Back in the 70’s when Tricky Dick was president there was a break-in at the Democrat headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. The reason for the break-in was for nefarious research by people in the Republican Party. A quick illicit look around would become the scandal of all scandals for a generation.
The information reached the president, who suppressed evidence about the break-in. President Nixon, who some called Tricky Dick, even erased an audio tape recording about the break-in that was made in the oval office. At the time this was a HUGE scandal.
The Watergate scandal as it became to be known, caused President Nixon to resign the presidency. Some will offer finer points on the history of Watergate. But the fact is, it was the downfall the presidency.
Foe decades after, any political scandals would be tagged with the suffex -gate. According to Wikipedia there are over a dozen -gate scandals “Billygate, Briefingate, Contragate, Deavergate, Debategate, Doublebillingsgate, Frankiegate, Franklingate, Genschergate, Housegate, Iraqgate, Koreagate, Lancegate, Maggiegate, Nannygate, Raidergate, Scalpgate, Travelgate, Troopergate, and Whitewatergate” in all of them, someone fibbed.
This -gate business started in the 1970’s. In 2020 there was a movie called “ObamaGate”. It was a flop. Still it is worth mentioning that older people still use the term, until recently.
Let’s face it. Watergate was over 50 years ago. Things were so much tamer back then. Now we have Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Things are orders of magnitude worse.
For example, I never thought Trump would actually win. I really thought the deep state would win. So what happened? They didn’t have enough preprinted ballots to stuff the box, or Trump sold out, or he actually won? I have no clue. So whatever. It is what it is.
Was it a decade ago that I went to see Trump the candidate? I thought I saw a smart man. Candidate Trump wanted to define Trump Gate before it actually became a thing. Trump Gate would be a big beautiful gate for emigration. Something like Ellis Island, except there would be multiple gates.
This is something I wrote about previously.
So here we are ten years later, and there is no big beautiful TrumpGate. All we have is a mess. So I will call the mess TrumpGate. Not that anyone knows what I mean, or cares. Is there anything better than TrumpGate?
The Jesters are running the court. When the King has failed in policy, he turns to piracy. It has been said that a pirate ship was the first true republic with elected leaders. There is a difference between a Pirates and Privateer. Independent Pirates seek no sheltering state, they worship the thrones of currency. Privateers the freelancing warriors of a failing state, attacking success it is declared success is the enemy of the state.
The annotating oils bless the head of the Queen. The privateers know the protections of Monarchy. This is the smart move by the merchants to the Queen. Her Highness the Queen understands who her friends are. Happily she enabl5e them. The admiration is mutual.
The stories of 17th century piracy are plentiful.
The intrigue in the marbled halls of the palace trickle down to you and me effecting our lives and moral well being. What is good for the goose applies to the gander while the foxes have a field day. The hallowed halls reverberate with the echoes of a muddy Woodstock. The truth of dialog is lost.
Here we are in the muddy fields filled with good vibrations. Let us not loose sight of the steeds of yesterday. The iron beasts of the highway. The analog automobile. The world was unknowingly on the precipice of great revolution. One small step for mankind, a shot heard from beyond this world. Fly by wire through a series of ones and zeros.
Revolution was a Ironclad ship against wooden frigates. The world changes from war to peace. Battle ships are forged into cruse ships. Eat drink and be merry. New technologies turn against the enemy.
Nixon was on the front page playing ping pong with a paper tiger. Below the fold pong was the news you could control on TV. Spin the knob and control the paddle and dominate your enemies. With game of pong began the battle for world supremacy. A digital collection of pixels versus an analog celluloid sphere in direct competition for our souls.
In a seeming blink of the eye Napster arrived. Digital vibrations for all! Uncle Sam screams in protest “You must pay” so we did. The digital war was on. What do you listen to? Has it been approved by big brother, the darker state. They know what you are listening to, they will change your mind, cause thee can.
A digital world of charges changes all. Photons and electrons become masters of thought. Who is king again, the wizard behind the curtain has the answer. You, me, yesterday is the future. In whose fifedom do we wakeup. History repeats. As unknowingly simple marionettes, we dance the photons dance. Light is our puppeteer.
This old asymmetric face almost never gets asked that question. It seems nobody really is cares what I think. I have written hundreds of little stories here and have only received a handful of comments. Still, I like to write. I write for me. Most of the time I write about something because someone else has mentioned something. Typically they cannot see an alternative point of view. So if they actually cared about listening they could find something here.
The last time I remember being asked about what am I thinking was a few years ago. I think it may have been about personal relationships. I was too shocked to answer. I did appreciate the question because relationships are precious. Today though, I was asked in a questionnaire about my goals in school. That is really the same thing as asking what I am thinking. So let me tell you.
