Geriatric CrossFit Tips - 2025 Update

It's been over 12 years since I started CrossFit at 53 and three years since I wrote my previous Geriatric CrossFit tips. Since that last post I've aged as one does -- and been through a very helpful back surgery. More about that later sometime. Suffice to say my personal best lifts are probably all behind me now.

Here are my tips updated for age 66:

1. I do my own warmup before the group warmup; it takes about 30 min. It starts with a 15 minute bike ride to the box, then a mix of PT exercises, static holds, and general barbell work off the rack including back/front squat and strict press/handstand hold.
2. Old muscles take a while to activate and tire quickly.  So adjust reps accordingly. (Perhaps the dying mitochondria?)
3. You need to go at least 3 times a week to be able to do things safely, but 5 times is too much at my age. Joints and muscles take longer to recover.  I think I'll be 4 times in winter and 3 times in bike season.
4. If you are an active retired person you now have time to overtrain. Which is a real thing that I have experienced.
5. If you are doing CF at 66 you are probably very good about physical therapy. I do a lot of informal PT based on past experience and online refs.
6. Forget about those old Personal Records. They are dust in the wind. I used to sometimes do "Men's Rx" WODs now I sometimes do "Women's Rx".
7. I don't do 100% any more; 80-90% is fine. My goal is that I can always do another round. I do a lot of bicycling, so I have no guilt about scaling the cardio so I can focus on lifts and gymnastics. That 10-20% buffer is helpful for avoiding injury.

Rough personal notes on review of management of degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis with lumbar spinal stenosis and pseudoclaudiation

Every so often I review a medical topic and stick my notes into Simplenote for later reference. The reviews are quite messy since it’s just for my use. For what it’s worth, some hasty notes on this topic.

IMAGING

Initial Plain film: spondylolysis/listhesis. Standing flexion/extension lateral plain film, oblique (for pars interarticularis), AP for severity. (or just lateral, oblique and AP). See https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2179163-workup

Considering surgery: MRI (neurosurgeon will have preferences)

---------------

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2270383/
Degenerative spondylolisthesis - European perspective - 2008

“Symptoms of neurogenic claudication that cause the patient to stop and sit after less than two blocks of walking usually correspond to the time, when the patient consents to surgery …

…. The plain radiographic features include the essential finding on a lateral view of forward displacement of L4 on L5 or, more rarely, L5 on S1 or L3 on L4 in the presence of an intact neural arch. Defect of pars interarticularis (which has the appearance of a Scottie dog with a collar) that can be seen on lateral or bilateral oblique views helps to distinguish between DS and isthmic spondylolisthesis …

… Only 10–15% of patients seeking treatment eventually will have surgery…

… The intervertebral spaces of the slipped segments were decreased significantly in size during follow-up examination in patients in whom no progression was found. LBP improved following a decrease in the total intervertebral space size. The development of osteoarthritic spurs, hypertrophy and ossification of the intervertebral ligaments, and facet arthrosis may lead to secondary stabilization that prevents slip progression…

Indications for surgery:
1. Persistent or recurrent back and/or leg pain or neurogenic claudication, with significant reduction of quality of life, despite a reasonable trial of non-operative treatment (a minimum of 3 months).
2. Progressive neurological deficit.
3. Bladder or bowel symptoms.

--------------

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6357993/ (2019 review, neurosurgery)
A systematic review of the literature has shown that delaying surgery for a period of conservative management is not associated with a worse surgical outcome and that surgery is more effective than continued conservative treatment when conservative options have failed for a period of three to six months…
… minimally invasive surgical approaches that preserve stabilizing paraspinal musculature …

————————
Some other odds and ends:

- We suggest that the angular instability of the intervertebral disc may play a more important role than neurological compression in the pathogenesis of disability in degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (this was weird — from MRI study of axial loading)

- Vanderbilt neurosurgery study from 2014 claimed medical management didn’t work but it looked like a horrible study

- BMJ review of 2016 was down on non-surgical treatment but not super keen on surgical. Consistent with trying conservative management for some time before trying surgery.

