One of the things I miss the most about the 1900s is that people didn’t expect you to be reachable 24/7. Even though cellphones had been around since the 80s very few people had one. That meant that most people could only be reached through the family landline. If you didn’t answer people would just assume you were out of the house, thus unreachable. That all started to change in the 2000s when cellphones became common place. Now days I feel like everyone expects me to pick up when they call, and if I don’t they expect a better excuse than “I don’t feel like talking right now.” As a very introverted person who often needs a lot of alone time, it sucks, and sometimes I really wish I could go back to a world without cellphones.

To be fair, of the three leading causes drug poisoning deaths saw the largest increase.

In 2023, 4,455 children and adolescents were killed by guns—a 3.9% increase since 2020. While motor vehicle crash deaths rose 8.6% over the same period, drug poisoning deaths, including overdoses, were the third leading cause of death, up 12.7% since 2020.

I just had an idea for a totally fictitious short story about a president who keeps pressing hard for new ballroom, but it’s actually just a ruse for a new state-of-the-art top secret bunker that is being built underneath it. Anyways, this absolutely fictional president needs this ballroom/bunker because they’re not planning on leaving office after their second term, and their plan is to wait out the impending civil war from there. This could be a fun story to write, but I’m a little worried that it’s too far-fetched.

Also they really think that when society breaks down the people with guns they hired are going to follow the billionaire’s orders when they could just be the ones in charge?

I think many are banking on these new AI robots and drones improving enough to be their protectors/slaves.

Whoosh!