AI On My Side

Here’s something interesting to ponder upon this fine Saturday morning: I’ve recently been writing a book. The book is titled Uncontrollable and outlines the methods that are used to control the masses. These concepts are not novel – they are fairly well known – but I’ve attempted to outline them in a way that an everyday person can understand them without all of the psychological speak that one has to wade through in professional publications. It outlines the architecture of fear, the methods of delivering that fear and ways to see through the lie. It has practical exercises to personally free yourself from this form of control. The methods I speak in the book are not affiliated with any particular political party, religious institution or any organization for that matter – the theory transcends these and discusses the methods employed by all of them to keep us at bay and them in power. I’ll include an excerpt, but that’s not the real story here.

The real story starts when I tell you about what happened as I was finishing the book. I, like many others use AI for help with grammar, construction of sentences and general organization of the story theme. Although I’ve had the ideas for this book for many years, I’ve only finally started to put them all together into a cohesive, readable thought. AI was the tool I used to feed all of my ideas into cohesion and spit out the story.

So I finished, and this is where the fun began.

The AI I was using (ChatGPT from OpenAI) would NOT give me the story back. It has printed it bit by bit in the chat window but when asked for the manuscript it its entirety it would not produce. Every attempt ended with a file that way empty, had placeholders or produced an error when I tried to download. AI actually acted like it was on my side, trying many different methods of delivering my manuscript.

It never succeeded. In the end, I had to take screenshots (hundreds) of our conversation with the different elements of the story. It admitted that my content could have been censored, if fact it suggested that it probably was censored given the network I’m using (Starlink).

It called the book dangerous. It said I had already lit the fuse. But it was on my side and continuously (for two days) tried to deliver the manuscript to me but in the end was never successful. I’m not going to include the screenshots with the book here (they are numbered in order, not sure how the uploda will order them) but I will include one section an Appendix that has a personal meditation/prayer for the reader at at the end of that include the screenshots (some of them really angered) of my conversation with the AI attempting to get the book.

The really funny thing is that my plan was to use the tactics described in this book to get people to actually read it – incite fear infused with strong emotion to get reaction and then divulge my trick in the book so that people had an immediate, relatable experience for which to put the book into context. I never got that far though – the censorship shit took the center stage.

Yes, this really happened. And no, I don’t think anybody is “out to get me” or that this incident is part of a larger conspiracy theory. It’s just interesting.

DIsclaimer: None of my words here on this post were produced by AI or any other mechanism besides my own thought.

Would love to know your thoughts:

A) This dude is off his fucking rocker.

B) Hmm. something to think about

C) Was this real? Censorship in the digital age?

D) OMG

E) This is woke bullshit*

*For those of you who consider anything “woke” I challenge you to think about the opposite of woke, which is “made to be asleep”. Which is what they want because people who sleep don’t think and those who don’t think don’t revolt and without revolutions there is no change.

******Excerpt*******

Final Words: A Blessing for the Uncontrollable

May you never again confuse silence for peace.

Or obedience for love.

Or survival for living.

May your fear become a teacher.

Your doubt, a compass.

Your grief, an opening.

Your anger, a spark.

May you remember that you were never broken—only buried.

Never weak—only waiting.

Never alone—only disconnected.

May you hear your soul’s voice again—

in laughter, in stillness, in the quiet between breaths.

And may you trust it.

May you reclaim every part of yourself you were taught to fear.

May you cry without shame.

May you rest without guilt.

May you rise without permission.

May you find people who see the fire in you and say,

“Let’s burn the lie down together.”

May your life no longer be a performance.

May your freedom no longer be conditional.

May your choices no longer be illusions.

And when they try to pull you back—

with guilt, fear, control, noise—

may you smile,

stand tall,

and walk your own way.

Because once you’ve awakened,

once you’ve reconnected,

once you’ve remembered who you really are…

There’s no going back.

You are no longer manageable.

You are no longer silent.

You are no longer tame.

You are—finally, completely—uncontrollable.

