Apparently it’s the End Times, and we’ve got ourselves World War III all of a sudden. Naturally, this is inducing even more overthinking in the mind of a middle-aged man who’s already prone to rumination. Let’s see if I can lighten things up a little, because I’m sure we could all use a laugh right now.
1. AI is here, and holy fuck. I just got back from an annual securities law and compliance conference in Orlando, and this year it was all about AI. AI at work. AI at home. AI saving lives and accelerating human development. AI destroying jobs and creating massive displacement. Agentic AI, which promises to be what Siri was supposed to be to make our lives easier by handling tasks like bill paying, grocery shopping, reservation making, and 100 other things while we sleep and do more pleasurable things.
Zack Kass, a futurist and former head of OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, gave a keynote speech where he outlined where we are and where he thinks we’re headed, and oh man, we are not ready at all. Not even close. When he started his speech, he referred to this moment in time as “The Next Renaissance,” and I rolled my eyes. By the time he was done an hour later, I was totally agreeing with him. This technology is now everywhere, and it is going to fundamentally change the way we live, work, and exist in this world. It is going to equalize the weak and the strong. If we’re not careful, it also risks changing our ethics, morality, and freedom of choice and judgment.
Two weeks ago I participated in a training on my firm’s new closed AI program, which is tailored for lawyers, and it was truly mind-blowing. Used properly–and we all still need to learn how to do this–our AI program accomplished in seconds or minutes what used to take me hours or days. I can plug in two weeks of hearing transcripts from an arbitration for example, ask it to summarize key points or download weaknesses or inconsistencies in a witness’s testimony, and it can do this in minutes. Do you have any idea how long that would have taken me to do? It can draft briefs, summarize complaints, prepare discovery requests, you name it, it can do it. Everything still needs to be checked of course, especially case cites and arguments because hallucinations like fake case cites, are still a real risk, and lawyers still need to use their judgment and strategic thinking, which is why they’re hired in the first place. AI can’t do that and may never be able to do that. But as a time-saver for rote shit that used to take forever, AI is a massive game changer. Massive.
And it’s also fun as hell. Instead of using stock photos like I normally do to open these posts, in my last two posts I used Google’s Nano Banana 2 to create the images I wanted. In the one above, I started with a real photo of myself. It took a few efforts at getting the right prompts to refine the image, but not bad, eh?
2. I’m on Iran’s side in this war. Sorry, not sorry. I don’t want our soldiers to be killed. I don’t want them there at all in fact. They should never have been sent there in the first place, and this idiotic military strategy is making them sitting ducks. It’s already a disaster, so we need to cut our losses and bring them home. Conversely, I don’t care if Israeli soldiers get killed. This actually pleases me, if I’m being honest. It’s justice and a small karmic payback for what they’ve done to civilians in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, and Iran for decades now. I root against IOF soldiers the same way I’ve rooted against Nazis in the movies my entire life because to me that’s exactly what they are. Modern day Nazis. Only the victims of their ideology and depravity are different. So yes, I want them to lose this war. I think it will make the world a better place.
This doesn’t mean I think the repressive and authoritarian government of Iran is good, democratic, or a wonderful thing in the world. I don’t at all. But is Iran’s government really more repressive and undemocratic than the Israeli regime? Or the current American administration? It’s a debatable question. Regardless, at my age, my values come first, and in this particular case, they trump any kneejerk nationalism or an “America right or wrong” mentality. I’m not 12 or 25 any more, so no, America is right when it’s right, and it’s wrong when it’s wrong. It’s important to say this right now, or we’ll continue to see more of this shit.
Iran was sneak attacked TWICE in the middle of diplomatic negotiations. Iran is fully entitled to defend itself against an invasion, assassination of its leaders, and the mass murder of its people by two corrupt governments that are also repressive and bad for the world in their own right. Unfortunately, one of these governments happens to be running the country I live in, temporarily at least. So it’s important to be clear about what we objectively believe regardless of our citizenship. I’m against invasions. I’m against punching first in life and globally. I’m against imperialism. I’m against using diplomacy as a ruse to kill people. I’m against political assassinations of foreign leaders. I’m against indiscriminate bombing and killing in war. I’m against territorial expansionism, whether it’s Russia doing it or Israel doing it. I’m against ethnic cleansing and selective and hypocritical demands that some countries disarm themselves to the point of defenselessness so that we can have One Powerful Hegemon to Rule Them All.
Most of all, I’m against hypocrisy. I have Arab friends too, and they have a totally distinct point of view from the one Americans hear every day. So even though I don’t want our people killed in this senseless war, I believe Iran has the right to defend itself from invaders. If I had a son or daughter who was sent deployment orders, I would tell them to conscientiously object and not to go fight in this unjust war. This war is for Israel, not the United States, and not a drop of American blood should be shed for that apartheid, genocidal colony.
