Am I Really Looking for Input

Among other things, I write for a living/profession.  In my life I have regularly been attacked for what I write.  Note: not critiqued, I said attacked.  Therefore if you think I am dead wrong for saying something and you dont think what happened was just a mistake on my part, may I suggest that you put your comments on YOUR blog and not bother me with it.

The fact is that at this point I am pretty sure I know what I am saying.

It wont be easy to fix this collapse into Fascism (3/3)

Ultimately none of this matters because Americans dont have the guts to fight for democracy.  But if we did fight the hardest part would be it would be necessary to execute the fascists.  Nothing else would work and it wont happen.

Too bad.

Who am I who says such things?

It Wont Be Easy to Fix the Collapse into Fascism (2/3)

It is a waste of time for me to write up these notes.  Very few people will read them and those who do will not have the power to do anything.  The best I can say for this is that it might have some minor psychological value to put this out there.  

The introduction to this discussion of "things to fix" is here.

1. The Electoral College

None of this would have happened if we did not have a dysfunctional electoral college. Remember, the supreme court threw the election to Bush in 2000 through this device.  Gore won the popular vote and was well on his way to win the electoral vote.  It was because of this coup d'etat that we got Alito and Roberts on the court.

2. Fixing the Supreme Court and the Judiciary

This situation was created in large part because the right wing nuts on the supreme court installed citizens united and gutted the voting rights act.  On top of that we have the ridiculous immunity decision.  We have the failure of them to correct the obviously unconstitutional actions by Trump to go against the power given to Congress to fund or not fund government agencies.  And of course we have various members of the court committing perjury to congress when they discussed what they would do with Dobbs.  Therefore all these decisions have to be reversed and the people involved ejected from the court.  We also have right wing nuts throughout the judiciary (remember Cannon?).  All of these people must be removed from the judiciary and their decisions reversed.

3. Pardoning Insurrectionists

Trump pardoned those who were convicted of attempting to overthrow the government of the United States.  The convictions need to be restored and those people put in jail to serve their time.  The abomination of the insurrectionist being given honors by the Air Force needs to be reversed.  

4. Enforce the constitution on insurrectionists in government.

5. Fix the problem of the executive orders

6. Remove anyone from ICE and DOGE from the US Government and make it impossible for them to return.

7. Set standards for national elections.

8. The DOJ and FBI were weaponized.  Everyone involved in that needs to be arrested and prosecuted and barred from government.

9. The ability of Fox News and others to lie outrageously to pervert the government and political process needs to be solved.  We proved that the civil justice problem is not sufficient.

From Liz Cheney

Or is this really from Ms Cheney? How do we tell these days.

'