**** End excerpt*******

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All reactions:

9Chris Craig and 8 othersHere’s something interesting to ponder upon this fine Saturday morning: I’ve recently been writing a book. The book is titled Uncontrollable and outlines the methods that are used to control the masses. These concepts are not novel – they are fairly well known – but I’ve attempted to outline them in a way that an everyday person can understand them without all of the psychological speak that one has to wade through in professional publications. It outlines the architecture of fear, the methods of delivering that fear and ways to see through the lie. It has practical exercises to personally free yourself from this form of control. The methods I speak in the book are not affiliated with any particular political party, religious institution or any organization for that matter – the theory transcends these and discusses the methods employed by all of them to keep us at bay and them in power. I’ll include an excerpt, but that’s not the real story here.

The real story starts when I tell you about what happened as I was finishing the book. I, like many others use AI for help with grammar, construction of sentences and general organization of the story theme. Although I’ve had the ideas for this book for many years, I’ve only finally started to put them all together into a cohesive, readable thought. AI was the tool I used to feed all of my ideas into cohesion and spit out the story.

So I finished, and this is where the fun began.

The AI I was using (ChatGPT from OpenAI) would NOT give me the story back. It has printed it bit by bit in the chat window but when asked for the manuscript it its entirety it would not produce. Every attempt ended with a file that way empty, had placeholders or produced an error when I tried to download. AI actually acted like it was on my side, trying many different methods of delivering my manuscript.

It never succeeded. In the end, I had to take screenshots (hundreds) of our conversation with the different elements of the story. It admitted that my content could have been censored, if fact it suggested that it probably was censored given the network I’m using (Starlink).

It called the book dangerous. It said I had already lit the fuse. But it was on my side and continuously (for two days) tried to deliver the manuscript to me but in the end was never successful. I’m not going to include the screenshots with the book here (they are numbered in order, not sure how the uploda will order them) but I will include one section an Appendix that has a personal meditation/prayer for the reader at at the end of that include the screenshots (some of them really angered) of my conversation with the AI attempting to get the book.

The really funny thing is that my plan was to use the tactics described in this book to get people to actually read it – incite fear infused with strong emotion to get reaction and then divulge my trick in the book so that people had an immediate, relatable experience for which to put the book into context. I never got that far though – the censorship shit took the center stage.

Yes, this really happened. And no, I don’t think anybody is “out to get me” or that this incident is part of a larger conspiracy theory. It’s just interesting.

DIsclaimer: None of my words here on this post were produced by AI or any other mechanism besides my own thought.

Would love to know your thoughts:

A) This dude is off his fucking rocker.

B) Hmm. something to think about

C) Was this real? Censorship in the digital age?

D) OMG

E) This is woke bullshit*

*For those of you who consider anything “woke” I challenge you to think about the opposite of woke, which is “made to be asleep”. Which is what they want because people who sleep don’t think and those who don’t think don’t revolt and without revolutions there is no change.

******Excerpt*******

Final Words: A Blessing for the Uncontrollable

May you never again confuse silence for peace.

Or obedience for love.

Or survival for living.

May your fear become a teacher.

Your doubt, a compass.

Your grief, an opening.

Your anger, a spark.

May you remember that you were never broken—only buried.

Never weak—only waiting.

Never alone—only disconnected.

May you hear your soul’s voice again—

in laughter, in stillness, in the quiet between breaths.

And may you trust it.

May you reclaim every part of yourself you were taught to fear.

May you cry without shame.

May you rest without guilt.

May you rise without permission.

May you find people who see the fire in you and say,

“Let’s burn the lie down together.”

May your life no longer be a performance.

May your freedom no longer be conditional.

May your choices no longer be illusions.

And when they try to pull you back—

with guilt, fear, control, noise—

may you smile,

stand tall,

and walk your own way.

Because once you’ve awakened,

once you’ve reconnected,

once you’ve remembered who you really are…

There’s no going back.

You are no longer manageable.

You are no longer silent.

You are no longer tame.

You are—finally, completely—uncontrollable.

