What songs describe social media? When you first use @Facebook, it feels like @billyjoel "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant (1977)"
Then you get in political arguments & it feels like @FinalLevel's "Colors"
Then you read about how corporations & government use the data they collect and you realize that it's also @rushtheband's "2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx"
The way #OrangeFungus drop-kicked Rudy Giuliani reminded me of some passages from the Quran describing how both those who lead people to evil and those who follow share in the consequences theguardian.com/us-news/2021/j…
Star Trek S1E02 "Who Mourns for Adonais?" #TOS#StarTrekimdb.com/title/tt070848… has interesting features 1) sexism tempered by female crew members' competence, (2) advancement of Ancient Aliens theory & 3) use of Pre-Modern anti-Muslim slur 4) appearance of Walter Koenig: Chekov
For the 1st time, Michelle Nichols as Uhura performs a technical task. In previous episodes, she basically was a receptionist or a switchboard operator.
After Scotty the Chief Engineer oogles Leslie Parrish as Lt. Carolyn Palamas on the bridge, Capt Kirk basically states that women won't go far in Star Fleet because they end their careers for marriage. She's part of the landing party where she & Kirk exchange these lines:
I am glad some people are upset that #45Regime#OrangeFungus pardoned #Blackwater perps of #NisourSquare massacre in #Iraq. I ask those people to think about Obama's (& Biden's) decision not to pursue any criminal investigations of Bush era crimes, including the ultimate crime as
described in #Nuremberg trials, "aggressive war." If you're angry at Trump for pardoning people at the bottom of the criminal enterprise, how angry should you be at Obama & Biden for failing to investigate those at the top of enterprise which carried out one of the largest crimes
A misguided friend sent me a document supporting #45Regime allegations that he won reelection in November. Among the allegations is that in #Nevada "in an effort orchestrated by the Biden campaign, Native Americans appear to have traded their votes not for pieces of silver but
rather for Visa gift cards, jewelry, and other 'swag.'"
Here's the link to the Nevada Supreme Court's decision in response to the Biden delegates' request for the Court to expedite a squashing of the Trump delegates' attempts to forbid them from voting democracydocket.com/wp-content/upl…
I'm no lawyer, but this sounds to me like Mike Tyson pulverizing a boxer seconds after the bell of the 1st round is rung:
"The district court held not only that Contestants failed to prove each and every ground for contest asserted, but also that they failed to establish any
seats in House of Representatives & will likely retain control of Senate. So Biden may choose to use Executive Orders to roll back reimplement some of the 2nd Term Obama EOs which Trump reversed. But Biden won't be able, even if he wanted to do much to challenge oligarchy or
Herbert Hoover's promise to keep #USA out of #WW1 likely won him 1916 presidential election. 1 year later, he broke that promise. Activists for women's suffrage opposed him & his Democratic Party because of their failure to support women's suffrage. Will Trump's disingenuous
references to being a peace president, especially due to the complete silence Biden & today's @TheDemocrats practice on the issue of #endlesswar, also enable a Trump victory? Why are Biden & Dems silent on war? Is it because Biden voted for #Iraq War &, as VP, witnessed the
expansion of the global assassination program via drones & special forces? Is it because the DNC supported HRC in 2016, who voted for #Iraq war & pushed military intervention in #Libya? Is it because Obama, the most popular of these centrist democrats, increased the deployment of
After watching "Planet of the Humans" @PlanetHumansDoc, I got "Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism" (2012) by @OzzieZehner. I've finished the first 2 chapters, which claim that both solar cells & wind turbines are inadequate
replacements to fossil fuels. Having been around Sierra Club types most of my adult life, I had always assumed that these technologies could replace fossil fuels & we could more or less maintain our current level of consumption. Zehner's book & the movie are critical of this view
I haven't gotten far enough into the book, but I think a key concept Zehner is attacking is "productivism." Our consumption is a function of energy we produce. Because we're so committed to consumption, we view our energy policy as a production issue.
Every 4 years we scour the land
to find the most sure, safest guiding hand
No expense is spared, the wise sit in council
All views are entertained, if they find a sponsor
Two factions emerged, each with a champion
Other parties were told to shut up & listen
The criers and heralds on every corner
regaled the people with tales of their man's valor
"He killed those savages in a foreign war,
he made Christians ashamed of Christmas no more"
"He politely served and loyally did support
his boss, the first Black leader we did appoint."
The @rolandgarros#FrenchOpen2020#tennis on the men's side is as open as it has been in many years. So many variables have changed. Will this be the year that the King of Clay, @RafaelNadal, is dethroned?
The changes: 1) Change in season from late May to late September. Average temperatures for May & Sep are comparable, but this is the first time that the weather should become colder as the tournament progresses (final is Oct 4) rather than warmer. Cooler temps = less ball bounce
2) Playing at night
Many courts now have artificial lighting. Will Rafa be scheduled for high profile night matches when temperatures will be cooler? Imagine him playing @StefTsitsipas or @ThiemDomi where his ball isn't jumping up on them.
