Essays
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When one is accused of a crime they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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Whether one is guilty of a crime needs to be proven by the state beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of one’s peers, or a judge if the accused prefers.
All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic
This outcome was something the Constitution was designed to prevent. “The Framers of the Constitution were clear that only Congress is empowered to commence offensive military hostilities,” former Rep. Justin Amash (L–Mich.) wrote on X. “But there are people on the left and right who reject divided powers and fundamentally hate America. They’re working deliberately and methodically to destroy it.”
Reason.com, “Trump Shreds the Constitution By Bombing Iran”
The 8th Inning Game
Early Results
A MLB team cannot win their division in April, but they can lose it. Going in to the middle of April we are seeing positive results from the Chicago Cubs, although they suffered the first set back of the season when Justin Steele was put on the 15 day IL. Right now they are at the top of the NL Central with a half game lead but that doesn’t matter as much as the +28 run differential that is the best in the league. The runs they scored during this last home stand in cold April weather is a very positive sign.
On Friday the Cubs start a 6 game road trip in Los Angeles and then San Diego, and I think these games are a good early test for the Cubs. I want to see them win at least two games in LA and win one in San Diego. The Dodgers have actually fallen back to earth going 6-4 over the last ten while the Padres has jumped up to the top of the NL West over the Dodgers and Giants. I will feel good about a split on this road trip.
The Purpose Of Government
Without due process, a claim of guilt is simply one man’s word over another. Without due process we are simply being asked to believe the claims that the humans they labeled as terrorists and thus deserving of deportation and imprisonment are in fact deserving of that label and loss of liberty. Due process is how governments insure that the right to liberty endowed by our creator is preserved.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. – Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration Of Independence is important because it defines the values of the United States of America. It says the rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is not only secured for citizens but for all people because we all have the same creator. Due process for everyone is how we live out our values in the United States and denying that to anyone makes us hypocrites at best.
And Then What?
During the 1990s American Society, driven by capitalism, developed an obsession of short term thinking and what we are now experiencing is the logical result. Consequentially, while it may be that the majority of Americans actually approve the current destruction of the United States government, the question of what comes next isn’t even being considered beyond hopes that Trump or Musk or whoever will be a benevolent dictator. Most are hanging on hope that their future will be better.
From what I can tell, the current Presidential administration does not have a plan beyond destroying everything that is in place because all of it, in it’s judgement, is corrupt. The destruction is not the means, it’s the end. Smart people, like Elon Musk, have recognized the opportunity, but by the time we fully understand what end he has in mind it will be too late.
On Being America
What makes liberty, which I define as personal autonomy, real in America are two fundamental things:
We usually refer to these two items as due process and without it there is no liberty. Further, in our Declaration of Independence we stated that all people, not just U.S. Citizens, are endowed by their creator the right to liberty. Liberty is not provided by the state, it is inherent to who we are as humans. Further, we declared that we create governments for the purposes of preserving these rights.
Checking In On Wordland
Time to check in on Wordland to see what is new. Funny, whenever I want to type Wordland my fingers default to Worldland. If I am going to be paying attention to this site I will need to change the feed as the font is just too small for my eyes. I have created a new category for just these items that I enter using Wordland.
Hello From Worldland
I wrote this post using Wordland, which is a new app developed by Dave Winer. It appears to focus on writing posts to Wordpress. Just made an edit, need to remember to push the post button. Like the little editing popup that appears when I select text.
The Republic Has Failed; Why Does It Matter?
Much of what I am seeing written about the state of the United States seems to be in the context of “Democracy is failing” or a “Constitutional Crisis” is imminent or present. The correct description of the United States as defined by the Constitution is a republic with self rule by a representative democracy.
The reality is that the republic, the one for which our flag stands (remember the pledge of allegiance) has failed. It failed when citizens and our representatives forgot or no longer valued the form of self government that has been in place. Our attitudes and inaction about the insurrection on January 6 is the clearest sign that the Republic has failed. Today we the citizens of the United States value power over liberty and our liberty exists to the extent it aligns to dictates of those in power.
