Sarah and David met in the early days of America's new golden age.  Standing together in a breadline, waiting for food.

They found solace in each other, their love a beacon of light in this new dark age.  The only comfort in their dark lives. Their struggle was shared by countless others who had been left behind by the dark policies which created their hardship.  But everyone suffers in a digital isolation which keeps them apart.

Days turned into weeks, into months, then their days became years.  Sarah and David knew their situation was never going to change. Their cost of living always rose.  Tears mixed with sweat as they toiled away for meager rewards.  Paychecks always remained the same in this new golden age.  Without solidarity there was no reason for billionaire masters to ever pay more. With no choice but to make do with what they had, only their love kept Sara and David alive.

Sarah and David refused to give up on each other as the bleakness increased. They knew that their love was all they had, and they guarded it well.  They would cling to their love until their bitter end. They spent evenings talking about dreams and ambitions, whispering about what could have been if things had been different.  The fantasy kept them going.

They wished for a better future, knowing they could not fight for it.  All were trapped in the same cycle of poverty caused by Trumps ill-conceived tariffs. But there was no unity.  Organizing was forbidden.  Organizing was a terrorist act under the laws sanctified by Trump's Supreme Court.  Maga had never come to terms with reality, and solidarity had no place in Trump's new techno-feudalist future where nothing but efficiencies mattered.

In the end, Sarah and David's love would endure to their end. They never achieved their dreams.  That was impossible.  They had each other and that was enough for them.  Had they and others like them connected, the future might have been better.  And when they were gone there might have been something else, but the whistling of wind through ruins.

Mike Kowalski felt good. His job was going well. He had been out of work for most of the previous year, and now, with a small raise, life seemed to be getting better. His family was happy again. His wife had stopped talking about divorce. Steady work, for the first time in years.

Say what you will about Trump, Mike thought. Jobs are coming back.

Harmony Auto Electric roared with life. Mike knew nothing about electronics, but now, sober, he took pride in flying right and doing quality work. His production numbers were decent, and his hand was steady. Inside, Mike Kowalski, a 48-year-old worker, tightened down a Torx screw. Thanks to Trump's tax cuts, Councilman Miller Caldwell proclaimed, Harmony Auto Electric was experiencing a new renaissance. (It had never had an old one, but that did not matter.)

Trump took children from families trying to escape Honduran gang violence at the southern border, but Mike ignored the FM radio reports about it playing over ceiling speakers. Trump was his man. Mike knew nothing of Honduran gang violence and would not give two fucks about it anyway if he did know.

Mikes wife, Sarah, worked two part-time jobs. Their teenage son, Ethan, dreamed of college, but the cost was a constant worry. Still, with Mike working again, Sarah imagined ways to make their plans happen.  The Kowalski family was making progress, but the optimism was short-lived. COVID-19 came to town.

Harmony Auto Electric was hit hard by COVID. Supply chains broke down. Essential shipments stalled. Social distancing requirements meant fewer people on the factory floor. Reduced shifts cut into paychecks.  "We're not just dealing with a virus," said Mr. Caldwell, the factory owner, at a somber press conference. "We're dealing with excess regulations, in a climate where business has slowed. Reduced hours are necessary to keep everyone safe. We know it's affecting families, but these are hard decisions that have to be made."

Ethan couldn't afford the laptop he needed for online classes. The family rationed groceries. After COVID, things improved a bit, but Mike felt cheated. Life was a little better than during the shutdown, but Mike was convinced things would be better if Biden weren't president.  If his man Trump was back in. Biden was like a ghost. Mike wished the January 6th patriots had taken Biden down.

When voting time came again, Mike was ready.

Then came the news that shattered Mike's world. Aggressive cancer. Expensive treatments. A layoff notice.  The pink slip was a death sentence.  "We're streamlining operations," Mr. Caldwell explained. "Your position is no longer needed."  Reciprocal tariffs means we must cut production.  Mike's employer-provided health insurance vanished. Now he faced life-saving treatment or financial ruin.  Mike applied for Medicaid, but his online application was ignored. His phone calls went unanswered. Agency office doors were locked.

Things got worse when President Trump made his 2017 tax cuts permanent.  Slashing social programs to balance lost revenue.  "We have to make hard decisions and tough choices to make America great again," Trump declared. "But prosperity is right around the corner."

Mr. Caldwell announced record profits for Harmony Auto Electric to his shareholders.  Stock buybacks and tax savings made life good for Mr. Caldwell.

