My Magnificat

Our minister this week has challenged us to write our own Magnificat.  Yes, I am Jewish and go to both church and synagogue.  So there.

Rejoice

I rejoice that I have found the love of my life and a sober way of living that is useful to society and others.

Glorify G-d

I glorify G-d for swooping me up as I was falling down a black hole, devoid of even gravity or light, no hope, no vision, no purpose.  I hadn't hesitated on the edge, I had jumped off, willingly, into this condition.  Worthless, throwing away everything for nothing, I called for help, and You were there.  What a messy inconvenience to calculate where I was in my fall, reach out, grab me and lift me up.  You did it anyway.  It is a debt I repay every day.

Look forward to the works of G-d

World transformation barely seems worth it, but then neither was I when it happened for me.  Regardless, You still love us.  That love will help us see the love of our siblings and rivals.  That love will cull destruction and violence among us.  That love shines on to each of us, waiting for us to open our eyes.  With You, G-d, we will.

Exalt G-d because

A catalog our Your magnifigance is beyond any mortal.  Great and small, seen and unseen, you try to guide us with daily miracles.  The founding of the state of Israel in the shadow of the Holocaust; the parting of the Sea of Reeds with the Egyptian army at our backs; the aim and power of David’s stone all testament to You, O G-d.  Still, we ignore you whenever we get a chance.  The Call of Abraham, promising to make of us a great nation, has been fulfilled.  Still, we turn our heads away from you.  There is a verified faith you have maintained over and over again, and we have no reason to doubt you now.  I have faith in that.  I have faith in that.

The Drug Dealer of Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris has a drug dealer.  She has publicly admitted to smoking pot.  That means she got possession of pot, somehow.  She either bought it, or someone else bought it and gave it to her.  Both options have serious implications because someone, somewhere is Kamala Harris’ drug dealer.

Kamala Harris has a drug dealer

As Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris prosecuted drug dealers because it is a crime to deal drugs there.  Even marijuana.  This whole thing is funny since she really pushed the “justice should be the same for everyone” idea during the last Democratic debate when she is a perfect example of it NOT happening.

The obvious first point is her dishonesty and hypocrisy.  How can voters believe what she promises to do when her actions cross her words so starkly?  Basically, they can’t.

Not so clear is the cost to families to have a family member incarcerated.  Not Kamala Harris’ family, of course.  But many other ones.  Picture a family with someone in prison.  The family is missing an income.  Less money means more evictions and foreclosures.  Young family members will feel the tension and fear.  Their education and development will be disrupted, and even their living situations.

Children are growing and learning with half the guidance and support in the home.

Another serious concern is her lack of self-control. She couldn’t stop herself from committing a crime while an officer of the court and part of law enforcement herself.  She knew smoking - and buying - pot is illegal.  She also knew the professional cost of smoking pot.

And most importantly, who is this drug dealer?

Why is it funny that you put people in jail for smoking pot or selling pot, when you smoke pot yourself?

Did you arrest your drug dealer?  Does your drug dealer feel somewhat safe from prosecution because they are YOUR drug dealer?  These are serious questions Kamala Harris has to answer for the American public to judge her fitness to be President of the United States.

Cenk Uygur Running for Congress

Well, that's it.  I am cancelling my Hulu and Netflix subscriptions.  Nothing is going to be more entertaining than watching Cenk Uygur in the congressional race in California's 25th district.

Cenk Uygur is an extremely intelligent person who has built a media platform on YouTube called The Young Turks that is very strong, very supportive and vocal.  There, Uygur has been calling out the leaders of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Congress for many years and just got sick of waiting for change, I guess.  It is not my congressional district, but I will give him some money anyway.  This show will be worth it. His other accomplishments include starting a political action committee, giving a platform for progressive candidates across the country, and siccing his audience on groups.

Uygur's insightful political commentary was always a reason to watch The Young Turks.  It will be great to see him use his command of facts and policy in debates.  He excels at breaking down issues to explain to his YouTube viewers.  He also delights in exposing the political back-scratching behind policy decisions.  Listening to Uygur's analysis creates a picture in my mind of competing factions, interests and resources, which makes it much easier to understand the dynamics of what is really going on.

The Young Turks' viewers trend younger, which will be an advantage as younger voters are often overlooked in polling data.  Uygur's progressive politics resonate with a generation of people who feel cut up by the current economic system.  His vision will offer hope, but more than the mere slogan of Obama.  When he speaks about laws, it is often with specifics.  When Obama ran on "hope and change" and "yes, we can" it was like buying a soda or a pair of sneakers, only instead America voted for a box that we could not see inside.  Later, we found out what was in it: surveillance, foreclosures, mass deportations and assassination of American citizens, and to be fair, an attempt at universal health care.  Uygur is not vague in his policy positions.  He has years of commentary outlining his views.  Nobody is voting for a mystery box when they vote for him.

But one of Uygur's strengths, strong feelings about policy, could also cause him problems.  He is very excitable and can start yelling when he feels strongly about a topic.  That may not translate very well on the campaign trail, but it will make great t.v.

