Diddy was going to perform but he couldn't make it

 (Alternative title: Rough Day For Shaw)

Quite a pageant.  The swearing-in ceremony was quite long.  Had a strong religious, Christian flavor.  An all day affair.  Watched Trump's Inaugural Address.  A lot to go through comment accordingly.  Wants to put an American flag on Mars and Musk was ecstatic.  Said in his speech there are only two genders and that he would sign an executive order declaring such.  Who knew such a simple biological fact would be so controversial.  There was the parade and then an address by Steve Witkoff Trump's special envoy to the Middle East who was instrumental in the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.  Earlier Trump had already signed his first few executive orders back at the office.  These were mostly technical in nature having to do with things like cabinet and sub-cabinet appointments the most notable being going forward all flags will be flown at full-staff on Inauguration Day.  I had hoped to publish something earlier in the day but it was a long wait before he signed a few more executive orders at the Capitol Arena the most notable this time being sending a letter to the UN saying we are withdrawing from the Paris Climate Treaty then it was off to the Oval Office to sign a large number of other executive orders.

A LONG day.  TikTok also back online thanks to Trump at least for the time being.  Sounds like a deal is in the works.

What happened to the drones?

 Lots of assorted topics out there not really coalescing into a blogpost per se.  The LA fires and the politics of the LA fires.  Elon Musk opiner-at-large now wading into British politics and the groomer gang scandal which is at least ten years old.  Melania's outfit at the Jimmy Carter funeral.  Congestion pricing in NYC.  TikTok.  Just off the top of my head 17,000 doctors signed a letter opposing RFK Jr.'s nomination to be HHS Sec'y.  That one kind of surprised me.  Diddy updates.  Mangione.  My God it's COLD outside!!!  The Trump Follies.  News cycle going too fast for me.

The drone thing.  Wha' happened?

For your consideration

 Considerable discussion has been given to the Dead Internet Theory.  My own view we're at least halfway there.  As far as conspiracy theories go there are scraps of truth.  This is a real post btw.  I really do have to cut my sidewalk grass in Yonkers.

But what about our guest lettuce pickers so our H-1B visa holders can enjoy their salads?

MAGA CIVIL WAR ERUPTS

First off Trump hired some Indian-born foreign guy to be his ai advisor.  Now presidents need ai advisors?  Musk and Ramaswamy are all for extending the stays of our highly skilled foreign workers in the tech field.  Musk says a shortage of them is the main problem facing Silicon Valley and Ramaswamy called American culture mediocre (think Family Guy and Judge Judy - editor).  MTG kind of agrees with them.  Trump ally and hard-righter Laura Loomer, Matt Gaetz and the hard-core MAGA base say they're straying from the original MAGA policy on immigration.  Nikki Haley took issue with Ramaswamy's X post.  Things are getting heated.  Pass the popcorn.

BUT WHAT DOES HOMAN THINK???

No drones over Yonkers yet

 If there were I would simply chalk it up to Yonkers keeping track of who's not cutting the grass along their sidewalk and who's late on their property taxes.

Mysterious SUV-sized drones have been spotted flying over areas of New Jersey and New York.  Aliens?  Some weird social experiment being run by a university?  Google?  Iran?  China?  Putin?  The FBI?  The CIA?  The military?  Some brilliant 10-year old young Sheldon type kid operating a fleet of drones from his parents' basement?  A plan to rescue Diddy?  Some type of Trump illegal immigrants surveillance project?  Is Homan operating these things?

People are alarmed.  Congress is concerned.   The FBI doesn't have answers.  Somebody knows something. 

Health insurance is great until you get sick

 That's the sentiment of many.  In the wake of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel many folk have gone on social media and unleashed a torrent of vitriol against the health insurance industry in general and Brian Thompson and United Healthcare in particular.  Seems some ai-driven program denied the claims of at least one-third of United Healthcare subscribers who actually had to use their insurance.  The wonders of our health insurance system - you pay into the program your whole life, you get really sick one day and finally get a notice in the mail "Claim Denied" and have to foot the bill yourself.   You're not Diddy.  Never understood how so many cancer survivors and their families use up their entire life savings and eventually go bankrupt.  I thought that's why we have health insurance.  Hannity would probably say at least that's not socialism.  Health care in America.  I thought Obama fixed all that.  I can't wait for the Singularity.