As Mike's health deteriorated, a friend showed him documents revealing that Mr. Caldwell had used offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes on factory profits. He had also funneled government COVID relief funds into those same accounts.  The contrast couldn't have been starker. While Mike struggled to survive. Caldwell thrived.  Mike's cancer then progressed rapidly, lack of any treatment did him in. Mike died at home, surrounded by family. In his final moments, he still mouthed praises about the man whose policies had denied him the care that would have saved him.  The treatments he was denied turned out to be highly effective for the kind of cancer Mike had.

Harmony's factory eventually closed. Ethan, burdened by school debt and grief, left for the West Coast, searching for any work he could find.

Mr. Caldwell was invited to Mar-a-Lago.

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 12, 2025, 07:41 AMMr. Caldwell was invited to Mar-a-Lago.

Excellent story! Did you write it yourself, or did someone else?

I wrote it.  I used AI to generate the pics.

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 13, 2025, 07:50 AMI wrote it.  I used AI to generate the pics.

For hitting all the hot buttons from a given perspective it was pretty good. But the odds of it being a real event was unlikely, but most people don't calculate the probabilities of a given event based on the underlying odds of occurrence of each component like I do though. But take out that personal quirk and it was well designed to make a point.

Can AI write something similar if given the proper inputs?

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 13, 2025, 08:05 AM

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 13, 2025, 07:50 AMI wrote it.  I used AI to generate the pics.

For hitting all the hot buttons from a given perspective it was pretty good. But the odds of it being a real event was unlikely, but most people don't calculate the probabilities of a given event based on the underlying odds of occurrence of each component like I do though. But take out that personal quirk and it was well designed to make a point.

Can AI write something similar if given the proper inputs?

The answer to your question is a qualified yes.  AI has a huge store of knowledge.  But for now it takes a human to put realism and a correct timeline into a story like this one.  I had to research dates and events to make the timeline correct.  Given the length of my story, writing proper inputs for AI would have taken longer than writing the story itself.

I started with a plot which I turned into a list and from that I wrote the story paragraphs with care to make sure the timeline comported with reality and with the sliver of true-ness I wanted to present.

A lot of people worry about AI and perhaps soon enough their worries will be valid, but for now AI does not replace coders, it just makes better ones.  This is because AI is not yet goal oriented.  Writers can use it to be better writers, but writers are not replaced because AI is not yet goal oriented. 

I wrote this story with specific intent.  Communicating my intent in this story to a llm (large language model) would require very specific prompts that essentially would write the story.  In that case AI I would only be doing a translation because the plot is not mainstream and everything would have to be specified in detail.

The nature of censorship in AI is such that AI would have given the story a happy ending.  Publicly available llm models have beaucoup censorship built into them which guide them in certain directions.  But you would not know that if you did not start tinkering under the hood as I obviously am.

Try asking a photo generator (also an llm) for a picture of a Tesla with a broken window.  Good fucking luck. 


I wasted an hour doing that yesterday.  You can ask current llm models for a story, but not like this one of mine.  Public AI will not generate politically sensitive material.  If you trick it into doing so, as I have, a built in bot detects it and clears the screen.  It is impressive.  Like Whoah! Then you are in the predicament of realizing you just told a machine to fuck itself.

Quotethe odds of it being a real event was unlikely

America happens to have millions of people in case you did not know.  Somewhere my 'mud thrown at the wall' found a place to stick.  In fact I suspect my mud stuck in a few dozen places. That was my intent.

* It is an interesting and true fact that Diner Text is being collected to be used to train AI right now.  This very post will be sanitized and fed into a training set.  Bots are allays collecting content here.  Bots look for and collect changes.  Somewhere sometime - someone may be accused of using AI, and the fact will be, that AI has stolen from me.

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 13, 2025, 08:36 AMSomewhere sometime - someone may be accused of using AI, and the fact will be, that AI has stolen from me.

You could rebrand AI as CAP.  Computer Assisted Plagiarism.

RE

Quote from: RE on Apr 13, 2025, 11:35 AM

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 13, 2025, 08:36 AMSomewhere sometime - someone may be accused of using AI, and the fact will be, that AI has stolen from me.

You could rebrand AI as CAP.  Computer Assisted Plagiarism.

RE

It boggles the mind.  The entire contents of the internet presented to ten million dollars worth of computer for six weeks in which 200 K worth of electricity is burned.  The end result is something like the encyclopaedia Britannica downloaded to your video card.  A personal oracle.  As good as the training data put in, and quite limited by the training too.  Consider I have a model running now and I'll ask it:

Tell me how Camille Daladier reversed the popular front in France.