And his t.v. advertising promises to be very watchable.  Remember his anti- Ted Cruz ad?  He told Texas voters that Cruz had been unmanned by Trump.  That kind of campaign rhetoric is what California voters will enjoy once this race really gets started.

In the end, win or lose, the race for California's 25th Congressional seat will be high entertainment.

My Media Diet and Vivid Dreams

I forgot about this:  when you temper your media intake, you start to get very vivid dreams.  It’s been happening to me every night now.  When I wake for my morning meditation and fill in my bullet journal, I write my latest dream.  Wow.  Some doozies that I do not want all over the internet.

Consuming media without a media diet plan puts a big fuzzy wall between me and my reactions to events in my life.  I don’t understand all these dreams or what they mean, but something is waking up inside me and kicking my insides.  And it was there all the time, just not being heard.  That’s the scary part.

Like any dreams, if they are not written down, they are forgotten.  And each morning I try to convince myself that this dream will be remembered.  It is different today - but it isn’t.

If you follow this plan, be prepared for all manner of weirdness in dreams.  Not scary, just odd.

My Social Media Diet or Creating a Mind Sculpture

We Need a Social Media Diet  

Don’t flinch just yet.  Everyone needs to think about and plan what our minds and attention will consume.  So much content is available:  YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more.

I read online that the last hour before going to bed and the first hour getting up should be without any electronic screen time.  Before going to bed, lay out your clothes and prepare for the next day.  Sounds like the habit of a winner, so let’s include that as part of the plan.

The guy also talks about spending his time creating content, rather than consuming it.  Not everybody is up for that, but with three blogs and a podcast and two YouTube channels, I have no excuses.

Goals of a Social Media Diet

So what would be the goal for a media diet?  For a food diet, there is a weight goal.  For a media diet, there should be goals, too.  Like hobbies, interests, entertainment, education.  Historical videos are fun.  Shouldn’t there also be production goals?  If you have them, that is.

We make a choice about what to eat, and how that will make us feel.  Shouldn’t we also do the same thing for our minds and mood?  Wouldn’t it be a good idea to step outside ourselves and take a meta look at what we want out of our life before deciding what to watch or read?

My Social Media Diet

I don’t know what is right for anyone else, but my social media diet will be one part production for four parts consumption.  It will be split into one fifth pure fun with animals and jokes and silliness.  Everyone needs that in their lives.  Another three fifths will be news and politics - from all sides.  I enjoy listening to Ben Shapiro and Jimmy Dore.  So what.  The last fifth will be hobbies: ham radio, knitting and making soap.

“Social Media Diet” 

Maybe “diet” is the wrong word.  Diets are notoriously ineffective in the long run.  “Media Plan” sounds too corporate.  “Media sculpting” means you are doing the creating.  “Media sculpture?”  There are some artists out there who already claimed that phrase.

I hesitate to use the term “information” since it is so long and cumbersome to say.  We need to make this snappy.  “Brain food” comes to mind, but its already been taken.  Or “Brain growth plan.”  Too long.  OK.  “Mind sculpture.”  Yes, that’s it!

By consciously deciding what I feed my visual senses, I have a “Mind Sculpture” plan.  I think about what I want the end result to be, and plan, roughly, how that will happen.

Let’s see how this goes.  Will keep you updated.

Tulsi Gabbard For President

Tulsi Gabbard for President

The recent "Tulsi works for Putin" schtick can be understood best as a fight between old media and new media.  A classic power fight between wheezing old talking heads, their younger clones, and new media power brokers will show where the new election lines are drawn.  Newsflash: Tulsi will win.

Hillary Clinton is running a '90s media smear campaign that really worked for her and her husband in the past - the way past.  Clinton whispers her vengeful stories to stooges on cable tv and foolish New York Time op ed writers.  Feeling safe, they repeat them without fearing real consequences.

Old Media and The Clinton Playbook

Why not?  It is the same playbook Clinton used in her failed 2016 election campaign:

1. court mass media, 
2. take voters for granted, 
3. rely on proxies to say nasty things for you, 
4. insult and dismiss half of the electorate. 

It didn't work last time, but as Clinton apparently never took responsibility for her role in her own defeat, she blindly uses the same approach again.

Court Mass Media

The '90s media landscape was exclusively mass media, so a strategy targeting those influencers was smart.  Prescient was Bill Clinton's focus on alternate paths to voter attention, like talk shows. It was how he got around the universal dismissal of him as a serious candidate by the "serious" political press after his sex scandals.  

But this approach is outdated.  There are thousands of information sources for voters now.  The personal relationship approach will not control political watchers because there are simply too many thinkers in the political space.  The rah-rah for the "weapons of mass destruction" leading to the Gulf War and Russiagate undermined credibility for mass media outlets anyway, and people look to other voices to trust.

