As cartoonist Ruben Bolling explains, for all the scaremongering by right-wingers, the people who today are advancing in the US policies on taxation that are branded as socialist would be seen as far too timid by their predecessors in the 1950s.
Tom the Dancing Bug 1429 socialists from the future
Piling on someone whom the internet has decided is worthy of public shaming is now a commonplace phenomenon. John Oliver has an excellent segment on when public shaming is justified and when it is horribly wrong.
The second half of this segment features an interview with Monica Lewinsky who was viciously and unjustifiably slut-shamed twenty years ago. She has weathered the storm that surrounded her and which could have easily destroyed her. Remarkably, she seems to have come through that ordeal and the interview reveals her to be a delightful person who deserves an apology from all those who attacked and ridiculed her.
Just yesterday the Guardian published a flow chart about the options available to prime minister Theresa May when, as was expected, she resubmitted the Brexit deal that was defeated by a margin of 149 votes for another parliamentary vote, presumably hoping that a sense of desperation due to the looming deadline of March 29 might persuade enough people to switch their votes in favor of it to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
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Bob Moser examines the question that always plagues the Democratic party, whether to go with the candidate who most appeals to you because they agree with your values or to go with the person who is considered the most ‘electable’. This is undoubtedly going to be the issue that Joe Biden will push hard if he chooses to run, since his legislative and policy record is pretty troublesome.
On the surface, this makes a sliver of sense. It is imperative that Trump and Trumpism be fumigated from our political system before the cockroaches are all that’s left. Looking for the safest bet to win a general election sounds like solid, pragmatic thinking. Until you take a look at the track record of “electable” presidential nominees — including Hillary Clinton in 2016, of course, whom George Will so aptly called “the only biped in the country who could have lost an election to Donald J. Trump.” In 1984, Democrats chose deficit hawk Walter Mondale over “risky” Gary Hart; in 1988, it was “practical” Michael Dukakis over Jesse Jackson; in 2000, Al Gore was the overwhelming choice for those who prized winning over all else.
American cartoonist Scott Bateman tries to make sense of the state of affairs involving Brexit and prepared a handy flowchart to help people outside the UK understand the various options. Unfortunately, they all seem to lead to the same final result.
The person who carried out the mass murder in New Zealand two days ago is an Australian who had picked Christchurch because it had plenty of soft targets and the country allowed the easy purchase of semi-automatic weapons. Jason Wilson writes that this episode should make people aware of how Islamophobia has become pretty much enshrined as public policy in Australia. In reading his account of the roots of racist thinking in that country, I was struck by the similarities with US history.
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I became curious about what exactly were the crimes committed by the people who had got their children into the colleges of their choice. I looked up the actual indictment and the people are charged with racketeering conspiracy under Title 18, section 1962(d) of the US penal code. Title 18 is the main criminal code of the federal government in the US and covers all manner of crimes.
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The U.K. brexiting pic.twitter.com/9MYXSjLGMo
— Rupert Myers (@RupertMyers) March 16, 2019
This same video can serve as a metaphor for any action that is initiated because it seems like a quick and easy solution to a problem that turns into a mess because the person did not really think things through about the possible consequences.
I am retired. However, I am extremely busy with my writing and my study of those areas of physics that I did not pay much attention to during my active career. Right now, I am studying general relativity in all its mathematical complexity and finding it enormously challenging but fun. These things keep me very busy and so I do not find time hanging heavy on my hands and thus do not need to find ways to fill the days. I am so busy that I do not have time to read all the books or see the films that I thought I would be able to catch up on when I retired.
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The person who committed the deadly attacks on two mosques in New Zealand apparently had live-streamed the whole thing of Facebook. Although the video was subsequently taken down, in these days nothing ever disappears and I am sure that with some diligent searching, one could find it. The questions are why one would want to do so and whether one should do so. I did not watch the video and will not do so because I find acts of violence to be repulsive. This applies even to scripted violence in films and TV and I will only watch it if it serves an integral part of the story, which is very rare actually. It seems like much of the violence on screen is gratuitous. If I see a film as containing violence as its primary descriptor, I immediately rule it out.
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