Linkee-poo, you can dance in a hurricane, but only if you're standing in the eye

John Dingell and Frank Robinson, and so it goes.

"The Distinctions Between Different Editors, A Thread…" (Grokked from Delilah S. Dawson)

Is line-editing a lost art? No. Actually there are several levels of editing that happens to a manuscript. Line-editing is one of them. However, as I've found out, most publishers no longer have editors in house and it's mostly subbed out. Many editors are available for hire (there are long conversations around if you should hire one, and when, if you go into traditional publishing that will be a conversation to have with your agent and the acquiring editor at the publisher), and the very best are worth their weight in gold. I think of line-editors (and copy-editors) with the same advice about staff-sergeants I received when I was a young butter-bar. When you find yourself assigned to a new position, I was told, after reporting in to the commandant, learn who your staff-sergeant is. Find out what they like to drink. Buy them a case. Introduce yourself, present the case, and ask them nicely to tell you what your real job is and how to get it done. (Grokked from Elizabeth Bear)

"Compendium of World Vampire Beings." (Grokked from Cat Rambo)

As I continually state, your perception of reality, that "movie" in your head isn't what your eyes are seeing but a holographic projection created by your brain. "The Cafe Wall Illusion is related to the level of contrast between sharp boundaries."

"Vitamin D had long been known for protecting bones, but its star began to rise in the early 2000s after researchers made connections hinting that vitamin D was good for a lot more than our skeletons. It appeared to help protect against a lengthy list of ailments, including multiple sclerosis, asthma, depression, heart disease and cancer. The vitamin also was said to improve athletic performance… But with more research comes more scrutiny, and most recently, a series of seemingly tarnishing findings." Note the stories will be spun in a "Vit. D doesn't do what it promises to do," and not, "all these other things it supposedly helped with, those were marketing, but you still should have adequate Vit. D."

"Demand for measles vaccines leapt 500 percent last month in Clark County, Washington—a hotbed for anti-vaccine sentiment that has now become the epicenter of a ferocious measles outbreak." This is my shocked face.

"Rat invasion discovered at historic Los Angeles City Hall amid city typhus outbreak."

"Despite steadily declining rates of cancer deaths over the past two decades, cancer remains responsible for 1 in every 6 deaths worldwide. It’s a scourge. So when, this week, an Israeli company called Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies captured the news cycle with promises of a complete cure for cancer within the year, the story caught fire." The On the Media podcast with a lot about how to listen to "medical breakthrough" news. Lots of good points here. It's only 10 minutes, highly recommended.

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Louisiana from enforcing a law that women's groups said would leave only a single doctor legally allowed to perform abortions in the state." It's the matinee showing for this topic.

"Then, in 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the fifth vote in Whole Woman’s Health, retired. He was replaced by Kavanaugh, who has a history of upholding abortion restrictions while claiming fidelity to Roe. In anticipation of Kavanaugh refusing to apply abortion precedents, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to enforce Whole Woman’s Health. Instead, it asserted (falsely) that the Louisiana law does provide some benefit to women (it does not) and that it doesn’t impose a serious burden. (It does: The law would likely shutter two of Louisiana’s three abortion clinics.) Clearly, the conservative 5th Circuit thought it could overturn Whole Woman’s Health on its own, and trust the Supreme Court to play along."

"The biggest, most valuable new technology on Midwestern farms these days is a new family of soybean seeds. But some farmers say they're buying these seeds partly out of fear." You say that like it's a bug when it's a feature of the marketing campaign.

"Pacific Gas & Electric could shut off power to more than 5 million customers when extreme weather conditions are ripe for wildfires to break out, the company said Wednesday. It's an expansion of the company's previous power shutoff program, which only let the company turn off power to about half a million customers." Yeah, that'll work. This is an opening bid on PG&E's part.

Welcome to the US in 2019. This isn't national news. "A MnDOT traffic camera was rolling for the slow, snow-filled commute. As cars crept along, a Toyota pulled over in front of a pickup truck and a school bus. That is when the driver, who police say was 31-year-old Kenneth Lilly, got out and immediately started firing."

"Galton and Forester were anarcho-capitalists who slipped U.S. drug charges worth 25 years in prison, they said in a YouTube video that night. They’d hopped the border and resettled in what Galton called one of the world’s 'pockets of freedom,' a community billed as a libertarian paradise… Almost two years later, Galton was murdered." It's all fun and games until the competition comes knocking. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)

"An experiment which offered unemployed people $636 a month with no questions asked seems to have increased participants' general well-being — but failed to spur them to work and earn more as hoped, Finnish officials said Friday." That's an interesting spin because at the end of the story we have this, "The report also found that those on basic income and the unemployed people in the control group ended up working roughly the same number of days." The major question of Universal Basic Income is if it'll stop people from seeking employment, not will they work more. And the answer appears to be no. Also there is this, "Minna Ylikanno, a researcher with Kela, said the basic income recipients appeared less stressed, healthier and more confident in the future than a 5,000-member control group of social benefit recipients."