Dear Democratic Party,
I need more from you.
You keep sending emails begging for $15,
while we’re watching fascism consolidate power in real time.
This administration is not simply “a different ideology.”
It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine — with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.
And you?
You’re still asking for decorum and donations. WTF.
That won’t save us.
I don’t want to hear another polite floor speech.
I want strategy.
I want fire.
I want action so bold it shifts the damn news cycle — not fits inside one.
Every time I see something from the DNC, it’s asking me for funds.
Surprise.
Those of us who donate don’t want to keep sending money just to watch you stand frozen as the Constitution goes up in flames — shaking your heads and saying,
“Well, there’s not much we can do. He has the majority.”
I call bullshit.
If you don’t know how to think outside the box…
If you don’t know how to strategize…
If you don’t know how to fight fire with fire…
what the hell are we giving you money for?
Some of us have two or three advanced degrees.
Some of us have military training.
Some of us know what coordinated resistance looks like — and this ain’t it.
Yes, the tours around the country? Nice.
The speeches? Nice.
The clever congressional clapbacks? Nice.
That was great for giving hope.
Now we need action.
You have to stop acting like this is a normal presidency that will just time out in four years.
We’re not even at Day 90, and look at the chaos.
Look at the disappearances.
Look at the erosion of the judiciary, the press, and our rights.
If you do not stop this, we will not make it 1,460 days.
So here’s what I need from you — right now:
⸻
1. Form an independent, civilian-powered investigative coalition.
I’m talking experts. Veterans. Whistleblowers. Journalists. Watchdog orgs.
Deputize the resistance. Build a real-time archive of corruption, overreach, and executive abuse.
Make it public. Make it unshakable.
Let the people drag the rot into the light.
If you can’t hold formal hearings, hold public ones.
If Congress won’t act, let the country act.
This isn’t about optics — it’s about receipts.
Because at some point, these people will be held accountable.
And when that day comes, we’ll need every name, every signature, every illegal order, every act of silence—documented.
You’re not just preserving truth — you’re preparing evidence for prosecution.
The more they vanish people and weaponize data, the more we need truth in the sunlight.
⸻
2. Join the International Criminal Court.
Yes, I said it. Call their bluff.
You cannot control what the other side does.
But you can control your own integrity.
So prove it. Prove that your party is still grounded in law, human rights, and ethical leadership.
Join.
If you’ve got nothing to hide — join.
Show the world who’s hiding bodies, bribes, and buried bank accounts.
Force the GOP to explain why they’d rather protect a war criminal than sign a treaty.
And while you’re at it, publicly invite ICC observers into U.S. borders.
Make this administration explain — on camera — why they’re terrified of international oversight.
⸻
3. Fund state-level resistance infrastructure.
Don’t just send postcards. Send resources.
Channel DNC funds into rapid-response teams, legal defense coalitions, sanctuary networks, and digital security training.
If the federal government is hijacked, build power underneath it.
If the laws become tools of oppression, help people resist them legally, locally, and boldly.
This is not campaign season — this is an authoritarian purge.
Stop campaigning.
Act like this is the end of democracy, because it is.
We WILL REMEMBER the warriors come primaries.
Fighting this regime should be your marketing strategy.
And let’s be clear:
The reason the other side always seems three steps ahead is because they ARE.
They prepared for this.
They infiltrated school boards, courts, local legislatures, and police unions.
They built a machine while you wrote press releases.
We’re reacting — they’ve been executing a plan for years.
It’s time to shift from panic to blueprint.
You should already be working with strategists and military minds on PROJECT 2029 —
a coordinated, long-term plan to rebuild this country when the smoke clears.
You should be publicly laying out:
• The laws and amendments you’ll pass to ensure this never happens again
• The systems you’ll tear down and the safeguards you’ll enshrine
• The plan to hold perpetrators of human atrocities accountable
• The urgent commitment to immediately bring home those sold into slavery in El Salvador
You say you’re the party of the people?
Then show the people the plan.
⸻
4. Use your platform to educate the public on rights and resistance tactics.
If they’re going to strip us of rights and lie about it — arm the people with truth.
Text campaigns. Mass trainings. Downloadable “Know Your Rights” kits. Multilingual legal guides. Encrypted phone trees.
Give people tools, not soundbites.
We don’t need more slogans.
We need survival manuals.
⸻
5. Leverage international media and watchdogs.
Stop hoping U.S. cable news will wake up.
They’re too busy playing both sides of fascism.
Feed the real stories to BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Reuters, Der Spiegel — hell, leak them to anonymous dropboxes if you have to.
Make what’s happening in America a global scandal.
And stop relying on platforms that are actively suppressing truth.
Start leveraging Substack. Use Bluesky.
That’s where the resistance is migrating. That’s where censorship hasn’t caught up.
If the mainstream won’t carry the truth — outflank them.
Get creative. Go underground. Go global.
If our democracy is being dismantled in broad daylight, make sure the whole world sees it — and make sure we’re still able to say it.
⸻
6. Create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors.
Not everyone inside this regime is loyal.
Some are scared. Some want out.
Build the channels.
Encrypted. Anonymous. Protected.
Make it easy for the cracks in the system to become gaping holes.
And while you’re at it?
Stop ostracizing MAGA defectors.
Everyone makes mistakes — even glaring, critical ones.
We are not the bullies.
We are not the ones filled with hate.
And it is not your job to shame people who finally saw the fire and chose to step out of it.
They will have to deal with that internal struggle — the guilt of putting a very dangerous and callous regime in power.
But they’re already outnumbered. Don’t push them back into the crowd.
We don’t need purity.
We need numbers.
We need people willing to burn their red hats and testify against the machine they helped build.
⸻
7. Study the collapse—and the comeback.
You should be learning from South Korea and how they managed their brief rule under dictatorship.
They didn’t waste time chasing the one man with absolute immunity.
They went after the structure.
The aides. The enforcers. The loyalists. The architects.
They knocked out the foundation one pillar at a time —
until the “strongman” had no one left to stand on.
And his power crumbled beneath him.
You should be independently investigating every author of Project 2025,
every aide who defies court orders,
every communications director repeating lies,
every policy writer enabling cruelty,
every water boy who keeps this engine running.
You can’t stop a regime by asking the king to sit down.
You dismantle the throne he’s standing on — one coward at a time.
⸻
Stop being scared to fight dirty when the other side is fighting to erase the damn Constitution.
They are threatening to disappear AMERICANS.
A M E R I C A N S.
And your biggest move can’t be another strongly worded email.
We don’t want your urgently fundraising subject lines.
We want backbone.
We want action.
We want to know you’ll stand up before we’re all ordered to sit down — permanently.
We are watching.
And I don’t just mean your base.
I mean millions of us who see exactly what’s happening.
I’ve only got 6,000 followers — but the groups I’m in? The networks I touch? Over a quarter million.
Often when I speak, it echoes.
But when we ALL
speak, it ROARS with pressure that will cause change.
We need to be deafening.
You still have a chance to do something historic.
To be remembered for courage, not caution.
To go down as the party that didn’t just watch the fall — but fought the hell back with everything they had.
But the clock is ticking.
And the deportation buses are idling.

