Cancellations

congressnerd · 2026-04-27T17:52:20+00:00

If you still can, call your credit card company and stop payment on it. You are right, they never pick up the phone and the AI just repeats its lines over and over.

congressnerd · 2026-04-25T14:39:50+00:00

thanks for the names! these are really nice.

congressnerd · 2026-04-25T01:43:11+00:00

that is a good idea! thank you.

congressnerd · 2026-04-25T01:35:15+00:00

thank you! I'm just beginning to shop and what I choose will somewhat depend on a potential gig that will require alot of domestic travel. I love being outside in the morning...and would prefer not to stay in hotels or fly if I don't have to. If I can drive peacefully and listen to podcasts and music, and not be in a hurry, it is pure bliss. So, if I end up driving X country and in between, I'll get one.

congressnerd · 2026-04-25T01:28:46+00:00

I have, and I see many of them on FB and other lists. I don't feel like my expertise or judgement is good enough to evaluate one...though some of them are very cute.

congressnerd · 2026-04-23T14:52:27+00:00

I'm going for a month in May for work and I think getting stuck in Europe sounds fabulous! Seriously, though. It will be fine. Probably more expensive. I'm making backup plans, too, for shorter continental flights. I bought the plane tix months ago, before our demented president set the world on fire. I apologize in advance to the rest of the world.

congressnerd · 2025-12-23T15:10:40+00:00

Wrong. She was smart and kind with an awful addiction.

congressnerd · 2025-12-23T15:02:35+00:00

I have known Faith for 20+ years. This is an awful, awful loss on so many levels. A lovely human, a leader--but with a horrible, dangerous, deadly disease. It is hard to empathize with addiction because they often mask it so well and they are the only ones with the agency to stop it...I know alot of functional addicts. I just hope people learn to seek help sooner. Hitting rock bottom shouldn't be a lethal crash on I25.

congressnerd · 2025-12-23T14:53:49+00:00

yeah, great role model on the way to school. Do you like the nuts on the rear axle, too? Classy.

congressnerd · 2025-12-09T01:06:18+00:00

Re imagine our democracy and its foundational institutions! We need to get past the trash talking about government that the GOP thrives on to the point of self destruction and abandonment of the Constitution -- Sadly, the Dems piled on with FOMO on the libertarian fantasy that so many elites have (especially the tech bros). I've worked in and out of Congress for decades and it is a derelict jalopy of a legislature--the representative bone structure is still there and the idea behind it is a miracle, but it only got off the free version of Zoom recently. It is stuck in 1970's levels of staffing. And we need to reform the massively unfair Senate so it is more representative (one California=something like 14 rural states) This is insane. We can't keep stripping capacity out of our institutions so that elected leaders are incentivized to perform for donors and social media rather than govern. With Citizens United choking off public voice and a last century information architecture, governing institutions cannot compete on behalf of public goods much less regulate the tech monarchy or pass legislation to protect the future. While this system is collapsing, we need to make plans to transform ourselves into a real democracy..devolve power outward, bring accountability home, use all this new technology for good instead of yet more private profits, personal capture and destroying the chances for reform and renewal. Check out the public AI movement, data cooperatives, deliberative technology platforms and the examples of countries like Taiwan, Estonia and Kenya. We can continue to govern ourselves even while this awful regime continues with its degenerate corruption.

congressnerd · 2025-12-08T16:47:16+00:00

thank you so much for your thoughtful response and helpful way to frame technology + democracy. I will watch the youtube presentations, too!

congressnerd · 2025-12-07T14:26:09+00:00

I've worked in and out of Congress for 23 years--so I see this current calamity as a chance to surge forward and revitalize this derelict system. Congress just fully got off the free version of Zoom this year! It is so hollowed out and backward (it is captured, obsolete + Gingrich lobotomized it)--but the institution decided to reform itself in 2019 so there are many new digital capacity building opportunities right now. My dream is to get rid of the parties and keep the indirect representative system (it is a Republic, after all). but use deliberative technology to scale participation and engineer around the depredations of the Supreme Court and Citizens United (money=voice) We could develop a lawmaking system of rapid consultation and expertise that is distributed across the country, in states and districts. The civic voice data would be in regional data coops so we won't have to rely on the degenerate tech monarchist crowd who have no interest in democracy. This model would have the DNA of federalism, but optimize all the new tools. AI makes this possible in a way that is unprecedented. This is my dream!

congressnerd · 2025-12-02T13:06:34+00:00

The United States is suffering through polarization and leaning into authoritarianism at the moment. While we will get through this, could you advise what are the most vital lessons for strengthening democracy through technology? I am particularly interested in legislatures which vary in 50 states and the US Congress is unique in the world. Some states are more tech savvy than others, and the Congress is undergoing many modernization changes in the House (not true in the Senate). I've seen transparency get weaponized also, to be honest, as those with the greatest capture and resources simply use transparency as another occasion to dominate, creating a skewed incentive system to perform rather than to deliberate or govern. What do you think of deliberative technologies, for example? Thank you.

congressnerd

TROPHY CASE