Stephen Thomas

Peace be with you.

I’ve become incredibly skeptical of leftist martyrdom stories. This might illustrate why:

If you think government programs are the answer to hunger, try eating the crap the government produces. I was lonely and alone a year and a half ago, so I attended the county lunches for the elderly. More for the hope of company than for the food. This is in Ulster County, a hip, natural foods oriented community. The county lunches were processed food trash. Inedible. Processed frozen fish sticks heated in a microwave. Canned fruit in heavy syrup. Lousy commercial foam white bread. Depressing. Tried it once and never returned.

Unfortunately, I can’t resist reading some posts on X’s “For you…” feed. This is where the crazies rant. Among the young people, the insistence that everything should simply be given to them is overwhelming. Their ideals for existence should simply manifest in reality because that’s what they want. Affluenza.

GPT produced this before and after pic of me. On the left, my current visage. On the right, GPT’s imagined pic of me after anti-aging tech and meds reverse my physical age to 40.

Today’s blog post: alwaysmerryandbright.wordpre…

When did it become government’s job to save people from “struggling?”

I asked GPT to depict me before and after anti-aging tech reverses my aging process and actually makes me “younger.”

Some day soon, I’m gonna be playing catch in Heaven with my dad.

I don’t understand the overwhelming pessimism, anger and resentment that dominates social media. We’re rich in the U.S. Obesity is an overwhelming health problem. Everybody’s got a cell phone. Most families have more than one vehicle. You wouldn’t know this from social media.

One of the interesting aspects of X posts is that I think most readers assume that they originate in the U.S. An astounding number of posts on my X feed come from Africa, and often from the most mismanaged, corrupt and war torn countries in Africa. Primarily Nigeria. On first reading, it appears that the posters are commenting on U.S. politics, and U.S. commenters seem to believe that. And, the posts from those African countries are among the most radical leftist posts on X. Which looks a lot different when you know it’s coming from Nigeria.

I drink a full Mr. Coffee 12 cup carafe of coffee almost every day. I grind my own beans (EIght O’Clock brand). My web reading is full of testimonials to the health benefits of coffee, but I’ve never really checked that out. The habit really got drilled into me when I was much younger and doing shift work in NYC.

Maybe I’m an outlier. I’ve never had a problem accessing or paying for medical care. I’m on Medicare now. Basically, everything except co-pays is covered. Throughout my working career, I was covered by my employer or by insurance I bought as a freelancer. It’s just never been a problem.

Why isn’t social media overflowing with gratitude? We live in the most prosperous, free and and peaceful era in human history.

Yes, I’ve named my Optimus “Wilma,” after one of my aunts. My 2023 Tesla Model 3 is named “Helios,” Greek god of the charioteers.