Hello hello hello. Issue number 1812. That was a war that maybe had a little… validity to it? Not cool of the English to raze White House that’s our president’s job apparently.

9/11 ugh do I have to talk about 9/11. Usually when the whole world is talking about some topic and I don’t want to talk about it, I just don’t say anything and move on. A lot of people on the internet forget you can do that. Have to comment on everything. You don’t. You can just not say anything. It’s great.

But I suppose I have to acknowledge that some part of my reticence is trauma? I mean. It was a shitty day. Coworkers died. People were running around like in a disaster film, screaming. I guess in a way it was a slightly-later-in-life repeat of the serial-killer/suicide wave in my high school. And I guess maybe I treated it the same way: trying for decades to mostly try to pretend it didn’t happen. Personal stories, where were you blah blah blah.

There is a distinction between the phenomenon of everyone remembering where they were when a thing happened and what you personally were doing. The phenomenon is interesting — we all remember it. But what I was doing that day? It doesn’t matter. I was at ground… eh, three or four, I suppose. Not ground zero. Not even one. But I was directly effected, yeah. But you don’t need to live my day. I will tell Jane, once, when she’s older and cares. Maybe on the 50th anniversary.

Though also on top of that it was the beginning of the end of my political naiveté? I mean, I was never particularly politically naive. I knew Reagan was bad at the age of 10. Our political naiveté, mayhaps. But it’s interesting, now, to think of the lies we were told about Iraq and the outrage and scandal that yielded, compared to these days, where we’re told lies that absurd every single day. Comparing the media’s access and honesty during the (second!) Iraq war compared to the current Iran war where whole US bases get obliterated and we aren’t even told. We were always lied to by our government, of course. My mother explained to me the disillusion of the U2 incident with Francis Gary Powers and how the government promised we weren’t doing tha—— whoops never mind we lied. Banana republics. The CIA doing their thing. Iran Contra. Lies lies lies.

But I guess after Iran Contra the 90’s were kind of this period where we thought that maybe our government was accountable again and would get caught lying and those days were over. After all we were eve catching them in their blowjobs now. No more secrets and if you lie you’ll get caught and there will be consequences. Then The GWOT happened and lol, nope, never mind.

And now we have today.

I guess it was the first time we say this now-familiar routine play out: the country is briefly unified, everyone agrees and feels connected. Ish. Not quite, but close. Whatever. Enough for it to mean something, for everyone to catch a glimpse of a better way of living.

And then evil people get freaked out and fight like hell to poison it and twist it and use it to their evil ends and suddenly we are wasting trillions on killing poor people around the world.

And now we see this cycle all the time. Have come to expect it as the natural outcome of any sort of global bonding moment. The fascists have perfected their response to solidarity We saw it first, or at least people my age did, with 9/11. Then with Covid. Obama being elected.

Eight trillion dollars. We spent eight trillion dollars on the global war on terror. I suppose with this Iran bullshit — they were part of the axis of evil, after all — we’re still spending money on the global war on terror.

Eight trillion dollars. What’s that? Twenty thousand dollars per citizen of the United States ish? Cool, cool.

For what it’s worth, the total student loan and medical debt held by all Americans is around $2 trillion.

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Listening to the new Gnoomes this morning. Came out today. Called Losey, a term that these days has political connotations, I supposed, after a black man was shot in NYC for the heinous crime of selling loseys. But apparently Gnoomes are Russian, though they have fled political persecution and now live in Slovenia. Reviewers are calling it Techno-meets-shoegaze and I suppose that is accurate, though this old fart would call it a hearkening back to the Bristol sound of the vastly underrated Third Eye Foundation. This album is awesome. I want to make music like this. Man I wish I could finish my studio one day I miss making music so much. Yes I know I could make music without finishing the studio but I am too busy building the studio. And parenting. And being a CEO. And being the CFO of another company. And inexplicably feeling compelled to write 2,000 words every morning to a bunch of people and another 750 to my private self. And obsessing over butter dishes.