"When critics assailed the high price awarded to Deepwater Wind nearly a decade ago for power from what would be the first offshore wind farm in the nation, the Providence company and its supporters in Rhode Island state government vowed that savings would come with future projects down the line… With a proposed agreement announced Thursday, they would fulfill that promise… And critically, the deal is projected to save Rhode Island about $90 million in energy costs over the life of the contract, or about 50 cents per month for the typical electric customer in the state." Saving money by going to renewables. Who'da thunk it?

The other day with the article on US intervention in Iran, I said something like, "Now do Central America." Well, "This week, On the Media explores how journalists in the country are struggling to cover the standoff between two men who claim to be president. Also, how both the history of American interventionism and the legacy of Simón Bolívar color coverage of Venezuela. Plus, a critical look at the images coming out of Chinese internment camps… 3. Stephen Kinzer [@stephenkinzer], professor of international relations at Brown University, on the history of American intervention in Latin America." I recommend at least listening to section 3.

We aren't the only ones to plaster over our sins in history. "(Rozsa Heisler) says Hungary has never been able to face its complicity. That's why she and many other Hungarian Jews are skeptical of a new Holocaust museum in development in Budapest, costing more than $23 million and financed by the Hungarian state. The building was finished in 2015, but unease over what it will present has delayed its opening in the years since… Heisler says the museum organizers want to portray Hungarians as "sin free" in persecution of Jewish citizens." When sanity returns to American politics, expect many who now support and even endorse the "alt-right" to try and rebrand themselves, or claim they were hoodwinked. Same as it ever was.

The stories we tell ourselves. "Cindy McCain believed she had helped thwart a child trafficking case when she saw a toddler with "a woman of a different ethnicity" at Phoenix's airport. But police said that's not what happened."

The stories we don't tell, at least her in the US. How Iran became what it is, and why we are still dealing with the sins of our past. "On August 19, 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh." How's that cheap gas working for ya? Now, let's talk about Central and South America… Of course this is what conservatives rail again as "revisionist history" and lament that kids are no longer told how great the US is. But history is a harsh mistress.

Racism as a pyramid marketing scheme. "You can buy a whole lot more at 1776.shop, a freewheeling online emporium for far-right merch. There are T-shirts and hats with all manner of right-wing slogans, from lib-baiting ('Roger Stone did nothing wrong') to fascistic ('Pinochet did nothing wrong'). There is Proud Boys gear in the “official” section of the site, as well as products from a host of third-party vendors, including Stone, the Donald Trump confidante and longtime political fixer who advertises 1776.shop on his Instagram account." On the plus side, credit-card payment processors have been dropping the site like the hot potato it is.

What have you got to lose? "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is targeting one of the hallmarks of the Obama administration: a rule that would protect the most vulnerable borrowers from the ballooning debt that can accrue with payday loans." Your money or your life, that's what.

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., think they have a start to a solution. Thursday they are introducing a framework defining what they call a 'Green New Deal' — what they foresee as a massive policy package that would remake the U.S. economy and, they hope, eliminate all U.S. carbon emissions." And the right, and parts of the left, are trying to derail this as quickly as they can. The deal and the pieces will change, that's the nature of any large societal transformations, but the opponents will then use these changes as proof of, "see, we told you it was unworkable." Don't believe them. (Waits for Sarah Palin to reinvigorate the "Death Panels" speech.) No, this one probably won't go anywhere, but it'll lay the ground work for post-2020 politics (if we're lucky to see it that soon).

"For a nonbinding resolution with an uncertain future, the Green New Deal is getting a lot of attention, along with a decidedly mixed reaction." Note that industry will always say it can't be done, that it's too expensive, that the logistics and engineering is too daunting. And then they alway meet or exceed the goals. And there there is this, "'They need to do a whole lot more homework and much more research and analysis before we can ever even really engage in this discussion,' says Colin Woodall, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association." Uh, no, Colin. You need to do a lot more education and research. It's on you as the lobbyist to educate congress. But here's the thing, if your numbers don't line up with other research that's been done, you deserve to be thrown out of the offices.

The tax on the poor. "Campbell is a victim of a growing American water crisis. In cities across the country, the cost of water has spiked in recent years, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to perilously endure weeks or even months without an essential resource… The crisis is especially acute where you would least expect it – the Great Lakes, the region of the country with the most abundant fresh water." And there is an intense pressure to privatize water and sewer services. Also what is not pointed out in the article, although they do talk about federal and state government dollars drying up, is that industry has also been subsidizing local water districts as they are the primary users. However in the last 2 decades there have been a lot of technological improvements to reuse and reduce industrial water consumption. So water districts are seeing large shortfalls in their fees.

