Talk To Me Internet: A Vision For A Socially Conscious #Startup

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It seems to me that there are two different things going on right now. On one hand, a lot of people have grown dissatisfied with Twitter and to a lesser extent Facebook. Meanwhile, a growing number of people are prepared to protest to in real life to bring down the Trump Administration.

So, I am proposing using this window of opportunity to found a new socially conscious social media platform startup that would be designed from the ground up to help people protest across the country on a regular basis. Now, the events that would motivate people to actually do this haven’t happen yet. Right now, people are more content being keyboard jockies than doing anything in real life.

But should Trump fire Bob Mueller or do any number of other things, that will be the spark that will cause a lot of people to hit the street. And it would be great if there was a service designed specifically for facilitating protests already in place, ready to go.

At the same time, a lot of people who the most upset about Trump — your liberal celebrity times — would be really interested in such a service and they might be enticed to leave Twitter and bring their content with them. If the service was designed from the ground up with much better control of trolls and bots, then those type of people would probably flock to such a service.

But, let me stress, I have no money, can’t code and don’t really want to learn. But I am good at the “vision thing” and organizing. So, I think given the opportunity I could at least organize this concept far enough long to get us to crowd funding.

And, yet, I have zero expectations. If I can get one person to help me in a serious manner that would be a shock. As it stands, I will probably grow bored of this concept soon enough simply because I can’t get any traction.

The Vision Thing: Using Social Media & 4 Way Video Chat To #Resist Trump

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It seems if you had a powerful social media network hooked up to 4-way video chat that would be an ideal way to organize massive regular national protests. This whole point of this issue would be to overcome the complex logistical problems associated with organizing massive national protests on a regular basis.

#Startup Concept: A Vision To End The Trump Regime Through Social Media

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

We, as a nation, find ourselves at a crossroads.

One path leads to dystopia. The president will continue to run roughshod over the Constitution and democratic norms that we have come to love and enjoy. The other path leads to a return to normalcy. The question is, of course, which one do we want to take.

It is pretty apparent that there is a real risk that Donald Trump, like a caged rat, is going to lash out in a big way in the coming days as things grow more dire. As such, we as citizens need to be prepared to take to the streets in a big way. A massive, historic manner that would put enough pressure on the Vichy Congress to finally force their hand on the Trump matter.

This will not be easy. It will not happen overnight. It will only work if weekend after weekend for months there are massive national protests. Right now, if you wanted to do that you’d probably use some combination of Facebook or Twitter.

I propose that only by designing a social media platform from the ground up that is designed to facilitate organizing protests will any series of massive national protests will take place. There are a whole host of issues associated with such a herculean task and you would have to give a lot of thought to the UX / UI of the site to figure out how to address the many problems that such a concerted national protest effort would have.

I would suggest you start a site as an app that would organize protests in a few major cities, then gradually built out the service so people in even small cities would be able to use the service to plot how to protest. Now, the beauty of this concept is once it’s built, it would be easy to convert the service into a real challenger to Twitter — or even Facebook — once it completed its original purpose.

The issue is, there is a growing amount of energy in The Resistance online, but not a lot of protests in real life. The service would be designed to connect potential leaders with local protests as well as make it intuitive to ensure that protests were legal in the eyes of the law. Only by keeping massive protests legal could you allow them to continue for the weeks and months needed.

Now, one issue is that if you build it, it’s possible no one would actually want to protest. But if history has show us anything about Donald Trump, it’s everything he touches dies. And he is going to do something really horrible, something so bad that there will be a tipping point and people will want to at last, hit the streets. So that’s why I’m proposing this platform now, so it’s ready and waiting when people want to take back their nation from the would-be tinpot dictator who now threatens the Republic.

#Startup Proposal: A Site Devoted To Facilitating Regular, Massive Protests #Resist

by Shelton Bumgarner

I think it’s time that members of The Resistance stop being keyboard warriors on Twitter and start to act in real life. It seems as though the United States — a country I love dearly — is quickly hurdling towards a dark and unknown (and potentially dystopian) future.