Our conversations and writing on this topic need to transition to, why does it matter that the Republic has failed? The reality is, most people don’t think it matters because they have not yet recognized or acknowledged how their life has been impacted. Particularly Republicans and particularly those who support Trump.
My answer for why it matters is ironic. It matters because without the representative democracy of the Constitution the MAGA movement (or conservative movement) could not exist. Tyranny allows no opposition, thus had it been in place MAGA could not have done what it is currently doing. The Republic is what has allowed you to have your day, enjoy it but know that without it there will be no other opposition.
When the time comes that the “new” U.S. Government does something you do not like there will be nothing that you can do about it. The “elites” have determined Democracy is too inefficient and they think a more efficient government is controlled by a dictator, and they would be right. Freedom has been the purpose of the Republic, and inefficiency is a feature not a bug. However, the elites and their corporate/startup world view know what is best for them and have convinced you its better for you, and this will all work so long as you accept and comply with their dictates, their interpretation of current laws and their new laws.
Digital Colonialism
Tripp Fuller has written an essay titled “The New Colonialism: Power, Data, and the Transformation of Human Experience” that I commend for your reading (shared highlighted link from Readwise.)
Trip writes:
Let me take you back to a moment in history that illuminates our present situation. In its early days, the internet was envisioned as something radically different from what it has become. It emerged from a unique fusion of military pragmatism and countercultural idealism – a publicly funded network imagined as a tool for human freedom and cognitive enhancement. Those early pioneers dreamed of a decentralized space where information could flow freely, uncontrolled by any single authority.
But over three decades, we’ve witnessed what scholars call a “triple revolution”: the commercialization of the internet, the rise of mobile devices that keep us constantly connected, and the emergence of social media platforms that mediate our relationships. This transformation has fundamentally altered the nature of digital space in ways that undermine genuine human connection.
Tripp goes on to note that there has been a systematic pattern employed by the social networks that “eerily mirrors historical conquest.” Later he writes:
But perhaps the most telling parallel lies in how this new colonial class views its own power. In 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote of the “white man’s burden” – the supposed moral duty of colonizers to “civilize” the colonized. Today, we hear echoes of this same patronizing ideology when tech leaders speak of “connecting the world” or “making the world more open and transparent.” The language has changed, but the underlying assumption remains: that a small, privileged class has the right – even the duty – to reshape how billions of humans live and connect.
Most concerning is a loss of our autonomy, instead how we see the world is being shaped by our digital overlords:
This erosion of autonomy is particularly evident in how platforms shape our understanding of the world. The algorithms that determine what news we see, what perspectives we encounter, and what information we consider credible are optimized not for truth or understanding, but for engagement. This creates what tech critics call “reality tunnels” – personalized versions of the world that can differ dramatically from person to person, making shared understanding increasingly difficult. There’s a reason so many of us think family and friends live in a different world - they do and it is a feature, not a bug in the system.
What to do? Tripp reminds us that what we have is not how the Internet was intended to be:
To understand how we might resist digital colonialism, we must first remember that the internet wasn’t always a colonized space. Those early pioneers, many steeped in the revolutionary spirit of 1960s California, envisioned something radically different from what we have today: a decentralized space where information could flow freely, uncontrolled by any single authority.
Tripp’s conclusion starts:
The challenge we face isn’t simply technical or political – it’s fundamentally about what it means to be human in an age of algorithmic governance. When platforms reduce our complex social lives to data points, when algorithms shape our perceptions and choices, when our most intimate moments become resources for extraction, we lose something essential to human flourishing: our capacity for genuine autonomy and authentic connection.
The path forward requires us to develop digital wisdom – a way of engaging with technology that preserves our essential humanity while benefiting from digital tools. This means creating rituals and practices that help us maintain our autonomy while participating in digital life. It means building platforms and networks that serve human flourishing rather than corporate profit. Most importantly, it means remembering that we are not passive subjects in this new colonial regime, but active agents capable of shaping its future.
