Author's archive
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Thom comments on the Trump maladministration’s acting to sue the city of Chicago for not keeping them uppity darkies in their place (and if you think my characterization of the suit to be a tad flippant, just watch the video).
Sizing It Up 0
A bit from the artist’s commentary (emphasis added):
Springsteen has been using his platform and calling out the needless cruelty of Trump’s policies at his concerts, which in turn elicited insults and attempts at intimidation from Trump.
The president’s response to a superstar musician criticizing how he’s running the country is to launch vague threats about not letting him back in the country. Silencing of critics is authoritarian level nonsense and the president’s willingness to go after celebrity members of the opposition is both incredibly petty and terrifying.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” practices courtesy on the concrete.
The Rule of Lawless 0
In a longer column discussing the Trump maladministration’s attempt to punish Harvard University for daring to stand up to it, Noah Feldman makes this observation, which methinks is quite en point (emphasis added):
As has become typical of the Trump administration, Noem’s action blatantly violates the law, not even paying lip service to it. Her letter didn’t even deign to claim that Harvard had broken any rules or regulations.
Instead, the letter embraced the “we can do anything we want” reasoning behind so many of Trump’s executive actions.
Vaccine Nation 0
Farron comments on what happens when a science denier is put in charge of an agency that (supposedly) relies on science.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Occasionally correct? As my old boss used to day, even a blind pig finds an acorn sometime.
Real Big Men 0
Does this article remind you of anyone in the news?
Sabotage as a Strategy 0
David sees a pattern. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)
Aside:
Yes, I was turned off by what little I saw of the commercial, but I think the David’s commentary is still worth a listen.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
The New Secesh’s efforts to white-wash (I use that term advisedly) America’s history find another target.
On May 20, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed all park units to display the signs to comply with President Donald Trump’s earlier executive order, which claims that U.S. history has been distorted by ideology and seeks to counter what it describes as revisionist narratives that portray the country’s past in a negative light.
To translate, the words
portray the country’s past in a negative light
is New Speak for
tell the truth about.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Attracting acolytes? Apparently.
Or you can read the transcript.
Afterthought:
No matter how gussied up they may be in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, how decked out that may be with bells and whistles and seductive voices, computers are tools that do what their programmers tell them to do.
We forget that at our peril
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
As we all know, politeness takes practice.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.
A Notion of Immigrants, One Man’s Story Dept. 0
Badar Khan Suri, a scholar at Georgetown University, tells what it’s like to be renditioned by the Republican thought police because he had the unmitigated gall to dare to express an opinion.