January, 2020 archive
The Abdication 0
As he contemplates the complicity of the Republican Party with Donald Trump’s conduct, Brian Greenspun is not optimistic. A snippet (emphasis added):
The nightmarish part of this whole thing is the way the Republican-controlled Senate has abdicated its responsibility to perform under the plan conceived by the founders to prevent a return of anything like a King George. That plan is called the Constitution of the United States, and for it to work, everyone has to play his or her part.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
Adrift in the Pettifog 0
Greg Kesich is not impressed by Maine Senator Susan Collins’s decision to pick nits. A snippet:
Instead of demanding to see every last shred of evidence of the president’s conduct before she voted on whether he is guilty of manipulating America’s foreign policy and national security interests to cheat in an election, she chose to get lost in the weeds.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
. . . but Lizzy Acker wants you to leave your support serpent at home.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Cleanliness is next to politeness.
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.
No Place To Hide 0
Farhad Manjoo points out that it can–is–happening here. A snippet:
(snip)
Indeed, because of a dearth of laws protecting our privacy — and almost no high-profile political discussion about the stakes at hand — Americans are sleepwalking into a future nearly as frightening as the one the Chinese are constructing. I choose the word “sleepwalking” deliberately, because when it comes to digital privacy, a lot of us prefer the comfortable bliss of ignorance. As a result, much of the surveillance engine operates underground — just beyond where many of us dare to look.
Speaking of sleepwalking, I was talking with someone this morning–in person, in fact–who dismissed our own corporate digital surveillance society by saying, “Everyone does it anyway.”
“Social” Me Me Me Me Media 0
Everyone’s a brand, amd everyone else is a prop.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, politeness is child’s play.
When officers arrived, they discovered a 2-year-old with a single gunshot wound.
They say the child was alert and able to communicate while being taken to the hospital. . . .
Officials say they believe a sibling was holding the gun when it went off.
Them What Has . . . . 0
Gene Nichol looks at the effect of Donald Trump’s economic it-would-be-dressing-them-up-in-Sunday-go-to-meeting-clothes-to-call-them policies. A snippet:
