I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Linkee-poo, who can turn the world on with her smile

Mary Tyler Moore is no more. And so it goes. She was an early influence on my development. It's no wonder I like confident women. I'm not sure who the new generation look to for this other than the former first-lady.

"The PDFs listed below are, after an extensive search of copyright records, all PUBLIC DOMAIN." SFFAudio page of PDFs of books in the public domain. Four-thousand titles so far. (Grokked from Vince O'Connor)

"George Orwell's tale of a sad, grim future, the book 1984, has experienced a recent resurgence, climbing to the top of Amazon.com's bestseller list of books." Yep. (Grokked from Vince O'Connor)

"Turn your passive participation into active resistance. Facebook likes and Twitter retweets don't create the change you want to see… Spend 5 minutes, make 5 calls." 5Calls.org. (Grokked from Merrie Haskell)

So how's it going in the field? "Protesters climbed a 270-foot construction site crane just blocks from the White House on Wednesday and unfurled an orange and yellow banner calling for resistance to President Donald Trump." Some may call it silly, but as someone who works with symbolism all day, this is great. When that lowly employee has to make a decision to either follow orders or follow their conscience, they might remember that sign. Symbols are important. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

Think that outcry and indignation directed (and expressed in person, in a way difficult to ignore) isn't effective? "The US Department of Agriculture rescinded an order stopping scientists and other employees at its main research division from publishing documents meant to explain science to the public." It lasted less than… One. Day. Speak out, speak up, resist. Note, it's still not an open system. The department heads are still holding the reins. But the needle was moved back to where it was before. (Grokked from Michele)

Another mental health professional comes out. "I am writing this because it strikes me that a man with all the outward symptoms of fairly extreme (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) has become president of the United States. This is not a formal, clinical diagnosis: My thoughts here are self-admittedly nothing more than conjecture, since Donald Trump is not my patient." And I specifically recommend reading the part about Narcissistic Injury. (Grokked from John)

Remember the "but her emails" thing? Remember when using a private email server was a Bad Thing™. "Senior Trump administration staffers including Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon have active accounts on a Republican National Committee email system, Newsweek has learned." History may not repeat, but damn if it doesn't have a hard rhyming scheme. "The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have 'lost' 22 million emails." (Grokked from Marie Vibbert)

"With racist and discriminatory acts on the rise since Donald Trump’s election, Barnard Center For Research On Women and members of Project NIA created a video that offers six simple tips for what to do if you witness a verbal or physical assault."

So, besides the fact of the hiring freeze mostly affecting the VA and their ability to provide care for veterans, there is this. "'Freezing federal hiring sounds good on the campaign trail, but it does not make government smaller like some people think it does,' (National Federation of Federal Employees President Randy Erwin) said. 'All it does is lead to the hiring of more federal contractors which tend to cost taxpayers more than federal employees and are less accountable.'" Yep. But, if you're going to steal, might as well as make some of your cronies rich providing workers for the federal government. (Grokked from Ann Leckie)

"As of writing, there are four demonstrated examples of people committing voter fraud during the 2016 general election." And most of them were voting for Trump. Also, many of Trump's people are registered to vote in two states (like Bannon and even Tiffany Trump). (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"I don’t know if this is a word of hope or warning or rallying, but here’s the thing with this sudden flurry of activity from Trump and Congress: as those of us who have lived under radical GOP rule can tell you, 'shock and awe' is definitely part of the program." The word you're searching for is "Machiavellian". Yes, there is too much coming through the pipeline. Choose which parts matter to you and act on them. There's enough of us to cover everything. Also, stop shaming people for caring about something that you think is a distraction. For them, your issue is the distraction. Say, "Rock on! Don't forget to do something about it," and walk away. (Grokked from Cherie Priest)

"Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era… Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed… All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations… Kennedy will retire from the foreign service at the end of the month, officials said. The other officials could be given assignments elsewhere in the foreign service." That's gonna leave a mark. While these positions are typically replaced in a new administration, the current people usually stick around to help insure the person following them knows WTF they're doing. (Grokked from Maureen Johnson)

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