Notices by Muro deGrizeco :toad: (murodegrizeco@toad.social)

@minorusaba

My only exposure to this music, I think, has been the "O Fortuna" samples used without permission in the band KMFDM's "Leibesleid (infringment mix)"

Yes, it #Caturday .

Many of us in America who somewhat see and somewhat understand the fascist takeover going on in our country, are stuck in fear, grief, and helplessness.

I feel that!

The top levels of power are now in the hands of murderous clowns, who are wrecking everything, and will likely kill a lot of us.

What do we do with that?

#fascism #feelings

I do not have great answers to this.

What little things we can do, let's do them.

What little victories we can score, win them.

What knowledge we do hold, carry it forward.

What ways we can lift each other up, let's do so.

#hope

@cwebber

Oh, I saw someone have a real positive interaction with an AI chat bot doing customer support.

It was during a Zoom meeting.

A demo.

The guy asked the trained AI a question about some software, got a reasonable answer to his question, and he declared triumphantly that this was the Way of the Future.

That happy someone was a CEO who was then going to get rid of Support staff.

Got home, calmed down, got story from N95-masked spouse:

It was a little stuffy lobby that the face-scarf friend was in, so room prob had lot of virus. Exposure brief, few minutes. Spouse had tight #n95.

"Exposure Protocol" goes like this:

Presume exposed person infected. They wear N95 in house. Okay to remove mask in closed isolation room, towel at door base. Furnace has HEPA filter. Monitor for symptoms, test with #COVID / #Flu RAT repeatedly. Call all-clear after several days neg tests.

Spouse, with #N95 mask, was in a building she been visiting weekly for many years, sees proprietor close up in hallway. He coughs hello, wearing a scarf over his face.

Huh?

Desk person later confirms,

"Oh, he has covid."

So, spouse was exposed today?

We are starting Exposure Protocol inside our household.

To limit further infections, if she contracts #COVID. Mask around each other.

We have people to protect. Family. Vulnerable friends.

A fucking scarf!

Tired of this carelessness!

@luckytran

Driving down into the Los Angeles area in the early eighties. Down into the red haze, photo chemical smog, acrid to breathe.

Remembering German cities of that time that stunk of diesel.

Remembering cars of the seventies that only partially burned their gas, and chugged out hydrocarbon volatiles.

It was gross.

@minorusaba

A billionaire may project an image of being a powerful independent individual, but are they really?

Are we obligated to believe that story?

If we do, then we are boxed in by a poisonous narrative framework. Our answers will be limited and nonsensical.

I think if we instead ask,

"What do they fear? Who do they fear?",

we can find better answers for our question,

"Why are they destroying everything?"

@minorusaba

I was also looking up the "Black Square", not too long ago. I can't recall why. Just reading about art.

It's a difficult time.

Yesterday, it was hearing about big cuts to Social Security agency personnel coming.

Social Security is a minimal American old age pension fund that workers pay into throughout working years. Dates back to the New Deal of President FDR. Every paycheck I ever had, has had a percentage to SS.

Yesterday, I was thinking,

"If that's stolen, then I don't get to retire?

I have to just work until I die?

Or I just die if I can't find work?"

#USpol #retirement

@tsturm @ai6yr

This makes like the third time the fucking republicans have ruined a Yosemite trip for my family. For real.

@minorusaba

Not joke.

Information warfare technique.

Consistently applied.

@minorusaba

When an actor suddenly steps forward and loudly says his lines before the audience, it would be our mistake, if we imagine that the actor is actually the character he plays or that the words he speaks are really the words of his own mind.

It would be a mistake to consider an actor on a well-managed stage as an independent entity, strictly acting out their own will.

@minorusaba

That 140 tons of Pu contains perhaps 10^19 J of energy?

@minorusaba

I know what you mean.

@minorusaba

Forgive me if I have already mentioned the 30th of February...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_non-standard_dates#February_30

@minorusaba

Lately, meaning perhaps the last several decades, it seems like there are more ways for calamity to catch us.

Perhaps this is from risks growing, perhaps from my slowly growing knowledge of existing risks.

Either way, what a grim way to live...

@minorusaba

Ah, interesting vaccine technology.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7402629/

I think about how my first comment sounded, as if I am just an independent maker of rational decisions, an informed American consumer.

There are much more grim aspects to this though...

Jumping to buy a Toyota before a new Trump admin attacks allied countries like Japan, with tariffs.

If I lose my job, and can't get another, how much driving do I need to do?

How much do oil dictators and oligarchs shape my possible options?

Will I even still be alive in 5 years?