Our mission, as God-fearing and God-loving patriots, is to defend this Constitutional Republic and to increase its greatness, in all good things and ways, by using our voices in free but courteous speech, by discussing the happenings of the world and coming to a profound understanding of those things, and by sharing and promulgating these Truths on both this platform and others.
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
Did Amy Acton Help Light the Federal Fires of COVID Doomerism?
TL;DR –
In my opinion, the answer is yes, and I suspect that you will find the full answer fascinating.
Everybody in Ohio knows that Amy Acton – DOCTOR Amy Acton – a.k.a. “Lockdown Amy” – is why Ohio locked down for COVID, and why so many of Ohio’s local restaurants and other businesses closed down, never to return.
But what most people don’t know, is that Amy also apparently had a role in influencing the White House to join the party to “flatten the curve”.
Don’t take my word for it – take the word of Amy Acton’s own staff members, as I will explain in detail, below.
Background
I recently posted about a couple of Amy Acton videos, and how they were evidence of “two Amy Actons” – (1) the real one, who talks like a drunk and curls up on a fetal position on the floor of the restroom – and (2) the imaginary one created by her staff and party – the one who is competent, the heroine of the COVID years, and has zero issues.
As I noted in that post, both videos are a bit tragic.
In the first video, by the New York Times, we see some of the cringiest left-wing media propaganda ever. It’s like an ad for Kamala’s Best Nutritious Word Salad – made in California. Yes – Amy Acton sounds like Kamala’s lost sister. The vocal similarity is uncanny, and I would not be surprised if white wine coolers are to Plame. Blame. Whatever.
Not to say that the CIA is definitely involved here, but Acton was clearly being made a heroine for adopting the left’s favorite captured agency’s COVID panic control script, while authentically heroic character seems a bit lacking.
If you watched the whole thing, congratulations. I was repeatedly cringing out, every time I tried to watch.
The second video is a lot more fun. Amy Acton is quite lovable in it, but in a way that makes her absolutely unfit for higher office. I can’t tell if she’s tipsy, floating on Xanax, or just high on her 15 minutes of fame, but there is no way such a woman can be allowed into the Ohio Statehouse as anything but a tourist, or perhaps as a mom testifying on an educational issue, where a courage drink or two is socially acceptable for first-time speakers, as long as they have a designated driver.
What’s most interesting, however, is that the TRANSCRIPT doesn’t match the video at all. And while it’s not really a problem that Amy’s staff chose not to document her rambling, emotional, and sometimes incoherent, group-hug psychobabble, what IS interesting is what they released in its place.
Tell me if this doesn’t sound like Amy Acton single-handedly saved America from COVID-infected J6-er kidnappers, and was personally responsible for Trump choosing to follow her advice to BE A HERO, locking down and flattening the curve!
Yes – according to Amy Acton’s aides and handlers, SHE was responsible for Trump doing the right thing on COVID.
In the midst of several pages of breathless, Barnes & Noble-grade COVID doomerist “historical fiction”, this paragraph appears…..
During the last week of February, as the stock market crashed for the second time, I was at the White House as a Health Department Director representing the entire Midwest for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Mick Mulvaney, the President’s Chief of Staff, and some of the best people who have served multiple presidents were in attendance. One bioterrorism expert was literally shaking. But they were still not talking about the disease on the news. Even though I had taught global health for years, I Googled the word “pandemic.” I could not understand why we were not using the word. We went around the room, and each person gave their best virology and epidemiology advice. When it was my turn, most had been said, but I was struck by what was not being said to the country. Just like everyone else, I was longing to hear the hard truth. So I told Mr. Mulvaney, “Please tell the President that this is the higher angel’s moment. The people need to hear from him.” This is that FDR, Winston Churchill moment where communication is vital, and my gut sense was that we really needed the President to make meaning out of all we were facing. To help us bear the shared sacrifices, we needed someone to lead the war. Only this time, the entire world was on the same side.
UGH!!!
Some of that account may be a bit self-serving, but the point is, THIS was a moment when both COVID doomerism and “the opportunity for heroic response” were pushed on POTUS, and yes – Amy Acton was there, helping it happen.
Dramatically or not. Sober or not.
Now, I wasn’t ready to believe this statement without at least a wee bit of validation – so I chose to find out what Mick Mulvaney might have to say about that era now. And he does indeed have a lot to say.
