Executives need to have the courage to describe why Trump’s actions are harming their companies when it happens, rather than what I suspect will happen — acting like lapdogs hoping that will help them avoid further and more destructive action from the government.

Let’s start with car manufacturers.

When Vincent Ritter posted some nasty things a little over six months ago, I was disturbed. His response to directly being called out was, as I said at the time, “breathtaking”. Although much of the original content has been deleted ¹, my replies were not. I feel pretty good about what I said then.

In fact, I went on to write a post about the rehashing of Vincent’s harm and role and my blog post from about a week later that still says most of what I think. It was one of my most read of 2024. ²

My ruminations were about both accountability and forgiveness. Despite that, I did not actually forgive Vincent. Shortly after I wrote that post, after continuing to read his blog for a bit to see where things went, I decided to cancel my Tinylytics subscription and unfollow his posts from the few places I paid attention.

I am not sure that his blog post today, Silence addresses the situation sufficiently enough to earn my forgiveness or support. But it is enough to earn my compassion, which I tried to exercise even back during the original events.

What does appropriate accountability look like? That’s up to each individual to decide. I felt like direct support was too much. I felt a loss of desire to interact. I, personally, did not feel that anyone who kept any kind of relationship with him must become stained with his actions. Adam sure feels that Vincent has crossed over to irredeemable. So much so that his contract employment should be at risk as a result and is seen as an endorsement of those past views. Maybe it should be. In my work place, I wouldn’t have even advocated for firing Vincent– I would have just done it on the spot. I have team members who rightfully would have felt unsafe with Vincent on their team. I don’t fuck with safety.

Vincent is a stranger to most of us, but that doesn’t mean he was a stranger to everyone. I can hold people privately to a different standard than I would or could publicly. I can hold space for people I have a richer relationship with in a different way than a stranger. Meaningful, personal relationships allow us to directly challenge one another. They also allow us to have compassion for one another.

I hope he has people to keep talking to him, to keep holding him accountable, and to keep being able to support him as a human deserving of compassion. These things can be true all at once.

It’s easy to be right in public. It’s easy to be wrong in public with conviction. It’s terribly difficult to be wrong in public and feel it and know it.

Can someone please let me know about quality organizations or networks assisting trans people in the US get rehoused in safer locations?

One of the only things I feel I can do right now is offer my guest room as needed somewhere accepting and safe.

I remember learning peer conflict mediation through a program offered by the ADL. It had nothing to do with being Jewish, and when I learned more about the ADL a few years later, I remember being proud of the work they were doing.

I can’t believe who and where they are today.

I’m reaching the end of my rope with Netflix pricing, but I have the account that the whole family relies on.

Sweeping, preemptive pardons are only necessary when we already live in a system that cannot be trusted to administer fair justice. I’m disturbed that my thought upon hearing the news was “good, that was necessary.”

The cruelty is the point. We don’t have to listen to their post-hoc justifications. The rationale is, “How can we be cruel? How can we be cruel just to be cruel, so that we can continue to enrich and entrench ourselves while everyone is distracted by the suffering we inflict?”

I was listening to @danprovost@mastodon.social discuss his partscaster on Thoroughly Considered and agreeing with everything about resale value etc… but then I saw the incredible offset P90 that he built and… I would definitely buy that.

Elsa refers to all amplifiers as “a box” or “the box” and it kills me and she knows it, but she’ll never stop.

I thought we had pretty well established that Nazi’s were the bad guys.

It appears as if Trump’s solution to “TikTok collects loads of data and has a foreign nation state intentionally putting it’s finger on the scale of its algorithm to promote content in the interest of that state” is, “The US government wants in on that sweet, sweet propaganda machinery.”

Technological progress without social progress only creates more advanced forms of oppression!

Who doesn’t spend 10 minutes on Zillow every Saturday morning wondering, “What if I lived an entirely different life?”

Season 2 finale of Silo: chef’s kiss.

My last DEXA scan was almost exactly three years ago. I was near a low weight for my adult life, but I was still pretty concerned. Most especially with my “visceral fat”— this is the dangerous stuff in your liver, pancreas, etc. This is the stuff you really don’t want, especially with a family history of major heart attacks and death in your 60s.

The benchmark is sub 1lbs, and I was around 5 lbs.

Today, after gaining a bunch of weight and losing it again (this time with some help), I did a new scan. Did I lose weight healthier this time? Do the drugs people are chastising do something less healthy than rigorous calorie counting?

My visceral fat came in at 1.46lbs. I’m still not healthy. My body fat remains too high and that visceral fat is not where it should be. But I’ll take every bit of help, along with the hard work at the gym, I can get. At least the long arc is bending toward avoiding an early death the best I can.

Great practice after our first show. Started with a solid jam, then ran the set fresh after we talked about what went well and what we wanted to adjust from watching videos. It was awesome to sound way better than last weekend with each of us making some tweaks based on feedback.

Pretty happy to get a Billy Strings Wombtone and Expression Roller. I already have a killer phaser, but I also know how to use a phaser. Now I have to watch videos and read the manual to figure it all out.

I am cleared to give volleyball 🏐 another shot after a few months of PT. Because of work travel and life, it’ll probably be a couple more weeks, but I’m hopeful things might be working well enough to return to sport.

Sometimes, I read the comments, and it’s worth it. Like this bit of gold:

How Nintendo will leverage that functionality, who could honestly say, but that’s the genius of keeping a toy company mindset in an industry full of sports car company mindsets.

I’ve had like three long blog posts half done that I just can’t get the energy to finish. And I feel bad I haven’t been commenting much lately. The energy going into inauguration is bad.

Skeleton Crew does an amazing job at following the absolute best genre— kids being brave heroes while the adults are either evil or kind of hapless because they’re hindered by rules and expectations. This is the fun, uplifting, action-adventure I adored as a child.

Also, give me an At Attin hover bike ride at Disney immediately.

Ernst is a fucking coward, and it’s insane that it even matters that she is. It’s insane that a woman who is a combat vet has to be held up as the singular roadblock to someone who is not just deeply unqualified to lead defense, but who is also a despicable, disgrace of a human being.

Ideas are frictional, factional entities which wilt when pinned to flowcharts. Ideas have to cause problems before they cause solutions.

— Kaliane Bradley, p110, The Ministry of Time

Gaiman was a hero of mine, but who he turned out to be is horribly distressing.