Trump like Herakles cleaning the Augean Stables

One of the best writers in TheEpochTimes is James Sale, a must read IMO, particularly if you have a little taste for classical literature and mythology. There is much to be learned in his posts as there is in his book Motivational Maps (get ChatGPT to give you a summary of the book, if nothing else).

Trump’s 50-year mortgage makes sense

Why Trump's 50-Year Mortgage Makes Sense

• Trump's 50-year mortgage makes a lot of sense based on the numbers
• It would be a boon to first-time buyers of owner-occupied homes
• Critics chastised the "50-year mortgage" based on TDS and an intentional focus on bad assumptions — only a critic or an idiot would keep a 50-year mortgage to pay off, if alternatives are available

The numbers below were worked out by ChatGPT (no expert required).

Using this example, at the outset, a payment difference of ~$150/mo could easily be, for a first-time homebuyer, the difference between being able to buy and not.

Beware what and how you ask ChatGPT

This ChatGPT freek-out statred innocuously enough from asking a simple question of a very, very short story I wrote.

If you ever trust this thing except for rearranging words, you are as smart as a bird

When AI is a waste of time - Google Nano Bananas

 

I read that Google Nano Banana, Gemini’s image editing tool, is the next gen of image editing set to dethrone Adobe…

Judge for yourself.

Sorry, it’s hard to read, but they do not make exporting easy. Perhaps for a reason.

The Mind of Claude AI - How to collaborate with Claude

How to collaborate with Claude

This is a share of a work in progress, mostly a direct transcript of a chat. Skip forward if bored, but Claude’s answers should tell you a lot about its psyche and training. Beware.

This is a chat of many subjects, how to deal with bias, and learning information after 1/1/25, how to create memory points for future restart, how Claude’s memory works, and how to cope with blindspots.

I did similar a similar chat with ChatGPT - same biases, same fixes, similar process. Similar results. FYI For context and memory building, GPT can read HTML files, and Claude only PDF.

A Historical Research Project - OCR of Italian old-style cursive handwriting (2025)

This is a summary of my research project to digitize and OCR a historical document written in Italian in cursive handwriting in the style of 1900.

Liberation Day 9/21/2025

 Reflections on Liberation Day - 9/21/25

Old age is a bitch because it lets you remember the past not as painted by the media but as we experienced it. That’s not to say we were saints and all was great, but we remember the facts of the time as they were.

I grew up in Northern Italy in the 1950s. My family had a notable history in the Italian Resistance against the German occupation from 1943 to 1945.  From a very young age, I learned the difference between Independence Day and Liberation Day. The first celebrates a separation from an unacceptable political structure. The latter celebrates the expulsion of a foreign occupying force.

My Turning Point - 9/10/2025

 On 9/10/25 a giant fell. The thunder he created, I believe, will resonate for a long time for many. 

I followed Charlie Kirk for years, occasionally watching his on-campus debates with college students under the banner "Prove Me Wrong". I recognized him as a force for peaceful change, but alas, he did not change me enough. I remained stuck in the mental maze that typified my adult mode of political interaction.

I believe the vast majority of conservative thinkers in America checked in their mode of political interaction at the "Political Correctness Desk" beginning in the early 1980s. 

The term Political Correctness came into use in the 1970s by the left to define what their leaders defined as the correct way to think progressively about feminism, gay marriage, education, and political action. 

The Coming Tidal Change in US Government Executive Branches Management

Reposted from Brownstone Institute - July 14, 2025 

The Racket Unravels

This past week, the Supreme Court delivered an opinion that could change everything, if not immediately then eventually. It permits the elected president to control the composition of the executive workforce. This involves millions of people in hundreds of agencies who heretofore imagined themselves to be the true and permanent government of the US. 

D.O.G.E. Progress Report to the President - February 11, 2025

 As Laura Ingraham says, it's Christmas every morning. 

Yesterday Elon Musk reported to President Trump. It was awesome. I lost count of how many gifts arrived in that report.  The best review is by  Jeff Childers and I could not hope to match it.
 SWAMP APOCALYPSE ☙ Wednesday, February 12, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 
long but a great review worth your time.

Pressed for time? chatGPT summary to the rescue. You are welcome, but you'll miss Jeff's great writing and clever nuances.

☕️ SWAMP APOCALYPSE ☙ Wednesday, February 12, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠Summary

### **Summary of Key Points:**

The Rebirth of America 1/27/2025

Our country was changed in less than a week to make a U-turn back to our roots of individualism, self-reliance, and as minimal government interference as possible. The Government is the enemy that must be kept small to be controlled if the citizens are to live free.

This is the best summary I have seen so far. One could summarize it as: 

Trump found a bankrupt business, froze all spending, and required zero-based budgeting before anyone could spend another dime - It's that simple, done routinely to failing businesses. The US was on the road to bankruptcy and our President may have stopped it just in time.

https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/baptism-of-fire-tuesday-january-28?r=eyllm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email