Back pain: an untreatable condition? NYT

Healing a Bad Back Is Often an Effort in Painful Futility

Americans $26 billion a year, or 2.5 percent of the total health care bill, according to a new study from Duke University, and far more if disability payments, workers' compensation and lost wages are taken into account. The costs are rising, researchers say, as patients get ever more aggressive forms of treatment...

Yet for all the costs, for all the hours spent in doctors' offices and operating suites, for all the massage therapy and acupuncture and spinal manipulations, study after study is leading medical experts to ask what, if anything, is doing any good.

A variety of studies have suggested that in 85 percent of cases it is impossible to say why a person's back hurts, said Dr. Richard Deyo, a professor of medicine and health services at the University of Washington. And most of the time, the pain goes away with or without medical treatment.

"Nearly everyone gets better, nearly everyone improves," said Dr. Deyo, citing evidence from large epidemiological studies. But he cautioned, "Getting better doesn't necessarily mean pain-free."

Surgery, too, is under new scrutiny, with a national study getting started at 11 medical centers. About 1,000 patients with the problems that most often lead to surgery will be randomly assigned to have surgery or not. The problems under study are herniated disks, spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal canal that usually occurs with arthritis and aging, and degenerative spondylolithesis, a slipped vertebra.

One of the investigators in the study is Dr. James N. Weinstein, a Dartmouth professor of orthopedics and community and family medicine and the editor in chief of Spine, the professional journal that published the Duke report in its January issue.

"I've met with two groups who said they fear the results will take away their practice," Dr. Weinstein said. "I don't know how to deal with that. I don't know what the results will be."

Back experts say it is clear that surgery can make some patients feel better immediately.

"Let's say you have a herniated disk and let's say you have leg pain and let's say you are as miserable as hell and you convince somebody to operate on you," said Dr. Michael Modic, chairman of the radiology department at the Cleveland Clinic. "You have a 95 percent chance of waking up with no pain."

... Those with disabling pain for three or four months have just a 10 percent to 20 percent chance of getting better in the next year.

For this group, some doctors are now advocating a different approach altogether: teaching people to live with pain, to put aside the understandable fear that any motion will aggravate their injury. They have to learn, Dr. Weinstein said, that "hurt doesn't mean harm."

In programs often known as functional restoration, that is the goal. Patients are trained in strength, flexibility and endurance. They are counseled about their fears of re-injury and about anxiety and depression.

It can be difficult to get them back to work, noted Dr. Bigos, of the University of Washington, because many left their jobs on disability and had bitter disputes with their former employers or with insurance companies. "Usually, lines have been drawn in the sand by one or both sides," he said.

But success is possible, said Dr. Thomas Mayer, director of a clinic called Pride, for Productive Rehabilitation Institute of Dallas for Ergonomics. Among the 3,500 back patients who entered his one- to two-month program and completed it, almost all returned to work and nearly half went back to their original employer, Dr. Mayer said.

"We deal with it face on," Dr. Mayer said. "What are you going to do for the rest of your life? What are you getting from being disabled? What would you get if you were not disabled?"...

---

This short article is packed with a lot of interesting information. There's an unexplored backstory as well. In the 1980s a federal agency (AHCPR) published guidelines on back pain that deemphasized interventions and studies. A backlash led by orthopedic surgeons essentially destroyed the AHCPR. The AHCPR entered a witness protection program, changed its name, and now lives a quiet but useful life.

Overall the results would come as little surprise to most physicians. I think most family doctors have slowly come to much the same opinion. Exercise and weight control seem to be the only truly useful interventions. In the 1990s there was muted enthusiasm for prolonged narcotic therapy, but that appears to have waned. Chronic narcotics work for some, but misuse harms others -- overall a weak solution.

At the same time as we shift to managing chronic back pain through lifestyle changes and pain management techniques (neither of which will be adequately funded -- it's far easier to get compensation for surgery), we also have research showing a relationship between persistent pain, brain atrophy, and the development of distributed hypersensitivity to pain.

Short of radically reengineering the human back, or moving into the sea, we're stuck with back problems. It's one of our design flaws (the others relating to the fragility of cognition). A weight loss pill will help some, but many people with chronic back pain are not significantly overweight. A drug that reduced the brain's maladaptive response to chronic pain would be even better.

Update 8/1/2010: I was wrong about this. There are good interventions.