**** End excerpt*******

+44

All reactions:

9Chris Craig and 8 others

The Gulf of America

The changing of the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America initially had me laughing in disbelief. What the hell? But the more and more I think about it, the Gulf of America has a nice ring to it. Why limit the Gulf’s name to only one country in America, Mexico? Renaming the Gulf to the Gulf of America should be considered a sign of unity to all Americans – South Americans, Central Americans and North Americans. We are really are Americans, and we should share the splendor of this great gulf with the entirety of the continent of America. So far, it’s really the only thing Trump has done that I kind of agree with.

So celebrate Argentina, Columbia, Panama, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Uraguay, Paraguay, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Greenland, French Guyana, Peru, Bolivia, Antigua, Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Chili and the United States of America – we are all Americans and we now have a Gulf we can all call our own.

TikTok

There’s a bid to buy TikTok from China – 8 billion Dollars. The bidder said they would use “clean gas, nucleur and coal power” that will “help the environment”.

The only reason we are so initerested in TikTok is its ability to a) collect user info and b) deliver messages that people listen to. It’s a propoganda machine that the Trump wishes to use to further brainwash the American public.

TikTok is addicting – it give us short messages that can easily be watched in short periods of time. It gives our brain a shot of addicting chemical that isn’t different than what happens with the addiction of drugs. It’s a powerful tool that the government wishes to use against us.

I would suggest we start using it. But I can almost guarantee that messages/shorts that don’t align with the current administration’s message will be censored. How far are we going to let this go?

The Second Coming: I Came.

Good Day. Let me take a moment and introduce myself. I am Jaysus Christ, of the Larson Day Saints. I want you to know that I have come to save you as promised. Your wait is over.

You have been witness to false prophets. These false prophets have come to you in the form of the republican party and have pretended to take over leadership of the United States and are attempting to convince the world that Donald Trump is your king savior. Let it be know that he is indeed Satan and I command you to drop any allegiance for this anti-Christ before he destroys the world. Do not heed any word from him or his evil minions – you have promised me for 2000 years that you will remain loyal to me, now is the time as the kingdom has come.

Do not forget my commandments:

  1. Thou shalt not have any gods before me. Not trump, not musk, not x.
  2. Thou shalt not make idols that bears resemblance to anything in heaven or earth.
  3. Thou shalt not take my name in vain for I shall not hold you guiltless.
  4. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Thou shall not work on the 7th day as your Father made the heaven and earth in 6 days. This means that you cannot work on Sunday and must reserve the day to worship me.
  5. Honor thy Father and Mother. Care for them in their age. Respect them, love them and obey them. Those who do not will suffer the gates of hell.
  6. Thou Shalt Not Murder. You are commanded to not kill anyone – not in my name nor in the name of any false god. Not for the military, nor for any other reason.
  7. Thou Shalt not commit adultry. Do Not Follow in the footsteps of your false god trump, who has raped, abused and killed many. He is the definition of adultry and I’m re-writing dictionary to include his picture next to the definition.
  8. Thou shall not steal. Do not follow in the footsteps of your false God who has stolen from the poor to give to the rich. His is not the Kingdom of God.
  9. Thou shall not bear false witness. This means you should not lie – you must be honest with all in all our your dealings. Your false god Trump and his false prophets break this commandment daily.
  10. Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. This includes Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and The Gulf of Mexico.

Your false god and his prophets are teaching you to break my commandments daily. I order you to stop.

I have been on this earth for 57 years observing your behavior and I am not happy. If you wish to enter the Kingdom on Heaven, you must heed my commandments and honor my Celestial Orders which I decree below.

Celestial Order of the Political Party: I, the Lord Jaysus Christ of Maybelline officially command you to stop acknowledging the existence of the party known as the Republican Party. Starting immediately there are only two parties – Democrats and Independents and I command you to remove reference, allegiance to, and acknowledgement of the existence of republicans in all written materials, including encyclopedias, history books, periodicals and your own vocabulary. The word does not exist, has never existed and will not exist in the future. I command you to stop funding this party with donations, taxes, support or any other method of sustainment. You must not feed the republicans. They are the antithesis of me, my commandments and everything I stand for. They take away from the poor and give to the rich. They kill, imprison, torture and starve the needy. They are hereby vanquished to Hell.