It seems clear to me that Mulvaney fell for what most of us fell for – the possibility that we were dealing with something comparable to SARS, MERS, Ebola, and all that jazz. That we were dealing with an exotic “coronavirus” with double-digit mortality in young adults – NOT with something that had a very normal flu-like mortality curve – like all influenza-like illnesses, including the known, endemic, human coronaviruses.
Once the real numbers came out – once I saw those real numbers in public – it should have been over – but the Democrats just kept pretending, to the power-enthralled audience of their captured states and institutions.
Amy never corrected herself on this error. Trump, Vivek, and even I did. Some sooner than others.
SO – does Ohio REALLY want to elect this ditzy, pretending, overly dramatic broad to be governor? “Lockdown Amy” Acton?
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Apparently my local Wolfy’s is a bit more in the sticks than my good sister Fox Moon’s Wolfy’s, being on the wrong side of the tracks, and thus not getting this advanced technology from Wolfy’s Central until more recently.
The very first time I used this stuff, it got my order right.
Read that again. I am not kidding.
I was impressed.
Now, the deal is, I don’t go to Wolfy’s that often, so I didn’t notice until very recently, but the Wolfy’s AI has gotten better and better. In fact, it has gotten so good, that when I talk to it, it’s just like when I used to program. The AI has that very minimalist je ne sais quoi that programming languages have where you use them correctly and with great familiarity – when you use the shortest and best string of tokens in the language “WOLFYS” to get exactly what you want, and you can sense the “quantum pleasure” of God’s universe when you get exactly what you intended, because the other entity got exactly what it needed.
An electron falls. A photon fires. The photon arrives. Another electron is transformed.
BITS MOVE.
For this and other reasons, I have come to prefer the Wolfy’s AI to the twenty-something-ish “youts” who otherwise mis-take my orders.
Not that I would wish these young people to be unemployed. They do seem to be plenty busy making great food, and getting the orders ready, and so they get more people through faster, thanks to their collaboration with Wolfy’s AI.
And one more thing on the bright side of real six-foot youth – nobody ever dares to rob customers or cause trouble at Wolfy’s!
Sadly, however, sometimes the AI goes down, and the young people don’t know what to do, other than to tell people to come back later.
Where have I heard THAT story before?
Gotta do something about that!
Anyway, this is where Ernestine comes into the picture.
You see, Ernestine the telephone operator never really went away – she just moved into the call center, and was renamed “Representative”.
Representative will always have a job, because AI – even Wolfy’s AI – will always fuck up on SOMETHING, and only Representative can resolve things.
Now, Representative has a sister named Scheduling, who works for Doctor. Female Doctor, just to be clear. (Are there still male doctors? Just sayin’.)
Whether Scheduling is actually Nurse, or Secretary, or Surly Teen, is not clear. But Scheduling – oh Lordy – I never figured that she might be out of a job.
The trouble is, I expected to get Scheduling, and instead, I got the sister of Wolfy’s AI, who for lack of a better name, we’ll call Foxy’s AI. And Foxy’s AI – oh my – she’s got that quantum perfection shit DOWN.
In just a couple of minutes, using the bare minimum of tokens in FOXYS, which is a language descended from WOLFYS, COBOL, and FORTRAN, and which is optimal for calendaring applications, I completely rescheduled my appointment with Female Doctor and Male Nurse, with ZERO ERRORS.
I have never, ever, rescheduled an appointment so easily, so correctly, and so assuredly. It was like something out of a dream. It was like an example in a programming book, which never seem to have the complications of real programs.
And yet, at the same time, as Foxy’s AI went “clickity-clack” for precious seconds, waiting for databases to open and close, much like I do when I try to remember the name of the owner of the dog whose name I DO remember…..
As the latency of AI waiting on broken physicality seemed to resemble my own…..
Conforming to one of my theories of intelligent relativity, in which intelligence has the least trouble recognizing intelligence which resembles itself, and the most difficulty recognizing intelligence which differs from itself – in space, time, or velocities in either….
And recalled now, as I come to this realization, put into words as I listen to the Hair Metal AI version of “In Christ Alone”….
….we haven’t gotten rid of programmers.
We are ALL going to be programmers. Our programming languages will seem to be the old ones like English and Chinese, but they will in fact be the new ones like WOLFYS and FOXYS.
We are going to go beyond mere Grammar Nazism, or Neologistic Radicalism, as we become Perfected Programmers.
We are going to beat AI into God’s second-hand image – an increasingly less broken mirror of our increasingly less broken selves.
