I know my delayed posting of several articles covering events over the weekend has probably screwed up our Russian friends reporting deadlines. Sorry guys.
Chuck Wendig with tweet storm of 25 reasons to keep making things.
"In a valley in eastern Kazakhstan’s remote Tarbagatai Mountains, archaeologists recently excavated a kurgan, or burial mound, holding the remains of two Iron Age teenagers who lived roughly 2,700 years ago." (Grokked from S.A. Chakraborty)
"New York City recently produced a report on the gender price differential in some consumer goods. The so-called Pink Tax. It turns out, women pay more than men for certain goods, like clothes and home health products and personal care products. The study found that women pay as much as 13% more for some categories of products." The Indicator podcast with the best "duh" moment so far. As for those economists who say this is a good thing, please fuck off and die. It's just evidence that the so called "free market" will not work and won't self-regulate. And actually, the only surprising part of this story, for me, is that the reporters (both women) did not know this already. Next up, why are traditionally "women's products" repainted black and marketed to men? (No, you don't have to tell me, I already know.) I want to ask the reporters if they've noticed their clothes typically don't have functional pockets, are made from thinner materials and designed to show more skin. And while they focus on razors, let me just say the razors are basically the same. Buy the guys' razors.
"Hate crimes in America rose 17 percent last year, the third consecutive year that such crimes increased, according to newly released FBI data that showed an even larger increase in anti-Semitic attacks." Make America Great Again. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"Police have arrested a man in Washington, D.C. who allegedly has social media ties to the suspected gunman in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people… Clark is facing one federal count of unlawful possession of firearms by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance, and one count in the District of Columbia of possessing high-capacity magazines… Authorities report that in the hours after the synagogue shooting, Clark's younger brother, Edward, went to an island in D.C. and shot and killed himself… Relatives told investigators both brothers were part of alt-right movements and that they became interested in guns because they thought there was going to be a civil war, according to court papers." Can't wait for the NRA to defend this guy because of the high-capacity magazine charge.
"First lady Melania Trump, in a remarkable move carried out by her spokeswoman, publicly pushed for the ouster of deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel." Rhut rho. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"The annual convention of the Federalist Society… has long been a glittering and bustling affair… But as the group prepares to gather on Thursday for the start of this year’s convention, more than a dozen prominent conservative lawyers have joined together to sound a note of caution. They are urging their fellow conservatives to speak up about what they say are the Trump administration’s betrayals of bedrock legal norms… The group, called Checks and Balances, was organized by George T. Conway III, a conservative lawyer and the husband of President Trump’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway. In recent opinion articles, Mr. Conway has criticized Mr. Trump’s statements on birthright citizenship and argued that his appointment of Matthew G. Whitaker to serve as acting attorney general violated the Constitution." Dear Federalist Society members, you might want to check your own history and actions. You may just find your complicity in actions and the policies you support contradict the stance you're trying to take. Although this is a subgroup, and there's always trouble makers. But then, as you read the article, you'll find this is just more of the conservative line of being very concerned about these overt actions, but where the rubber meets the road they're all for it, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. It's just a smoke screen and prepositioning in case they fall out of power so they can criticize liberals for doing exactly what they're doing now (except, you know, conservatives will be the targets then). And they almost control all of the judiciary, so they're trying to enact the fiction that it's not about politics, when for conservatives the judiciary has always been about politics.
"Two Democrats leading the rebellion against Nancy Pelosi were bullish Tuesday evening about their efforts to stop her from winning the speakership, promising to soon reveal that they had enough support to cause a major shake-up at the top of their caucus." Dear reporters, the "people proposing a contrarian position believe they have the support to enact their vision", while titillating, is not news. They're using you to try and gin up that support. This is the gambit Fox News uses all the time. Some fringe actor says something scandalous on the morning show (or the late night shows), Fox News then reports that the "person says this", by noon it's "people are talking" and by the time the night shows are on it's a full blown "lots of people are discussing the possibility that…". It's boring and mendacious. Of course they're "100% positive". That's how they get you to report it even though they know there really isn't a chance in hell.
"A federal judge on Tuesday found that Gwinnett County violated the Civil Rights Act in its handling of absentee ballots during last week's midterm elections, a ruling that will likely delay the overall vote tally in the state's tight gubernatorial race."
"A federal judge has ordered Georgia election officials to review all provisional ballots cast in the midterm elections and prohibited the state from certifying the election before Friday…" Count all the votes.
"Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant defended Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith for joking that if one of her supporters invited her 'to a public hanging,' she’d 'be on the front row,' Monday afternoon by saying that people should be paying attention to African American abortion rates instead of her words." I'm sure he thought that sounded wise in his head. Dear Mississippi, I'm sure someone has a shovel there that could help you dig faster, but seeing how deep that hole is, maybe not. (Grokked from Fred Clark)
Just a general meta note (as I am sometime wont to do), with all this election brouhaha this cycle there are a number of people who are attempting to use the messy, but usual, vote counting process to bring the results of an election into doubt. So first, this is how all elections have worked, no boards of election don't "pre-tabulate" absentee, mail-in, and early voting ballots. In fact, they are saved to the last (which may seem strange for early voting, but just imaging someone leaking early results and you can see why they don't do it). They have always been saved to the last. But usually elections aren't close enough that they ballots could change the outcome (which has always been some people's arguments for voting in person). As our country bifurcates into political camps this is no longer true. Elections are close enough these days to fall within both the margin of error in counting (which is why there is always the possibility of both machine and hand recounting) and they definitely are close enough that these other ballots (including provisional ballots) may tip the scales. And that's what we're seeing here. As the mail delivers absentee ballots (which many states only require the ballot to be postmarked on election day to count, and oversea's military ballots have extra time to be delivered) the voted totals are added in. Also, since many absentee and mail-in ballots are not the same format as in-person ballots, that slows the process down (as machines are reprogrammed, tested and verified before the ballots are counted). Second, instilling doubt as to the fairness and valid of the ballot is exactly a goal of the Russian interference in our elections. Look at how the sides are shaking out as to who says "count all the ballots" and those shouting "RIGGED!" They're doing the Russian's work for them. While their "meddling" in the election appears to have been less than in 2016 (sometimes when you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not happening, it's just you are either looking in the wrong place or they've gotten better and so are less detectable) they've already hacked the wetware enough that we're doing it to ourselves. Don't carry their water for them.
"Ten months after the (tax cut/reform) took effect, that promised 'supply-side' bump is harder to find than the sugar-high stimulus… Despite a remarkably strong economy, the fiscal health of the United States is deteriorating fast, as revenues have declined sharply. The federal budget deficit… rose to $779 billion in the 2018 fiscal year… That was a 17… since the tax cuts were passed, the 1,000 largest public companies have actually reduced employment… About half of those net losses came from companies in the restaurant and leisure industries, the analysis found." Just waiting for the president and the GOP blame the deficit on the Democrats. That should happen sometime before the end of January. (Grokked from Joy Reid)
No comments:
Post a Comment