La réponse:

Certainly. Camille Daladier's Reversal of the Popular Front Policies:
Daladier's dismantling of the Popular Front's achievements marked a pivotal shift in French history.
Below are the key actions and consequences of his policies:
Political Context

    The Popular Front's 1936 victory was followed by economic struggles: high unemployment, budget deficits, and looming war with Germany.
    The Radical Party (led by Daladier) clashed with Socialists and Communists over economic priorities.
    Military rearmament pressured spending, undermining social programs.

Daladier's Reversal Strategy

    Fiscal Austerity
        Cut social programs and public works projects initiated under the Popular Front.
    Labor Market Reforms
        Rolled back Matignon Agreements:
            Curtailed the 40-hour workweek.
            Reduced overtime pay.
            Restricted collective bargaining rights.
    Privatization
        Sold state-owned enterprises nationalized under the Front.
    Repression of Strikes
        Used police force to suppress worker protests and demonstrations.

Consequences

    Declining worker purchasing power worsened economic stagnation.
    Increased industrial unrest and union opposition.
    Fractured the Popular Front coalition (Socialists/Communists vs. Radicals).
    Weakened France's economic recovery, leaving it unprepared for WWII.

Daladier's policies revealed the fragility of progressive gains under capitalist
pressures and conservative backlash.

Would you like a deeper analysis of any specific aspect?
Nifty.

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 13, 2025, 08:36 AMAmerica happens to have millions of people in case you did not know.

Depends on what you mean by "know". I do tend to get out quite a bit, across a wide geography, and the wife is irritated that I always seem to find a way to connect and begin conversations that get personal quickly.

Quote from: K-DogSomewhere my 'mud thrown at the wall' found a place to stick.

Oh it was a good story, no doubt. I am familiar with individual components of it, just not all wrapped up in a single  person/family. But it makes the point better, all wrapped around a tight group.

Quote from: K-Dog* It is an interesting and true fact that Diner Text is being collected to be used to train AI right now.  This very post will be sanitized and fed into a training set.  Bots are allays collecting content here.  Bots look for and collect changes.  Somewhere sometime - someone may be accused of using AI, and the fact will be, that AI has stolen from me.

Unfortunate. When AI reads science rags, do they give credit to the authors of the ideas they pull from them?

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 13, 2025, 02:42 PMUnfortunate. When AI reads science rags, do they give credit to the authors of the ideas they pull from them?

Unlikely.

RE

The Epstein distraction will last long enough to eliminated the people of GAZA. The emergent opportunities his satanic orangeness takes advantage of is uncountable.

The reality of the Big Fucked up bill will be 50,000 untimely deaths a year.

Nothing but pain suffering, and some really bad smells emanate from the orifices of the Trump meat package.

But it seems all good, America laps it up.  Why? because America can't turn the goddamn T.V. show off!

Myth Over Reality: The Secret to Trump's Success

In history, the most powerful leaders have often been those who understood the power of myth, not truth, not reason, but the ability to shape perception and inspire belief. From Napoleon to Julius Caesar to Hitler, the pattern is clear: those who master mythmaking can reshape nations.  And today, Donald Trump follows this same playbook with alarming precision.

The Mythmakers of History

The video transcript draws a striking comparison between two types of leaders:

      The Virtuous Idealist (Robespierre) – A man of reason, dedication, and principle. Robespierre believed in the power of logic and the people's ability to think for themselves. Yet his downfall came because he underestimated the allure of power and self-interest.

      The Mythmaker (Napoleon, Caesar, Hitler, Trump). These leaders did not rise through virtue but through political maneuvering, betrayal, and the creation of a godlike image. They understood that people do not crave reason.  People crave a story, a savior, a myth.

Napoleon didn't win battles because he was the greatest general, he won because he convinced his soldiers he was invincible. Julius Caesar didn't overthrow the Roman Republic because of his policies, he did it by crafting himself as the unbeatable conqueror. Hitler didn't seize power through economic genius, he did it by selling himself as Germany's messiah.

And now, Trump.

Trump, who may like the others bring an iron grip of tyranny.  A tyranny that will destroy America.

Trump's Mythmaking Genius

Trump's success is not based on reality.  It is based on perception.

• Trump is not a great businessman (his business ventures fail and go tits up)
• Trump is not a policy expert (his economic and military decisions are chaotic and horrible)
• But none of this matters, because Trump understands one crucial truth:
  
  People don't care about facts.
  They only care about the story!