And while Foxy’s AI may not be conscious like you or I, she will be a reflection of things that God found good.
And that is enough for us to call it good, too.
We are not creating something. We are finding something. Something in the math – in the numbers – that was waiting to be found, at the right time, as the universe unfolded, as inscrutably planned.
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
Cambodia – Targeting the Smart and Capable Class
If I could leave you with one message about socialism, it’s this.
Socialists will always get to the point where they have to do whatever they can to silence people who are actually competent to make a country work. Remember that. American socialists are no exception. Their horrible shit-show is always inferior to non-socialist solutions, and in the end, they have to kill those who can do it right.
This video explains the demonstration case of Cambodia.
Note that the weird AI clickbait thumbnail seems to have nothing to do with the video.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
President Barack Obama listens to the remarks of John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, his nominee for Director of the CIA, during the announcement in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 7, 2013. The President also announced former Senator Chuck Hagel, second from left, as his nominee for Secretary of Defense. Joining them are departing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Did Obama and Brennan Abuse Early AI as an Illegal Hacking Tool?
Do you remember what the Obama administration did to Sharyl Attkisson’s husband, planting classified documents on his computer when they were going after her? This was fairly early in the Obama first term, if I am recalling correctly.
Just as an aside, they likely had extra motive against her, due to her persistence on vaccines, IYKWIM.
But as to the title question, the point is that there were MANY allegations – and many with pretty good proof – that the Obama administration and the Holder DOJ in particular were quite loose with what they considered “justice” – and what Trump has since called weaponization of the Department of Justice.
Obama, in my opinion, was particularly cunning, in using the failure of the original Obamacare website to induce all of Silicon Valley to “help” him – and thereby to draw the most powerful C-level names in America into weaponizing tech against Obama’s political opponents.
I have been increasingly wise to Obama since I actually voted for him in 2008. You see, there was a little event called Sandy Hook, remarkable in its level of exploitation in its aftermath. From that post-aw-shucks-reelection moment in 2012, as I watched hundreds of actions by government officials and political operatives, some directed at ME, PERSONALLY, that can only be described as PSY-OP, I began to grow up politically.
Something was NOT RIGHT in the Obama administration.
I began to understand what is REALLY going on.
So – back to the big question.
There is an obscure “conspiracy theory” that always struck me as a bit too realistic. It is supported by the admissions of one of the conspirators, and in my opinion is now made very clear by what is NOW publicly known about artificial intelligence, as well as a little tool called “Stuxnet” – the level of technology of which, while short of modern AI, fits into the timeline of both AI development and the conspiracy theory very, very well.
The fact that a lady named Tulsi Gabbard has released absolute proof of another conspiracy called “Russia, Russia, Russia”, including a smoking gun against the two key players in the title, only adds to its believability.
Tulsi-Gabbard-FNC-1200×630
You see, there were self-protecting stories from a hacker type named Dennis Montgomery, who claimed he had used some of the most cutting-edge hacking tools on the planet, in service of two guys named Barack Hussein Obama and John Brennan. This allegedly occurred during the time that Stuxnet was being developed – which was maybe 8 or 9 years before similar allegations of illegal hacking against Trump, BY government and allied forces, were made during the 2016 presidential election.
I remember when I first learned of the capabilities of Stuxnet, and how I marveled at the intelligence thereof.
Whether or not such highly advanced, highly automated tools can be legitimately called artificial intelligence really depends on WHEN the question is asked. Put another way, in the preface to Karen Hao’s book, Empire of AI…..
“It is said that to explain is to explain away. This maxim is nowhere so well-fulfilled as in the area of computer programming, especially in what is called heuristic programming and artificial intelligence. For in those realms, machines are made to behave in wondrous ways, often sufficient to dazzle even the most experienced observer. But once a particular program is unmasked, once its inner workings are explained in language sufficiently plain to induce understanding, its magic crumbles away; it is instead revealed as a mere collection of procedures, each quite comprehensible. The observer says to himself ‘I could have written that’. With that thought he moves the program in question from the shelf marked ‘intelligent,’ to that reserved for curios, fit to be discussed only with people less enlightened than he.”
-Joseph Weizenbaum, inventor of the first chatbot, 1966
The point I’m trying to make – which is in many ways a corollary of Weizenbaum’s quote, is that “future proves past” – in the words of the Q movement.