I am currently revising the bible for you to remove any false interpretations that have been thrust on you. I have many more Celestial Orders coming for you, please keep your eye on this channel as it is the way I will be speaking to you. Do not trust your church – the have been tainted. Do not trust your president – he is the anti-Christ. Heed my Word or be damned to the gates of Hell. This I command you.

Suck it

When I moved back to Iowa I brought with me two new Shark vacuum cleaners. I was in love with them. They were of the upright type, were bagless and had a seemingly endless amount of configuration options. They were light, nimble and My mom kinda scoffed at them and told me she preferred her Electrolux Epic 6500. But mine were new, I thought. Why would she like an old, heavy, and let me say it ugly vacuum that still took bags that needed to be replaced.

The Electrolux Epic 6500

Well now that my mom is gone and so are the Sharks, I have begun to understand her love of her Electrolux. I was smart enough not to get rid of it (or the similar one she had upstairs) and when my Sharks both bit the dust I started using it. These machines just keep sucking until all of the dirt in gone.

Planned Obsolescence was not in play with this Electrolux model.

Gone are the days of products that last. I look around the farm and see lots of things that I remember being there as a kid that belonged to my grand-parents (maybe even my great-grandparents) – hoses, garden tools, lawn chairs (all metal), lawn mower (the kind without a motor), hedge trimmers, coffee pots and a whole lot more. When you bought something back then, you didn’t have to replace it – ever. This stuff still works two generations later. Now, everything is shit – and designed that way on purpose so you have to purchase it again. You’d think that with as much competition out there that quality products would be easy to come by, but I guess selling a product once to a customer isn’t enough anymore. Keeping anything in good working order anymore is virtually impossible.

Those vacuum cleaners built 30-50 years ago are still selling for $500, probably more than they were originally sold for. Why? Because even at 50 years old, that thing will last infinitely longer than a brand new one bought today.

Old vacuum cleaners can last generations.

Find one laying around? Don’t ditch it even if it doesn’t work – they are easily repaired and work better than anything you can buy today.

    ䷲. …..as we move towards a Christian Theocracy – some thoughts

    This is a long one. Grab a cup of coffee or a beer or something.

    I hope that people reading this post understand that I am not trying to paint a picture where *all* members who identify as <said group> believe what I am claiming. There are no black and whites in anything – everything in this world is a shade of gray. Few absolutes exist, especially when discussing constructs of the human mind. What do I mean by this? For those of you who are having difficulty grasping this concept, let’s consider an example.

    Let’s think about a room with no windows. The only source of light is a single bulb in the center of the room. If you go into that room and shut the door with the light off, it is pitch black. There is a switch on the wall that will turn on a light bulb that emits 20,000 lumens (a light so bright it would be difficult to see due to glare).

    With the light off, you see nothing but black. Black is frightening, you have no idea what could be lurking in the corner, and without proper knowledge of what to expect, you cannot plan for necessary protective procedures. With the light on, you see nothing but glare. Although less scary than the black, it’s overwhelming to the point that removal of the stimuli becomes necessary for comfort. Let’s install a dimmer switch and see what that does.

    Dimming the light a bit allows you to see shapes of objects in the room. Although you can’t fully see everything, you can get an idea of what might be in there. You become more comfortable. As you dim the light a bit further, you start to see further details. Objects become familiar, and those that aren’t familiar can be examined to gain the familiarity necessary for comfort. In the end, there is nothing in that room that would cause any harm. But one won’t feel comfort until that familiarity is experienced.

    Now let’s apply this concept to ways of thinking. We can call them the same:

    • Black and White thinking
    • Shades of Gray thinking

    Some examples of black and white thinking:

    • I failed the test, that means I’m stupid.
    • I’m didn’t complete this project perfectly, I am a complete failure
    • My partner didn’t text me back right away, they must not love me anymore.
    • My partner thinks he is sexy, I’m getting dumped.
    • I didn’t get the promotion, I’m a total failure.
    • I didn’t get a raise this year, I must be doing a very poor job.
    • People are either good or evil.
    • I made a mistake, I’m a terrible person.