MAGA anti-science and public dissatisfaction with science - public surveys as input to funding priorities

The GOP/MAGA opposition to science is based on theocracy, class resentment, future shock, social and economic despair, and on not understanding how to use a 2025 phone (which is a bigger problem than you think).

That doesn't mean it's wrong.

I have worked in medical and IT related academia, industry, and government. I have seen important topics go unexplored -- because governmental research funding is driven by politics, tenure goals, avoiding difficult or intractable topics, seeking areas that have short-term opportunities, and a strong aversion to failure.

Osteoarthritis is very common -- but gets relatively little research because we don't understand it. Cognitive disorders, including autism and schizophrenia, are very common but we know little about natural history, longitudinal course, and etiology. Even the very definitions of neuropsychiatric disorders are overdue for review and revision.

And these are only the areas that come quickly to min for a hasty blog post.

It won't lesson MAGA/GOP hatred of science, but there are good reasons to seek public input into research priorities through surveys and interviews.  Public input could, for example, be added as a weighting factor in government funded science -- particularly in health care.

American science has a long road to recovery and it will need support from those who are not utterly opposed to reason. There is an opportunity to make it better.

How to defeat MAGA brutal medicaid access restrictions: fund an AI agent for paperwork completion

In a solid interview with the esteemed Jonathon Gruber K proposes a mitigation for the GOP's reduction of medicaid access through bureaucratic barriers only the most resourceful can overcome: "... is it possible for a few wealthy, decent people to fund a bunch of nonprofit private organizations that will basically do that, that will help people navigate through the system."

Ummm. Sadly, no. K has no personal experience with the world of government disability services, but as very well resourced parents of adults with disabilities we know better. There is no way any volunteer can endure the tedium and mad aggravation of bureaucratic barriers. Famously, scholars of bureaucratic corruption in Africa (who can now apply everything to America) sometimes suggest bribery as the most economically efficient way to bypass these kinds of extractive barriers.

But there is another way.

We could fund an AI agent that gathers the data, stores it, identifies gaps, fills them where possible, asks only for what is needed, accepts voice input, assembles the material, and submits it. Then, when the submitted paperwork or electronic transaction inevitable goes missing, submits it again. And again. And again. Until something cracks on the MAGA barrier and the transaction is completed.

The AI never tires. Never gets sick. Never gets bored. Never wavers. It's effective IQ for this process is the very top of the human scale.

If AI leadership is looking for an opportunity to see the value of agentic AI here it is.

Minnesota's Mesabi Bike Trail - A 2025 Review

This past weekend, over two days with a night in Virginia, a friend and I road Minnesota's newest old trail - The Mesabi Trail across the northern Minnesota Iron Range.

The Messabi trail is unlike any other bike trail I've been on. It's beautiful with abundant wild flowers, a little bit insane in its ambition, and a credit to local champions and state and federal government programs that support low income rural America. It has been pieced together over 30 years from smaller local trails and extensive new trail construction in severe terrain and severe climate -- requiring painstaking negotiations with the lawyers of the wealthy investors (ex: Astors!) who purchased mineral rights in the 1920s and 1930s. Last year the MN Star Tribune described the trail.

We did the entire trail between Ely and Grand Rapids. It's marketed to be ridden in the other direction, but doing it in reverse shortened our drive home. We parked at the trailhead in Grand Rapids and took the excellent shuttle to Ely. There's a modest altitude drop from Ely to Grand Rapids, but traveling east to west as we did does run into the usual westerly winds. We were fortunate to have excellent weather.

Around the middle of the trail you cross the Laurentian Divide. To the west water flows to the Mississippi, to the east it flows to Hudson Bay (there's some complexity with the St Lawrence divide where water flows to Superior and the St Lawrence river but I didn't sort that out).

This is not one of those flat and straight rail trails we know and love. This trail has extraordinary bridges over wetland a mining waters but it often follows the terrain. Terrain that includes many punchy climbs and descents. I have never shifted my old touring bike triple chainring as much as I did during our trip!

The trail is beautiful and often lovely to ride, but unless you have an eBike there is real work involved.  We did roughly 70 miles each day with panniers and it felt more like a 90 mile road ride. Work is continuing on remaining segments. Severe weather washed out a segment near Giants Ridge, on a weekend we were able to duck under the barriers and (easily) ride through -- there was no obvious alternative! One unfinished section of the trail requires a few miles on no-shoulder but quiet road. There are gravel segments. Expect debris on the trail; the weather can be harsh at times.

If I were to do it again I'd either do it over 3-4 days or do it in segments and spend more time visiting the communities and admiring the scenery. On the other hand, given the time we had, two days was excellent.

The trail is both an adventure and an education. You can see many of the issues that are common across rural America -- people who established roots in places that no longer have an economic foundation. You pass through extensive open pit mines now being replaced by nature, sometimes on a narrow ridge between vast pits, sometimes between and over piles of removed rock. This is all more engaging and lovely than you might think.

Some lessons and tips from our experience.

1. Order the paper trail map. I am surprised they don't provide a PDF version of this. If you don't order in advance they are available at trailheads.
2. There are some long stretches, especially between Ely and Virginia, without water access. We needed a LOT of water. Two big water bottles were not enough for some stretches. I'd recommend an additional bottle.
3. You need to use the Ride With GPS segments they provide. The trail map is not sufficient for navigation given limited signage and ongoing trail construction.
4. You want a bike with a wide gear range and at least 32 mm tires for the gravel stretches.
5. In several towns there is only the local pub to get water or food from. This area has been losing population, especially young people, for generations. Some towns have lost local groceries and local restaurants (other than the pub).
6. I always had mobile coverage. That's good because this is a remote and rugged area and on several segments we saw very few people.
7. Signage is limited. I don't know if vandals are removing them or if more sign work is planned for a later stage.
8. Periodically check the satellite view to see what's outside the trail. One of the amazing things about this adventure is seeing nature reclaiming the old mines.
9. Try to spend some money in the local communities. They need it. There is usually at least a pub, if you don't want a beer gets some fluids or snacks or a meal.

Paper trail map: You want this.

Trailhead arches display town name

Historical exhibits along trail

Town MN McKinley / Great War monument

Pontoon bridges are LOUD but spectacular wetland view

MN highest bridge east of Virginia - this is a pit mine

Virginia has steam vents for a system that once heated the town

Saywer is one of many state funded parks and monuments in Virginia

WPA fountain later restored. A testimony to government really

Trailside exhibit, one of last of underground mines

Downtown Virginia, much is gone but some new gems

All the brown is open pit mines - mostly invisible from the trail

Prediction: A post-AGI American democracy will be socialist

I hope AGI is decades away. I fear it is years away.

If AGI comes in the near future we will have widespread unrest and turmoil. From that one path leads to a totalitarian dictatorship. But if we somehow dodge that, and resurrect something resembling a democracy,  the governing party will be socialist.

That's the only American democracy prediction I have. Otherwise I have no idea what happens next.

When and why did the America Republic derail? A citizen perspective

Historians will debate when America derailed and why. They may be interested in the perspectives of an everyday generic citizen. Well, future historian, here you are.

TLDR; 

• when: 1998 America started to derail. The Republic collapsed in 2024.
• why: too much too fast

Longer version

I pick 1998 because that's when America stopped making sense. Tech stock valuations were growing with the dot-com bubble, and the finance industry was taking off. Globalization and the rise of China and India was in full swing.

After 1998 America got wealthier, but manufacturing moved away. The historic "middle class" of home ownership, stable employment, vacations, benefits, started to require a college degree or small business ownership. Work favored by non-college men was less available. The post WW II collapse of rural America accelerated. Technological change and the cognitive demands of increasingly essential technology grew quickly. The average person no longer understood their telephone. From 2000 to 2010 America had rapidly growing IT powered fraud and scams (Enron was just one example), 9/11, the catastrophic invasion of Iraq, and the Great Recession of 2008.

Since 2006 or so, I've written about these themes as mass disability, the Rise of China and India, complexity, proliferating fraud exploiting vulnerable adults, the Left Behind, and the problem of disequilibria (too much too fast), 

Today, in May 2025, as I look over the train wreck of the first American Republic, I think all of the above played a role. Most of all globalization and IT, but even more fundamentally too much change too quickly. There is a speed limit to how quickly humans and human societies can adapt to change, how quickly our train can take the bends and turns. When the limit is hit the train derails. Then we hope there's a period of slower change while we try to put the pieces back together.