Conservatives are all about vox populi, except when they disagree with it. "Utah residents may have thought they were done fighting about Medicaid expansion last November. But when Utah lawmakers opened a new legislative session in late January, they began pushing through a bill to roll back the scope and impact of an expansion that voters approved by in a ballot measure." Iowa as well.

"On Wednesday, during the House's first hearing in years on gun violence prevention, Manuel Oliver interrupted Gaetz, a vocal Hill ally of President Donald Trump, when the congressman began arguing that illegal immigration, not firearms, poses a greater threat to national security and thus requires a wall along the US-Mexico border."

"The mayor of Nogales, Arizona, said a major port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border was temporarily closed to traffic heading into Mexico after a customs officer shot and killed a southbound driver who refused to stop. Mayor Arturo Garino said he was told by city officials that the shooting took place after the truck apparently tried to run over the officer Thursday night at the DeConcini Port of Entry, reports CBS News Tucson, Arizona affiliate KOLD-TV."

"An Arizona town is condemning the federal government's use of razor wire on the border wall running through its downtown area as an 'indiscriminate use of lethal force.'… The Nogales City Council passed the measure unanimously Wednesday night, and included a threat that it will sue the federal government if it doesn't remove the wire, CNN affiliate KOLD reported."

"Kellyanne Conway says that she was grabbed and shaken by a woman while out with her teenage daughter in a Maryland restaurant late last year… It's unclear whether the video shows any physical contact between Conway and Inabinett, which Maryland state law does not require for an assault charge… 'The idea that we should be treated differently because of anything, of anything, because of where we work or what we believe or what we're trying to do on behalf of this great nation, that's complete nonsense,' Conway said." Hey Kellyanne, let me explain to you what it's been like being a liberal for these past 2 decades…

"The Justice Department is bracing for impact. Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker is set to testify before Congress on Friday, but now says he will not show up unless Democrats promise not to subpoena him during his testimony." As Rep. Eric Swalwell tweeted, that's "Not how it works."

"Acting attorney general Matt Whitaker will in fact testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday, following a lengthy fight between House Democrats and the Justice Department that placed Whitaker's appearance in doubt for much of Thursday."

So, Jeff Bezos shows how you really handle attempted political extortion. You go public with the attempt, accept the embarrassment, and use the stupidity of your opponent to out them. "In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we 'have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.'" There are several reasons, one is the person trying the extortion is more afraid of you not following along and has more to lose. And two, this information always comes out in the end, especially if the extorting side keeps all evidence and doesn't hand it over (get the negatives, when there used to be negatives). Always. Get ahead of it and put it to bed. I am waiting, however, to hear it's all a hoax. It's just too Snidely Whiplash to be real. (Grokked from Joy Reid)

"On MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell show tonight, Roig Franzia of the Washington Post said the security and legal team representing Jeff Bezos believes it's possible the leaks of the Amazon CEO's texts, with accompanying intimate photos, were politically motivated -- and that a 'government entity' accessed the material." If that proves true, and this is a very weak statement, man that's a whole new closet just filled with shoes waiting to drop. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)

"The American public has continued to know little about Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty in December to participating in a foreign conspiracy against the United States. Not much has emerged about the confessed Russian agent’s political activities beyond her efforts to build ties with Republican leaders and top officials of the National Rifle Association. But Butina wasn’t just a fan of gun rights who attended American University, romanced a veteran Republican operative, and pitched US-Russian collaboration at NRA conventions." Naughty naughty. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)

"House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday a broad investigation his committee would undertake 'beyond Russia' into whether President Donald Trump's financial interests are driving his actions."

"Fox & Friends host suggests Trump 'run a private investigation' into personal lives of Democrats in Congress." Wow, how did all these fucking worms get all over. That musta been on hellofa can of them. Also, it's called opposition research, but when the president directs it it's called surveillance state. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"The theft was the latest in a trend of people stealing African-Americans’ photos to push right-wing causes online. And with the 2020 elections looming, the identity theft is ramping up." Let's get ready to RUMBLE! I've also noticed an uptick in the "I voted for Trump, but now I'll never do it again" accounts. It's a little early, and I'm not actually doing all that much research into it, but I'm divided between the thoughts of "throwing noise into the debates" and "Russia has made the calculation that burning Trump is more useful that getting him re-elected, and then burning him." So far I'm using Occam's Razor and leaning toward the "noise" concept (ie. pitting us against each other so we spend our energy there instead of resisting their influence and fighting together against a common enemy). (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)