Author's archive
Idiot Test 0
Methinks he failed the test . . . .
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
At the Bangor Daily News, Bowdoin professor Aliosha Barranco Lopez explores the dangers of echo chambers, with a focus on QAnon. A snippet (emphasis added):
“Vote Early and Often” 0
It’s a Republican thing.
Afterthought:
No wonder they are so willing to believe Trump’s Big Lie. They are willing to cheat, so it’s easy for them to believe that others cheat too.
Echoes of the Pullman Strike 0
Sam and his crew discuss the new robber barons and their exploitation of workers.
Aside:
Karl Marx was a brilliant economist, but a lousy prophet.
He was wrong about the dictatorship of the proletariat and about the ensuing paradise of “from each according to his abilities and to each according to his needs,”* but he was damned right on the mark about employers exploitating the masses.
The best defense against worker exploitation is not Marxism. It is unions negotiating with employers for fair treatment of employees.
I know. I worked in a union shop.
Oh, for more about the Pullman Strike.
______________
*I suspect that Marx saw no way out of a capitalist dystopia, so he just made something up out of desperation and despair. But that’s just me.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another responsible gun owner . . . .
Crossing the Line 0
LZ Granderson opines that, thanks to Madison Cawthorne, we now know how far from the truth is too far from the truth in Republican World.
Leaks (Updated) 0
No, not news leaks. Water leaks.
If you do not have a leak detector, get one.
I have an inexpensive one, powered by a nine-volt battery (indeed, I just put in a new battery yesterday, as I do every spring and fall), that sounds an alarm when it detects water. It sits in the drain pan under my hot water heater and HVAC system, which in this place is in the attic. (Don’t get me started on how stupid it is to put this equipment in the attic for Pete’s sake. The only reason I can think of for doing that is so the developer could advertise [mumble] more square feet of living space. But it was a done deal when I moved here.)
Several years ago, that little leak detector sounded an alert, which led me to learn that my water heater tank was leaking and the heater needed replaced (I replaced it with a tankless water heater that works very nicely thank you very much). Tonight it sounded again, and I discovered moisture that means I will be calling the plumber to check things out tomorrow.
It was $15.00 well spent for me and would be for you too.
Addendum:
The plumber could find no leaks. He diagnosed the issue as condensation because of increased humidity.
I was happy to pay for the service call. It was a small price to pay for peace of mind.
The Common Denominator 0
The editorial board of the Sacramento Bee solves the equation.
Vulture Capitalists 0
A Quibble:
We are not in a period of “hyper-inflation” in any classic sense of the term.
That’s a misdirection play, and I contemn Farron for perpetuating it.
We are in a period of legitimate price increases due to supply disruptions caused by a world-wide pandemic (remember the pandemic?) accentuated by a war of aggression started by a would-be Czar and exacerbated by the accompanying uncertainty.
Byt, yes, companies are using this to camouflage price-gouging. Farron’s comments about predatory corporations looking to maximize revenues by any means possible without regard to the common good are quite on the mark.
The damage done to the commonweal by predatory practices justified by the glorification of stockholder returns as promoted by the “Chicago school of selfishness economists” is incalculable and unending.
Housing Shortage . . . of a Shortage of Houses? 0
The Portland Press-Herald’s Victoria Hugo-Vidal makes a cogent argument that it is, in significant part, the latter. Here’s a bit:
Every time someone proposed building more than two houses at once in town, the neighbors would come before the Planning Board and swear up one side and down the other that it was going to ruin the neighborhood . . . .