Tesla Takedown - how I think about it

TeslaTakedown (#TeslaTakedown) events occur nationwide. I put those in the MSP metro region on the nokings.kateva.org calendar.

The TeslaTakedowns are a legal and peaceful response to the catastrophe of Elon Musk. They are not a perfect response however. Tesla auto retailers and workers don't deserve to suffer for Musk's crimes. This is how I think about the movement.

What is Musk doing that threatens America, Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Ukraine and pretty much everyone else not living under Putin?

1. Corruption: buying votes, conflicts of interest, funding Trump corruption

2. Breaking the constitution: Laws are for the little people, not for the Kings and Barons.

3. Breaking government: Careless and cruel destruction of American science, government services, and governance. 

4. Putting Tesla dealers and workers in harms’ way.

Musk is unconstrained by the rules of government employment. The weakness of the American state means he has only one potential vulnerability; his wealth and influence decline when Tesla's share price falls. TeslaTakedown's goal is to reduce Musk's power. If Musk had a shred of honor and integrity he would compensate Tesla dealers for the harm he has brought them. If the Tesla board respected the company they would fire Musk.

We aren't protesting because Musk is a lousy person, a liar, a coward, a bully, and a crap father.  We aren't protesting because Musk is without honor or integrity or compassion. We protest because Musk is causing great harm to America and to most of the world outside Russia and China.

No Kings: A calendar of Twin Cities (MSP) events for the resurrection of American democracy

nokings.kateva.org lists Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St Paul) metro region events supporting American constitutional democracy and governance against the Musk-Trump assault. It is updated weekly based on the sources listed on the page. Currently those are:

• 50501
• Action Network Tesla Takedown zip 55105
• Indivisible
• Mobilize.us
  
• No Voice Unheard Protest Listings
  
• Stand Up for Science

The site uses the Google Calendar platform; you can have the events show up in your Android, iOS, macOS and Windows calendars.

When the MAGA say "woke" they mean "secular humanist"

I've long wondered what the MAGA mean by "woke" and why they hate it so much.  A recent essay by the scribe of the technarchy, Noah Smith, answered my question.

Smith writes

N.S. Lyons is a popular essayist in the “national conservative” tradition...  He is well-read and well-informed ... 

In a recent essay entitled “American Strong Gods”, Lyons identifies what in my opinion is a deep truth about our current historical moment....

... Lyons believes that the end of anti-Nazism as the West’s guiding principle will pave the way for the return of morality, community, rootedness, faith, and civilizational pride ...

... the American Right views wokeness as a greater threat than the potential return of Hitler ... 

If the great threat is wokeness, then presumably it is opposed to the things Lyons praises. I don't know what wokeness is, but let me suggest, based on that list, that woke is a synonym for "secular humanist". I'll go through each of Lyons values and say whether secular humanism (and liberalism) is opposed ...

1. Morality: The MAGA are without honor, integrity, compassion or decency. Their morality is about the supremacy of wealth, the rightness of strength, and the joy of crushing enemies. But it is a morality of sort and it's very different from secular humanism. Secular humanist morality is much closer to traditional Christian thought but with a primary focus on people.  Opposed.
2. Community: Libs (sec hum variant) are more concerned with individual freedom and tolerance than with tribe or community.  Somewhat opposed.
3. Rootedness: Perplexity tells me that by this the MAGA mean "historic and cultural heritage". Like statues to slaveholders. Myths and stories, many untrue. Secular humanists favor truth and reality - albeit with the knowledge that humans need stories and untrue stories may facilitate less terrible behavior. Opposed with caveat.
4. Faith. Secular humanists tend to be agnostic or atheistic and favor people over religious belief. Opposed.
5. Civilizational pride: Similar to rootedness. Again, myths and stories, much omitted. No slavery, no genocides, no slaughters, no crimes. Again, secular humanists favor truth and reality. Opposed

The shoe fits. When MAGA speak of "woke" they mean "secular humanist", which they probably consider the same as Lib. They are correct to say "woke" (secular humanist) is the enemy.

