February, 2021 archive
Facebook Frolics, No, You Can’t Unsay That Dept. 0
Connie Schultz looks at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook frolics and reminds us that, despite Greene’s recent (and likely less than sincere) repudiation thereof
Follow the link for her reasoning.
Recommended Reading 0
A History of China, by Wolfram Eberhard.
As one who trained as an historian, I believe that the past illuminates the present. Knowing China’s past will help you understand the China we deal with today. I commend this book to your attention.
And Now for a Musical Interlude 2
Afterthought:
Why do so many of today’s female pop singers choose to sing in voices that sound like little girls?
I mentioned this to my friend today, and she has the same wonder.
Lies and Lying Liars, Facebook Frolics Dept. 0
Rachel reads Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “lasers from space” Facebook post, after citing Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s statement that Greene told him she knows nothing about it.
Via C&L, which has commentary.
“You Can’t Fire Me! I Quit! 0
Farron finds that Donald Trump’s letter resigning from SAG completely congruent with his personality. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Rescue the victim with politeness:
However, the gun fired, striking the driver in the leg.
The Stock Market Is Not the Economy, Crooked Wheel Dept. 0
Drew Magary took a flyer on the Robinhood app and ended up with very little john, which led him to form a theory about how the stock market works is worked. (Warning: Language.)
Individual stocks may go way up or way down, but the market itself only knows one trajectory. They’ll never let the whole market sink even if certain stocks eat curb. When the pandemic hit, what was the first thing legislators worried about? It wasn’t you. It wasn’t your favorite mom-and-pop pad Thai joint. It was the market. Who’d the legislators bail out in 2008 when the banks collapsed? Not you. The banks. Why? To keep the market up. They’ll never let it fail. All of their interests, regardless of party, coalesce within it. Hence, the average American’s best way to survive the vagaries of the market is to invest in ALL the corruption, not in bits and pieces of it.
That means index funds.
Recommended Listening 0
The Film Mystery, by Arthur B. Reeve.
In addition to being a decent mystery read quite competently, it was written in the age of the silents and is an interesting journey back in time. It will recall you to the film-making techniques of an earlier era.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
If you must maraud masklessly, be sure to maraud politely.
Instead, he showed up at the back of the restaurant with a gun. At first restaurant staff was confused as to what he wanted because the cash registers were in front.
And then things started to get weird. . . .
War on Christmas Redux 0
David looks at Republicans’ responses to criticisms of Marjorie Taylor Greene and suggests that “cancel culture” is the new “war on Christmas.” (Warning: Short commercial at the six minute mark.)
In Words of One Syllable . . . . (Updated) 0
Above the Law’s Kathryn Rubino reports on Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation law suit against Fox News and its dupes, symps, and fellow travelers.
The introduction to the filing is a doozy.
Addendum:
The lawsuits seem to bearing fruit.
Mayhap a working weapon against the purveyors of piffle has been found.
The Misinformation Superhighway 0
After drawing a distinction between misinformation and disinformation, Aditi Subramaniam offers some reasons as to why we are susceptible to misinformation (think the clickbait headlines that Snopes is so fond of debunking) and some techniques for dealing with it.
She starts by telling a story of her own trip down the rabbit hole of a clickbait headline (follow the link below to see what she discovered about said headline and its tenuous connection to facts, as well as for some hints to help avoid falling down your own rabbit holes). Here’s a bit of her article.