March, 2021 archive
“Societal Malpractice” 0
Sam and his crew report on the little girl who’s selling lemonade to pay for an operation and what it and the news coverage of it tell us about the American health care industrial complex.
The Disinformation Superhighway, Facebook Frolics Dept. 0
A new study indicates that Facebook is the high speed lane on the Disinformation Turmpike, particularly for right-wing rot. Here’s a bit from the news the NPR report.
But it wasn’t just one day of high engagement. A new study from Cybersecurity For Democracy found that far-right accounts known for spreading misinformation are not only thriving on Facebook, they’re actually more successful than other kinds of accounts at getting likes, shares and other forms of user engagement.
It wasn’t a small edge, either.
Follow the link for more about the study and its findings.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The New Jersey Attorney-General wants to look behind the lead curtain.
Vaccine Nation 0
At The Roanoke Times, Dan Casey chronicles one woman’s month’s long journey to score a COVID vaccination appointment.
(Here on the farm, we’re still on the waiting list.)
The Fakers 0
John Fluharty, once the executive director of the Delaware Republican Party and now a registered independent, is not happy with the current state of his ex-party. Here’s a bit of his article:
As most recently evidenced by failed U.S. Senate candidate Lauren Witzke’s revealing spat with openly gay Trump advisor Ric Grenell, there is an ascendant faction of fake conservatives who believe that bigotry, intolerance and exclusion represent the party’s path back to political prominence. These fake conservatives are energized, emboldened, and believe — mistakenly — that they are the rightful inheritors of the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan.
Follow the link for the rest.
Aside:
I have some quibbles with the first part of the quotation, but none at all with the last part.
A Day in the Life 0
At the Hartford Courant, an American child of Indian immigrants to the United States describes the casual stereotypes and bigotry (some would call them “microaggressions,” but they are still aggessions) that she encounters every day.
If it doesn’t tear your heart out, it’s because you don’t have one.
