Political Theatre category archive
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Thom and Heidi Siegmund Cuda hear some very scary rhymes. A quote:
It can happen anywhere where you can get a mob together over fear and othering and have them become your foot soldiers for fascism.
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*Mark Twain.
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Afterthought:
Do I think Biden should have pardoned his son? No, not after promising not to.
Do I understand why he did? Yes
Hunter Biden was not being prosecuted. He was being persecuted, solely because his father is Joe Biden.
If his last name were, oh, just to pick one, Kushne–oh, never mind.
Field Work 0
Does this remind you of anyone in the news?
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
A mixed bag. Most definitely.
Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders look at how AI may affect politics. Here’s a tiny bit of his most excellent article:
At the national level, AI tools are more likely to make the already powerful even more powerful. Human + AI generally beats AI only: The more human talent you have, the more you can effectively make use of AI assistance. The richest campaigns will not put AIs in charge, but they will race to exploit AI where it can give them an advantage.
But while the promise of AI assistance will drive adoption, the risks are considerable. When computers get involved in any process, that process changes.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Dick Polman is fed up, or perhaps, more accurately, tired out. In his article bidding farewell to the political column he has written (and I have followed) for two decades he notes, almost in passing, the damage done by the disinformation superhighway:
I commend his entire piece to your attention.
Q. It’s the “Else” 0
David Hyde has question relating to someone in the news:
Follow the link for context.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Thom hears some rhymes.
_______________
*Mark Twain.
Ethics Schmethics 0
Farron discusses unsigns of the times.
Afterthought:
If you don’t have any, how can you sign for them?
The Vice of the Turtle 0
Writing at the Portland Press-Herald, Lincoln Paine voices his fear that the election of Donald Trump may signal the death knell of American democracy (and, frankly, I doubt he’s alone in that fear). And he points a finger:
But the people who lost our democracy are the Republican leadership, starting with Mitch McConnell.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Mike Barrett is not Harding of hearing.
He hears a Republican rhyming from slightly over a century ago.
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*Mark Twain.
A Dental Examination 0
Michael Hiltzik drills through the conspiracy mongering, deception, and outright lies behyind RFK Jr.’s crusade against fluoridated drinking water and concludes it could lead quite literally to decay in our society.
Here’s a bit:
Who would benefit from the end of community fluoridation and a recrudescence of tooth decay? Dental supply companies, investors in which are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of more demand for their products. For example, shares of Henry Schein Inc., a distributor of specialty dental products, have risen more than 9% since RFK Jr. was named as Trump’s choice for HHS secretary.
Taking Exception 0
Methinks this cartoonist has got it exactly backwards as to who failed to learn from history.
And methinks we shall all pay a great price for that failure to learn.