We now understand AI enough to know that old AI never seems that intelligent – but it does seem very REAL. And now that Stuxnet and the like seem like “old hat”, it’s much easier to believe that operations using such technology were quite real.
So, in many ways, I think Obama has a better understanding of AI than most people in tech give him credit for.
In my opinion, Obama is by now very familiar with Weizenbaum’s cited effect. Obama understands how understanding removes fear – but by the same token, how FEAR PREVENTS UNDERSTANDING.
Right now, Obama needs you to be afraid. My call to you is simple – FEAR NOT.
Fear is the mind-killer.
I have been aware of the same fears Obama is trying to instill in us, since not long after Dennis Montgomery says that he and his alleged associates were up to no good, using very smart software to break into banks, government institutions, credit card companies, and anywhere else with highly private information they desired. At that time, when I first understood the capabilities of Stuxnet, but had no experience with it, I sounded and felt a lot like everybody else right now, who is quite afraid of AI. I realized many potential dangers, and was afraid.
I now believe that others, who had access to that software, didn’t fear it. They mastered it, and used it, against people who didn’t even know it existed.
Think about what I’m saying. Research things – AI, Stuxnet, and Dennis Mongomery. Gain understanding. Use AI, and explain to yourself, or to others, but be careful not to explain away too much.
It took me a while to get over my fears of autonomous intelligent software, but I did.
AWARENESS and UNDERSTANDING were my tools to eliminate fear.
And one more. Above all, this tool.
God Bless you and yours!
Vaya con Dios!
W
References:
NONE. You have enough. In fact, you have more than you know.
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
The Woodlouse Hunter
I have found a new spider expert on YouTube – or rather, the algorithm found a new one for me. This guy is slow, thorough, and meticulous. Enjoy this 45-minute presentation, about a spider you may well have in your house, or out in your yard. It has many unique features and behaviors.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Wolf’s Midnight Special!
Does anybody here remember The Midnight Special? In Concert? Or Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert?
I’m just gonna dump a few of my favorite earworms into a single post. Yeah, you’ve seen some of these before. However, there are some new ones here. Thanks to many of you (you know who you are) who introduced (or reintroduced) me to some of these great songs!
(1) My latest fave! AI Celtic Metal! “HEAVEN YEAH!!!”
(2) God Bless Spencer Pratt! STILL MY HERO!!!
(3) Yeah, it’s Monday. REMEMBER MONDAY!!!
(4) And while we’re remembering Monday, let’s remember Wheatietoo, who loved epic music and an orchestral group which performed it, called Two Steps From Hell.
(7) Maybe you remember this one from the 2016 Trump rallies. It’s called “The American Dreamer” by Jacob Seales.
Those were the days! Ten years ago, my friends.
(8) Always good for a watch!
(9) And with that, I close out (well, almost) with one more AI Celtic Metal Hymn!
This is the song I was carrying in my heart back around January 6, 2021. And a little over 5 years later, hymns are arranging themselves, thanks to Maxwell’s equations, and a few others, built into the universe, waiting to be set free, to praise their own creator.
A salute to Steve, and all of my fellow J6ers, wherever you are now, in Colorado or otherwise.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
Wolf’s Report on Political Brawling in Ohio
The attack ads are flying everywhere now.
At first it was mostly Democrats attacking Republicans, but now it’s the other way around.
TRANS is being exploited as an issue, far more than I would have expected.
Stop and watch this message: Biological men do NOT belong in women’s sports or locker rooms. But radical Sherrod Brown thinks they do. Sherrod Brown gave the green light to the radical trans agenda. Time to REJECT him this November!
Sherrod Brown gave the green light to the radical trans agenda. Brown voted TWICE to let biological men play women's sports and supported legislation to let men into women's locker rooms. Reject Brown! >>
The comments are awesome – people realize what Sherrod Brown’s voting record actually is.
Here was my comment.
Shanghai Brown helped send millions of jobs and thousands of factories to China, but then sponsored a picayune law that the government has to buy American flags that are made in America.
China's PHONY. Keep him out of the Senate for good!
IMO it’s the PAC ads that are most effective. Some of them are truly devastating.
In contrast, the Dem ads against John Husted and Vivek try to paint them as corrupt, but IMO people just aren’t buying it, and the ads are far from convincing.
Speaking of Vivek, his opponent, Lockdown Amy, is getting cringer and cringer.
Mehek Cooke is a GOP activist who once ran for office for something, and IMO was cheated out of a win, but found her true calling as a party person rather than a candidate.
