<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">Re preemptive pardons:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">It is unclear if one must accept a pardon for it to be valid (Supreme Court decision on a commuted sentence); but it is clear (earlier Supreme Court decision) that <b><i>accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt.</i></b><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">A number of 1-6 convicts plan to refuse pardons and fight the convicions via the normal appellate process precisely for this reason.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">On Mon, Jan 20, 2025, at 1:20 PM, steve smith wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Glen sed:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> Large deposits of hydrocarbons: Yeah, it kinda looks like a waste to <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> hoard all that stuff. But if you think of it like a battery (or a <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> stock in stocks and flows), some tasks do seem to require a large <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> battery, maybe to get over some hump with a steep energy curve. The <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> question is who uses it and for what? If we take Pieter's optimism <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> seriously, maybe our blowing through the fossil fuel battery does end <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> up getting us over some hump. E.g. we resolve the Meaning Crisis and <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> come to some high order conception of computation? Or a metaphysics <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> that closely matches physics? Or if you believe in a life/biosphere <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> diaspora to the solar system. But it's touch and go whether we'll <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> collapse (gracefully or catastrophically) or explode into some new <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> domain that was only reachable by draining the battery.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> I think it was a Neal Stephenson fiction which suggested that the Suez <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Canal was built by steam-shovels (drag-link earth movers?) fueled by a <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> huge supply of mummies wrapped in cloth and soaked in crude oil for <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> preservation? Not as dense as coal, but convenient? Fits right into <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> my sparring with DaveW on morbid ways to dispose of human remains?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> I don't know what the Suez Canal provides lowered friction for, but I'm <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> guessing it is significantly moving fossil-fuels (mostly liquid? mostly <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> refined?)...<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> I was avoiding the news for a month or so after the election. But now <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> my attitude is that we need a clown like Trump to lay bare our <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> oligarchy. The oligarchy thrives under Bidens and Obamas just as much <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> as under Putin or Trump. It's just that the pig has some lipstick on <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> it under the Obamas and Bidens. It think we'll begin to suss out some <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> of the differences between the US and, say, Russia or Hungary as we <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> slide a few notches in that direction. The trick is to be <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> disinterested without becoming disaffected.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> See my maunderings on bistable, metastable, fascism, etc. Are fascism <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> and oligarchy distinct lobes in a metastable system? I do think that <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> when Musk threw down for Trump and the other near-Trillionaire tech-bros <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> joined him, our trajectory went more toward the oligarchic style of fascism?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> I'm not watching the inaugural events but did enjoy being "present" to <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> hear of the Biden pre-emptive pardons... I'm guessing there are more <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> than a few other "easter eggs" distributed throughout the day? Any <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> chance someone will give Trump a tour of the Capitol with special <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> attention to the places his "patriots" smeared feces? Probably not.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Interesting times...<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> to (un)subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> archives: 5/2017 thru present <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/</a><br></div></body></html>