In America, there is one set of rules, laws and justice for rich white men and another set for everyone else. Donald Trump is living proof of that fact. Despite overwhelming public evidence of his high crimes, it appears likely that the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, will not recommend to the Department of Justice that Trump should face criminal charges. This abdication of responsibility — to speak plainly, this act of cowardice — in the name of politics and appearances is a horrible mistake.
“The beginning of every war is like opening the door into a dark room. One never knows what is hidden in the darkness,” opined a certain Austrian maniac. And what we are discovering about Putin’s Russia as this brutal war continues, is something extremely dark.
They don’t pull any punches.
They describe the Biden administration’s new policies as “a resort to rhetoric: an effort to craft a success story that would explain away hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and the continued threat the virus poses,” especially the “rapidly growing crisis” of Long Covid. This is everything that honest experts have been trying to say.https://jessicalexicus.
On March 18th, the New York Times published “America Has a Free Speech Problem,” an editorial wrapped around a poll, asserting roughly 80% of the country withholds opinions over fear of “retaliation or harsh criticism.” The piece prompted outrage from Twitter’s moral police — “arguably the worst day in the history of the New York Times” cried blue-check analyst Tom Watson — some of whom claimed the article did so much to legitimize right-wing propaganda about speech suppression that the entire Times editorial board should resign or be fired.
In one sense, we’re winning this war. Militarily — Ukraine’s astonishing resistence and fierce determination has ground the might of the Russian army to a screeching halt. Goliath, meet David. But in another sense, on another front, we are losing this war very badly indeed.
That front is political — across the West, and the world, the far right, which is made of Putin’s buddies, continues to rise, and rise, and rise. Le Pen. Johnson. Australia’s PM might support Ukraine, but he doesn’t believe in climate change. Modi. Xi. I could go on and on until you and I both want to scream, punch somebody, call an Australian a bogan, or all three.
We are losing this war. It is a hybrid war for Russia, meaning that the political-cultural-social front counts as much as the military one. And while Ukraine’s winning the military front for the rest of us, we are losing the other front for ourselves.
https://eand.co/enjoying-2022-A few months ago I wrote a post arguing that “AI and automation may not steal your job — but they’ll probably make it suck.”
This is a new way I’ve recently been thinking about the age-old question of how tech affects labor. People (including me) used to worry that automation and AI would only replace workers. More automation == less jobs.
But as I put it in that previous post, if you look at a few industries that have been heavily affected by automation and AI — such as transcription, food delivery, ride-hail, and warehouse-shipping jobs — you find the picture’s a bit different. Employment in those sectors has gone up. More labor has been needed, year over year.
But the jobs themselves are crappier than before, because AI and automation introduced ruthless efficiencies that put the humans on a miserable hamster-wheel.
https://onezero.medium.com/
Ron DeSantis, the most likely GOP candidate for president in 2024, has gone to war with trans people and Disney, saying he’s doing so to protect Florida’s children. It’s a slick trick that seems to be working for him and his Republican colleagues, and is thus spreading to other states.
Authoritarian politicians in electoral democracies typically exploit people’s fear to gain political power, and then use that power to destroy the democracy itself from within. But first they have to create that fear by building up a straw-man villain.
SACRAMENTO — After the governor of Texas ordered state agencies to investigate parents for child abuse if they provide certain medical treatments to their transgender children,California lawmakers proposed a law making the state a refuge for transgender youths and their families.
The other day, a woman ridiculed me for criticizing the Biden administration. “If you don’t like the west, then go back to Russia.” I thought about it for a few days, then I realized something.
At first, I was surprised and disappointed that someone who called themselves a liberal could say something so reminiscent of the racist and xenophobic insult, “Go back to your own country.”
Then another brutal truth hit me.
I don’t need to go to Russia.
I’m already here.https://jessicalexicus.
The writer-director of buzzy new folk horror You Won’t Be Alone talks about dealing with gore, critics and Hollywood
Y
What’s in a name? That which we call a Michael Mann-fronted crime drama series by any other branding would go just as hard.
A passer-by stopped and asked,
"Fishing" replied the old man.
Feeling sorry for the old man, the gent says,
In the warmth of the pub, as they sip their whiskies,
"You're the eighth" says the old man.
Paddy said, 'I'm gonna do dat when I win de lottery'.
'What's dat ?', says his mate.'Send me lawn away to be cut', says Paddy.Today's Southern jokesFlorida“A Florida senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. "Amazing,” he thought as he flew down I-95, pushing the pedal even more.Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Florida State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly he thought, “What am I doing? I’m too old for this!” and pulled over to await the trooper’s arrival.Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his vehicle and walked up to the Corvette. He looked at his watch, then said, “Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a new reason for speeding – a reason I’ve never before heard – I’ll let you go..”The old gentleman paused then said, “Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back.”“Have a good day, Sir,” replied the trooper.GeorgiaThe owner of a golf course in Georgia was confused about paying an invoice, so he decided to ask his secretary for some mathematical help.He called her into his office and said, “Y’all graduated from theUniversity of Georgia and I need some help. If I wuz to give yew$20,000, minus 14%, how much would you take off?”The secretary thought a moment, and then replied, “Everthang but my earrings.”LouisianaA senior citizen in Louisiana was overheard saying, “When the end of the world comes, I hope to be in Louisiana.”When asked why, he replied, “I’d rather be in Louisiana ‘cause everythang happens in Louisiana 20 years later than in the rest of the world.”MississippiThe young man from Mississippi came running into the store and said to his buddy, “Bubba, somebody just stole your pickup truck from the parking lot!”Bubba replied, “Did y’all see who it was?”The young man answered, “I couldn’t tell, but I got the license number.”North CarolinaA man in North Carolina had a flat tire, pulled off on the side of the road, and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers in front of the car and one behind it. Then he got back in the car to wait.A passerby studied the scene as he drove by, and was so curious he turned around and went back. He asked the fellow what the problem was.The man replied, “I got a flat tahr.”The passerby asked, “But what’s with the flowers?”The man responded, “When you break down they tell you to put flaresin the front and flares in the back. I never did understand it neither.”TennesseeA Tennessee State trooper pulled over a pickup on I-65. The trooper asked, “Got any ID?”The driver replied, “Bout whut?”TexasThe Sheriff pulled up next to the guy unloading garbage out of hispick-up into the ditch. The Sheriff asked, “Why are you dumpinggarbage in the ditch? Don’t you see that sign right over your head.”“Yep,” he replied. “That’s why I’m dumpin’ it here, ‘cause it says:‘Fine For Dumping Garbage.’”
No comments:
Post a Comment