When I get picky and need something unusual to read, I often go to Cory Doctorow’s blog, plurasitic.net. As an example, tonight I was reading about his March 3rd 2025 entry “Trumpism is our oil crisis” in which he vilifies Milton Friedman (rightly so) and delivers a new twist to my understanding of Friedman’s history. … [Read more…]
Stealing (copying) directly from Science News: Why some chaos-seekers just want to watch the world burn This article is an interview with political scientist Kevin Arceneaux of the research university Sciences Po in Paris, France. In it, he and the author Sujata Gupta discuss this very relevant aspect of human behavior. Arceneaux helps us understand … [Read more…]
Just finished reading I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis. (gift link) and realize now that there is a brain eating fungus out there that has manifested itself in key spore producers like MTG and Loomer et al. At … [Read more…]
Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned The New York Times, Opinion Guest Essay, Jaron Lanier, Nov. 11, 2022 ‘Extinction is on the table’: Jaron Lanier warns of tech’s existential threat to humanity, The Guardian, Edward Helmore, Sun 27 Nov 2022. Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist who pioneered research in virtual reality and whose … [Read more…]
In Politico, this interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat – An expert on autocracy assesses how far America has slipped away from democracy, and what it will take to get it back. Ben-Ghiat: One of the big talking points and strategy of right-wing authoritarianism, is to label democratic systems as tyrannical. Mussolini was the first to say … [Read more…]
The New York Times article about a new coalition of wealthy conservative benefactors that says it aims to “disrupt but advance the Republican agenda.” Our favorite players, Peter Thiel, Rebekah Mercer, et al, are at it again.
In The Guardian: Use of ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’ in the New York Times increased over 400% since 2012. Why? We analyzed 27m news articles published between 1970 and 2019. Our study reveals a substantial shift has occurred, and it may have important implications. by David Rozado, Musa al-Gharbi and Jamin Halberstadt Contemporary US media workers … [Read more…]
Dana Milbank sums up what I’ve felt for years about Newt – he is the pivot point that turned the GOP in to the monster it is today. Opinion: Newt Gingrich started us on the road to ruin. Now, he’s back to finish the job. By Dana Milbank 02/04/2022
Lest we forget what we will get if the GOP ever gets in the White House again Census Memo Cites ‘Unprecedented’ Meddling by Trump Administration from the NY Times. Newly released documents show that top career officials at the Census Bureau had drafted a list of complaints about political interference in the 2020 count. By … [Read more…]
In the Guardian: America is now in fascism’s legal phase Jason Stanley is Jacob Urowsky professor of philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of How Fascism Works. Wed 22 Dec 2021 “The history of racism in the US is fertile ground for fascism. Attacks on the courts, education, the right to vote and … [Read more…]