2016 archive
The Poisoning of Flint, Reprise 0
The no account just can’t be held accountable.
The Bully’s Pulpit 0
TPM points out that the Great Shakedown is under way.
The Other Victims of “Fake News” 0
Seattlepi reports on the family of a man whose picture was stolen, falsely labeled (and libeled), and used in a “fake news” story.
It is not pretty, but it does make this clear: those who create and propagate “fake news” (AKA “lies”) don’t care who they hurt, nor how badly they hurt them.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness promotes pediatric precociousness.
A 3-year-old boy has been shot at a home on the southwest side of Tucson, authorities said. . . .
According to Tucson police, a 7-year-old boy found a gun and shot the other child. Bay said it appears the shooting was accidental.
Mammonfacturing Tradition 0
From the Bangor Daily News comes Stephen Carter’s short history of American Christmas. A nugget; follow the link for the rest.
Our current struggles over the holiday should not be viewed as the inevitable waning of the sacred and the triumph of the secular. It’s more accurate to say that the secularization of Christmas that so many claim to hate represents a return to the old days.
All that Was Old Is New Again, Throwing Granny under the Bus Dept. 0
Thom points out, almost in passing, a truism: “Big lies are always based on small facts.”
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Henry A. Giroux sees a dark future of reaction and repression in the United States. Here’s snippet:
The repressive racial state is certain to intensify and expand under Jeff Sessions — a strong advocate of mass incarceration and the death penalty, and a white nationalist spokesman for the Old South. The Nation’s Ari Berman observes that Sessions is “the fiercest opponent in the Senate of immigration reform, a centerpiece of Trump’s agenda, and has a long history of opposition to civil rights, dating back to his days as a US Attorney in Alabama in the 1980s.”
Sessions has a long history of racist rhetoric, insults and practices, including opposing the Voting Rights Act and addressing a Black lawyer as “boy.”
Much, much more at the link.
Facts Are What People Think 2
Zandar cites a study that shows over half of Republicans thinks that Donald Trump won the popular vote, when in fact it lost it by approximately three million; he finds this disconnect from reality disturbing. A snippet:
It was never about jobs, or the economy, or the facts. It was about assembling like-minded individuals into an army to destroy those unlike them. It’s the definition of a cult.
The Cult now in fact rules the entire federal government, and most states. When the reality of the damage that they cause settles in, the Cult will simply convince America that the Others are the problem. The Others have to go. The rest of you? Join the Cult or else.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Pals play politely.
(snip)
“There aren’t any charges being brought against anyone right now,” Stephens said. “We no longer have a statute that really covers securing or the proper securing of weapons or things like that.”
Droning On, Facebook Frolics Dept. 0
El Reg reports that Zuckerborg’s junior bird men don’t seem to be doing so well.
The United States’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) late last week published a report about the incident that says “On June 28, 2016, at 0743 mountain standard time, the Facebook Aquila unmanned aircraft, N565AQ, experienced an inflight structural failure on final approach near Yuma, Arizona. The aircraft was substantially damaged.”
Twilight Zone of the Vanities 0
Rekha Basu shares her nightmare of a Gordon Gekko world:.
Follow the link for the rest, if you dare.
No Place To Hide 0
In the snares of the snaring economy:
Spangenberg, who was hired by Uber in March 2015 as a forensic investigator, goes on to say, “Uber collected data regarding every ride a user requested, their username, the location the ride was requested from, the amount they paid, the device used to request the ride, the name and email of the customer, and a myriad of other data that the user may or may not know they were even providing Uber by requesting a ride.”
And that’s just for starts.
Uber, natch, is shocked! just shocked! that anyone would think there is gambling in their establishment . . . .