The question is Diddy do it?

 The trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs is set for May 5th of next year in Manhattan.  Diddy is charged with racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution.  Other charges can be added.  If convicted Diddy faces life in prison.

The feds have 100 electronic devices of his they got from his LA mansion and Miami estate and are currently trying to extract data.  We're talking terabytes of information here!  Maybe Bill Gates can help.  He is currently in a federal lockup in Brooklyn and a bail package seems unlikely.

He ain't livin' right.  The saga of 50 Shades of Diddy continues.

Curated newsfeeds

 Google News, Samsung News, NewsBreak and a few others.  You know the pre-installed crap apps that come on your devices.  They're anti-Trump day in and day out while Kamala gets a free ride.  No serious research they just regurgitate each other and spew out the same canned news items on a daily basis.  A common everyday theme is a quick debunking of every Trump utterance.  The so-called fact-checkers have become a cottage industry.  Joe Rogan speaking of them on his podcast said fact-checkers are full of shit.  I'm inclined to agree.  Do they go out in the field and do extensive research?  They sure come to their conclusions rather quickly.  Everything is binary to them there are no even partial truths.  All this and more is the reason why more and more people are gravitating to independent media.  Curated newsfeeds they don't just give you the news they cue you in on what to think.

I have no recommendations just do your own research.

Thuganomics

What do you think about Mark Zuckerberg's revelations that the Biden WH relentlessly pressured Facebook teams on a daily basis to censor certain Covid content that went against the narrative?  Zuckerberg now says he regrets caving into government pressure which btw when the government gets involved in these areas it technically becomes censorship,  Also Zuckerberg now admits FB demoted the New York Post's coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story at the time which could have potentially influenced the election by suppressing information from the voters at least those who don't read the New York Post.  Do they read the NYP in Idaho?  Talk about possible election interference!

DOES KAMALA HARRIS SUPPORT GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP???

Is society becoming angrier?

 

Is it the election?  The price of food, 5G, something in the air or water, solar storms, too many boosters, Judge Judy?  The cost-of-living. the Middle East, Google, the weather, medical bills, bad digestion?  Trump......

The Rise of the Kens and Karens

I'm seeing it in retail.  From my end food service.  They come in for an item you don't have that day.  Instead of talking about with the department they go to the manager.  Manager gets involved.  Rookie deli clerk makes their sandwich slightly off as per their instructions they go to the manager.  You're short-staffed that day everyone called out that's not my problem.  Angry shoppers.  I'm a quiet shopper.  I don't make issues.  I don't get the workers in trouble.  Mild Z.

The blogosphere.  Everyone just calm down and let's talk about barn owls.

Is TikTok no longer a threat?

 Haven't heard much lately.  Where do the candidates stand?

Figured out a way to fix ad-hominem.  During the Trump/Harris debate give each candidate ten minutes of pure ad-hominem against the other.

Trump:  "When did you become black?"

Harris:  "What's that dead animal on top of your head?"

Then onto the Issues.

A kind of forced retirement

They did the same thing with my Dad but he drove a truck and didn't want to run the country.  Joe Biden drops out of the presidential race and endorses VP Harris.  The Democratic Party has yet to nominate her.  When asked by CBS News if he would debate Harris in September he said he couldn't decide because he's not sure if she will be the nominee but then went on social media and said Fox News should hold such a debate and lambasted the other networks.  This is why they make fun of us.  Social media is like oxygen to him.  Cringeworthy moment.  Even if you don't like the msm at least respond in a civil manner.  Especially with recent events if I were Trump I'd be going with the gravitas and not the cheap insult.  It's times like these that I might go back to blogging about frogs or something;)

The one thing I don't like about Google is you have no privacy

The other thing I don't like about Google is you have no privacy.  Say you want to post a video from YouTube on a blog or forum your whole video feed comes up but maybe you don't want people seeing you have a recommended video for natural home remedies for hemorrhoids.   I suppose you could go incognito but I don't trust that.  The other day I went to an Urgent Care center for a UTI.  Couple days later I get a link in my email to give a review but I'd be posting publicly under my real name instead of say something like Cyclops 78.  I chose not to post a review as it would then be a matter of the public record I had a UTI.  Google also won't let me create my own lexicon and make up my own words.  Also on more than one occasion it has ruined a text message to a friend with its spelling authoritarianism and now ai influence.  The list goes on.......

Other than that I think it's great;)

I got 99 problems but my eyebrows ain't one

 In the heart of the mall where I work is a very popular eyebrow threading kiosk.  Day in and day out people of all ages sitting in the chairs.  I don't get it.  You're pressed for time and money it's not on my to do list.  What are some social fads you don't get?  People with the mini phone things in their ears expecting that all important call walking around like they're contractors.  Why not use your cell?  Are they gonna climb a utility pole?  Smart watches.  The point?  Can you watch a movie on one?  Constantly monitoring your BP with arm or wrist band thingamajigs.  Tattoos are more than a fad of course and in some places you're in the minority if you haven't illustrated your body or at least a part.  "I've fallen down and I can't get up" I can see.  All I need is a meter to let me know I'm running low on the Christian Brothers.

I saw this idea posted on a forum once

 The Government already knows how much we owe in taxes or how much they owe back to us.  They have our numbers on file.  How much we paid in state and federal etc.  They pretty much know everything about us already.  Why not just send out letters or notices stating how much we owe or how much they owe us?  If you disagree then fill out a tax form and do the work yourself and send it in.  Why do we even need this behemoth of a tax preparation industry?  Let the government do the work.  They have the computers and the information and now we have ai.  Crunch the numbers and everybody else can get back their lost quality time.

Charity begins at home

Unless I find out I had a rich aunt that lived in Chicago and left me a million dollars I have to be careful with my money. I don't want ConEd to flicker my lights. St. Jude, ASPCA, the Vets, Mercy Ships, Catholic Charities, Fellowship of Christians and Jews etc. etc. There's no way I can give to all of these groups on a regular basis. Of course you also need Car Shield, Life Lock from Norton to protect you from the dark web and American Home Shield in case your washing machine explodes. Got a letter from our parish recently if we can increase our weekly donations. I'm sorry what?

The proposed ban against TikTok seems rather strange

It's weirdly authoritarian.  Govern me harder Daddy.  I'm not getting this one.

Thoughts on self-driving cars

AAA envisions a self-driving car reality and sees this as pretty much inevitable in the near future. I get their news magazine and they seem completely on board with this. I'm not. The level we're talking about here is not fully autonomous so a driver has to be behind the wheel at all times but then he/she mostly lets the car do its thing at least on open highways although I've seen other videos on YouTube showing folks driving cars with adaptive cruise control with the self-driving feature in slower stop-and-go traffic. I'd rather have a fallible self-aware human being in control of the car at all times instead of relaxing and letting advanced tech take over which can and will go wrong. I can probably come up with a list of other reasons why I'm against. What with ai robots and self-driving cars trucks and buses just around the bend and now flying cars on sale for the bored rich and some people on jetpacks (you can easily search all of these on YouTube) what can go wrong???

Technology is getting weird

Can the Singularity be far behind? Give me the 80's. What's going on in the Cloud these days? Now they're talking 5G. What's next on the technological horizon?

What's next on the technological front?

Should be sometime in the near future we'll have a quantum internet whatever the heck that means. Supposed to be virtually impervious to hackers and then there's something called the personal jetpack. It truly is a marvel but not for me. I prefer to be stuck in traffic thank you. Also I'm not a fan of autonomous vehicles at all. All it takes is one bad microchip to wreak havoc on the highways and imo AAA should take a stand against. Not a fan of AI robots either. I always think of Yul Brynner in Westworld. Wireless charging as it stands now is said to be slow with promises of fasting charging speeds in the future. Don't know, ya got anything?