What kind of clown-ass shit is it to believe that we shouldn’t send humans to Mars because it doesn’t make money? I see a lot of people who call themselves liberals making this sort of argument and it is painfully hypocritical. I hate the people I should in principle like because they are also idiots.

What? How did I not know this was gonna be a series? And it has Rebecca Ferguson.

Yes, please.

Well that’s an ambitious cover. I like it. That’s one of my favorite Metallica songs. I don’t think it’s as good as the Metallica version but it’s nice to see someone else tackle this very difficult song. I once could play nearly all of this on piano at actual speed — and it took me months to learn.

Predictions of the future of the US by 2035, mostly demographic in nature, assuming no new civil war:

1) Deteriorating social and infrastructure conditions in red states with nearly-dictatorial capture by governors essentially acting as petty authoritarians in many of those states.

2) A net outflow of population from most red states into blue ones, reversing to some extent the trend of people migrating to Sunbelt states. This will cause further decline of red states as those who remain will be older, sicker, and more against government “interference” in their lives. Thus, federal funding of Medicaid will also be spurned, exacerbating these issues yet more.

3) Blue states will continue to have issues with housing affordability and availability as inflow increases as NIMBYs will still dominate in many areas.

4) Red states will experience a fairly-precipitous economic decline as jobs and manufacturers leave those states en masse, pursuing more educated populations.

5) Blue states will nearly-completely dominate the cultural conversation (even more than they do now) as red states will consist of basically over-40 conserva-clowns screaming about men wearing dresses and how it was back in the 1950s (which they didn’t even live through).

These are all highly likely.

I feel really sad for those grim-faced people who peaked in high school.

Cuz damn y’all I just keep getting better every day. My life is awesome and on an upward trajectory. I’ve seen and done amazing things from such a terrible start. And I plan to keep piling on the awesome till I die of it.

I’m grateful — because I definitely had help along the way — but I also extricated myself from hell and walked a path few could tread. And I regret nothing.

Last night I did three sets of 25 dips on the dip bars — 75 total.

My “impossible” celebrity workouts continue apace.

The Corrupt System Behind Covid Medical Shortages.

People were blaming Covid for bringing down the medical system. In reality, the medical system was already sclerotic and nearly any stressor would’ve resulted in its failing. Yes, Covid was the proximate cause. But it was not the deeper one that had been ongoing for decades. The Covidians really fucked us over on this too, preventing reform and denying any other causes.

Hey other dudes. How are you dealing with the existential dread of not being able to afford things like our fathers and grandfathers were able to. And the uncertainty of the future because of it?

This doesn’t really pertain to me as I don’t have kids and make enough money where it doesn’t affect me. But I’m an unusual case so the post is is true of most men and women.

But you can tell the inflation numbers are absolute bullshit when I compare myself to my maternal grandfather. He had three houses, a nice car, raised three kids, had tons of hobby stuff — all on what today would be around $80,000 per year. I make well more than double that in just salary alone and I couldn’t do that. Not even close.

This economy is killing me and I don’t know what to do anymore.

The above is what it’s really like for people out there now.

I don’t post many selfies, but this is me at 46 years old — taken a few weeks ago:

No filters, no Photoshop, none of the shit the kids use these days so that they don’t even look human in pics. Just plain me. Not bad for 46.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

Ain’t no MBA gonna ever get me back in an office again. No way, no how.