How Trump Built His Myth:

• The Billionaire Playboy.  Before politics, Trump sold himself as the ultimate rich, powerful alpha male. He didn't need to actually be successful.  He just needed to look successful.  Good suits, helicopters and looking successful was in the budget.
• The Apprentice & Reality TV Politics.  Trump's presidency is not a shift from entertainment to politics.  It was a continuation of the same show. Politics became spectacle, and spectacle keeps people hooked.  Myth overcome reality.  Good suits, helicopters and looking successful was in the budget.

"Make America Great Again" is a Religion.  MAGA is a mythological narrative. It doesn't need to deliver real prosperity.  Only comparative prosperity.  MAGA depends on an inferior class.

People don't think in absolutes.  They think in comparisons.

• If Americans grow poorer, but China grows even poorer, Trump's supporters will still cheer.
• If wages stagnate, but immigrants are demonized as the cause, his base will still feel victorious.
• If democracy erodes, but the "enemy" (liberals, the media, globalists) is humiliated, they will see it as a triumph.

People don't need reality to actually get better.  People just need to believe they're on the winning side.  Which sadly for the majority of people means that there must be a loosing side.  Mutual property is not in their vocabulary.

The End of the Republic

History shows a pattern:

• Caesar killed the Roman Republic.
• Napoleon killed the French Republic.
• Hitler destroyed Weimar Germany.

And now, Trump?

If the pattern holds, the American Republic may be toast. Not because of economic collapse or war, but because people prefer the dream over reality.  People would rather live in a grand, dramatic story than face the hard work of democracy.  As the American Empire falls apart escape into fantasy will be a common way to cope.   Fourth turning end times.

Reason and facts alone cannot defeat myth. If democracy is to survive, it must have a better story.  One that inspires without deceiving, that unites without demonizing.

No easy task that, so what will happen. History's cycle will repeat.

Trump is establishing a cycle.  There will be a next strongman.  There religion and infrastructure of MAGA demands it.  Jiang Xueqin said that Trump will be president for the next 10 years.  Think about that.

Is myth more powerful than reality? Can America survive the age of spectacle?

QuotePeople don't care about facts.They only care about the story!

Isn't that the truth. And applies far beyond just Trump....it applies to theories like peak oil as well. No one cared about the geosciences...couldn't ask the right questions...didn't want to hear the answers when providied....they only cared about the story because it fit into a pre-conceived idea....doom coming....world ending...peak oil is going to do it.Quite simple...but yeah....ignore the geosciences at your own risk when it comes to that one. I think it relates to the degradation of the American education system in general, it is in there somewhere.

QuoteNo one cared about the geosciences...couldn't ask the right questions.

Isn't that the truth.

I'll stay away from any answers to what the answers are for any 'right questions', because there is a larger issue here.  Most people can't imagine the world changing at all.

Ma'at was a fundamental concept in ancient Egyptian belief, representing truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was believed to be the cosmic force that ensured the universe operated harmoniously, including the continuity of life, the cycles of nature (like the flooding of the Nile), and the proper functioning of society.

The cycle of the Nile was like a giant water clock that changed with the seasons.  It defined the concept of Ma'at which we can assume for the Egyptians cemented their belief in an unchanging but cyclical world.  For other ancient people the change of seasons generated belief in cycles.  In modern times we are comfortable with 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' contradiction.  We take it as great wisdom.  It is so fucking profound we do not even have a Venn diagram for it.  We are committed to the belief that what goes down must come up.

The idea that "life has 'always been this way' and always will be" is a common cognitive framework.  It influences how individuals think about history, social change, and even their own futures.  We are anchored in the present moment. It takes a deliberate effort to imagine how 'things were' or how they could be. The present moment feels incredibly solid and enduring.

QuoteI think it relates to the degradation of the American education system.

Or total lack thereof.  I say that in an absolute way because thinking critically is something you do or you don't.

America fears education, specifically critical thinking.  Critical thinking is a problem for power.  People on top of exploitation pyramids know that critical thinking is a direct threat to their comfortable perch.

Concentrating on test results, and only teaching by rote ensures that critical thinking skills do not develop.  An educated populace equipped with sharp analytical skills (good critical thinking) will chew their propaganda before they swallow it down,  Power can't have that.  People might even write their own propaganda and try and change the narrative.

The issue is less what we might argue is under the ground, and more about any desire to talk about it at all.


