Excellent question! My thought was that these computer programs are not really "knowledge" engines- they are engines that produce a statistically-driven facsimile of a reasonable answer to a question. Though clearly the area is developing very fast and I am not keeping up with everything, I think this is still the case.

Great post- This is some helpful insight for those in the US to understand differences with other parts of the world. I am in the EU at the moment and I can attest that life for drivers here is much tougher (and more expensive). In EU cities though, there are solid public transport alternatives. Add to that the fact that these older (compared to most US) cities were not designed for large numbers of cars and .. well, it makes sense here. People (and to an extent, systems) will do things that make sense in their context.

Ol Olsoc, thank you- interesting information there, and certainly worth considering. I believe at least the current administration's focus on the "TQ++" part of "LGBTQ++" bears out what you are saying. And I agree with you, I think very few people in the U.S. can be accurately classified as fascists.

As always, an amalgam of different factors were at play for different people; the issues you identify might indeed have been important to many. Giving some attention to what the Democrats have done to contribute to the current state of affairs makes a lot of sense.

In that vein, my wife feels another important factor in the election (and shunning of the Democrats) is that people felt Democrats lied to them regarding the condition of Pres. Biden. Especially by his VP. There might be something to that as well.

Thank you for your thoughtful post and perspective. From the POV of this American I would share this: In the U.S. I believe a key factor that propelled Mr. Trump to electoral victory was the attitude and responses to "right wing" thoughts just like Mr. Herbst's. I don't mean this in a way to deride him at all- I actually can understand why he feels that way (your post helps too!) and I personally don't like the "thin blue line" analogy. However, we are learning that reacting by attacking the person, denying the validity of their experience or point of view, or enforcing an orthodoxy that not all members of society agree on seems to be a terrible idea if you don't want those ideas to gain currency.

Check out the new DOGE website. Notice the recurring themes of "eliminating discrimination" and also about removal of certain social projects and attitudes that were not commonly agreed on (i.e. were only favored by one side). This is a response to people feeling like they were not being treated fairly and their concerns were not listened to.

If indeed what is happening in the U.S.A. is coming to the rest of the world, as you suggest, I think those opposed to such would do well to consider: Don't alienate those you disagree with, including by calling them fascists. Rather: Engage, try to understand, and discuss. I believe this is the point VP Vance made to the EU just a few days ago, albeit rather brutally and -to many- in an offensive way. The time is now, because for years we have seen strengthening right-wing populist movements globally with variations (over the past years you can see Hungary, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, etc). Alienating those we disagree will not change minds or end well.

Incidentally: I don't agree with most of what I hear from the populist right, and have been on the other side of just about every issue. I'd hate to see them gain any more ground in the hearts and minds of my fellow human beings- on most topics.

Also: I hope the upcoming elections in Germany go well and that people feel enfranchised and confident enough to reject toxic populism. We shall see.

I appreciate your taking the time to explain your thinking in detail. I disagree with several parts, especially on where the primary responsibility for overspending lies: This is the role of Congress. They should be driving the reforms, and I believe there are very good reasons why that is the job of Congress in our Constitution. You let them and the president off the hook by saying they are just corrupt (hard to disagree there) and so that justifies all other actions. But I also see that it will be hard to improve the situation in Congress, since Congress itself must do this and is uninterested.

I believe a state-by-state campaign to create term limits could help the situation. Maybe.

Anyway, my thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Yes, I thought the "hassle" factor of making sure you have charged ear buds could be a factor in folks deciding to just use speakers- together with improved sound quality from on-board speakers. In any case, its baffling to me why people think its OK to play audio from their phones in crowded public spaces. Maybe taking their cues from the TV sets with CNN, Fox, or other content that many of these public waiting places have on?

Censorship is not the same as promoting harmful content. I believe this case is about the latter.

I agree with you. Some details, like the fact that Apple previously promised to make this feature optional, are particularly shameful.There will be a lot of metal gymnastics from some quarters to justify this.

Its a little worse than some general mention of "freedom". This system calls home to Cupertino when you launch an app. This has been the case for some time, unfortunately and is a big reason I moved away from MacOS- I am not OK with needing permission from the mothership to run a program on my computer.

Brings to mind this quote from The Third Man.

Inaccurate, as it turns out. Maybe proving the point further?

I have thought for some time that Biden should have resigned about a year ago on account of his age and clearly diminished capacity. This would have allowed an orderly transfer of duties to Ms. Harris, and made her the incumbent- which I believe would have been the surest way to defeat Mr. Trump at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, Mr. Biden and his campaign instead decided to keep as low a profile as possible and cruise to victory; was sort-of working, until the wheels came off during the debate. A missed opportunity I believe.

Bob Newhart had a long career, this was one was one of my favorite sketches of his. The transitions from "as expected" to "ridiculous" were what made it so funny (to me anyway).

When Thunderbird updated to 115 some months ago (MS Windows) I did not see any change in UI. I had to go through this guide to get the updated look. I kept the updated look, but fully understand that others may prefer the previous presentation. I mention the guide above because maybe those who prefer the previous version can get back to it by reversing the steps listed? Seems like TB supports both (at least as of 115, I am not running 128 and not sure what will happen there. I will let others test 128, probably join at 128.x).

I fully agree, the details matter a lot here. Giving employees such a short time to respond smacks of a pressure tactic, oldest trick in the book of (shady) used car salespeople, scammers, and similar. From TFA it looks like they are overstaffed and want to cheaply reduce head count in the CX department. So it goes.

I stand corrected! This is a terrible situation, and a reason why the gate checked bags should be held separately and available on the jetway on deplaning instead of going in with the rest of the luggage. I believe some airlines do this. I guess the other take-home might be to keep computers and jewelry in the bag that fits under the seat in front of you, not on the roll on- if possible. They usually won't force a gate-check of a smaller bag like that.