Bytedance yesterday launched a social app called Tiktok Notes in Canada and Australia. I tried it out, since I live in Canada. I was able to log in using my Tiktok account to log in. The user interface has preview blocks. It was pretty easy to upload a couple of photos and add some text. … Continue reading Bytedance: Add ActivityPub to Tiktok Notes
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I have to admit that it’s breaking my heart to watch a new generation of anxious parents think that they can address the struggles their kids are facing by eliminating technology from kids’ lives. I’ve been banging my head against this wall for almost 20 years, not because I love technology but because I care so deeply […]
Myopia is not progressive Anytime a glass-half-empty progressive launches into how they refuse to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” don’t even argue the point. Reject the false premise. It’s not an invitation to debate anyway. The framing is intended to shut down debate. Want to see how it’s done? Behold AOC: Actually, she didn’t articulate a progressive case for Biden in that clip, exactly. She advocated for a progressive perspective larger than the presidential race and the war in Gaza. Here’s where AOC understates the point. It’s not just hundreds of elections at issue in November, it’s tens of thousands in 50 states and the territories. There are 914 elections in North Carolina alone, and that number doesn’t include hundreds of municipal races. That’s one state. And the entire NCGOP council of state slate is a horrorshow. Friends don’t let friends not vote this November. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
In a world of bullies, no one is secure Polling seems to be swinging President Joe Biden’s way, for what that’s worth. While he’s out in the field promoting his accomplishments, Donald Trump is stuck in a New York courtroom. The problem for Biden is that Trump’s courtroom antics are getting the headlines. Trump is the living embodiment of conservative disrespect for the rule of law when applied to them: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” Trump models himself after mobsterJohn Gotti, says Tim O’Brien, Senior Executive Editor at Bloomberg Opinion, and has compared himself to Al Capone.
And it’s not over yet The Republican Party has been in such a state of pandemonium for so long that it’s hard to imagine what new turns it can take. Yet from week to week it always does. The 2020 election tantrum and insurrection was certainly the pinnacle of Trumpish anarchy but the GOP congress has been working hard to emulate their Dear Leader ever since they won the majority in 2022. It’s a bad idea to make sweeping statements about them finally jumping the shark since they always manage to outdo themselves but this week is certainly one for the books if only because the stakes are so very high and they have sunk so very low. As I wrote a couple of days ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson was caught in a trap between his fellow right wing zealots led by Marjorie Taylor Greene who have appropriated Donald Trump’s hostility to Ukraine and the rest of his caucus which is more reluctant to see the world blow up. The events in the middle east last weekend were a sober reminder that the United States’ role in global security isn’t the best issue to use as leverage for parochial electoral advantage. It can get real very quickly.
Kevin Drum noted something very interesting in a recent Economist article about Americans’ lack of trust in institutions. As he says, we are all aware of this but draws our attention to this: Kevin draws the correct inference in my opinion: Collapse of trust in government is a purely American phenomenon. Why? Because we have Fox News and the others don’t. Oh, they have tabloids and conservative newspapers and so forth, but nothing like Fox News, which makes its living by spreading outrage over the way the country is run. The power of Fox News is truly spectacular. Outrage sells, and the fact that one of the two major parties amplifies Fox uncritically means it has a surprisingly large influence in setting the agenda for the mainstream media too. The truth is that US institutions mostly operate about as well as they ever have. But Fox pushes outrage over Dr. Fauci and trust in the CDC plummets. They push outrage over Donald Trump’s loss in 2020 and trust in elections plummets. They go all in on CRT and DEI and trust in schools plummets. They push climate denialism and trust in science plummets.
You can say that about a lot of things, can’t you? This example is about that impeachment trial yesterday from Steve Benen: More than a month after House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, despite the GOP’s inability to find any evidence of him committing high crimes, the articles were finally delivered to the Senate on Tuesday. Republicans in the upper chamber responded by demanding a full impeachment trial. They didn’t get one. As NBC News reported, the Senate Democratic majority dismissed both of the articles against the DHS chief just hours after the proceedings began. The speed of the impeachment trial was an embarrassing blow to Republicans who had threatened to gum up the Senate and delay the proceedings in a bid to highlight what they argue is Mayorkas’ failure to secure the border and stop the flow of thousands of undocumented migrants at the border. However, Democrats, who control the upper chamber, easily dispensed with the pair of impeachment articles — as well as several motions to adjourn the Senate.
JV Last writes about one of the most profoundly depressing aspects of this election — half the country’s willingness to reward Trump with another term despite his performance as the worst leader in a national crisis in memory. There’s a Churchill quote that goes something like this: The after effect from the extreme prostrations of war—even a successful war—is ennui. He was explaining that in democratic societies, wars begin with drums and parades, but ends with public disaffection.3 There might be a corollary to this rule concerning pandemics because it is pretty clear that COVID broke something deep in the American psyche. It’s why people went crazy for two years, screaming at strangers in the grocery store about masks. It’s why we have a mass economic delusion in which people aren’t able to accurately perceive the state of the economy. It’s why we got the meme-stock phenomenon.
Not only did someone self-immolate outside the court room but this happened again too: There are some other foul rumors as well… They have a full jury with six alternates. On Monday morning, the games will begin.