebody who has been screwed over by an Insurance Company. It is highly likely that somebody will start a Go Fund Me page for him, and it is also likely that the good-looking man with the washboard abs will receive a few marriage proposals from his fans.
I, of course, do not promote murder, but I do feel that those who have been screwed over by the system do deserve some form of justice. As long as the top 1% own about 26% of the total wealth, and the bottom 50% of households own only 2.5% of the total wealth, income inequality will lead to problems similar to those that sparked the French to revolt against the Aristocracy back when Napoleon was just a boy.
The weekly massacres of school children in this country have done little to bring about reform in our nation’s gun-control laws. Will the murder of one CEO have any effect?
Back in 1962, the British had a TV show called, That Was the Week that Was, which starred David Frost, who also starred in the American spin-off of the show in 1964. It satirized the news of the week and influenced later comedic shows like Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. It was a forerunner of fake-news programs like The Daily Show.
Well, now it’s December and this long year is finally about to end, so I thought I’d take a look back at 2024, and oh what a year it was. The U.S. Presidential election was held in 2024, but I’m going to ignore that here. I promised some friends that I would lay off politics for the rest of December, as an early Christmas present to them.
Politics may have dominated the news in 2024, but, fortunately for me, it wasn’t the only thing. Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the most talked about development in computing. Like politics, though, it also had people divided. AI had strong supporters who see it as a tool on par with the first use of fire and the invention of the wheel. It also had strong detractors who saw it as a weapon that would eventually eliminate humans from the planet, or make us slaves or pets to our robot overlords.
Originally, most AI programs available to the public just dealt with text. You could type a prompt into your computer and the AI would type back a response. Sometimes it was very accurate and at other times it was caught “hallucinating” an answer that it made up out of thin air, with no actual connection to reality (kinda like Fox News). Ooops, it’s not easy for me to go off politics cold turkey.
AI now gives us images, such as the one above, where I asked AI to show Old Man 2024 staggering at the finish line on New Year’s Day. I had to reword my description several times before the AI finally created an Old Man 2024 who didn’t look and dress like Santa Claus.
My AI photo problem was nothing compared to the Pandora’s Box of fake images that were generated by AI in 2024. Every scandal seemed to find itself accompanied by dozens of fake images that supposedly “proved” the false claims. I found it odd that AI’s photo creator doesn’t seem sure about the number of fingers people are supposed to have. In addition to everything else, AI’s training input must have included hundreds of thousands of pictures from cartoons.
Space was also a big tech topic of 2024, with various companies offering customers a taste of what it was like to be an astronaut by taking them on short flights into upper space. Elon Musk even started touting journeys to Mars. I can’t wait for the day when science can send Elon to Mars. (Ooops, I’m slipping.)
Combining big tech with AI, the concept of self-driving cars was another big topic in 2024. As usual, it had its proponents and detractors. The proponents celebrated its convenience. The detractors screamed that self-driving cars were not 100% perfected and could lead to traffic fatalities. Of course, the proponents showed data that even if a few cars did kill a few people, they were still a whole lot safer than human drivers, especially ones who had been drinking. I wondered if self-driving car companies would be held responsible for vehicular deaths since gun manufacturers are not responsible for gun deaths. I’m sure that Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency will figure that one out.
One item that made the news this year in Europe, but was ignored by American media was the reverse art theft at a German art museum. The “reverse museum heist” took place at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany. An employee, who was also an aspiring artist, decided to hang one of his own paintings in the museum’s modern art collection.
He managed to do this unnoticed because he was carrying tools for an installation project and had access to the gallery outside of opening hours. The painting, which was about 45 inches wide and 25 inches tall, hung on the wall for several hours before museum staff discovered it.
The museum staff decided to leave the painting up until closing time before taking it down. The employee was later fired and banned from visiting the museum. The German police are investigating him on charges of property damage because he drilled two small holes in the wall to hang his painting.
In January of this year, the airlines were also in the news, when an Alaska Airlines flight experienced a door flying off mid-flight. Remember that? I’ll bet they do. For the rest of their lives, too.
As this year comes to an end, the manhunt for the man who murdered an insurance company CEO, seems also to be ending with the apprehension of Luigi Mangione in a MacDonalds restaurant in Altoona, PA. One of the employees recognized him from his photo and called the cops. McDonalds, if the e-coli doesn’t get you, our employees will.
As usual, even this case had people on both sides of the fence. It seemed that people who had previous problems with their insurance companies saw a silver lining in the enormous black cloud. They (secretly, if not openly) hoped that the murder might lead to insurance companies lowering their rates and denying fewer claims. We really do need universal health care in the U.S. (Ooops, I don’t want to slip into politics again. So, I’ll let the late great Barry White do it for me.)
What intrigued me most about the CEO murder case, though, was the fact that a “ghost gun” was used. A “ghost gun” is a weapon that you can make at home using a 3-D printer. “Alexa, make me an untraceable gun.”
We’re worried about what AI can do…Heck, anything bad AI can do, we can already do better (or should that be worser?) I wonder how Congress will react to a do-it-yourself gun. Will they spring into action and outlaw the machine code that enables a 3-D printer to make such a weapon, or just blame “Tik Tok,” social media, and video games? I bet they just sit on their thumbs until somebody actually prints out an “assault ghost gun” at home and takes it to school, or to the Capital. (Ooops, I can’t seem to avoid that slippery slope into Politics.)
Don’t get me wrong. All the gun news wasn’t bad this year, though. We did all get to enjoy clip after clip of Australia’s Olympic answer to the Jamaican Bobsled Team, Rachael “Raygun” Gunn doing her now world-famous break-dancing routine. Here’s one more clip for you. I got a kick out of this short video that Terry Moore compiled for YouTube.
So, that was just a bit of the year that was. Last year, I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I do have one. Stop making promises to not write about Politics and You-know-who, the orange guy, because that appears to be a harder resolution for me to keep than my usual failed-resolution of trying to lose 25 pounds.
earlthepearl137 