Bad Democrat

The last Morgan Wallen album that he put out had 37 songs on it. I didn’t love them. I’m wondering: did he do it because he has something next that’s major, or did he really think, ‘hey, I want this 37-track album to be huge’? I don’t think it was a bad year to do something we’d look over the slightest bit. But next year, I want him to come up with another album that has a song like Chasin’ You or 7 Summers. Morgan Wallen is major, but maybe not as major as when we all thought ‘Morgan Wallen is so big’.

I saw a room when I was researching Atlantic City for a trip I’m taking, and it looked like a rest stop I saw one time in upstate New York. It was like octagonal and a good color with wood and that upstate New York font. I love that stuff so much, and I love that area of the country.

I saw a map of the states Democrats are trying to target for the general election, and I thought it was really interesting. I remember Georgia, Ohio, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, and there was one that was new on there. Or maybe it was also that Democrats are targeting New Hampshire instead of it just being a checkpoint. I almost feel like West Virginia was on the map, that’s how industrial it felt. Interesting. What changed? Could it be that Democratic voters are not in the most obvious states in the world and are in a number of side-center states?

I decided that I’m not going to invest in the stock market with the money I just got for my birthday early even though I thought I might invest like 200 in an oil index fund and the S&P 500. I decided not to because I want to spend the money on going to some nice restaurants and I don’t think I’m being a moron, I think I’m being smart because something tells me it would fall apart. Even though it would be cool to be like oh, 20 more dollars in my account all the time. I just wanted to flag that I’m not being unsmart by not doing the “wise” thing, investing a little bit of my money so it can grow, because it doesn’t feel right.

I think that ESSO is going to perform really well for the rest of the year because it’s Exxon oil primarily used by the rest of the world. The brand reminds me of the Middle East and it’s connected to America, although its ties to other countries actually seem stronger. I think the rest of the world is having a moment based on the war showing so many riveting images of the Middle East (but they’re saying that America is the connector).

I wrote this without googling “ESSO stock”, then I did, and saw this in the AI autofill part of google:

Esso S.A.F. (EPA: ES.PA / EH8.F) is currently undergoing a major transition as ExxonMobil divests its stake, resulting in high volatility and a significant price drop in mid-2025 following a special dividend payment. The company is transitioning to a new entity, with recent trading around €65-66 (as of March 2026), reflecting a sharp decline from previous highs after paying out the special dividend.

The “special dividend payment” is because Exxon divested its shares of ESSO and the company is restructuring. This summary is a dramatic difference from what I predicted, based on something I didn’t know. “Learning”. Not quite. I am actually suggesting that I am coming up with ideas based on AI stating I’m dramatically wrong because late last year I wrote two or three posts about how AI wasn’t going to be the boom we thought it was. And oh, look at what’s happening with Anthropic.

I’m not sure how the United States would determine who is a citizen if it weren’t for birthright citizenship. If you are born and raised in the US, could your citizenship all of a sudden be up for review due to birthright citizenship ending? What if they chose me? My ancestors came from Russia and Poland in the early 1900s. It would be unprecedented, unclear, and horrifying to revoke my citizenship, not to mention a terrible mistake. Why am I even bringing it up? Because I don’t get it. I don’t know what gives me a leg up over a Hispanic person who was born here.

We are all familiar with the story of the college dropout who does something inventive and original in spite of the suppression of the normal path. But not everyone who does that is acting in good faith. When that is the case, it’s the story that leads us to neglect the bottom-line product and maybe four or five reservations we had about Elizabeth Holmes, that we overwrote because we wanted the story to be there. It’s a good thing we have that–it’s a sign we have hope and optimism. But we repeatedly overwrote our honest reactions to things about her and her company that were not adding up. We don’t want to live there again.

A Russian oil tanker arrived in Cuba yesterday, carrying a humanitarian shipment of 100,000 crude barrels of oil. Cuba hasn’t had access to oil for months because of regime change in Venezuela. Trump told his press corpse that he thought it was fine.

What I wanted to say about that is that it’s righteous that we’re doing regime change in Venezuela, as well as in Iran, and that’s because of the terror threats that live there. I feel this way because the US military backed it in the first place, because there were attacks on drug boats on the left side of Venezuela (and not just the right, and for better or for worse just the right side of a narrow entity is what we’re used to seeing on a map), and because Iran has been intent on building nuclear weapons for decades and for some reason we don’t believe it’s so they can not use them. That’s what I believe. And the politicians carrying on about the costs of war are overcoming that serious feeling of danger.

The last time I ate McDonald’s for breakfast, there was a bone in my food and I haven’t been able to bring myself to order it again. I really enjoyed their breakfasts and now I don’t have it anymore. I’m wondering why fast food I like gets corrupted if I order it enough. I’m upset to not have McDonald’s breakfasts? And I’m trying to turn it into a post.