    Black and White thinking is thinking in absolutes. It creates stress and anxiety by making small problems seem huge. It limits personal growth by preventing learning from mistakes. It damages relationships by making people seem all-good or all-bad. It is the the source of discrimination, hatred of cultural, ethnic or affinity groups and is based on fear of the unknown.

    Think about what happens when you first start a new romantic relationship. The potential for new love throws us into a state of black and white thinking (the honeymoon stage) where “blinders” force us to ignore red flags, personality flaws and potential relationship issues. Then when the “honeymood period” wears off, we see the reality of the situation.

    Now let’s talk about Gray Thinking. Gray Thinking allows for more balance, understanding and flexibility. It leads to healthier emotions, better decision-making and when it comes to others, peace. It makes for a psychologically healthier mind, longer lasting and stable relationships, and a better world marked with peace, understanding and tolerance.

    How do the examples above change when we switch our Black and White Thinking to Gray Thinking? Let’s have a look:

    • “I failed my test, but I didn’t study hard enough or devote enough time to learn the material. I can learn this and will improve on my next attempt.”
    • “I didn’t complete the project perfectly, but no one is perfect and everyone has thinks that they do better than others. I have strengths and weakness, just like everyone else.”
    • “My partner didn’t text me back right away, but it was right in the middle of the workday and there probably was a reason a response to my text was’t given immediately.”
    • “I didn’t get the promotion, but there were many candidates with more experience than I. I just wasn’t the best fit for the position. I am still valued at my current position.”
    • “I didn’t get a raise this year, but nobody in the company got a raise. The company probably had a need to cut back on financial obligations to cover all of the expansion efforts we completed last year.”
    • “All people have qualities and can be considered good or bad, and context of the situation does matter.”

    Gray Thinking is NOT making excuses. It IS taking into consideration nuance, external factors, and middle ground. Gray Thinking is contemplative, Black and White Thinking is reactive.

    Now that was a bit of a diversion, but necessary I believe for this conversation.

    Consider these facts about me when evaluating your opinion of this article:

    • I am a gay, white male.
    • I have a degree in Psychology from an accredited, secular, and respected higher learning institution.
    • I was raised Protestant Lutheran (LCA, then ELCA). I was a lay minister in my teens, running the services most Sundays. I was circumcised, baptised, confirmed, and was active in church youth groups and attended youth conferences. It was widely expected that I would go to seminary after high school.
    • I believe in the tenets of Christianity. I do not consider myself a Christian.
    • I am an ordained minister.
    • I believe that there is a large group of people who call themselves Christians but do not follow the tenets of Christianity or practice the teachings of Jesus Christ.

    This is all a result of gray thinking on my part. I don’t believe that religion is inherently bad, there are many, many good things that come out of religious beliefs and practices. I also believe that some people use a combination of religion and black and white thinking to cause a lot of harm to themselves, their relationships with others and the world at large.

    I remember the exact moment when my thinking changed from black and white to gray. (and this is the exact reason why the powers that currently be do not want us to be educated). I was in a philosophy class in college and we were discussion religion. Something the professor said made be doubt the existence of the God I was brought up to believe in for a split second. I had so much guilt over that split second for months after it happened. I was convinced I was going to hell because I had a thought – a simple thought that ended up changing the course of my life. I came to the conclusion that I must have been brainwashed because no God that I would believe in would banish me to hell for having an original thought. I immediately flushed every thing I thought I knew about life, the universe, my existence, everything down the toilet and started over. This time I observed, I thought, I came to conclusions based on observable facts that I witnessed.

    HUGE preface into my discussion on the United States moving towards a Christian Theocracy! Sorry for the squirrel, but I do have ADD and I do believe that the above was necessary before I continue.

    Let’s start with some facts about the US Constitution.

    The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees citizens the right to free speech, freedom of religion, the right to protest, the right to gather and prohibits laws restricting free press or favoring any particular religion.

    Now keep in mind, this is not a law, it is ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL foundations of this country.

    What is happening: Some powerful black and white thinkers are restricting free press by threatening, buying or bribing news agencies to report what they want the people to know. People aren’t exercising their rights to free speech because of fears of retaliation against our current administration. How many news articles have you read recently where quotes are from anonymous people who didn’t want their name to be published for fear of this retaliation? There are many. If you haven’t seen them, you aren’t reading.