Project 2025 - the Perplexity Summary

I don't have the patience to dig through Project 2025. I was hoping a journalist I follow would do an opinion-free overview but I haven't seen one. So I asked Perplexity Deep Research to extract themes. I italicized the ones that I have not seen discussed very much. It does not seem to be an expression of a coherent ideology; rather it seems to be a political document collecting opinions of powerful individuals. A lot of it is about education and schools.

• Administrative state: Dissolve Education, EPA and Homeland Security.
• Defund Head Start.
• HHS gets education
• Dept of Education funds go to school vouchers
• Seed conservatives throughout the civil service
• Put the FBI and DOJ under presidential control. Use National Guard for immigration enforcement.
• Flat tax and corporate tax cut
• Eliminate overtime pay rules, weaken NRLB, relax OSHA rules.
• Promote fossil fuel industries by reducing environmental regulations. Reverse carbon emission regulations, promote Arctic drilling
• Reduce reliance on foreign manufacturing (PDB claims 2025 is internally inconsistent about tariffs vs free trade).
• Restrict abortion by banning medication mail and defund Planned Parenthood
• Rescind LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination rules in healthcare and foster care.
• End civil rights enforcement in schools
• End Title 1 funding (money for schools with high percentage of low income students)
• End Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IEPs, transition services, least restrictive environment etc). There is no federal replacement noted so presumably this all goes to the states.
• Defund NPR and PBS
• Pornography restrictions
• Ban TikTok, ban Confucius Institutes, block Chinese critical sector investments
• Defund climate science, downsize NOAA
• Privatize National Flood Insurance Program
• Reinstate border wall

The full perplexity report includes critiques of these measures. I hadn't wanted those but LLMs have a "mind of their own" as they say. Apparently LLMs think Project 2025 is kind of dumb. 

As a certified squishy Lib I can see the logic of some of them. The weirdest parts are the trans and porn obsessions. The funniest part is the TikTok ban. The fossil fuel thing wins "most insane". The cruelest part of 2025 may be removing support for persons with cognitive disabilities.

Dramatic cuts to science research and the antivaxx movement don't seem to be coming from Project 2025, those may be a Musk/Trump thing. Greenland/Canada also seems to be a Musk/Trump obsession.

Repairing a broken America - where the Trump oligarchy is vulnerable

I expect it will be transiently reversed, but the Jan 21, 2025 federal informer program was a historic marker. Nobody will be able to say they did not know.

The key to restoring a liberal democracy to America will be to identify and publicize Trump actions that his voters will find disturbing.  In a Bluesky thread I identified several measures that I think may resonate with non-college white men and women. I don't think Musk's impulsive nazi salute or the passing of liberal democracy or similar outrages will have much traction. I think these topics might. I will update this post as I collect ideas from more informed sources than me.

1. Corruption. I believe corruption has been the downfall of many authoritarian governments even in nations that are much further from a functional democracy than America. Do not tire of pointing out the corruption of Trump and his oligarchs. Do not omit the corruption of Congress (including many Dems) and of the Supreme Court.
2. Eugenics: Trump, Musk, Andreesen et al are true believers in eugenics. They believe that breeding must be encouraged among the cognitive elite. (Don't assume that the oligarchs are simple pigment racists, they will be more or less happy to include any cognitive elite.). They key here is that their eugenics enthusiasms exclude the majority of Trump voters. Most of them would not qualify as breeders.
3. Medicine: I will not be entirely unhappy if RFK leads HHS. If immunization rates fall low enough we will see some outbreaks of truly horrible diseases among (mostly) unvaccinated children. The images will resonate with Trump voters. Mothers in particular may be unhappy.
4. SCOTUS: If America has a future the Roberts Court will be counted among the most corrupt in history. I have a hunch there is a special vulnerability there.
5. Religion: There is a reason church and state were separated hundreds of years ago. America has many religions and many sects. They all compete for funds and followers. They all believe they know the true way, and that their rivals are at least somewhat wrong. There is a strong Catholic component to the Trump regime (esp SCOTUS), that cannot please his Protestant fundamentalist followers. Do not fail to remind Trump's religious fundamentalists that he his oligarchs are all agnostic or atheist.
6. Andreesen's Federal Bitcoin reserve: The use of "taxpayer money" to give Andreesen an exit from his bitcoin holdings will resonate with the Trump base. They do not mind oligarchs, but some will resent this.
7. Crushing support for cognitively disabled children: Andreesen and Trump seem to have a particular dislike for the support of cognitively disabled children. Their language and cuts are particularly cruel. (They apply to cognitively disabled adults as well, but that cohort is less photogenic.) In my experience conservatives are often personally supportive of the cognitively disabled and more sympathetic than many Dem elite. This cruelty should be exposed and shared.
8. Informer programs: The people of East Germany did not care for the STASI. Many of the Trump base will be offended by informer programs. Do not fail to publicize these.

