I'm in the "old man" territory. As I age, I have actually become more socially aware and progressive. It's disheartening to see so many others in my age range who went the opposite way. They were more socially aware and progressive but became socially and politically regressive as they aged.

A couple of common themes which Republican politicians exploit are the fears of others and the fears of change. They don't want people looking at the actual details. They want people to just emotionally react to what is being said and vote accordingly.

I was thinking about how many Microsoft applications which I used that Microsoft abandoned. Some had no MS replacements. Those with replacements were too often inferior. I once used as many Microsoft apps as possible but now I only grudgingly use Windows but might even move away from that again. I found this list of Microsoft's discontinued products. It's both nostalgic and frustrating.
https://killedby.tech/microsoft/

LEAKED: Trump's DEPRAVED Secret Project 2025 Training Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA_wOYz-7EE&t=3292s

Trump’s Second Term: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwqpx6lp_s

Salem & Boston (May 2024)
https://youtu.be/B6bk3ZWmCfU

Lake Erie (April 2024) video
https://youtu.be/jxvqJs3NR18

St Louis Arch (April 2024) video
https://youtu.be/laKduU9lc34

Being an old man who has become more progressive with age, I am saddened and frustrated by people who become more socially regressive as they age.

Project 2025 illustrates how we cannot afford any more Republican presidents, governors or majorities at either federal or state levels.

My work computer is severely messed up due to the upgrade glitch. They might have to do a complete reinstall on a computer which is only a few months old. I spent 3 hours with IT and it still won't boot into Windows. The IT guy said that he personally fixed 600 computers today. The rest of his team also did hundreds. Our company still has more than 1200 computers which are still down. What a mess caused by 1 failed subsystem update.

Automation part 3: Now we have a widespread computer outage due to a software update. I highly suspect that the testing of the upgrade was mostly automated. As much as I am involved with technology, I still feel that overreliance on the technology and the excessive remove of human involvement will continue to cause problems. Too much of technology has become a replacement rather than a tool.

Automation part 2: Some companies which use automated systems to sending communications run into problems when they get too used to relying on the automation. They assume that the communications worked and don't follow-up. I heard "did you get the text" or "did you get the email" when I called about something for which I was expecting contact. It often had been system glitched and the people assumed that everything worked when they hit the button.

Automation part 1: I have benefited both professionally and personally from types of automation. But there have been several technology glitches which have involved automation. My company uses development software which is quite good but upgrades became regularly problematic. When pressed, the company which supplies the software disclosed that they switched a lot of their upgrade checks to automated processes. Windows updates became hazardous when they switched to automated upgrade checks.

I was refreshing my memory on the definition of the market economy. I found it interesting that some definitions include "based on voluntary exchange". The voluntary part seems largely false in modern times when those on the supply side, even competitors, are all similarly raising prices.

The number of people who are otherwise voting democrat who are considering not voting for a president this year is troubling but it is some kind of temporary insanity for those with the same voting tendencies to even consider voting for Trump. The dangers of another Trump term far outweighs the risk of an elderly Biden in office.

MO - NH trips (April - May 2024) (YouTube)
https://youtu.be/us-ORUjDAYQ

About Trump lies
https://meidasnews.com/news/a-complete-list-of-all-of-trumps-debate-lies

One definition of politics is "the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area". I state this because too many people go on anti-politics rants because they focus too much on the people and the parties. Politics goes beyond that. When I say that "politics are complex, I am referring to the complexities of the activities relating to governance.