It Won't Be Easy to Fix the Collapse into Fascism (1/3)

This is part 1 of 3 parts.

As a former Democrat, I admit to being surprised and maybe annoyed at how badly our party has done.  Failure like that does not happen by accident, you have to work at it and be talented at failing.  This talent comes in a variety of forms one of which is a consistent unwillingness to take a stand on principle.  That is not the point of this blog post, which has a different purpose, except to say that I see no reason to think that the Democratic party, as it is formally defined in this country, has a prayer of being able to fix this many dimensional disaster.  They had plenty of opportunity to serve their country and make changes to head off this situation and they chose one stupid reason after another not to do so.  From Merrick Garland and Jack Smith's failure to competently prosecute the rapist pig to Chuck Schumer's choice to surrender the budget, we had literally hundreds of proofs that the Democratic party is not up to this fight.

Furthermore, I have no reason to think that the American people want democracy enough to fight for it either.  I have seen example after example that shows that many Americans are stupid or venal or both.  In fact it seems to be impossible to explain to the Trump supporter that it is not the policies of their rapist pig president we object to, although we do, it is the fact that they still support this asshole after all this.  Trump will go away, but we will still have the Trump supporter and  other idiots to deal with.  I dont think that is going to work out so well and it is one reason why I am sure that this collapse into fascism will only get worse.  America, as an experiment in government, has utterly failed and it is pathetic that so many people do not realize it.

The following is an incomplete list of things that have to happen to rebuild this country to a democracy.  I do not think the list is complete, which is too bad, it is long enough.  The problem I see is that I doubt that pretty much any of this doable, but I think they are all required.  Every last one, not necessarily in this order.  And in many cases there are probably "other solutions" that have the same effect as what I am proposing below.  Maybe.

Furthermore, having been on top of these issues for 25 years and being more correct about what was going on than just about any politician I know of and certainly better at this than anyone I know, I am going to modestly and humbly suggest that I am more qualified than any of these wankers to suggest what has to be done.  That wont happen, and I certainly wont get any respect, and this really is a waste of my time to even bother to write some of this up, but here we go anyway.  

Part 2 and Part 3 will be here when they are written.

Khronos Notes 8/28/2025

 

I am unclear about what is going on with Khronos especially as it affects OpenXR and WebGL and the various browsers.  

1. Khronos appears to have 23 active standards including OpenXR and WebGL

2. Each of these standards has a working group.  Most groups are 4 people or less.  All of the members of the group are affiliated with a company that is a member.  However these groups are tiny and probably do not represent the "real" working or advisory groups, which are not listed on their web site.  There are no individuals listed.

3. There are 4 levels of membership for companies and 1 for academia.  Costs per year vary from $90,000, $22,000, $9,000 to $4,000 plus.  Academic membership is $1,000 per year.  There is no way for an individual to join.  NYU is not a member nor is UC, CMU, MIT or Stanford.

4. As all members of the working groups are by definition employed by a member company, I do not know what it means for them to be a "volunteer".  

5. I know that the working group for OpenGL was much larger than anything mentioned here, on the order of maybe 30-50 members so obviously there is something I do not understand here.

6. Meta is a contributing member, but I am told is not a supporter of OpenXR.

7. It is not clear whether WebGL is a volunteer or a supported activity at each of the various browser companies.  Given the potential for performance and stability issues it seems difficult to believe that it would be a pure open source, volunteer activity but maybe it is.  WebGL is essentially a repurposing of OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0 so maybe there are robust implementations that can be trivially incorporated.

8. It is not possible for an individual to be a member of Khronos.  It is possible that they can be invited onto a working group (or other advisory group).

To be updated.

Jeff Kleiser & Coco Conn at Hotel Figueroa

At the Hotel Figueroa, at some SIGGRAPH, date unknown.

This photograph may already be on the blog, but if so, I am not sure where.

Civilization VII Notes

Rarely do I spend so much time with a game cursing it every step of the way.  Whatever may be going through the heads of the developers of Civilization VII, I dont much care for their choices.  This is not a review of the game, look elsewhere for that.  This is just a list of things I find annoying.  Your mileage may differ.

I do not know if the issues I discuss here are to be considered bugs or features.  

