ABrockwell @aebrockwell@social.cleverlibre.org

"What makes me a scientist is that I'd much rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question."

Max Tegmark (in "Making Sense", Sam Harris, Transworld Publishers, 2020, p.390)

Lost in the breathless, non-stop coverage of Biden’s age is the fact that most of Trump’s former cabinet members are literally warning us he’s mentally and temperamentally unfit to serve again in office.

Press, stop creating a false presidential competency issue, like you did a false email server issue. Just stop it.

It’s now clear that Leonard Leo, Ginni Thomas and Harlan Crow conspired in the wake of Citizens United, where Justice Clarence Thomas cast a decisive vote, to unleash over a billion dollars to reshape the judiciary in the mold of the Federalist Society.

The result is now an extreme right-wing Supreme Court that has overturned abortion rights, environmental law, and affirmative action. And they are far from done.

You need to stop using Chrome NOW. It’s not hyperbole: Google just rolled out a change to Chrome that tracks the sites you visit, builds a profile, and shares that with any page you visit that asks.

This is real. It’s not tech bro conspiracy shit.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome

#privacy #google #chrome

A top advisor to Zelensky states that Elon Musk's decision to assist Russia by disabling Starlink for the Ukrainians led to the deaths of civilians, including children.

NY GOP Rep Santos faces DOJ Charges
TX GOP AG faces impeachment
TX GOP State Rep Slaton removed for alleged rape
OH GOP Chair Borges sentenced 5 years for racketeering
GOP POTUS frontrunner Trump faces 4 criminal cases

Then there's Guiliani, Meadows, & the list grows

Remember, the "party of law & order" is anything but.

👀
"I've often raised concerns about the media's refusal to point out just how irrational and at times unintelligible #Trump is. Too many reporters are willing to clean up his syntax in print media and limit his TV coverage to soundbites. In doing so, they fail to convey how bizarre he is. Likewise, the #media consistently fail to point out how abnormal it is for an entire party to defend an someone who tried to overthrow an election"
~@JenRubin
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/23/jennifer-rubin-live-chat/

#USPol #Journalism #News

Several schools in Arkansas are defiantly teaching AP African American history. The state has warned them that the students will earn no credits.

Republicans continue to describe Black history as "indoctrination" and "teaching children to hate America" -- showing that they might benefit from the course themselves.

They believe Obama was born in Kenya and Hillary ran a child sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor, but they find it completely unbelievable that a dumb TV host and shady real estate developer would commit treason.

Even after Trump bragged about committing treason.

Am I the only one who doesn’t understand why Al Franken had to resign for a joke photo he took years before he was a senator, but elected officials who participated in or encouraged an armed insurrection to overthrow our democracy are allowed to stay in government?

I find it's pretty reliable to judge people inversely by the calibre of their detractors. For example, take a close look at anyone who makes a point of tearing down Megan Rapinoe: they invariably turn out to be Jan 6 and/or police abuse apologists, that sort of thing. I don't know a thing about women's soccer but by that measure, Ms. Rapinoe's surely a damn goddess.

I don’t understand why journalists covering the biggest story of their career — the attempted overthrow of democracy — want to act like it’s routine politics. It’s as if they're covering the flood of the century and decide to save it for the regularly scheduled weather report.

It. Was. Not. A. Dispute.

It. Was. A. Murder.

A. Terrorist. Attack.

A. Hate. Crime.

At five years old, I couldn't grasp the concept of a scapegoat; all I understood was that, because of Japan’s aggression that pulled the United States into the war, my family and I had to leave our home at gunpoint, taking with us only what we could carry. As I got older, I understood scapegoating for what it is: a channel for hate, blame, and bigotry.

My lifelong mission has been preventing this from happening again, yet my heart aches as the LGBTQ+ community faces it now. We've fought for our rights to live, love, and be ourselves—a vibrant, misunderstood, and often mistreated rainbow of identities.

I have seen where scapegoating, if left unchallenged, leads. And it is a very dark place. This week, I chose to share my story with you in the hopes that we never repeat the heinous mistakes of the past. https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/takei-scapegoating-lgbtq-japanese-internment

This.

Re-upping this again: I wish more lefties could internalize the idea that hypocrisy is not a meaningful accusation to the right. Of course they're being hypocrites. That you are bound, by rules, standards, logic, human decency, some fundamental moral consistency, anything at all, and they are not? That is their conception of what power is, and why they seek it. So they can exercise power, without constraint, and you cannot.

That's the whole point.

Hypocrisy is the virtue-signaling of fascism.