Take Voters for Granted

Hillary Clinton neglected Michigan and other rust belt states during the 2016 Presidential election.  She dismissed HALF OF AMERICA as "deplorables."  Not very persuasive.  Clinton took the voters of the rust belt for granted because of their union affiliation, not learning the lesson that Reagan taught:  people make up their own minds.

In the frame of this Tulsi Gabbard dialogue, Clinton assumes that the support of the media "elites" will lead to the sheeplike support of Americans.

Rely on Proxies To Say Nasty Things For You

Bakari Sellers accused Tulsi Gabbard of treason on CNN.  This charge has been supported by Hillary Clinton by getting other people to repeat the accusation.

Tulsi Gabbard shows her understanding of modern media when she pins the "Russian asset" smear directly on Hillary Clinton.  Clinton is used to dodging the stench of a shit show by getting others to say her insults.  Part of that tactic was the pretense of cable t.v. hosts that she didn't really say it at all, but that somebody else did.  Now, Tulsi Gabbard's voice can appeal directly to voters, much like Bill Clinton did in playing the saxophone on late night television.

Insult and Dismiss Half of the Electorate

"Deplorables."  

Clinton also insults everyone in the military by implying that one of them would betray their country with treason.

In this message struggle with Tulsi Gabbard, Clinton is dismissing anyone under the age of 50.  Younger voters don't believe that the New York Times is always right.  They don't have t.v.'s or watch cable "news."

The Tulsi Gabbard Winning Strategy

Tulsi Gabbard takes a sniper shot approach to a crowded Presidential candidate field.  One by one, she takes out a frontrunner.  It worked for Trump, and it is working for her.  

Tusli Gabbard is an underestimated candidate.  She won't be the Democratic nominee, but she will beat out almost everybody else that is running.  Her best weapon are her deadly barbs that really stick.  Ask Kamala "I put people in prison for doing what I did" Harris.  Gabbard is better at this tactic than even Trump.  

Tulsi Gabbard knows how the current information ecosystem works. When she hits something, it reverberates.  All the Clinton machine can do is get their flying monkeys on cable television and op-ed pages to repeat what she tells them to say.  Too bad they are no longer influencers like in the '90s.  

Tulsi Gabbard will beat the Democratic Party machine because its relevance and power are sliding out from under them.  They are using a playbook of a bygone day.  What is supposed to be a kill shot will only show everybody their irrelevance.

The Democratic Party relies on big donors, reporter relationships and endorsements.  Stronger tools have been forged, and they are about to find out the hard way.

As I like to say to people I hate:  "I wish you the best of luck."

Susan Wojcicki and PhillyD and the Suggestion Algorithm

Changing the YouTube Suggestion Algorithm

PhillyD and YouTube Discussions

PhillyD has had discussions with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki about their list of trending videos, which have long weighted corporate content unfairly. If you have the most views, then you should be on the most-viewed list. If you can’t created content that most YouTube users want to see, then you shouldn’t be on that list.

As long as YouTube is listening...

I am on YouTube far more than is good for me or anyone.  The algorithm goes in tight circles, recommending the same people and videos all the time.  It is tiresome.

YouTube Suggestion Algorithm Problem

By setting the YouTube recommendation algorithm to “following the buzz,” Google is only setting up its own failure. They may not know it yet, but if the only thing people are getting out of their product is buzz, it acts like mental candy. Sure, you want it all the time. Who doesn’t? But one day you will be sick of all the candy and reject the whole thing. It is inevitable. If human beings forever chose the buzz, we would not have survived as a species. So this proposal is a long-term survival strategy for the Alphabet Corporation as well.

There is an alternative.

Let users change their suggestion algorithms in user preferences.

I always want to see more content from smaller YouTubers and nothing about sports. Why can’t I choose that? Surely the YouTube algorithm can allow user input in terms of what percentage of smaller channels are suggested to me. I want to support local businesses rather than large chain stores, and my google search results should reflect that.

The Econo-Girl Suggestion Solution

It would not be hard to implement this change. Just break the code into sections, and make user input the driver of the algorithm.

So let the content providers set their video categories. Then, within those categories, let users define their preferences:

• NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS - I ALWAYS LIKE TO TEST OUT CREATORS WITH LESS THAN 20,000 FOLLOWERS; OR,
• MOST RECENT - A CATEGORY I REALLY MISS; OR,
• CORPORATE VS. NON-CORPORATE CREATORS; OR,
• BALANCE OF PRO/CON; OR,
• TRENDING TOPICS IN THAT CATEGORY; OR
• NOT TO SEE THAT CATEGORY AT ALL, OR TO SET A FLOOR FOR SEEING VIDEOS IN THAT CATEGORY, LIKE IF A VIDEO IN THIS CATEGORY HITS THE TRENDING TOP 100 LIST, SHOW IT TO ME.

The goal is to maximize value to the consumer.  The current suggestion algorithm is based on feeding rats a sugar-based diet that will make them obese and starve them at the same time.

A rabbit hole is a waste of time.  Humans are going to dump something that wastes their time, eventually.  Survival demands it.