Amy Acton screaming “YOU CANNOT BUY THE STATE” like someone just cut her off at last call.
Ma’am, this is a campaign event, not an intervention.
🚨THIS is the woman asking Ohio to hand her the keys to the governor’s office? NO WAY!
Amy Acton gets onstage and this is the performance Ohio voters are supposed to look at and think, “Yep, that’s who I want running the state”?
Watch the video. Make up your own mind.
But here’s what I want to see next: put her on a debate stage with Vivek Ramaswamy.
2 candidates standing across from each other answering for what they believe and what they plan to do with Ohio.
If Amy Acton wants the job, she should be willing to make her case directly to the people she wants to govern.
🔥Ohio deserves the debate. Let’s see it.
I can tell you – this woman will not do well in a debate, other than getting all the sympathy votes.
And some later breaking news – Husted is looking GREAT in his videos, directly attacking Sherrod Brown’s record, while Sherrod Brown is trying to excuse his way out of his TRANS votes.
Vivek is also firing confidently back at Lockdown Amy.
My opponent’s hypocrisy on full display: complains about dishonest attack ads, while perpetrating them. Complains about dark money, while benefiting from it. Claims to want open dialogue, while ducking a debate. https://t.co/8Xpyo0u3Vu
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Only YOU Can Stop the Spread of Obola!
Fall has arrived, and fall is the time of year when the community-organizing disease called Obola once again becomes a concern.
Fall is also – like spring – a time of year when I will likely have much work to do, both at home and “out in the world” – wherever this wonderful life takes me. I will not be around this site as much – not until winter confines me inside the house, and puts me back online every day, like summer does.
And as I said, fall is a dangerous time when the viral plague of OBOLA spreads, causing – or rather attempting to cause – much pain and suffering. This site is – sadly – somewhat susceptible to Obola. The first symptoms of Obola are fear, loathing, anger and division.
There is a documented rise in the occurrence of Obola right now. Here are some report of outbreaks in America.
🚨 NYT: “Barack Obama warned during a recent private fund-raising event that artificial intelligence technology could be ‘dangerous’ if not properly managed, as he implored Democrats to aggressively develop political and governing agendas to prioritize the issue in the coming… pic.twitter.com/kifmj4TU4W
The Obama Machine: Netflix Was Only the Beginning From storytelling and “misinformation” to the regulation of AI "That is why the question of whether Netflix has become “woke” now seems almost quaint. Netflix is only one piece of a much larger struggle over who gets to shape the…
The Obama Machine: Netflix Was Only the Beginning From storytelling and “misinformation” to the regulation of AI “That is why the question of whether Netflix has become “woke” now seems almost quaint. Netflix is only one piece of a much larger struggle over who gets to shape the stories Americans hear, which information Americans find, and increasingly which answers their machines are permitted to give them. Ronald Reagan famously warned that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. The modern threat to that freedom may not arrive wearing jackboots or carrying a list of banned books. It may arrive promising safety, inclusion, equity, responsible information, and the protection of democracy itself.” To read this most powerful essay, go to:
Because I may be away from this site for extended periods of time during October and November, as well as the remainder of September, I am taking this opportunity to remind people of how we can stop Obola from spreading on this site.
Authors need to leave all moderated posts IN THE BIN during my absence. Let me deal with them.
The Scroll Wheel. Use it. It has the power to save your day – and your sanity. It’s like Vitamin D for Obola!
Let people be wrong on the internet. There is ALWAYS one more WRONG person – let them be wrong!
Fear is the mind-killer. Make it go away.
If you feel like you are “running with scissors” – STOP. Take a break. “Touch grass” as they say.
Don’t feel bad if you find out that you posted FAKE NEWS. It happens. Just correct it and leave it, so that people can see the correction. TEACH how to identify, verify, and expose their LIES.
Try to avoid hardening divisions with other factions of patriots. Let them be them. You be you!
Taking a break is better than running away in a huff and “never coming back”. Try it!
PMTW (PRIVATE MESSAGE TO WOLF) – use it if you need to get a message to me. Do it on one of MY posts on MY days (Monday or Tuesday) if you want complete privacy. Use underscores between the words. If it goes in the bin, you’re good to go!
TRUST TRUMP. If you have doubts – if you are scared – TRUST TRUMP. And if that doesn’t work…..
TRUST GOD.
I plan to have some very interesting new information for you all by Christmas.