It is two years to the midterms. Our goal is to show the Trump base that they have been cheated and betrayed. Some will vote Dem, many will decide not to vote. The 2026 midterms are the next battle for American democracy.

PS. I created a Perplexity page to gather advice from our AIs.

The Jan 21 2025 Federal OPM informer program is a historic milestone

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) informer program launched within government on Jan 21 2025. This is a historic milestone.

 [1] “… If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days.”

https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Memo%20Initial%20Guidance%20Regarding%20DEIA%20Executive%20Orders.pdf

I think this may come to be seen as a tactical mistake. It is too early to launch informer programs, too early to turn colleagues into STASI style informers. The shape and form of the memo will rouse some. 

I worked for the Veterans Health Administration for six years and received DEI training during the Biden administration during the brief time the staff program ran before internal pushback ended it. I remember (fallible) one of our instructors as a black woman. Almost certainly a veteran. Patient, gentle, cautious -- the sort of person who will have friends and supporters. They will be unhappy.

I would not be surprised if the memo is rescinded and the author reassigned within the Trump administration. As I said - too early. But whether or not it is reversed, the wake up call is clear. Nobody will be able to say they did not know.

I am retired and, to be honest, I have been a bit at loose ends. In an odd way this is the sort of thing I've been waiting for. I'm reaching out locally to set up some in person discussions and networking for peaceful resistance and support.

On DOGE and government efficiency: bad software, bad regulations, underfunded commitments and more

I spent six years as a mid-level (regional) federal bureaucrat in VHA. I'm also a tech and economics geek with 20 years experience at a very large publicly traded corporation and through our children I have extensive experience as a consumer of federal government services. Lastly I don't have to worry about offending employers or colleagues.

All of which is to say that if you want to think about President Musk's government efficiency push these thoughts may be helpful.

1. The Federal government hires a lot of people to work around both software limitations and a rats nest of Congressional mandates and regulations that may have been well intended but are now obsolete and harmful. The mandates and regulations are only added, never removed.
2. Much of the federal government is outsourced to huge consulting firms that benefit from both less awful internal software and freedom from many federal mandates and regulations (famously including many laws constraining law enforcement). They take a large cut for themselves so their net efficiency effect might be positive or negative. If government became more efficient then much of that outsourcing should be reversed -- but that would drastically reduce campaign donations and post-political employment for public servants.
3. Government software quality was pretty good in the 80s and into the 90s. I've seen some good work in past few years, often by a very quiet semi-volunteer SV cohort that was brought in by Obama, survived Trump I, and continued through Biden.
4. The Federal government lives by unfunded mandates and underfunded commitments. Inefficiency in many forms is a major way to reduce spending on those commitments. A more efficient government would employ far fewer people but would spend more money. The net effect might be negative.
5. If software quality were improved, even without removing dysfunctional internal mandates and regulations, large numbers of working class American would lose what are often low paying but secure high benefit jobs. Even as the overall economy has far less to offer the non-academic class than it did even 20 years ago. Inefficient government employment is a model for what we will need to do for most Americans as our AIs develop.
6. The main reason federal software quality is poor is because federal software procurement follows rules set up in the 1980s to reform defense department purchasing and because of mandates designed to support military veterans and historically disadvantaged populations. These rules are incompatible with creating and maintaining complex software.
7. If government switched to modern software platforms there would be a huge expenditure to upgrade IT infrastructure.

That's about all I have. I know there are others who can offer far more detail, but they will usually be unable to speak freely. If you are a journalist I suggest hunting down other retired mid-level federal bureaucrats.