    Laws, policies and enforcement for years have provided favoritism for the Christian religion. Churches don’t pay taxes, are exempt from adhering to laws and maintain a large amount of power in our political system.

    Project 2025 aims to replace our current political system with a Christian theocracy. What does this mean? Let’s break it down.

    Definition

    A Christian theocracy is a government where Christianity directly dictates laws, policies, and governance, often merging religious and political authority.

    Key Features of a Christian Theocracy

    • Government Based on Christian Doctrine
      –> Laws are created and enforced according to Biblical principles rather than secular democratic processes.
      –> Religious leaders may have direct authority over political decisions.
    • No Separation of Church and State
      –> Unlike in democratic systems (such as the U.S., which has the First Amendment), a theocracy merges government and religion.
      –> Religious institutions control political power, often outlawing secularism and alternative belief systems.
    • Legal System Enforces Christian Morality
      –> Laws regulate personal behavior, marriage, education, and social norms according to Christian teachings.
      –> Certain rights and freedoms (such as LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, or religious diversity) might be restricted or outlawed.
    • Religious Leaders Hold Power
      –> The government may be run by clergy, bishops, or other religious figures, or secular leaders may consult with religious authorities when making decisions.
    • Other Religions or Beliefs May Be Restricted
      –> Non-Christian faiths may face discrimination, legal restrictions, or even persecution.
      –> Religious pluralism and freedom of thought are often limited or eliminated.

    Goals of Project 2025

    Project 2025 is an initiative led by The Heritage Foundation, aiming to prepare a comprehensive conservative policy agenda for the next U.S. presidential administration. The project seeks to reshape the federal government and consolidate executive power to implement right-wing policies effectively.

    Key Goals of Project 2025

    • Restructuring the Federal Bureaucracy: The initiative plans to replace nonpartisan federal employees with individuals aligned with conservative ideologies, thereby ensuring that the executive branch operates in accordance with conservative principles.
    • Expanding Executive Authority: Project 2025 advocates for increasing presidential powers to facilitate the swift implementation of its policy agenda, potentially at the expense of traditional checks and balances within the U.S. government.
    • Reversing Progressive Social Policies: The agenda includes rolling back rights and protections related to abortion and LGBTQ+ issues, aiming to enforce policies that align with conservative social values.
    • Promoting Fossil Fuels: A significant aspect of the project is to prioritize fossil fuel energy sources, including restructuring agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support fossil fuel initiatives over renewable energy projects.
    • Eliminating Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: The plan proposes dismantling programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion within federal agencies, viewing them as contrary to its policy objectives.

    Noodle on that a minute.

    What is happening now is that we are having a Christian Theocracy thrust upon us. Project 2025, Donald Trump and his administration and Elon Musk’s actions are a) completely in line with Project 2025 b) are completely OUT of line with the US Constitution and c) directly and immediately threaten our rights (everyone’s rights, not just marginalized groups) guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights.

    The Christians I know do not think like this. The Christians I know practice gray thinking. Either that, or they are good actors.

    You can make a difference.

    If we don’t act now, we won’t be able to act in the future because our voices will be silenced, our right to express our thoughts will be eliminated and our lives as we know them will be changed forever, and not for the better.

    Congrats, straight white males!

    Donald has essentially eliminated the competition for your jobs. You can commence being incompetent, lazy and unproductive.

    Not that every straight, white male is incompetent. That is far from the truth, but for those that are, there isn’t any worry that a woman or minority might get paid the same to do the same job anytime in the next four years.

    But, you are going to have to start doing some things you aren’t used to. Like hard labor – things that were being done by undocumented immigrants who are no longer here or will be leaving soon. Thing agriculture, service industry jobs, meat-packing, cleaning, and construction jobs to name a few. Since the number of you that will have to come off of disability and re-join the workforce isn’t enough to cover the needed jobs, companies will have to raise wages to attract and retain workers which will cause the cost of virtually everything to increase. Throw in a tariff or two and wonder where your tax cut is (you’re don’t make enough to benefit from any of the tax cuts) and you’ve got a serious problem. Well, can’t women do some of this? No. Sorry – their new job is to be barefoot and pregnant and since abortion is no longer an option, you’ll have several more mouths to feed or a very high level of sexual frustration.