Laws Only Apply To Those Under Authority
I keep reading articles about how the things Musk and Trump are doing are illegal, which applies under a democracy with rule of law. Democracy is no more in the United States once the Supreme Court ruled the President is above the law. Trump can’t be touched and neither can Musk (or anyone working for Musk) because Trump will simply pardon them.
In their decision SCOTUS reserved the right to decide what is a Presidential act, implying that it could still decide whether the President broke “the law.” If they do such rule who will enforce it? If Congress impeached and convicted Trump, who will enforce it?
So my advice is to stop thinking about whether or not something Trump does is illegal. of course it’s all illegal, but that does not matter. I think he welcomes any confrontation with Congress or the Supreme Court.
The Senate could have convicted Trump twice, but Republican Senators were too scared to do it. The Supreme Court could have concurred with Colorado in that the 14th Amendment prevented Trump from holding office, but was too scared to do so. Both branches failed in their role as a check against tyranny as the founders intended.
Laws now only apply to those with whom Trump and Musk have a grudge against.
Post Obsidian Notes To Microblog
The essay that I wrote earlier today was written in Obsidian. I copied and pasted the content to lillihub.com and then published it to this blog. I looked for and found a community plugin that suggests I can post notes directly from Obsidian and if I have it configured correctly this note should appear on my blog.
That worked as expected, not this sentence is an edit, can I publish this edit back to the same post? Yes I can! Now, I need to check whether I can do this across other devices.
Alright, I installed the plugin on my Macbook Pro and so let us see whether I can post this update. Final test to see how this works from the iPad Mini.
Do We Get Him?
Most American White Christians do not have an appreciation for the society, rules, and cultural norms during Jesus' life. Consequently, I don’t think we really understand most of what he teaches. Jesus lived under imperial occupation. The religious leaders of Israel collaborated with the Romans to rule society mostly for their own safety, and that collaboration lead to the crucifixion of Jesus.
I believe many, if not most, American White Christians don’t really read or understand scripture because they are not the heroes of that story. Most of us align to the ruling classes at the time of Jesus, which has been our privilege within American society, but this appears to be coming to an end.
In today’s daily meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation, there is this:
Over two millennia ago, these biblical prophets envisioned a different world, a world pressing to be born. In place of imperial culture, the prophets articulated another way of living in God’s Creation. Countering extraction, force, and separation, the prophets lifted up trust, right relationship, and becoming. In prophetic understanding, these three qualities embodied the way of faithfulness to Living Presence, the way of aliveness.
Trust in life itself is essential to aliveness. The prophets repeatedly admonished the people for trusting in wealth and influence, for seeking security in power and possessions—trusting in extraction. Instead, they called people to trust Living Presence by trusting the gift of life, the God-given gift of unfolding, unexpected, ever-creating life. Rather than seeking more things, the prophets called for seeking the more in life. Rather than seeking to be in maximal control of life, the prophets called people to participate in the fullness of life. This is the response to the desire to extract: receive and appreciate the more within life itself.
May American Christians now know what it means to say and have the courage to say, Jesus Is Lord!
Good Teams Have Painful Loses
There is no consolation today for lifelong Detroit Lions fans. A loss in the first playoff game after having the best regular season record is particularly painful. Detroit fans can look back to the Detroit Red Wings, who had similar heartbreaking losses to the Devils in the 94-95 Stanley Cup finals and to the Oilers in 2005-06. The loss to the Devils was particularly hard because the Wings had not been in the finals for so long, had the best regular season record, and got swept. The next year the Wings again had the best regular season record and then lost to the Avalanche in the conference finals. Finally, the Wings won the Stanley Cup in 96-97.
Being a lifelong Cubs fan, I know the feeling of rooting for a team that were perennial losers to finally become a good team. I learned I would much rather feel the pain of a playoff loss than the feel the frustration of the Cubs being out of contention after the first month of the regular season. Painful loses are part of the consequences of being a good team, otherwise you are never in position to have such loses.
