SailorJ.com

Category: Politics

  • It’s Your Choice

    It’s Your Choice

    You know, I am reading a number of my friends or acquaintances postings online, and I noticed that they tend to be either really great posts or really toxic posts. The truth is it is your choice on how you want to present yourself to the world. And I get it, the world is a really crazy place right now and there are things that make us angry and we want to rant and go online and do it. However, getting angry and trying to get your friends upset with toxic. Bullshit is a horrible thing to do in my opinion. We’re better than that. Let’s talk about making the world a better place and talk about how we’re going to do it instead of a whole bunch of toxic shit that just makes us all upset and ruins our day. We can do better we can be better than we are The some of the things that we write about and what we read about. I know there’s a lot of things that we need to discuss and fix but if it’s done in a spiteful, hateful manner just to cause division, then that really doesn’t help move the world forward let’s do better , it’s your choice.

  • Mastodon, the new twitter?

    So here we are, getting ready to end 2022, and the place you put your random bullshit was hijacked by Dr Evil, and you’re think, what the fuck do I do now?

    Of course there is the thought, you don’t like it, leave! And that is what so many are doing. I think that we have learned a lot about the definition of free speech lately. If you don’t think Money equals speech, then you skipped out on lesson one.

    He who owns the gold makes the rules

    We live in a world where a small abound of companies own the narrative of what we see and hear. Particularly that’s true when it comes to news. I don’t think that we worry too much about entertainment, but we are concerned about issues like justice and truth. There was a time when our superheroes were reporters. It was noble to be someone who sniffed out a story, because where there is smoke, there is fire.

    Superman and Lois Lane weekly found out about some evil plot and got in trouble then Superman saved the day Where are the Superheroes?

    Freedom in the Federation

    The federation sounds like a Star Trek term. You too can Join the Federation. Follow the Prime Directive, and be ethical in your world. Each instance has its own set of rules, and they are loosely interconnected. It’s amazing when you think about it. You can, with some cost start your own Mastodon server, and own your content 100%. That in itself is a big Fuck You to every other social media platform out there. Personally, I love blogging. I’m into writing, so my blog here is where it’s at, but connections happen in the social media universe.

    I’ve been on Mastodon for a few weeks and I like a lot of what I see. I’m hoping it only gets better, and people continue to show it love and stick with it. It can feel a little complicated. It’s not tik tok or Snapchat. Right now it is missing some features that people would love to have. But I say give it time. It will happen. And maybe App developers will show up with amazing apps as well.

    Who should own social media?

    Software development is a work of art and love. The creator should own it. What we know is that these large networks are comprised of more than just people who write code. It takes a lot of talented programmers and developers to make a network. And as these applications get huge followings, it demands the creation of a Company. And these companies generally go public.

    What Elon Musk did was more than hurt some employee of a once publicly traded company. He also betrayed the trust of the user base. Changing the TOS within an instant. I suppose it goes back to rule number one. This is the risk of handing over your persona and content to someone who owes you nothing and you give everything, you can be obliterated in a blink of an eye. So maybe that’s just too much power for one person to yield, without checks and balances.

    There is no such thing as Free Speech

    There is no such thing as free speech. You are not free from your consequences of your speech. You have Freedom of Speech. There is a difference. See https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/what-does

    Social media is an outreach of society. It’s a place where people do come together in the virtual world to come together, celebrate, argue, mourn, inform, discuss, learn, communicate, be entertained, and find love. I don’t know, we probably do a lot more than that. But in the end, we have to own our own boxes, and our own voice. That’s the point, you want Speech, well you just might have to pay for it.

  • America on the Brink

    Facts 

    January 6th, 2021, Congress and the Senate (Collectively known as the Congress), was to come together with Mike Pence, the current Vice President to count the electoral college votes. They did come together in the people’s house on the Hill in Washington, D.C. to carry out that very important final step in declaring the next President of the United States.

    It’s safe to say that this is a very divided country between Democrats and Republicans. But there is a very dark hard right element in America led by the current President, Donald Trump. He held a rally in the morning and directed his supporters to march on the Capitol. The result of that continues to be documented in the annals of history.

    1000’s of Make America Great Again, Trump loyalists and followers breached the Capitol building and stormed in with the intent to disrupt the counting of the electoral votes, and some have evidence to believe they were going to kidnap or kill the Vice President. 

    The angry mob, which meets the definition of domestic terrorism vandalized the Capitol Building, Office Space, including smearing feces in the building.

    There is a lot to read and understand about what happened. A lot can be read in the Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol

    Commentary

    I am extremely concerned about conspiracy theorists having a foot hold in the minds of Americans. They present ideas that have no facts to support them. In this case that the election was rigged. Trump kept pushing that, with no factual evidence to suggest that any of it was true. Georgia manually recounted their ballots twice. It was not rigged in any sense. Our electoral process is one of the most secure and watched in the world. I have confidence in the system here in Florida where I live and in all the other states.

    Public Service is something that we have stopped believing in. There should be a requirement that to be President you should have to have given the oath of office somewhere in this country. Whether you are a city council member, join the military, or appointed to an office where you hold accountability to the public trust. It is a privilege to get to serve this country. We have to do it for selfless reasons. If we are not working on helping to lift up each other and do the right things that help every American, regardless of Race, Religion, economic back ground, etc, then we are failing as a country.

    This country is not very old, really. America is only 244 years old. Governments change, the world goes through changes, but watching our country, our Democracy tested by someone who would be a dictator if given the chance, and enabled by almost half the country is very sad. We have seen this in Germany in World War II. This is not a reach, this is historical fact. If you do not realize that the people that are involved are White Supremacist, then you are failing to understand that so many people are driven by hate and fear.

    Will America Survive?

    America has the right people in charge, because they believe in the rule of law. There are Democrats and Republicans that both believe in the rule of law. Anarchy can not rue the day. We fought a Civil War, we survived. Can Joe Biden be the man who brings us together? Will going after Trump as harshly as planned help people understand that America doesn’t allow itself to be ruled by despot leadership?

    I do think we will survive. I think we will be better for it. I believe that there will be sweeping changes in things like accountability, transparency and governance.

    SailorJ

    Democrats are not bringing in Communism or some radical socialism from a Soviet era as many on the right would have you believe. People need to get over it, and understand we will get through all of this if we work together. We will get past the Covid-19 epidemic, and this election, and we will see great days ahead. I have to think positive because what is the alternative?

    Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? I hope you see yourself happy.