Some times when a student asks a specific question I may say “The truth is not allowed” for frequently the truth is not a part of the narrative. Some of the time these questions may be political or politically related, and I will not take a political stand in school. I try not to disagree with the curriculum, but I have strong feelings about what is taught. I will summerize and expand on what I wrote in the form today.
Manufacturing is an art. It may be the most important art of them all. Without manufacturing we wouldn’t have the other arts as we know them. Sure we could sing, but we couldn’t record the music. We could bang on a log, but we certainly couldn’t amplify the sound. We could paint, but we couldn’t hang it in the Louvre. All the good things in life wouldn’t be here. I do enjoy the arts.
So why are we in the 17th century? Sure the art of spindle turning was invented in the 17th century. One of the handcrafted chairs in the above image has turned spindles. Most of the other chairs have hand drawn spindles. The bench in the foreground is what is used to shape the spindles and other parts with the draw knife shown. The wood is split by hand with wedges on the log that is in front of the chairs. These individually hand crafted wood chairs are made in the wood shop. The priority here is given to the feel of the cutting tool.
Whoever designed the wood shop gave it an epoxy floor. It is easy to clean. My shop is the metal shop, whoever designed my shop gave it a concrete floor. People in my shop spill oil. People in the wood shop spill wood chips. If oil were to spill on a epoxy floor it would be easy to clean. If wood chips were to spill on a wood floor it would be easy to clean. But no! They gave me people that spill oil on a concrete floor. That is impossible to clean. Life is unfair.
We should be teaching people the art of digital fabrication. That is a saleable skill. How many people want to hire someone who knows how to make a 17th century chair. Yet the decision making priorities have been given to the person making 17th century chairs. Like the 17th century we have empowered a completely feudal mindset.
This is not how to build the future in the 21st century. The key is digital fabrication. Learning the language of the machines. Machines will speak to you if you know how to listen. Listening and communication, that is how to learn. We need to know how machines think and work. How to manipulate software to create things. We need to teach machines how to see with vision systems. How to program robots to do things we cannot. We need to remember everything is alive. We need to know how to make the recipes that make things better.
When people are stressed they tend to stick with the things they know. If they have old ideas, that is what they stick with. They believe in what has worked for them in the past. This is true especially if they think they are the smartest people in the room. Myself, I have had to reinvent myself a number of times. I know that I am not the smartest person in the room. Because of that I listen, and identify who knows what they are talking about. Then I help them. It also works the other way around. The smart students listen to everyone in the room. They then evaluate the relative intelligence of the people, and listen to the smart ones. Those that stand in feudalistic judgment are unhappy.
My objective is simple. Have a student define a thing digitally, then produce the thing digitally. Then define digitally how that thing relates to other things. Finally, collaborate with others how to make better things.
Things may not be as bad as I say. We have some new diamond lathes. They are incredibly accurate. We also received some machines that can measure form and finish down to the nanometer. They are machines for the 21st century. They are properly modern.
Here is a view of one of the new machines working. The little diamond on the tool is making a perfect optic. You can see it just to the right of the small disk that will become an optic. Lots of opportunity to learn. The students running these things are doing a wonderful job. My job is to drag those stuck in the 17th century into the 21st century. Not an easy job. Sometimes I think that it would be easier to get cats in a row. That is the challenge.
Political parties, like nations, are born evolve and dissappear. Our two major political parties did not exist when this country was founded. The Jefferson Republican Party was created to oppose the original Federalist Party in the early 1790’s. The Jefferson Republican’s considered the Federalist’s to be the aristocracy and wanted individual freedoms.
After the collapse of the Federalist Party in the 1820’s the Republican Party split into two groups. The Democratic Republicans and the National Republicans. President John Quincy Adam’s, son of President John Adam’s became the leader of the National Republicans. The National Republican Party did not fare so well. The National Republican Party pretty much ended in the 1830’s.
The Democratic Republican Party soonbecame successful under the leadership of General Andrew Jackson. Soon the party became known just as the Jackson Democrat party. Today the party is simply known as the Democrat Party. I understand that it is the world’s oldest party.
The modern Republican Party was started in the 1850’s to combat the expansion of slavery. President Lincoln was the first Republican president. Geographically South was Democrat and the North was Republican. War between the parties erupted.
Historically I associate General Jackson with the Trail of Tears. Jackson also owned hundreds of slaves. Jackson was a racist and a bigot. He also founded the modern Democrat Party. The party has evolved to be the most powerful party in the world. It is a party dependent on control, and will stop at nothing to maintain that control.
The Republican Party was formally based on the equality of all people’s. That is something I agree with.
bubbatrump 