1. It is not clear what the differences are between different versions of this game.  Civilization V vs Civilization VI vs ... why a new version?  What have they learned?  It isnt clear.

2. The cartography is dreadful although colorful.  It is impossible to get a simplified version that shows you an overview, for example.  It is awkward to get to the different versions that do exist.  There ought to be a simple way to cycle through the options.  There ought to be a way to pull back much farther to get a better feel for the comprehensive view.

3. It is tedious and difficult to figure out where your air assets are. 

4. It is tedious to move your air assets from airfield to airfield.

5. Very little thought has been given to organization and scalability of the armed forces.  There are army, navy & air commanders that are supposed to provide some sort of higher level organization but I didn't find them very useful.

6. The issue of where one can found a city is badly documented.

7. The cultural issues between civilizations are shallow.

8. It is very difficult to evaluate who is winning and why.

9. It does not seem to be possible to advance the game without going through endless random details.

10. It does not seem rational how the units move on the board.

11. So I take it all the way through, and without warning, even though I crushed my enemies, I am told I am defeated.  And this after I forebear from nuking everybody.  What a piece of shit this game is. Obviously you dont need much talent to be a major league game designer.

"War Hero"

 
I think we can all wish that we had peace and that we were not going to "study war no more" but if I were you I would not hold my breathe waiting for that.  In the meantime, given that Mr. Bone Spur tells us that he is a war hero, we can ask ourselves if this moron and traitor actually knows what a war hero is.  I doubt it.  For those of you who may not have given it much thought, I can recommend the citations of the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMOH) as a way of making this abstract concept somewhat real.  

There are several rules about getting a CMOH and they include: (a) there have to be living witnesses of the event, (b) whatever the candidate did has to be beyond doing their job bravely and competently, (c) the commanding officer has to recommend you, (d) one of the congressmen from wherever our candidate hero is from has to sponsor it and (e) congress has to vote for it.  The CMOH is not without controversy in its 164 year history, but its track record is pretty good.

So, for example, you do not get a CMOH for merely advancing against the enemy while being shot at.  Everyone is expected to do that.  However, you might get a CMOH if, while your unit is under fire, you single handedly take out an enemy machine gun nest while the rest of your platoon is (sensibly) sheltered for cover and praying.  And then, having eliminated the machine gun in single combat if you do it two more times before they kill you, then you *might* get a CMOH, posthumously.

Or to choose another example, if you are known to be a complete screwup until your first combat mission whereupon the bomber you are on is set upon by waves of enemy fighters, the fuel tank explodes, 5 of your crewmates are hit by enemy fire and are bleeding out on the floor of the bomber, and then, suddenly, demonstrating behavior no one would have believed you were capable of,  you spring into action, alternate between putting out the fire in the center of the airplane, shooting at enemy fighters and driving them away, tending to the wounded to stop the bleeding, getting at least three of them into parachutes and out a hole in the fuselage to hopefully save their lives because the plane you are on is certainly going to explode and/or crash and kill everyone at any moment.  And somehow the bomber survives and you land.  And then when the brass comes to give you your medal for improbably saving the day, no one can find you because you are in the kitchen peeling potatoes as punishment for some other screwup for which you are well known. If you do that you might get a CMOH and plausibly be considered a "war hero".

Trust me, whatever DJT, the rapist and felon may be, he is certainly not a "war hero"  

A Parlor Game

Prediction is hard, especially about the future.  It seems obvious to me that the American System has failed and will not be recreated in its flawed but occasionally just form anytime soon.  I doubt that even 10 percent of the American people understand that it is over, the system failed, and they live in a right wing authoritarian country, arguably fascist and a dictatorship.  However this is an opportunity to show off skills.  There are many other shoes to drop.  I invite my friends to suggest some of those shoes which will be obvious to some people only in retrospect.  You should assume that the courts are corrupt at the highest level, that the press is useless and complicit, and that most politicians dont really care, at most pay lip service.  Much of what is easy to predict is not so much an obvious bad thing that has happened, but merely that it is made more public.  For example, it is obvious that the secret police is attacking and deporting people who are legal to be here, but how many of those people are raped in prison and/or murdered.  So one prediction is that this is eventually made public, and that some people voice dismay and outrage, but in fact nothing happens to change the situation.  It will be 50+ years before we know how many people we murdered, if we ever do. I see this as just obvious, the American Republic has murdered innocent people on a regular basis over the decades, although I think it ebbs and flows.  There are a dozen such trivial examples.  Another example is that a pillar of right wing strength will be grotesque gerrymandering to disenfranchise voters.  It is easy to predict that of course the supreme court will take a stand and support this gerrymandering for one stupid pretend reason or another.  The friend who suggests the most of these that have not previously been noted will win an exciting $25 gift certificate from Amazon.