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West Bennett
@West@westodon.com
mastodon 4.5.18
Senior Software Engineer @ IFD, Adjunct Professor @ CVTC, Writer, Political Analyst, Philosopher
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50 Posts
Joined November 10, 2025
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I'm going to go all Rocket Raccoon here:
This is true -
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8qxz6qypyo
But this is ALSO true:
"The multi-million-dollar crisis at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has evolved from a severe administrative failure that happened to be a scale model of climate change in their front yard, into a perfect demonstration of agenticity, the hardwired human tendency to infuse patterns with intention and believe that a hidden, malicious actor is pulling the strings behind every structural breakdown.
When the administration chose to paint the basin an unscientific, heat-absorbing dark blue and then systematically eroded the paint's polymer bonds by dumping in aggressive oxidizing chemicals, the laws of thermodynamics and chemistry responded predictably. The pool blossomed into a giant, boiling algae farm, and the paint peeled off in massive, ruined sheets.
But rather than listening to the engineers, architects, and scientists who warned them that this would happen, the administration has retreated into absolute conspiratorial delusion. Confronted by their own incompetence, they have chosen to see enemies instead of equations.
In a frantic effort to deflect accountability, official messaging has abandoned reality entirely. The administration is now publicly claiming that the pool's vibrant green state is not the result of sunlight and warm water rich in nutrients from a tidal basin that may have been polluted some time ago that was not filtered nor treated adequately, but the work of political enemies and saboteurs.
They have floated the absurd narrative that a clandestine network of late-night "agents" is sneaking onto the National Mall to dump "gallons of algae eggs and seeds" into the water. To anyone with a elementary understanding of biology, this is pure comedy: algae reproduces via microscopic spores that are naturally omnipresent in the air and transferred by waterfowl, not by cartoonish villains carrying buckets of fictional "eggs" under the cover of darkness.
The height of this systemic paranoia has manifested in the weaponization of security forces around the basin. The administration has now begun actively detaining citizens simply for touching the floating paint chips and layers of algae.
What should be viewed as public property or, at worst, floating debris from a botched construction project is now treated as a crime scene. By arresting people who interact with the flaking paint, the administration is attempting to enforce a physical blackout of the evidence. If the public can touch, photograph, and analyze the peeling sheets, the illusion of "vandalism" falls apart, exposing the structural failure of the chemical application underneath.
Turning fact-checking and peer-reviewing into a crime.
This is the peak tragedy of agenticity in leadership. It creates a psychological shield that makes self-correction impossible. If a pipe leaks, it is a saboteur; if the economy shifts, it is a secret conspiracy; if the paint peels off a pool because you dissolved it with peroxide, it must be the work of political vandals.
By inventing a shadow war involving night-traveling seed-droppers, the people in power can comfortably ignore the chorus of experts they silenced before the first coat of paint was even applied. They have turned a basic maintenance problem into a ideological crusade, proving that when you refuse to look at science, your only remaining option is to look for ghosts.
-AMV" (source - https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1453242396834772 )
I can't believe that Fox News is actually reporting this. How did it slip it past their editors? How did they allow this to be seen on their front page?
Huh, I'm curious what effect this knowledge might have (if any) on #transgender persons and their existence:
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1122852?user_id=688df53416db12a71511c696
Does it mean that we might soon find whatever "causes" transgenderism in the DNA and be able to filter it out of the population over time using #eugenics?
This is a moral dilemma, and top of my mind right now as I'm #actuallyautistic that they might consider something similar if they can find an "autistic letter".
Is it moral to prevent someone from being born the sex that they don't "feel" before they have a chance to feel that way?
Is it moral to "fix" people from having #autism?
This also isn't just a moral question, but also a #scientific one and practical one, because if you can code "out" undesirable traits, that could lean to population "gene shallowing". Anyone remember what happened to the #GrosMichel #banana? And what might be starting to happen with the #Cavendish banana if the #Panamadisease continues to spread?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_disease
If we started gene or even DNA editing en masse, we could be writing #humanity an early grave.
It's something to consider and #discuss, I think.
"Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not."
- Pablo Picasso
One of the few times in my life that I have EVER agreed with #tuckercarlson !!!
It is patently Un-#American to have centralized election control. That power must remain with the states alone.
At long last, the FINAL missing episode of MST3K has been found!
Fascinating. Good to know the "death to America" doesn't apply to all Iranians:
#Life is NOT a zero sum game!
Putting your name on something usually means that you OWN that thing, right?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clypeyx6nemo
Hmm... and yet some claim we don't have a king?
This is brilliant - a website where people sit in digital "queues" waiting to either "Ask an 'AI'" or "Be an 'AI'". Kind of like #Omegle, but without the creepy pervs!
For reference, here's an actual screenshot of the "live feed" a literal hour before Trump spoke yesterday (July 1) at the fair:
https://www.youtube.com/live/3ez0lw6tv64?si=3i99C1UNFrcEqWMy&t=17981
#trump #usa #sesquicentennial #America250 #trumpfail #trumpfailed #sesquicentennial
This one should go RIGHT to the #supremecourt, the #Trump administration is literally trying to use this to restrict an American citizen's speech:
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/28/nx-s1-5802997/fcc-abc-license-renewal-melania-trump-jimmy-kimmel
"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett
"The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts."
