First Looks category archive

Windows 8 in a VirtualBox VM on Ubuntu MATE v. 18 LTS under the Fluxbox window manager.

David Horn is somewhat disenchanted with today’s Republican Party. An excerpt:

In normal times, supporting the leader of one’s party is common. Parties exist to do things, and doing things requires a group effort. But there is also a greater duty than party, and that’s where the GOP has gone off the rails. A quick review of the GOP during the Nixon era shows how parties faced with internal misbehavior should react. It’s not that way now. Instead, this GOP has locked arms in full support of everything their leader does, no matter how repugnant and, more to the point, illegal. They have chosen obsequious compliance with clearly immoral, unethical and criminal behavior, and that can’t stand.

Follow the link to find out what he really feels.

It was an auction.

I’m old.

I can remember when (at least some) Republicans had whaddyacallit? integrity.

Image via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

_____________________

*With apologies to Harry Shearer.

A fraternal Trumpling.

Writing at Psychology Today Blogs, Clair Jack considers what motivates internet trolls and how best to deal with them. A snippet:

The research showed that trolls had high levels of cognitive empathy, which means they are fully aware of the impact of their actions on other people. However, they were lacking in affective empathy which is associated with “being able to feel like other people feel”: the ability to internalise other people’s emotions. Put simply, they know they’re hurting you but they really don’t care.

If you spend any time on the inner webs, and obviously you do or you would not be seeing this, I commend the entire piece to your attention.

What Noz said.

At the Hartford Courant, Heidi Stevens points out that, for “law and order” to be a meaningful concept, the scales of justice must be balanced.

Indeed, I would argue that, in American politics, the slogan, “law and order,” is commonly employed to mean order without (equal protection under the) law.

Here’s a bit of her piece:

When President Donald Trump accepts the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention — from the South Lawn of the White House, which itself violates the law — and says, “We must always have law and order,” we have to ask ourselves which laws he wants upheld, and what order looks like to him.

(snip)

A call for maintaining law and order, without the acknowledgment that neither is applied fairly and equally in this country, is little more than a call for maintaining the status quo. And the status quo has left far too many people out of America’s promise of equal protection, equal rights, equal opportunity.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

These are the true “outside agitators.”

Via All Things Amazing, an image site (some images NSFW).

From Pine View Farm turns 15 today.

Who woulda thunk?

See the study Farron references.

Juanita Jean has a suggestion as to an appropriate name for the malr equivalent of a “Karen.”

I just deleted a comment that Akismet, quite correctly, had idenfied as spam. It offered to provide umpty-ump comments for every $5 I was willing to pay.

I am quite happy sitting here shouting into the void from the relative obscurity of my third tier blog, and I will be damned if I will pay anyone to deceive my two or three regular readers into thinking I am anything other than who I am.

Furrfu.