I'm interested in the movie Darkest Hour. Specifically the scene where Churchill is surprised by a visit from the king, who we learned earlier is pissed off, while Churchill is morose and undecided on what to do. The King wants Churchill to know that he wants to fight, and that the people will be with him if he tells them what's really going on. I asked ChatGPT to summarize this scene in one good-size paragraph. #- In Darkest Hour, the surprise visit from King George VI comes at a moment when Winston Churchill is isolated, exhausted, and wavering under pressure from his own cabinet to negotiate with Hitler. The King, who earlier had been distant and openly skeptical of Churchill’s appointment, admits that he has been listening to the debate and has come to offer support. He tells Churchill plainly that he does not want appeasement, that he believes Britain must fight, and -- crucially -- that the people will stand with Churchill if he is honest with them about the danger they face. The King’s visit reframes Churchill’s dilemma: leadership is not about finding a clever compromise but about trusting the public with the truth and giving them something worth enduring hardship for. The moment restores Churchill’s resolve, confirming that he is not alone and that moral clarity, not political maneuvering, is what the country needs from him.#
- That's the leader we need now. Someone who can give a speech like the one Churchill gave on June 4, 1940 to the House of Commons, the We Shall Fight on the Beaches speech. #
- We need to make big changes in how things work based on having our limits tested and the guardrails broken, bringing us to the brink. We should be talking about that before the journalists turn this into a debate about what the next election should be about. It must be about everything. Nothing clever. This is what happened and this is what we have to do. For example -- Increase the number of Supreme Court judges, and give them terms of five or ten years, and have an age limit. The Justices must have a personal stake in the decisions they make. They should feel like servants, not gods. And really mean it about the 14th Amendment that says insurrectionists can't run for office. Come on, we were warned amply, and now we're having to deal with a Jan 6 every day in every state. We all know this is where we're headed. We need a leader with the courage to name the problem before we're overwhelmed by it#
- Good morning. I am wiped out from the storm that just went through. Did a bunch of shoveling this morning, still have more to do. About two feet of snow, some drifts much higher. The snow is light, but it packs down from the weight of snow that falls on top, so shoveling is hard work. I have, as a kid, shoveled out more snow. I remember how tired I'd get as a kid. These days, as an older person, the exhaustion comes in bit sooner. Not being able to get out to the world quickly was a bit claustrophobia-inducing, and the politics haven't helped my overall feeling of dread. #
- Part of the general feeling of dread this time of year with the crisis we're in in the US, wondering if I should be working so constantly on a project that doesn't seem too appreciated. Wondering if I'm not doing the same thing I've been doing for the last X years, working for our online freedom, only to learn people don't really want it. I think about this a lot. It's one ofo those things if you prepare for it, could be fine, but if you just glide along from crisis to crisis as we are doing with online stuff, you never get to do the fun stuff without paying too high a price. #
- Later, while it was still snowing, I was able to drive to the post office, so civilization is still here, thankfully. We seem to have survived this mess, for a while at least. #
- I still believe in what I'm doing, but I'm not going to give it much more time before turning it over to the people. #
- Like now, the people do understand, but no one stepping up in a leadership role has been willing to spell it out. We need to make some big changes in how things work based on having our limits tested and the guardrails defeated. Increase the number of supreme court judges, and give them terms so they don't feel like gods. and really mean it about the amendment that says insurrectionists can't run for office. come on, we were warned amply, and now we're having to deal with a Jan 6 every day all over the country. and we're paying for it. how stupid net-net a country we are. #