People who claim that #RankedChoiceVoting is too confusing to implement don't seem to care that in many complicated transactions of everyday life, individuals are pitted against corporations & the governments they own.
The elderly have to navigate "Medicare Advantage" plans.
Renters have to navigate contracts with landlords.
Pension fund managers of unions & municipalities are hearing pitches from hedge fund managers.
You are shopping in the grocery store & the only info, for the most part, you have on the products is companies advertising.
You buy a house & it turns out that environmental changes elsewhere are going 2 eventually cause your property to be in a flood plain.
You are supposed to figure out which health insurance plan best meets the medicines you need.
Noteworthy in @cdcrabtree@JohnHolbein1 study of public school principals' reluctance to respond to atheist & Muslim parents' inquiries is that, at the identification only level of the e-mail the researchers sent, the principals used names which weren't identifiably Muslim.
Would the discrimination have been more intense if the parents' & children's names were more identifiably Muslim, such as Mustafa, Khadija, Muhammad and Aisha?
BTW, I've never known Muslim parents to name a daughter Rebekeh (or a variant thereof.) Isaac & Jonah are possible as
Arabic names, but the languages most Muslims speak render these names differently, although many parents anglicize the names when dealing with people they assume are from the majority Anglo community.
Many of those aforementioned players have awful career records against him (especially in best of 5), and many are not in form. If Novak is healthy and motivated, he has to be considered the big favorite. #tennis
If Zverev has a great serving day, which he does every once in a while, he can defeat him. Both Daniil and Dominic can beat him, but they got to get to the finals healthy and rested & then play great. #USOpen
QAnon is an awful, harmful conspiracy theory, but let me tell you about why it's actually just an offshoot of the far more harmful, well-ingrained mythology dominant in #USA: White supremacist American Exceptionalism & Manifest Destiny nytimes.com/2020/08/04/opi…
We are regularly fed this myth that English religious dissenters fled persecution & founded colonies in North America, and, in a process which deliberately obscures the ambitions of the British Empire, the violence visited upon the First Nations of #TurtleIsland & chattel slavery
voila, we get "All Men are Created equal." & the Constitution & representative government & the Bill of Rights & <<< fast forward >>>> we bought the Louisiana Territory from France (but don't mention Haiti & slave revolts) & then "Remember the Alamo!" & now we got Texas &
Lay your hands off of him, @ZacharyQuinto! BTW, Charlie Manx is really about the most detestable villain I can remember in a long time.
Of course, to rescue Wayne, our heroin Victoria "Brat" McQueen will need to go through Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Manx's surprising resourceful & increasingly disturbing henchman
them & becoming the champions & @stanwawrinka had to lose some epic 5-setters in Grand Slams before breaking through to defeat @DjokerNole & @RafaelNadal & @rogerfederer en route to his Grand Slam victories, McEnroe took a rough beat, especially when he dropped the 2nd set
despite all of those opportunities. His grit in the 4th & 5th sets proved to everyone, most especially himself, that he should hold the #Wimbledon trophy, and indeed he did, several times.
This should encourage @ThiemDomi, who has come close to winning a grand slam. IMO, he's
I asked my #Georgia@sendavidperdue to oppose nomination of Cory Wilson to 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. I wrote:
Judge Wilson is hostile to government-provided healthcare. He doesn't defend the Voting Rights Act and allows burdensome voter ID laws to take effect. He opposes
the human rights of gays and lesbians. He doesn't allow restrictions on firearms. He allows restrictions on abortion. His public statements are replete with ad hominem partisan attacks.
Text "Wilson" to 21333 or dial 312-647-2040 to get connected with your senators to make your opposition to this nomination known!
& retaliation ensued, but cooler heads prevailed & white people in #SeadriftTX rejected the Klan, knowing that creating more pain wouldn't heal the pain people had already suffered. The daughter of the victim, when asked if she wished the Vietnamese refugees had never been
resettled in #USA, thoughtfully responds. But you have to watch, I won't spoil that! Another white resident of the town laments how proactive peacemaking & community-building had not been done, which resulted in an escalation of tensions.
something which may have spread the disease. Direct the voters' anger at the tens of thousands of dead & 100s of thousands who suffered at "bad" people instead of the do-nothing, self-serving policies of the politicians who had the means to take effective action but instead were
either too busy making political calculations, protecting their stock portfolios long enough to sell off theirs & lining up sweetheart deals for needed medical supplies & procedures or too ideologically committed to private property or a twisted version of American
Watching #documentary "The Panama Papers," is on @hulu. Several important takeaways:
1. Governments around the world lose tremendous amounts of revenue rich people should be paying in taxes. imdb.com/title/tt895105…
Those same rich people are influencing laws & regulatory agencies to make tax evasion easier.
Needless to say, the poor can't use the same methods to avoid paying taxes.
2. Global investigative journalism is beyond the capacity of commercial & national news organizations, assuming their directors are even willing to challenge oligarchs who often control those organizations.
1 added to My Authors
