November, 2018 archive
Believe It or Don’t 0
At the Des Moines Register, Michael Bugeja considers how “social” media has changed the news. A snippet (emphasis added):
The audience no longer seeks information; it wants affirmation. That’s the cover-up.
What about coverage?
Two factors play into the media culture of lies. In the past decade, newsroom employment plummeted by some 23%. Increasingly, people rely on social media for news. According to the Pew Research Center, about two-thirds of American adults (68%) get their news from applications like Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Snapchat and the biggie, Facebook. An estimated 67 percent of Facebook users — and that’s a humongous amount of people (about 1.5 billion worldwide) — rely on the platform for affirmation.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Thom and Greg Palast discuss the latest updates on Georgia Republicans’ gut-out-the-vote efforts.
Misty Water-Colored Rose-Colored Glasses 0
Shaun Mullen is still an optimist.
Full Disclosure:
I have met Shaun. I had breakfast with him (mumble) years ago and that breakfast is one of my treasured memories.
I arrogate that it gives me the right to pull his chain.
Joking aside, I have nothing but respect for his reportorial skill, experience, and expertise. As I recently said to him, while I snipe from the sidelines, he digs into the details.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness gets waisted.
(snip)
A neighbor said her daughter ran to help the woman, whose boyfriend carried her out of the home and said she pulled a gun from his waistband and it went off.
The victim is recovering.
Scrap Medal Industry 0
Paul Krugman considers Donald Trump’s approach to awarding “Presidential Medal of Freedom.” A snippet:
Now, this may seem like a trivial story. But it’s a reminder that the Trumpian attitude toward truth — which is that it’s defined by what benefits Trump and his friends . . . .
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
When someone offers to assist you in your time of need, respond politely.
Orlando Police say a 16-year-old boy, whose home is near the 528, approached to the driver to see if he needed help.
The boy’s mother told police that the driver pulled out a gun and asked her son if he had a credit card and a car.
She says that her son said no and ran back home, where she could call 911.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout, in the voice of Archie Goodwin:
There is no point in being rude when you can end a conversation quicker by being polite.
Stout, Rex, Plot It Yourself, (New York: Bantam, 1977), p. 77.
Upcoming Strategies To Gut Out the Vote 0
Juanita Jean adds context (follow the link for more):
The Bend of History 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear looks back at World War I and then at the fool who declared that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow signified “the end of history,” and observes that
Follow the link for the full post.
Lurkers in the Dark, Reprise 0
The Sunday New York Times Magazine explores how and why law enforcement misread the threat of right-wing domestic terrorism.
It’s a long, complex, and depressing tale and, unfortunately, required reading for our times.
The Sessions Is Adjourned 0
Despite any ancillary circumstances, Tony Norman can’t find it in him to regret the firing of Jeff Sessions. A snippet:
Even as Mr. Trump regularly berated him on Twitter as “weak,” Mr. Sessions used his knowledge of the arcane ways of Washington to effectively undermine every reasonable expectation of justice on every level. Like a beaten dog that never tires of licking the hand of its abusive master, Mr. Sessions was always eager to please the president with some nefarious act of cruelty after disappointing him in the one matter that meant the most to him.
The abbreviated version of the sins of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as attorney general reads like a reverse polaroid of American values.
Follow the link for the bill of particulars.
