I've debated this point, do I really need to point out just what a flagrant racists and asshole Steve Bannon is? Do you all want links, or is it so pervasive in the media that I can skip it and point to other things?
"Have you ever thought about what you'd wear on your death bed? Morbid as it may sound, if you have, it turns out you're not alone. According to Lyst's latest survey, 85% of people have considered what they'd like to wear to their own funeral—a statistic that prompted us to create our Over My Dead Body collection—an edit of products inspired by what you'd want to wear for your final farewell." Okay, well, funerary practices and their cultural implications are something that can be used to interpret a society. Also, it's pretty much the definition of when we achieved "consciousness" as humans, that is when we started during our dead somewhat more elaborately than throwing them in a pit, or just covering with dirt and rocks. And it wouldn't be the internet if someone didn't try and make money off of it, our fashion desires for the afterlife (also note the lingering beliefs of being buried with what we'd like in the afterlife, it's very Egyptian - okay, well every culture had that, but you get what I'm saying). For me? Well, it's my wishes for cremation, so I really don't care if you just put my naked body on the tray to send into the fire (or that new water/dissolving form of "cremation"). Also I think it's interesting that people don't know (or are arguing against) a long standing tradition of burying the dead without shoes. Although now I'm thinking of a ghost story where it's not the rattling of chains or heavy footsteps, but the thwap of flip-flops that presages the arrival of the ghost. (Grokked from Alex C. Renwick)
"Global emissions of carbon dioxide won’t increase much in 2016 despite overall economic growth, newly released bookkeeping suggests. The result marks a three-year-long plateau in the amount of CO2 released by human activities, scientists from the Global Carbon Project report November 14 in Earth System Science Data." That's the rise of alternative energy (and to a lesser extent the advent of cheap natural gas). However, as a reminder, even if we cut our CO2 emissions to zero, we'll still see Global Climate Change impacts from what's already been expelled. The world has a long lede time on these kinds of things. Heck, we stopped using chlorofluorocarbons in the early 80s and we're just starting to see the ozone hole repairing itself (note, still a pretty damn big hole, still thinner than it used to be elsewhere). I except to hear deniers use this for the "see, it was really a natural cycle" argument pretty soon.
"And once superheroes look different, and once the world on the comics page more closely resembles the world off of it, you will still be able to discern the low but steady drumbeat of fascism that the genre has never been able to escape."
"On Thursday, the Investigatory Powers Bill… completed its final stage and is set to become law (in England). The legislative process began in March of this year, and has been rather overshadowed by the Brexit referendum and its shambolic aftermath. As a result, the UK government has had a comparatively easy ride over what are some of the most extreme surveillance powers in the world." I can easily see our legislatures say, "That looks like a good idea, we should do it here, in the name of protecting us from terrorism!" (Grokked from John)
"Almost twice as many people have died in attacks by right-wing groups in America than have died in attacks by Muslim extremists. Of the 26 attacks since 9/11 that the group defined as terror, 19 were carried out by non-Muslims. Yet there are no white Americans languishing inside the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. And there are no drones dropping bombs on gatherings of military-age males in the country's lawless border regions." I suggest a registry, just until we find out what's going on here. (Grokked from Ann Leckie)
What happens when people switch up their Facebook feeds and expose themselves to the other bubble? My personal favorite section of this article is where people talk about how hateful the other side is. For liberals it comes off as "these people hate me," but for the conservative side it comes off as "people hate Trump." There's a huge difference in that, but both sides claim that the hatred of the other side turned them off and bothered them. One of these things is not like the other. (Grokked from Mrs. Tad)
Person in Starbucks feels his coffee is "delayed" and goes on rant including, "'I voted for Trump! Trump!' the man said. 'You lost, now give me my money back.'" Yes, there's video. Also noted for the bystander who stood up, as information on what you can expect if you also stand up to this kind of assholyness (threats of physical injury). Forewarned is forearmed. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"Before most Americans woke up last Wednesday and learned Donald Trump had won the presidential election, hackers linked to Russian intelligence had already launched a sweeping cyberespionage campaign to find out what his victory meant for Vladimir Putin's government." Cozy Bear is still out there. Actually, I figured it would decrease a little. However, one of the ways you can tell what the plot is about is what is resolved just before the movie ends. Apparently getting Trump in the White House wasn't the final plan. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"The President-elect's supporters are threatening to boycott Pepsi (PEP) over fabricated statements circulating on social media. Twitter users, many citing debunked news articles, claim PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi told Trump fans to 'take their business elsewhere.'" So, I'm going to reiterate something about story telling, you'll know what the plot was really about by noting where the story ends. So if the movie keeps playing once the plot you think was the man plot is resolved, than the movie is about something else. While this might be some people feeling powerful after the election continuing to make waves, It's notable that Pepsi's CEO has a "foreign" sounding name and that she somewhat supported Clinton. This may be about "punishing" one side, or ginning up racial unrest (one of the major segment players in the election has a vested interest in racial unrest and disenfranchising non-whites). And there's nothing to say it isn't all of the above. But the propaganda (the less polite name for "Fake News") machine is still cranking, which means they haven't reached their actual goals yet. (Grokked from Teresa Nielsen Hayden)
"Confusion is an authoritarian tool; life under a strongman means not simply being lied to but being beset by contradiction and uncertainty until the line between truth and falsehood blurs and a kind of exhaustion settles over questions of fact… Authoritarianism wants to convince its supporters that nothing is true, that the whole machinery of truth is an intolerable imposition on their psyches, and thus that they might as well give free rein to their fantasies." And this is probably why the propaganda war is continuing. Not only have conservatives been waging a war against science (climate change denial and evolution just being the most overt examples), now they've shifted in waging a war against reality. And this is, make no mistake, a psy-ops operation (all that remains to be seen is if it's centrally run or has some organization in the background). There have been so many links lately to hyper-local news sources that I haven't posted simply because I couldn't verify the site as an actual news source. The main outlets of news have moved toward click-bait strategies in an attempt to increase revenues that it's sometimes hard to discern if a story is real news or speculation wrapped in a news-like envelope. So I don't post them (this is also why many of the links have been from TPM and to a lesser extent BoingBoing lately, they are doing a lot of this heavy lifting for me, as well as cutting off the fatty-crap layer around some stories). (Grokked from Teresa Nielsen Hayden)
"With a Republican-held Congress and Donald Trump headed to the White House — helped, in no small part, by the support of the NRA — big changes could be coming to the nation's gun laws." Not listed here, but I've already seen Facebook graphics for it, a removal of the ban on owning full auto machine guns. Because nothing says "deer hunter" like a full auto Tommy Gun.
"'It is legal. They say it’ll hold constitutional muster,' (Trump surrogate Carl) Higbie said of the registry. 'I know the ACLU is going to challenge us, but I think it’ll pass. And we’ve done it with Iran back a while ago. We did it in World War II with Japanese, which, call it what you will—'" First they also said torture was legal in the previous administration. Doesn't make it legal. Also, since you invited me, I'll start with "startling bad idea" and move quickly to "rank racism and Islamaphobia" and end with "fascism on the level of Nazi Germany's Final Solution."
Tweet of my heart: @arthur_affect It bears repeating that this election we had Watergate happen again and everyone's reaction was "Well what did the burglars find?!" (Grokked from Ann Leckie)
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