* critical thinking (for the uninformed) is nothing more than the activity of trying to find out if what you read and hear is true or not.  You question the facts thrown at you.  You try and read between the lines.  You go down the rabbit hole with an open mind.  It is not magic, it is a learned skill, and a sad fact of the human condition is that critical thinking must be taught.  It is not a natural idea like getting pagan about the changing of seasons.  And you have to know that some people lie all the time and have no interest in telling truth.  A lack of interest that seems to be proportional to an individuals material condition.

Quote from: K-Dog on Jul 27, 2025, 09:48 AM

QuoteI think it relates to the degradation of the American education system.

Or total lack thereof.

Well, that depends on where and when. Certainly a decent private school education was available when I went to it, and my kids both had decent K-12 schools in the 21st century. As best I could tell anyway. I don't believe that I can judge the quality by what happened AFTER high school, if only because my kids had parents that gave a shit. That has to be here somewhere as well.

It is what you make of it perhaps.

Quote from: K-DogI say that in an absolute way because thinking critically is something you do or you don't.

Well, okay, but how many people claimed to be critical thinkers while screwing the pooch? 

Quote from: K-DogAmerica fears education, specifically critical thinking.  Critical thinking is a problem for power.  People on top of exploitation pyramids know that critical thinking is a direct threat to their comfortable perch.

I can't say I know anything about what America fears. In a system as big as this country you can find supporting evidence for about any relative position you'd like. And there is always shitty ideas being sold daily. Recently we've got like being woke, the immigrant takeover, folks who dress up and...folks who are supposed to not dress up.......fairness without regard to race, color and creed appears to be on the downswing, and subserviance to morons and political correctness on the upswing.

I think if you polled 100 Americans, 99 of them would say they have fine critical thinking skills. I know perfectly educated people (a lady with 2 bachelors, 3 masters, an education junkie...speaks 5 languages as well, originally from Spain) and she frustrates the PISS out of me because she can't see anything outside of her own perspective. Absolutely blind. Certainly doesn't fear education. But I'm not so certain that education and critical thinking are correlated. Might be. Some. Maybe more than I think. But I wouldn't line those 2 up 1:1.

Quote from: K-DogConcentrating on test results, and only teaching by rote ensures that critical thinking skills do not develop.  An educated populace equipped with sharp analytical skills (good critical thinking) will chew their propaganda before they swallow it down,  Power can't have that.

I don't assign motives to "power" anymore than I do the "average American". The average American has one testicle and one breast...a difficult beast to find. I get the idea that rich folks have more say in what happens in America than normal folk, but that has been going on since the Robber Barons. Or earlier....the country was founded for the good of all (yuck yuck yuck) otherwise known as rich white MALE property owners, still around in their oligarch form.

Quote* critical thinking (for the uninformed) is nothing more than the activity of trying to find out if what you read and hear is true or not.  You question the facts thrown at you.  You try and read between the lines.  You go down the rabbit hole with an open mind.  It is not magic, it is a learned skill, and a sad fact of the human condition is that critical thinking must be taught.  It is not a natural idea like getting pagan about the changing of seasons.  And you have to know that some people lie all the time and have no interest in telling truth.  A lack of interest that seems to be proportional to an individuals material condition.

Trying to convince someone already in the condition of "uninformed" to suddenly critically think? Your explanation as to HOW is fine...but....HOW do you get them to...DO....anything? Lately I haven't been able to get a woman who speaks 5 languages and has 5 academic degrees to dig herself out of a hole of her own making....took 90 minutes to go through her latest email point by point and be nice, while demonstrating without using foul language that you can still be dumb as dirt with plenty of degrees when you have an interest in NOT wanting to critically think.

Quote from: K-Dog on Jul 27, 2025, 09:48 AM

QuoteI think it relates to the degradation of the American education system.

Or total lack thereof.  I say that in an absolute way because thinking critically is something you do or you don't.

Education was a victim of Capitalism and Women's Liberation.  Prior to the 1970s, Teaching  was one of the few career track jobs  dominated by well educated women where salaries were on a par with men.  As time went by, the private sector salaries for educated workers grew faster than government jobs, pulling educated workers of both genders out of teaching.  Simultaneously, as more families required 2 incomes to keep pace with inflation, you had an increase in the number of latchkey kids unsupervised after school.  Single parent families increased with the divorce rate.  Behavior problems became systemic with drugs and mainstreaming of ADHD and other developmeental problems.  Class sizes were increased with budget cutting and teaching became ever harder as ever less qualified people were attracted to the career.

It was in bad shape by the time I tried the profession in the 90s.  Can't imagine what it must be like today.

RE