"The fact that it took me so long to hear what she was saying also made me realise that there is no way to talk about white privilege or racism that doesn't get heard by many white people as an attack. Even if she had written her critique in a nice way I'd still have felt gut-punched." Justine Justine Larbalestier on the white savior trope in writing and real life, writing the other, good intentions falling short, and how to grow and learn. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)
If only Walmarts just had "the people you see in Walmart." Instead of the criminal aspect. So besides offloading livable-salaries and healthcare for their employees onto the public dime, they're also offloading their security costs onto the local law enforcement. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"Ride-hailing service Uber says it will start hauling passengers with self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh in next several weeks." Wait, weeks? I get the feeling they aren't talking about what I think they're talking about. (Grokked from Dan)
"Amid the horror of floods that have covered southern Louisiana in recent days, a grim note of irony: Tony Perkins, the head of the anti-queer Family Research Council, is among those whose homes are underwater. Perkins believes natural disasters are sent to punish gays." You know, except for this one of "Biblical proportions", because it's him.
As I recently said to a coworker, "In climate change, there is some debate. But it's not about if it's happening. We know it's happening. It's not about if it's human caused. We know it's human caused. It's not about if it's accelerating. It is accelerating. It's not about if we're fucked, it's about how badly we're already fucked." We're boned. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)
Palo Alto, "When the Boomers were in their 20s and 30s, the government made it a priority for the middle class to be able to own a home. We created all these incentives to help make the American Dream come true. It’s such a core part of the Boomer generation. Now, these same people say, even though you’re highly educated professionals, you should be OK with renting for the rest of your lives." Funny how that's a cycle that keeps coming up everywhere, the Boomers forgot just how much privilege they had and refused to do the same for the next generations. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"(Khalid) Jabara's family, who immigrated to the United States from Lebanon, felt that their neighbor, Stanley Vernon Majors, had targeted them for years with ethnic slurs and frivolous calls to the police. The tension peaked last September in a violent hit-and-run attack on matriarch Haifa Jabara outside the family’s Tulsa, Oklahoma home, for which Majors was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, among other charges." And then you'd think that justice would be done and the family would be safe. But there you would be wrong. "So when Khalid Jabara learned on Friday evening that Majors had come into possession of a gun, he called the police to report his concerns… Officers came to Jabara’s East Avenue residence (and hour and a half after the 911 call), surveyed the scene, and left, unable to make contact with Majors. Eight minutes later, police said Majors repeatedly shot Jabara on his front porch while he collected the mail."
"Two contractors… manufactured defective combat helmets ordered by the Pentagon, costing the government millions, a watchdog said on Wednesday." They only produced ballistic helmets for the Army and Marines. No biggie. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"The Department of Justice will stop contracting with private prisons, the department announced Thursday morning. The decision comes a week after the DOJ inspector general released a damning report on the safety, security, and oversight of private prisons, which incarcerate 12 percent of federal inmates." Hopefully this is the second shot to end the "let's privatize government" movement. Probably not. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"Without any extra funding, the city of Flint, Michigan will run out of the money it needs to keep buying bottled water and water filters for residents in 51 days." Who is to blame for this oversize? "Residents and local officials had called for extra funding from Congress, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers put together an aid package of $100 million, money that could go a long way toward keeping bottled water and filters flowing. But Republican Senators, first Ted Cruz (TX) and then Mike Lee (UT), kept holding it up and it never got passed." The usual suspects. (Grokked from Julie)
"At NPR, our success depends on our ability to connect with our listeners and readers. It is the cornerstone of our public media mission. We want to hear your voice, and we want you to actively inform our ideas about the stories we tell and how we tell them." But not your comments, because "ew". NPR is disabling the commenting feature on their website. While I think their statistical analysis is a little misleading, I'm not disagreeing with their basic premise. For an organization their comment sections just aren't worth the hassle. Note, I've read some of the comments under stories I've liked (and sometimes link to). The NPR comment boards are only slightly more refined that some of the other cess-pool comment sections out there (no mention of the real work it takes to keep link farmers out). And they are also typically monopolized by people with an axe to grind, who will comment on a story about cumquats about how the liberals want to control all our food consumption and it's another failed Obama policy. So, yeah, as more and more sites turn of comments, we're seeing an end to the "great democratization of information afforded by the internet" and the "many-to-one" side of the conversation. Note, they also state as well that the rise of social media kind of makes comment sections archaic and redundant. Also note, I haven't closed my comment section. (Grokked indirectly from Dan and a wholelotta other people)
"Hours before he is set to receive his first classified intelligence briefing, Donald Trump said he does not trust information coming out of U.S. intelligence agencies and indicated he would cease relying on the bulk of the intelligence community’s massive workforce." I don't see how this can go wrong. Seriously, this is the problem with living in the echo chamber. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"'[W]e believe the civil and political disruptions that have negatively impacted restaurant dining may be helping pizza operators that deliver to consumers,' (Chris O’Cull at KeyBanc) wrote in a July 19 research note, in which he upgraded his rating on Papa John’s shares from 'sector weight' to 'overweight.'"
More on that NC Board of Elections memo.
"UC Irvine economist Peter Navarro, a hand-picked Trump economic advisor… 'has never met Trump in person. And as for speaking with him by phone, he acknowledges, I have never had the pleasure.'" Sweet Mary Joseph, just how bad can this campaign be run?
I mean, when you hire this genius to be "CEO" of your campaign, WTF do you expect? "Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News whom Donald Trump has appointed as his new campaign CEO, hasn't been shy about trading in on the deepest fringes of conspiracy theories against Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff. Just a month before taking the helm of Trump's campaign, Bannon used his Sirius XM radio show to question whether one of Clinton's closest aides is tied to Muslim terrorists." Echo… echo… echo… echo… (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
The Trumpster's first attempt to reach out to black voters in a speech to an all white crowd, falls flat. No, it wasn't a real gesture. It wasn't a real gesture. But now he can say "I tried." Which was the point of the entire exercise. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
Tweet of my heart: @RyanLizza If Trump's goal is to elect Clinton & start a profitable right-wing media org to lead charge against her presidency this all makes sense. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
Double dip: @sarahkendzior Goal of network for Trump will be $$$, power, brand. Impact will be mainstreaming extremist ideas until not recognized as extremist anymore. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
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