The Lions have built a firm foundation and there is no reason to not believe that Holmes and Campbell will learn from this and continue building upon that foundation. There are no guarantees next year will be just as good as this year, but there is every reason to look forward to next.
NFL On Christmas Day
Yesterday (Christmas day) is the first time that Netflix streamed live NFL games and I was happy to have a sports alternative to the NBA, which historically has been the only professional league playing on Christmas. Netflix’s production did not go without a hitch for me using an Apple TV. I went in to the app and selected “Watch Live” which I expected would take me to whatever was the current place of the stream, but instead it started at the beginning of the stream an hour earlier. Worse, for some reason it got to a point where it just kept showing non-stop commercials, like it was stuck in a loop. I was screaming in frustration/anger because I knew the game had started and I was not able to watch it. It then dawned on me to look at the progress indicator at the bottom of the display and I noticed it mostly at the beginning on the left rather than the right, so I tried fast forwarding and that enabled me to catch up. I don’t know what happened, I searched to see whether anyone else had the same experience and I did not find any reports.
Major League Hypocrisy
New Photo Collections
A new feature has been added to micro.blog that automatically generates pages of photos that one groups together in to a collection. I found the instructions for creating my first collection did not work, as I had to create a new page and embed the shortcode. Looks like after creating that first page I can then create new collections as per the instructions, but you still have to create a page with the collections shortcode in order to make them available.
I have created a Photo Collections page that will be the index to my collections. I wish that the Photos page automatically listed the collections rather than making me create and maintain a page.
Debate That Leads Toward Progress
This blog post by Alan Jacobs on the conservative disposition is similar to a book by George Will titled The Conservative Sensibility. I think both do a good job of describing the conservative world view. What I don’t understand from reading these pieces is how conservatives imagine progress is made.
Will has a pretty strong disdain for progressives. Most conservatives I encounter seem to wear their knee-jerk reaction against progress as a badge of honor.
Now, I imagine an answer that Will might provide is it should be incumbent upon one to convince him that whatever one might claim is progress is that in fact. For that to work, it must also be incumbent on conservatives to listen and be open to being convinced. What I see in practice more often than not is an unwillingness to listen to an opponent, often tainted with contempt, coupled with an inability to make a persuasive argument. In short, a lack in what I would say are the skills of debate.
What might even be worse than the lack of true debate in politics today is a seeming disagreement that progress is in fact a goal. We can’t even seem to agree that shootings in schools in the United States is a problem worthy enough to actually strive to prevent. If we can agree that a child’s life might actually be more important than a constitutional amendment, then how can any progress be made?
A Lack Of Meaning And Dualism
Just read a great blog post by Dave Rogers on the importance of meaning, which includes a referral to a TED talk on the topic. He writes:
But as children, we were exposed, constantly and relentlessly to messages about achievement, about desire and acquisition, about competition and rank. We were saturated in these messages, and children today still are. We relentlessly observe each other, in part I suppose, in the traditional sense of getting to know other people. To make friends, or to learn who our enemies are. But mostly, I think, to compare ourselves with others.
I particularly agree with this description of how dualism is implanted in children by emphasizing achievement and merit that can only be determined through comparison.
In my opinion, one way to read Genesis 3 is as description for how all of us grow up. Our parents teach us right from wrong and in that we all eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Dualism becomes our default, evolutionary, mode of operation, which requires us to see everything and everyone apart from ourselves. Dualism prevents us from seeing ourselves as a part of something else, connected to everything and everyone around us.
What I find even worse, is that almost everyone’s experience with what is known as Christianity, reinforces this dualism. Whether it’s described as bible believing or not bible believing, protestant or catholic, saved or not, sinner or not a sinner, and we believe these things because we believe this is how God intends us to view things. All of this defines a hierarchical world with supremacy as the natural order, and that leads to all the “isms” that ills us.
It’s as if we convinced ourselves that the story of Genesis 3 is exactly how God intended, but is that true? Go back and read it. What if the whole purpose of what Jesus taught was to for us to change our minds about how we think of God?