3. Iran’s propaganda game is top shelf. Iran’s asymmetric military strategy against two vastly more powerful armies is succeeding in a way that will be studied for the next century, but this is not the only area where it’s currently trouncing the U.S. and Israel. It’s trolling propaganda game is highly entertaining and 1000 times better than anything the U.S. or Israel are putting out right now. Its Lego AI propaganda videos in particular are funny as fuck.
Here are a couple of examples:
Funny and dark. Then there’s this one, which really strikes an historical chord and kicks the United States right in the balls:
And do you remember the meme of that dude on a skateboard drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice while Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” played in the background from a few years ago?
They nailed that too.
Top shelf propaganda man. They really know what they’re doing, and I love it.
4. On a more mundane subject, I’ve been trying to cut plastic and aluminum out of my life for a long time. We ingest this shit on the regular, especially microplastics. In my case, the biggest culprits are my automatic drip coffee machine and aluminum club soda cans. Aluminum is really bad for the human body, and so is heated plastic, which is what you get with 99.99% of automatic coffee makers, especially that Keurig shit, which is horrible for you. Thanks to some recent encouragement (cough), I got rid of the aluminum cans and started buying club soda in glass bottles. My coffee situation is more complicated because I’m addicted to coffee and I’m really impatient, especially in the morning. I don’t like waiting for my coffee. I shopped around and literally EVERY automatic drip coffee maker is made of plastic, with one expensive exception that has its own drawbacks.
So I did what I had to do. The only thing I could do. I went old school. I went full-on Williamsburg, Brooklyn hipster coffeehouse. I bought myself a Chemex pour-over glass coffee maker and a gooseneck electric kettle:
This is old school with an electric twist. Aesthetically pleasing too. That kettle is beautiful. Hopefully these two will reduce the microplastics in my corpus and force me to slow down in the morning. We’ll see if my ornery, impatient morning personality cooperates.
5. Corporate Democrats are coming for podcaster Hasan Piker because he’s got rizz, he’s smart, he’s popular, and he has progressive views about Israel that they can’t handle. Hasan Piker is NOT antisemitic, no matter how much people with political agendas claim he is. In fact, he has repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism. They’re afraid of Hasan Piker because he’s a popular voice that is becoming a threat to the traditional Democratic party line that blindly favors Israel, as well as the foreign lobby AIPAC and Democrat elites who pander to it. Piker is funny, sarcastic, sharp, and has a powerful progressive voice that this country sorely needs right now. Go listen to him. Even if you don’t agree with all of his views, we should all be able to agree that his free speech shouldn’t be censored, and he should not be falsely accused of being antisemitic simply because he, like me, is anti-Zionist.
6. T-minus three weeks before I go to Rio. I’m really excited to be in the same place as a special woman who has become very important to me, but I’m not gonna lie, part of me is anxious and hedging my feelings because this is one of the biggest fliers I’ve ever taken in my life. As my Dad used to say: “We’ll see what happens.” No risk, no reward.
7. I’ll never understand why rich people like Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake can’t pay for drivers or an Uber when they get fucked up on drugs or alcohol. You’re richer than God, so why drive when you get high or drunk? Why risk your reputation or your freedom? It makes no sense.
8. Other than the fall, there is no better time of year than early spring, when the weather starts warming up, we spring forward an hour, and people start coming out of their holes and wearing fewer clothes. I like winter to some extent, but this one was a long one, damn. Starting to wonder whether I suffer from seasonal affective disorder too. In any case, the sun is a massive mood booster right now, and I’m here for it.
9. The United States turns 250 years old this year, and we can’t even celebrate this milestone. The country is being run by fascists, inflation is high, and we just started World War III. What is there to celebrate, exactly? I still remember our bicentennial in 1976. I was 8 years old, and it was a party most of the year. Flags everywhere, people happy and celebrating. Yes, I was still ignorant about a lot of American history, but at least we didn’t have this massive dark cloud hanging over our head every fucking day. I’m so over this shit.
10. An Italian appellate court just affirmed last year’s citizenship ruling and ratfucked my dual citizenship prospects. This is beyond frustrating since I know people with fewer ties to Italy who already have dual citizenship because they were smart enough to apply sooner than I did. No clue what I’m going to do now. Plan B is probably an Italian retirement visa once I stop working. Or maybe I’ll start looking at South America if this Brazil trip works out and leads to something real and lasting, LMFAO. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, I hear you calling! Spain? Portugal? Regardless, I am getting the fuck out of here one way or the other.
