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<p>Thich Nat Hahn, Jimmy Carter, Pope Francis</p>
<blockquote>
<p>taking bets on how Trump tries to nominate himself Pope? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Was that the point of Vance's visit, to claim Francis named Trump
his successor?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mary's protest t-shirt simply states "Is he dead yet?"</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm not Catholic but have partnered with three
escaped/reformed/failed Catholics and attended Mass with my
children until they hit the age they could refuse confirmation
(and further indoctrination). I enjoyed a great deal of what I
experienced in that context and definitely appreciate a *lot*
about Francis' style and nature. But just as I felt the passing
of Queen Elizabeth, that the royalty and now the papacy is dead.
<br>
</p>
<p>When DJT finally meets his maker, I wonder if the "American
Presidency" is dead. He has distorted the norms and standards of
the office, the checks and balances of our tripartate gubm'nt.</p>
<p>I'm predicting (for better and worse) that our future
(self?)governance will be effected somehow through the leading
edge of contemporary technology... (e.g. LLMs, blockchains, IoT,
etc.). Unfortunately the heavy-hitters in each of those fields
are highly suspect. I *want* to believe Altman isn't evil (like
Google wasn't evil?) and I *hope* Hoskinson is as pure of intent
as he aspires/projects, etc.. and I *want* to believe that to
whatever extent the milieu of ML/AI co-evolving with itself these
days is *capable* of transcending our human frailties... but that
is a LOT of wanton Hopium...</p>
<p>Anyone see any healthy signal in the disturbing noise rising up
amidst the authoritarian fascism whose colms are breaking through
the soil this "spring"?<br>
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