The Privatization Scam 0
In the midst of a longer article about a school voucher scheme buried in Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bilk, Monica Dickson, almost as an aside, gets to the heart of the privatization scam:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Self-politeness is the politest kind.
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.
This New Gilded Age 0
The editorial board of the Bangor Daily News looks at Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and sees little more a transfer of wealth from the poor to the already wealthy, with a healthy side dish of mean for the sake of mean.
I commend their editorial to your attention.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
In the event of a disagreement over how close is too close whilst parking vehicles at the big box store, settle said dispute with politeness.
We are a broken society.
Define Your Despot 0
At the Des Moines Register, Steve Corbin offers a taxonomy of tyrants.
Go read it and ask yourself whether any one of them sounds familiar.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
A good listener? Could you repeat that once more all over again, please?
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Kansas resident Dion Lefler listens to Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and hears a big ugly rhyme from Kansas’s recent past.
________________–
*Mark Twain.
The Rule of Lawless 0
The Arizona Republic reports that right leaning Arizona State Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick is worried. Here’s a bit of the story, which refers to the Trump maladministration’s arresting and detaining immigrants (and some American citizens thought to immigrants, likely because of the color of their skin), often without cause and with observing due process:
Bolick said Miller’s comment about potentially suspending habeas corpus if the courts didn’t do the right thing could be seen as a way “to intimidate the courts to reach decisions that they favor.”
The entire report is worthy of your attention.
Facebook Frolics in the Surveillance Economy 0
The EFF explores the Zuckerborg’s latest scheme for assimilating you and suggests some steps you can take to protect yourself from assimulation. (Audio only. Pretend you are listening to a radio show. Remember radio shows? If you don’t, see the OTR category on the sidebar, over there ——>.)
You can read the synopsis here.
Truth in Labelling 0
Methinks my old Philly DL friend Noz raises a relevant point.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
A glutton? Gobble gobble gobble.
At Psychology Today Blogs, Nigel R. Bairstow reports. Here’s a bit:
(snip)
It feels paradoxical. In our personal lives, AI helps us become more efficient, more informed, and even more productive. But zooming out, this same efficiency comes at an environmental cost that’s anything but efficient for the collective. The irony is stark: In the name of productivity, we may be undermining the very ecosystems that sustain our long-term prosperity.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Brotherly politeness:
The man was sitting across from his teen brother and handling a gun, trying to fix it, police said.
He raised the gun and pulled the trigger, fatally shooting his brother in the head on accident, police said.
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.