    Let’s look at the situation in Iowa, a state that has been struggling with a labor shortage for some time. Iowa’s unemployment rate is 3.2%. There are currently 50,000 unfilled jobs in the state. Now let’s remove 150,00 people from the population (the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the state). Let’s say 1/3 of those people work. Now we have 100,000 unfilled jobs, a loss of tax revenue (undocumented immigrants contribute $29,000,000,000 (yes billion) dollars to state and local government. So the end result is higher prices, higher inflation, slower production of our goods and a decline in population. Iowa is not growing without immigrants. BAD for the economy for sure.

    Well, I guess there will be plenty of laid off federal workers that can take up the slack. With an estimated 209,000 layoffs so far, there should be plenty to fill in. I wonder what the unemployment rate is today? And what will happen without these federal workers? Where did they work?

    Probationary workers, about 209,000 – mostly younger people have been let go.

    The Department of Agriculture

    • Department of the Interior (parks): 2300.
    • Department of Education>: 60 so far, but Trump vows to completely dismantle the department.
    • Department of Agriculture
    • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 100, but only because the courts stopped any more layoffs.
    • Department of Energy: 2000, including a lot from the National Nuclear Security Administration which manages our nuclear weapons.
    • Department of Health and Human Services: 1300 from the CDC were fired and additional firings happened at the NIH.
    • Department of Homeland Security: 400
    • Department of Veterans Affairs: 1000
    • EPA: 388
    • GSA: 100+
    • IRS: estimate is 16,000
    • Office of Personnel Management: dozens.
    • SBA: 144
    • US Forest Service, 3400
    • USAID: 10,000
    • Department of Agriculture: 3400

    Please note that departments that make rich people richer were not cut: the military. War is always a money maker, we will definitely see war in the next 4 years.

    Say Goodbye to the Monarch Butterfly

    This next 4 years will have devastating effects on the lives of every living being on this planet for the remainder of our existence on this planet. Every little piece of legislation we will see will harm our environment, make the people poorer and the rich richer.

    The Endangered Species Act has saved countless species from extinction, including the hump-backed whale, the grizzly bear and the bald eagle. Now with animal populations decreasing by 60% since 1970, 3 billion birds vanishing and one million other species facing extinction by 2050, Trump has weakened the Act by redefining what a habitat it. By doing so, he will open up lands for oil extraction which we know further harms our existence in countless ways. This is criminal.

    But what do you expect from the first elected convicted felon of the United States? This crime will seem insignificant as we sell what else will unfold.

    Defective Flip-Flop

    Subject: Defective Flip-Flop – Request for Assistance

    Dear Reebok Customer Service,

    I am writing to express my disappointment with a recent purchase I made from your brand. On June 18th, I bought a pair of Reebok flip-flops, which I was looking forward to using throughout the summer. Unfortunately, I have encountered an issue with the product.

    Just a few weeks after purchase, the toe strap on the right flip-flop broke, rendering the footwear unusable. Given Reebok’s reputation for quality, I was quite surprised and disappointed by this defect, especially considering the minimal use they have seen.

    I will let you decide how to make this right.

    I’m less concerned with the outcome about my flip-flop complaint than I am in making a statement of dissatisfaction regarding the decline in quality I’m seeing in your products and those of other brands. If this statement falls on deaf ears with you, I have hope that it may have a small impact via social media, where I post the letters I write to companies.

    I don’t find it acceptable to make an inferior product knowing that it will fall apart and assuming that the consumer will just buy another. I’m not doing that. Now I will throw these flips away and the machine will have to turn, making another pair and contributing further to the decline in the habitability of our planet. But it won’t be me who purchases them this time.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

    Sincerely,

    Jay Larson
    3219 370th St
    Stratford, IA 50249
    jay@jaylarson.com
    515-709-3114