First Looks category archive

Derek Donovan and Melinda Henneberger offer some tips for avoiding the potholes.

The post title is a bit tongue-in-cheek. Watch the video to see what put the tongue in the cheek.

We voted today at our nearest in-person early voting facility. As we are both above the cut-off age, we qualified for in-car curbside voting. It took approximately an hour to get to the actual curbside. According to the policeman who was directing traffic, today’s was the shortest wait of the week so far. As far as we could tell, both voters in their cars and those in line to enter the building were waiting quite patiently.

Now it’s your turn.

Image via Job’s Anger.

David talks with a caller from Dubai regarding the “undecideds,” particularly the purists on the left.

My two or three regular readers know how I feel about lefty “purists.”

I believe that one must vote in the real world.

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).