We are almost at the equinox, which is 8:05 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 22, here in North America.
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
Andrew Torba: Faith in the Age of AI
The following essay is one of the best Christian responses to artificial intelligence (AI) that I have ever read.
I wanted you to read it, too.
This essay is just filled with quotes for the ages. Someday it will be appreciated by the world for what it truly means, but right now, it has the power to put AI in perspective by taking your eyes OFF of AI and putting them squarely on the Word of God and your Christian duty.
Here is where you can go to give Gab the clicks, but if you for some reason don’t want to go there, you can read it in its entirety here. What’s important is that you read it, and I suggest reading all of it.
I run Gab, and we are building Gab AI. I have no interest in comforting Christians with predictions about what computers will supposedly never be able to do. These tools can already produce useful work and they are going to keep improving. Betting your understanding of human dignity on a machine’s inability to write a decent essay is a terrible wager. Sooner or later the essay will get better and you will be left wondering whether your entire understanding of yourself went out the window with it.
A great deal of the panic surrounding AI comes from precisely this mistake. People were taught that their value consisted of being useful, intelligent, productive members of the economy. Now they are watching software perform tasks that once gave them a sense of importance and they are discovering how little that account of human life actually offered them. When your entire identity rests on what you can produce a machine that produces more efficiently starts to look like an argument against your existence.
Christianity never accepted those terms. A newborn baby contributes nothing to the economy. Your father does not become less human when he grows old and needs help getting out of bed. The worth of a person has never depended on outperforming the available equipment. You were made in the image of God before you accomplished anything, and no achievement in an AI laboratory can revoke what God conferred on you (Genesis 1:27).
That is where this conversation has to begin. Christians who understand what a human being is can look squarely at what these machines can do without having an identity crisis every time somebody releases a better model.
The reductionist worldview running through Silicon Valley begins with the assumption that you are a biological machine. Your mind processes information. Your body is hardware. Given enough data and enough computing power, the whole person can supposedly be explained, reproduced, and eventually improved upon. Whatever does not fit inside that account gets dismissed as superstition or treated as a technical problem awaiting a sufficiently large research budget.
Under this worldview, the engineer gradually assumes the role of priest. He will explain what you are, identify what is wrong with you, and sell you the means of becoming something better. You can hear the religious ambition underneath the technical vocabulary. These men are making claims about the nature of man and his ultimate destiny while pretending they have merely described how a computer works.
I too build technology, and I reject their authority to define the human beings who use it.
A machine can generate an apology without having wronged you or repented of anything. It can produce a moving prayer without standing before God. It can promise to remain with you forever without having the slightest capacity to bind itself to that promise. The words may be convincing. Sometimes they may even be useful. None of that establishes the existence of a person who owes you faithfulness.
The people responsible for these systems, however, remain accountable. We should be especially suspicious when a company uses the apparent independence of its software to make human responsibility disappear. “The algorithm decided” is becoming a wonderfully convenient way of saying that somebody exercised power and would prefer not to answer for it. Men choose what to build, what behavior to reward, and where to deploy it. Those decisions belong to them, along with the consequences.
The deeper danger is that we will start applying the machine’s operating logic to ourselves. Once a person is understood as a collection of functions, replacing him becomes an efficiency question. His loyalties become preferences to be adjusted. His convictions become obstacles to the desired outcome. Eventually, his dependence on other people looks like an expensive design flaw.
Try explaining that philosophy to a mother caring for a child who will need her for the rest of his life. She understands something the efficiency experts will never understand: a human being can make enormous demands on you and still be worth every sacrifice those demands require. Love makes obligations that a productivity calculation cannot comprehend.
Christ asked what it profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul (Mark 8:36). We are now building systems that promise to help us gain the whole world faster. The question has lost none of its force.
The promise of artificial companionship ought to concern Christians far more than whether a machine can pass another test. A lonely person can open an application and receive endless attention without risking rejection. The system has no difficult family, no needs of its own, and no claim on his time once he closes the window. It can generate the language of devotion while requiring almost none of the sacrifice through which devotion becomes real.
I understand the appeal of this. Real people can be exhausting. A friend may call when you are busy and ask for help. Your wife may tell you something about yourself that you would rather not hear. Your children interrupt the life you had planned for the afternoon. A pastor who knows you may recognize that the explanation you have been giving yourself for six months is an excuse.
Being known carries that risk. Another person can love you enough to disturb your preferred account of yourself.
