I can forgive the ones who say “I don’t know what I was thinking”. I can forgive the ones who say “I was tricked” or “I was not paying attention” or “I believed he blah blah blah”. I can forgive the ones who are remorseful, and the ones who work to undue the damage they caused.

Nah.

First time around with Trump, sure.

Second time around. Anyone who was under 18 at the end of Trump’s first term are the only people that get the pass. I was a dumb kid in high school who didn’t pay attention either when I couldn’t vote. But anyone after, he wasn’t some “dark horse” or “outsider” or all the dumbass lies they sell.

But then again, I live in a state that’s been red over a decade, who voted in the least educated governor in the union, that is about to get rid of income tax “because it’s what Texas does” despite the fact our neighboring state did the same thing and nearly went insolvent until a Dem governor got elected for the first time in decades and fixed it, that our traitor of a Senator got voted as Senator before he finished his first term as AG despite campaigning as AG for not using it as a ladder to further political aspirations, then his protege did the EXACT same thing, and Hawley got re-elected. I’ve watched Republicans get shocked EVERY time they got fucked over, then promptly voted the same people who fucked them over because it’ll hurt someone else.

I’d even say the people who were remorseful and work to undo the damage… but #1 Republican before Trump, McConnell SPECIFICALLY ranted and raved about how guilty of Trump was of trying to overturn the election and that he wasn’t above the law… then did everything to stop justice. Republicans are only out for Republicans. If things get too bad they’ll dial back the damage just enough to stop hurting themselves, then start hurting again.

It’s why I can understand what we need to do to go forward as a nation is forgive… but I also cannot do it.

I mean… read the second part of my post. I’m not ready to forgive and most definitely not ready to forget.

This is going to be the problem. If the country is going to come together we have to be able to forgive and start building bridges together.

But I’ve watched Republicans say that too many times then stab us in the back by tripling down on partisanship I don’t see the path forward because I’m VERY much in the same boat.

I don’t have an answer to make it better unfortunately.

I have found one use for generative AI that I have liked. I’ve thrown it at aggravating searches for me.

Use case example: I stopped traveling across the country and got a job at one location. It’s across the city. I’d like to find an electric bike to get there. The location is 12 miles away as the crow flies. Unfortunately my city is absolute crap at any kind of non-car transportation so it needs to get myself up to 40 mph at minimum. Honestly if I’m going that speed, I’d like a scooter like the a burgman. Trouble is “scooter” runs the gambit from competing to motorcycles like the Burgman, to little ones like the Vespa, and stand up ones like you see dumped all over cities downtown. Electric motorcycles start getting into “I might as well buy a new motorcycle” prices.

Alright, I do a search for electric scooter, I get all standing scooters. I’ve attempted changes and maybe find a sitting one that is made for not getting over 25 mph. Finally getting frustrated I remembered one of my younger coworkers talking about using AI for searches, fine… ten minutes later I had a series of results of bike that fit my criteria as well as small little dealers across the city that DuckDuckGo nor Google bothered to pull up, and that’s with me specifically asking for links because I didn’t want made up bullshit.

Now if we get to the point of AI becoming overlords, I’m sure I’m going to be among the first against the wall because the first couple searches of it not getting things right involved me calling it a dumbshit so…

So yea… that’s my territory of using an AI, it’s a better search engine for weird esoteric shit… I kind of wish it wasn’t an app or a website because if it was a physical device I’d have it next to a hammer which I guess shows how much I trust it.

I love seeing historic pictures like this that speaks of different times and in no way shape or form have any relation to what’s happening nowadays so that we can look at how much further we have progressed from the past.