So, I am proposing a social media startup designed specifically to facilitate regular massive national protests with the intent of putting pressure on Congress to finally do something about the cancer on the Republic known as the Trump Administration.

Doing such a thing would be very complex and potentially time consuming. But if you designed an app or a site specifically from the ground up to meet the needs of this concept, then I think it would help greatly.
Regular massive protests on a national scale would have to be legal, civil and well organized. I would not want to use Facebook or Twitter because I find them cumbersome and too easily compromised by trolls, bots and MAGA haters who would want to disrupt thing.

Anyway, in my vision of things, the service would be set up like this: You would have Groups that were divided into threaded Discussions. One third of the screen — the right side — would be live text chat. If you wanted to start a threaded discussion with someone in text chat, you just hit a button and invited them into a video chat that could have up to four people in it. This would be done in the context of a Discussion (which would take up the other two thirds of the screen on the left). Below the initial video chat would be a place to write a full page blog post. The whole thing would be threaded and you could have inline editing of someone’s post.

But this is just the basic concept. As time progressed and problems arose that needed to be fixed, the service would evolve to meet these problems. Best of all, after Trump was brought down, the service would be repurposed as something of a “Twitter Killer.”

I suspect the only way to fund this site would be either an angel funder or crowd funding. I doubt you could get a traditional VC to fund it simply because they wouldn’t see how they could make money right away. I believe if you see this site as the core of a potential Twitter Killer, however, it would be a pretty cool investment.

Regardless, we need to strike now, before Trump does.

Talk To Me Internet: Struggling #Writing A #Novel & A #Screenplay

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Talk to Me Internet
In this one I talk about my #novel that I’m #writing and how I have another concept that should be a #screenplay, not a novel. I need to suck it up and realize I have two different creative opportunities on my hands.

Talk To Me Internet: Of Crushes & Middle-Aged Romance

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Talk to Me Internet
In this one I talk about middle-aged #romance and my need for a muse. I need to change my life, big time and it’s a just a question of how. I talk about my crush and how tragic it is in real terms.

Talk To Me Internet: We’re In A Crisis #TrumpRussia #Resist

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Talk to Me Internet
We’re in a crisis when it comes to #TrumpRussia and the next few days will be significant. There’s not much we can do about it. It will be interesting to see what #Mueller does on Monday. #Trump may freak out and do something crazy. I am also worried that Hillary Clinton is in real danger because of Trump’s insane behavior.

Talk To Me Internet: Of #Gab & #UraniumOne

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am really concerned that something tragic is going to happen because of the insane Uranium One rhetoric coming out of places like Gab. It’s simply completely bonkers and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s all leading us down a slippery slope that could endup with some truly horrible consequences that we can’t anticipate at this point.

We Have To Take The Possibility Of War Between The DPRK & US Seriously

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am growing ever more nervous about what’s going on between the United States and the DPRK. The issue, for me, is we just don’t know. We just don’t know what is going to happen next. It could be that this is nothing. It could be that we’re just going to muddle through and nothing changes.

And then there is a real chance that there will be a war between the United States and the DPRK. An example of this can be found below. This is now floating around the Twitterverse. I don’t know what to make of it.

The only reason why I think a war might happen is that with his poll numbers hovering at about 37% he needs a win. He needs a big win. And what better way to goose his poll numbers but with a major regional war in Northeast Asia. Given how nasty and yet ultimately fulfilling a war with the DPRK would be, it would be the perfect way to get his poll numbers up into the 80s, at least.

But I still believe there’s a good chance nothing will happen. I guess that’s the part I hate the most, the not knowing. The not knowing which way things will go. So, we’ll just have to see I guess.

Why Chelsea Handler Should Run For Office

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

With the announcement that Chelsea Handler is going to end her Netflix show to “concentrate on activism,” it is timely to raise the notion that she should run for office, maybe even for president. In this post-Trump era, she has all the skills needed to be an effective candidate.

She’s a celebrity, she’s caustic and she has some very well developed opinions. And I think she would give Trump — or one of his successors — a run for his money.

But we’ll see. Nothing fun-interesting every happens, especially if I suggest it.