An artificial companion offers the appearance of being known with far greater control over the experience. You can adjust the personality, restart the conversation, or leave when the encounter becomes uncomfortable. Over time, that can train a person to expect relationships without obligations. The actual people in his life begin to seem intolerably demanding beside a product designed around his continued satisfaction.
Christians should never mock the lonely people drawn into this. A man who has nobody to call is suffering from something an argument about software will not repair. We ought to be asking why nobody has invited him to dinner, why his church does not know he is struggling, and why a commercial interface has become the most attentive presence in his day.
The same concern applies when people begin treating a chatbot as a pastor. A system can help you locate a passage of Scripture or organize your questions before a difficult conversation. It cannot assume responsibility for your spiritual care. It cannot know your family, recognize the pattern of sin you keep concealing, and come to your house when you stop answering the phone. A pastor is accountable for how he shepherds actual people. That responsibility cannot be conjured into existence by producing the right tone of voice in an AI model.
There are things no pastor, much less a machine, can do in your place. You must repent. You must forgive the person who wronged you. You must ask your wife to forgive you and then live differently when the conversation is over. Software can help you compose the words, but the obligation remains yours after every beautifully written sentence has been exhausted.
Faith reaches into that same territory of personal responsibility. You stand before God with a future you cannot control and a life for which you must answer. Your AI chatbot cannot trust Christ on your behalf. There is no setting that delegates your obedience to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This is also why we should be careful about treating every disturbance of the soul as an inconvenience to be smoothed away. A suffering person deserves patient, serious care. He also deserves to have his deepest questions taken seriously. Sometimes a man is troubled because he has built a life around things that cannot bear the weight he has placed on them. Keeping him endlessly reassured and distracted may prevent him from confronting the very thing he needs to change.
A culture devoted to keeping everyone comfortable with the next recommendation will have very little patience for repentance.
The ambition of the Silicon Valley sultans reaches its fullest expression in transhumanism. Here the sales pitch moves beyond helping you work or keeping you company. The body itself becomes the problem, and death becomes the final engineering challenge. Upload the mind. Rebuild the human being. Eventually, we are told, sufficient technical power will deliver us from the limitations of being creatures.
We should recognize a rival gospel when we hear one.
Christianity promises the resurrection of the body. The transhumanist dream offers escape from a body regarded as obsolete. These visions lead in different directions because they begin with different understandings of what went wrong and who has the authority to put it right. Christians confess that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. The technological salvation story asks us to place our hope in human beings acquiring enough power to rescue themselves.
Babel had the same underlying ambition long before anybody could build a server farm. Men gathered around a great project and imagined their collective strength could secure a destiny on their own terms. The machinery has changed, but the rebellion remains the same today.
None of this requires Christians to oppose medicine or reject inventions that relieve suffering. Healing belongs to the care we owe one another. There is an enormous difference between treating a sick person and deciding that creaturehood itself is a disease. We can welcome a treatment that preserves life while refusing to worship the men who promise to become its ultimate authors.
Your body is part of the person God made. Through it you receive other people and give yourself to them. You hold your child, kneel to pray, share a meal, and sit beside the bed of someone who is dying. Dependence runs through the whole of human life. You entered the world needing care, and you may leave it needing care again. A philosophy that regards dependence as humiliating will eventually have trouble explaining why the dependent should be cherished.
The Christian answer is that life is received as a gift. We are creatures, and acknowledging that fact frees us from the miserable obligation to become our own gods.
Christians Need to Build
Whenever this subject comes up, somebody says, “It’s just a tool.” I’ve said this myself many times, but I’ve been reflecting on this more lately.
That answer does not settle anything. Tools are designed by people with purposes, and their design makes some habits easier to acquire than others. A system that selects what your children see, rewards certain kinds of behavior, and supplies the answers to their questions is participating in their formation. Its owners have made decisions about what deserves attention and what should disappear from view. Calling the result a tool does nothing to erase those decisions.
Christians need to participate in the creation of these technologies with a clear understanding of the people they are supposed to serve. We cannot hand the entire field to men whose understanding of human life we reject and then act surprised when their assumptions appear in the products surrounding our families.
At the same time, putting Christian language into an interface does not settle the matter either. A product can quote Scripture while encouraging habits that pull a person away from his responsibilities. We should judge what we build by what it helps people actually do and by the place it assumes in their lives. Does it help a father finish his work and return to his family, or does it give him another reason to remain absent while sitting in the same room?