- Queen Elizabeth II
"How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?"
- Fred "Mister" Rogers
“We will explore. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will inspire—but ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.”
- Christina Koch, Artemis II astronaut
...wut?
Justice Department says law requiring president to turn over records at end of administration is unconstitutional - CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-presidential-records-act-unconstitutional/
#Bioshock thoughts:
Rapture failed because Ryan started going against his own principles. He started trying to control others, and started making laws banning things he didn't like, like bibles and booze, from the outside.
THAT is what made Rapture fall, not the concept of the city itself. It gave Fontaine/Atlas the power he wanted.
All because Ryan wanted to keep control of Rapture's ideology. HE wanted to control the world of ideas within the city. That is what led to its downfall.
He should have never done that. He should have stuck with his original principles.
Rapture could have succeeded, just as America could succeed, as long as the communal infrastructure requirements (City facility and infrastructure maintenance, mostly) was paid for by a constantly adjusted Rapture Sales Tax on non-essential goods and services indexed SPECIFICALLY to the estimated cost of running the place (plus a small increased buffer to account for the uncertainty of future catastrophic events, lets say 5% to make up a number to stert with that can be adjusted as necessary if it's found to be insufficient) divided by the estimated Gross Domestic Product of the city.
Hell, a sales tax on plasmids, ADAM, and all that alone would probably pay for Rapture to run indefinitely, and that's not counting all of the other luxuries. It might have also slowed that booming market down long enough for people to realize for themselves the downsides of splicing.
This has always bothered me about the Bioshock series. Fans and even the writers of the games seem to suggest that libertarianism is the same as essentially anarchy, and that's why it failed.
It's not. Libertarianism is NOT anarchy. It's not NO government. It's the minimal government we can tolerate to protect ourselves from each other's worst inclinations and ensure the communal good (emergency services, etc.).
He forgot his own creed:
"A man chooses, a slave obeys".
Replying to
@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to counterpoint postulation: any political system so overly complicated and obfuscated that the average layperson can't understand it with an hour-long conversation (social security, welfare, taxes, immigration) is that way INTENTIONALLY, so that things can be "hidden" from the public's sight.
Those systems should either be eliminated or simplified so that The People themselves can vote appropriately to decide who modifies them in the future.
Right now, most voters are in the dark about what their various government reps do on a day-to-day basis.
That's a problem, systemically.
If I didn't know any better, I would think that this would be satire. But sadly, it's not. Some people actually BUY INTO this kind of jingo-istic tribalist propaganda, can you believe that???
https:/ /www.foxnews.com/politics/600-groups-2b-revenue-mobilize-3000-may-day-protests-red-blue-alliance-probe-finds
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."
- Rachel Carson
Brilliant #ADHD
I've never read a more brilliant article on this disorder:
HELL yeah!
#congress #uspol #termlimits #us #politics
Congress is broken, and term limits are the deadline it desperately needs | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/washington-rewards-failure-time-send-career-politicians-home
This is funny, I just got #ChatGPT to basically admit that it wasn't capable of doing something:
"Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch."
- Hans Christian Andersen
The very definition of "conflict of interest". The #Trump controlled government is going to just outright PAY Trump over a billion dollars. It doesn't get much more corrupt than this:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-lawsuit-irs-leak-3729de38770b558be01712a143437bf8
@ada@blahaj.zone I hadn't considered that, thanks for the perspective.
Once again, the #Trump Administration doing what it can to #MakeAmericaDumberAgain #MADA #MAGA:
Replying to
@kcanales02@mastodon.social that's what most people don't get about our system and why it's the mess it is.
People think of being elected to office as being "hired for a job". That's corporatist thinking. It also leads people to thinking that reps need to be "Good at their job".
That's wrong, and it isn't what it was meant to be. The people we elect are meant to be CIVIL SERVANTS, acting as our representatives. Their only "job" is to listen to their constituents and pass along their constituents' wishes and desires "up the chain" to the rest of the nation.
A civil servant was meant to be a farmer one day, then a representative the next, and then after their term - GO BACK TO BEING A FARMER.
The longer someone spends in that office in Washington, the more out of touch they become with their people's true desires, and the less of a REPRESENTATIVE that they truly are. They become more influenced by the power centers of our nation's capitol than their own home town. They become more AFRAID of their donors that provide them with the money to get re-elected (i.e. "keep their job") than they are afraid of their constituents.
That is the sickness at the heart of American politics. America was NEVER meant to have "entrenched" organizations and systems.
It was meant to be run by a constant churn of civil representatives that actually represented their people, who came in, did their part, then left.
The ultimate crowdsourcsing, you might say, constantly bringing new ideas, new temperaments, and new perspectives into our nation's capitol.
Term limits would be a step back in that correct direction.
This looks fun:
https://www.myretrotvs.com/
Lovely...
So #American!!!
DC protesters rewrite “America the Beautiful" amid ICE, shutdown fight | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/media/no-kings-protesters-debut-rewrite-america-beautiful-verse-include-thy-immigrant
"Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a persons own mind—than on the externals in the world."
- George Washington
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
- Jackie Robinson