May, 2022 archive
Birth of a Nation 0
Thom discusses the origins of today’s Republican Party.
Aside:
Would that I were as optimistic as he.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
At the Houston Chronicle, Jeffrey Littlejohn opens a photo album and sees the history that Governors Abbot and DiSantis and their dupes, symps, and fellow travelers don’t want taught in schools.
Chaos Agents 0
The Arizona Republic’s Elvira Diaz explains.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Both in raw numbers and on a percentage basis, the United States has one of the worst responses to COVID-19. At Psychology Today Blogs, Clifford Lazarus looks at how disinformation, spread largely on the disinformation superhighway, has contributed to this and, indeed, has harmed to polity in general.
He makes three main points.
- Misinformation results in a dangerous erosion of trust because it makes it very hard for people to share a common set of agreed upon facts.
- Without trust in one another our country will fracture and fragment creating a vicious circle leading to the decay of our democracy.
- Misinformation is very deadly and highly “contagious.”
Follow the link for a detailed discussion of each.
American Exceptionalism . . . 0
. . . appears to mean making an exception for portable phalli.
Our Own Tower of Babel 0
In a fascinating discussion, David interviews Jonathan Haidt about what led to our becoming a society of stupid (hint: “social” media isn’t).
Read Haidt’s article.
(Missing word found.)
Immunity Impunity
0
Not long ago, the bus carrying the women’s lacrosse team from Delaware State University, an HBCU, was pulled over for a minor traffic offense by the Liberty County, Georgia, sheriff’s department, then the team’s luggage and belongings were searched with drug-sniffing dogs.
The sheriff’s office maintains that racial profiling was in no way a factor. (Also, pigs. Wings.)
New Jersey Advance Media’s Ande Richards spoke to one of the members of the Lacrosse team about her experience.
(snip)
Kelly Harris, the director of Africana Studies at Seton Hall University, said this case exemplifies an instance where the police could be telling the truth and are wrong at the same time.
“They could have pulled the bus over for a routine incident. However, because racism is so entrenched in our society, treating Black suspects differently has been normalized — to the point that many police do not recognize their shortcomings,” he said.
Suffer the Children 0
. . . and again we are reminded that that phrase is not scripture, but, rather, Republican policy.
A Cracked Shot 0
Mangy comments at his Youtube page:
Wayne LaPierre is held in high regard by many NRA members who supplied him with the money he used to help pay for the $300,000 worth of suits he bought himself at member expense. (a small portion of the millions he lavished on himself and his wife, courtesy of NRA dues and donations.)
One of Wayne’s more self-indulgent projects was to have a film crew document him as he roamed the African savannah in search of a trophy elephant to ‘bag’. One his guides had located an elderly, blind, slow elephant for Wayne to courageously blast, and Wayne’s poorly-placed shot downed the elephant, but didn’t kill it. From a distance of about 12 feet, Wayne pounded three more rounds into the elephant, missing the spot where the guides had helpfully pointed, saying, “Shoot it RIGHT here!”.
With the elephant still alive and well aerated, a guide finally took his gun, and properly put the pachyderm out of its misery, after which there was much congratulating of Wayne, since he’d paid their salaries, or more precisely, NRA rubes had paid their salary. The embarrassing “adventure film” of the expedition was ‘buried”, since slowly torturing an elderly elephant doesn’t really synch with LaPierre’s desire to portray himself as “A good guy with a gun”. Thank goodness, in Wayne’s hunting party there was one ‘good guy with a gun’, but that was the guide, not LaPierre. The only problem was, in the end, the guide shot the wrong dumb animal.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Steven M. does a deep dive into the marketing methodology of the merchants of politeness.
Also, too.
The Voter Fraud Fraudsters 0
Once again, no surprises here.