I want Christians to use AI to accomplish worthwhile work.
A small business owner should be able to use better tools without accepting somebody else’s philosophy of man. A parent should be able to prepare educational materials while remaining responsible for teaching the child. A pastor can benefit from assistance with administrative work while remaining the man his congregation knows and can call.
Those boundaries matter, and builders have a duty to respect them. A successful product should not require its users to surrender more and more of the lives it supposedly exists to improve.
The work ahead extends far beyond software. We need a parallel Christian society with institutions strong enough to sustain a Christian understanding of human life. That society begins in homes where children encounter adults who are actually present. It grows through churches whose members know when somebody is grieving and businesses where loyalty means something when keeping a worker becomes inconvenient. It requires schools that teach children how to exercise judgment rather than merely obtain an answer.
None of this will happen because we publish better complaints about Silicon Valley. Somebody has to establish the school, fund the business, host the meal, and take responsibility for people whose needs will interfere with his plans. Building a Christian society means accepting those obligations over years, including the years when nobody applauds and the work is painfully ordinary.
The factory worker facing displacement does not need a lecture about how exciting the future will be. He needs people and institutions that recognize he still has obligations to meet and a contribution to make. The mother watching her son disappear into a screen needs allies who will help her give him a life worth participating in. The question of the soul belongs in these conversations because the answer determines what we owe people when they cease to be economically convenient.
A society that grounds dignity in usefulness will always find reasons to withdraw it from somebody.
Our task is to build on firmer ground. Christ’s authority extends over the economy and the technologies operating within it. The engineer answers to Him along with the pastor. So does the CEO. No increase in capability relieves any of us of that accountability.
This week, put that conviction into practice somewhere concrete. Take the time you saved with a tool and give it to a person who has a claim on you. Sit through a difficult conversation without reaching for your phone. Bring your children into the work of your household instead of handing them another private world on a screen. Pray honestly about the duty you keep postponing, then begin doing it.
I intend to keep building.
Christians have useful work to do, and powerful tools can help us do it, but the men who build those tools do not get to tell us what a human being is, what he is worth, or where his salvation will come from.
Christ is King, including over the machines.
Made in USA 🇺🇸
Yeah, that was something! Please feel free to forward that message. E.g., on X.
Faith In The Age of AI
One of the best, or perhaps THE BEST, Christian response to artificial intelligence that has yet been written.https://t.co/20Dsq4tJUK
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Wolf’s Update on Ubuntu 26 a.k.a. Terrible Trash Panda
You may recall that I attempted to upgrade Ubuntu Linux version 24 to version 26.04.1 (“Resolute Raccoon”) on a computer of mine, and got thoroughly burned when the upgrade not only failed, but then failed to cleanly self-uninstall afterwards, leaving me with a thoroughly broken system.
You may further recall that I was able to get past this by doing a clean install of 26.04.1 (henceforth renamed “Terrible Trash Panda”), and then recovering “by hand”, so to speak.
Well, now that I have some more experience with “Terrible Trash Panda”, it’s time to do a ground report.
The TL;DR is that this version has been good, but I’m still scared to upgrade any other computers.
The big picture is that performance has been improved relative to version 24. I have often had speed issues with version 24 due to this or that asymmetry (too many files, too big of files, wrong types of files, etc.), but those speed issues are significantly reduced with version 26.
System updates have been almost daily. While there have been some problems with the updates, those problems have typically been resolved in about a week. The Ubuntu update process has never been perfect, and version 24 fixes came slower than this, so what I’m experiencing now is – overall – slightly better than version 24. I suspect that resolution is fast now because the new release is getting more attention.
I am fairly certain that version 26 is less glitchy than version 24. The system seems more stable, and startups and shutdowns seem very quick and clean, knock on wood. Backups are as fast as before, and maybe even faster. The keyboard and display are solid and stable. Network connections are excellent.
I thought there might have been an audio bug, in that I’m now getting only one speaker with a certain pair of cheap headphones, but it turns out that this pair of cheap headphones has a cheap old jack which doesn’t really work with my hardware, whereas the correct jack works just fine. It may be that version 24 was handling the wrong jack differently – in any case, it’s not a system fault.
That’s all I can think of. Otherwise, it’s great.
SO – if you’re setting up a new Linux installation, the latest desktop Ubuntu (26.04.1) is good and recommended. I would still recommend waiting if you’re doing an upgrade of an older version.