A thing I forgot to mention yesterday about the Apple keynote is now their watches are going to record everything everyone says. They do not position it this way. Apple explicitly says that the watch “does not record.” What it does, they say, is listen and translate. This is a very interesting distinction, and I am curious how they defend making it. The most relevant Mirram-Webster defintion would be:

So. Apple says the watch “listens” and then “transcribes.” The data doesn’t leave the watch, it is immediately deleted after the transcription appears on the watch, and no one can ever access it.

Yet it does seem, to me, that it was registered in the RAM, momentarily at least, prior to deletion, and was reproducible, obviously, because it is displayed on the screen. The act of putting the “recording” or, being generous, “audio” into the watch is distinct, it would seem to me, from the act of “transcribing,” or “deleting.”

This is not just academic. For one, there are several states in which it is illegal to “record” without consent of both parties.

And, of course, I do not consent. Because I am a paranoid freak and tired of it all. “Rebel Heart,” First Aid Kit called it while singing to Jane and I during morning drive time this morning.

So what’s gonna happen? Is this going to get adjudicated in courts? Is anyone going to sue about it? I would, I suppose, were I rich enough. Are the courts going to get into the nitty gritty of what is actually happening, mechanically and digitally, inside the watch in those milliseconds between the audio going in and the text coming out? Does that actual mechanic really matter to the spirit of the law? What is the spirt of the law? Is the spirit of a two-party consent recording law something anyone can truly say at this point? There are dozens of them. Ten or so in America, fifty or so around the world. Do we need to go talk to the drafters of these laws and ask whether or not they think this qualifies as recording? And even if they, the drafters, are like “yes, this qualifies,” wouldn’t we then have to go ask all the people who voted to pass the laws what they thought they were voting for. Ha ha ha joke’s on you: legislative intent only mattered when conservatives didn’t control the courts it doesn’t matter any more.

I mean, no. Of course we’re not going to do any of that. A giant corporation mentioned this new technology in passing, didn’t touch on any of the legal ramifications, blithely announced they’re gonna roll it out to a billion people, who knows if it’s legal let the courts sort it out.

Cool.

I mean I don’t know, man. Maybe it is cool. Maybe no one cares? But I care? I am not super psyched to speak to someone, have them not hear me, then look at their watch.

And, like, I can already imagine the marital discord this could sow, for were I just a slightly different person, I would 100% use this feature on my wife when I had not been paying attention to her.

And I strongly suspect she would not like that at all.

That is definitely going to happen. A lot.

Jane Jane Jane. We haven’t given her iPad in, like, two weeks now, sine I bitched to you guys about it. Put a time limit on the Switch. It all seems to be working pretty well and we mostly noticeably have our daughter back. That is nice. Of course, you know, now we gotta, like, keep her busy a lot more, but that is the job, I suppose. She mostly takes care of herself. We watch an hour or so of educational videos together at night. She whines when those stop, of course, but it is manageable so long as we have some super-fun activity planned. It was a good week. No demand avoidance.

She is working on a zine with her friends. It’s adorable. I’ll show it to you soon.

Oh and Briana, this photo is for you. Thank you so much. She was very very happy about it. Now she wants to go to Maine. Which is, as ever, an excellent idea.

Justa mix for you today. Mostly new stuff. And Dolly. The new War on Drugs is great. The new Arab Strap is their best in a decade, easy. The new Afghan Whigs and Dinosaur Jr are more of the same but those sames are good things. The new Interpol is surprisingly good. The new Dexys Midnight Runners is not “Come On Eileen” good but nor is it My Beauty bad. Assuming you listened to My Beauty. I am happy there’s a new Dexy’s album. I would totally see them on a package tour. The new Simple Minds single is solid, sounds like their earlier goth stuff, very promising for a new album. I would see Simple Minds on a package tour with Dexy’s Midnight Runners.