Politics – Page 24 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Sunday Morning Reading

The price of chocolate is through the roof and even ideas seem to be melting away in some fashion or the other in this Easter edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

The price of chocolate is through the roof and even ideas seem to be melting away in some fashion or the other in this Easter edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

Leading off this Easter Sunday morning it appears the price of cocoa is soaring leading to worry for chocolate makers and chocolate lovers. Aliina Selyukh covers it in Pricier Easter Bunnies and Eggs. Half-Dipped Kit Kats. What’s Up with Chocolate?

Much of this week’s news was dominated by the Baltimore maritime disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This is an fascinating take from Will Bunch: A Ship Crashed Into a Baltimore Bridge and Demolished the Lies About Immigration.

Less fascinating perhaps, but also timely, A.W Ohlheiser says The Slow Death of Twitter Is Measured in Disasters Like the Baltimore Bridge Collapse.

David Todd McCarty tackles the power and the mystery of ideas in The Idea of Things.

Moving into the poltical world Marc O. De Girolami may be late to the party but he’s correct when he says Something Other Than Originalism Explains This Supreme Court.

Perhaps the most important political piece written this week comes from Chris Quinn, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Check out Our Tump Reporting Upsets Some Reades But There Aren’t Two Sides To Facts: Letter From the Editor. Better yet, forward it on to the editor, publishers, and programmers of your local media sources.

Andres Marantz wonders Why We Can’t Stop Arguing About Whether Trump Is A Facist. It begs the question as to who is arguing this anymore, but it’s a good read.

Will Knight takes a look Inside The Creation of the World’s Most Powerful Open Source AI Model.

Meanwhile Erik Hoel says A.I.-Generated Garbage Is Polluting Our Culture.

And to round out this week’s edition, Catherine Rampbell tells us The Internet Was Supposed To Make Humanity Smarter. It’s Failing.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Collapsing Bridges and Bridging Analogies

This bridge collapse and the reaction to it seems analogous, yet in an almost incongruent way, to the slow motion collapse we’re living through of all of the guardrails we’ve built up in American society.

The images from the maritime disaster in Baltimore’s harbor this week certainly caused a collective gasp from everyone who saw it. The quantity and volume of gasps have continued in the relatively short time span since the Dali hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge. As we’ve heard how costly and much time it will take to demo the wreckage, reopen the harbor, and rebuild the bridge, the magnitude of the hard work needed to navigate the challenges ahead is hard to really grasp, but we know that those challenges can be overcome.

Even so, this bridge collapse and the reaction to it seems analogous, yet in an almost incongruent way, to the slow motion collapse we’re living through of all of the guardrails we’ve built up in American society.

Most of those guardrails already lie in a heap of debris and the rest seem to be hanging on by mere threads just waiting to unravel. Frankly, I waver back and forth wondering if it’s possible to rebuild those guardrails or not. Physcial things can be replaced. Societies built on common understandings, traditions, rules, and experiences, not so much. Once the keystones begin to decay the arches eventually fall.

Bringing back what we have already lost will require a rebuild as substantial, if not more so, than what needs to happen in the Baltimore harbor. And nothing rebuilt is ever the same as what it replaces. Society’s guardrails have been as forever crumpled as what remains of the Key Bridge.

As Rick Wilson is famously fond of saying, Everything Trump Touches Dies (ETTD) and the casualty list is long: the media, the justice system, Congress, political parties, civil discourse, social media, and on it goes. What isn’t dead has already been infected beyond cure. And watching those willingly accept their own demise is as twisted as is this sentence describing it.

We were far too complacent with those guardrails, far too passive when we first felt them begin to erode, and far too comfortable to push course corrections or implement further protections.

You never think about the ground underneath you until it collapses and takes you with it.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Stocks, Shoes, and Bible Bunkum

A fool and his money are soon parted the saying goes. That’s obviously an understatement that didn’t come close to anticipating the gullibility of large swathes of the American public. There are obviously flocks of fools out there begging to be fleeced by this conman-in-chief Donald Trump. In the last few weeks, supposedly facing financial peril due to the increasingly large legal fees and judgments against him, he’s managed to roll out sales pitches for trashy shoes, launch an IPO for his solipsistic social media network, and now bibles. I just don’t get the fascination with throwing good money after such bad bunkum.

It makes you wonder if all of these folks somehow drank Trump branded water or ate Trump steaks at some point in their lives that contained some sort of additive that bound them to him in some weird way. That makes it sound like bad fiction, but I just find it hard to believe that there are enough minutes in any given day for this many suckers to be born.

Sure, some folks are going to make some money from the Truth Social stock deal. Many more will lose their shirts. I imagine those Trump bibles will one day get passed down through a few familes here and there. Everyone needs a door stop or two. I can’t comment on the shoes, because there’s no rational excuse for anyone who thinks that’s a remotely attractive way to spend money or adorn their feet. But the conman who owns the courts, bilks his creditors, and gives lie to the concept of shame, just keeps on conning and his flock keeps lining up to be sheered.

If we saw any or all of this in a movie or TV show most would change the channel. But then Reality TV is how this whole thing kicked off in the first place.

We are not serious people. But this guy is a serious serial shyster.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

There’s No Happy Endings For This Trump Fairy Tale

Yowsa did the howls go up! Trump’s bond in the civil fraud case got reduced on appeal from $454 million to $175 million and he got a ten-day stay before he has to cough up the dough. If the intital judgment had been for $175 million instead of $454 million I’d bet we see this differently today if that amount had been upheld. But that’s fiction. In a werid Sartre-esque reality show of our own making. And it shouldn’t be surprising.

That’s how screwed up we’ve allowed this sad excuse of a man to warp most of the world around us. On every conceivable level. We can continue to pretend the institutions we’ve relied on will offer some protections from the likes of this decaying orange turd and someday after he’s gone the world returns to a better place. But he’s crushed any hopes of that. At least for a few generations. Besides it’s a fiction he’s exposed, not one he’s created. Most fairy tales don’t end with happily ever after.

Yes, this vedict is a lifeline. Yes, it seems like he’s getting a break. And you know what? He is. And he will continue to get them. He might one day be held accountable for all of this, but I’m betting not whle he’s still breathing. Life ain’t fair damnit, especially when you’re trying to play by the rules and the other side doesn’t give fuck all about rules.

One of these days we’ll learn that. It will be messy. But at least it’ll be more honest.

Meanwhile: The judge in the porn star hush money case that trial will begin jury selection on April 15th. And so it goes.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

The Groans Come Out for Ronna and NBC

NBC brought out the groaners, the howlers, and the passersby by announcing the hiring of former RNC Chairperson Ronna McDaniel (nee Romney) as a political commentator. Judging by the volume I’d say that got just what they bargained for: more attention.

I can’t say I’m really surprised. NBC has populated it’s talent pool with a number of former GOP stars from the past, including at least one other former RNC Chairperson, Michael Steele, who hosts his own show on weekends. Given that most of those folks have established reasonably anti-Trump street cred, it will be more than interesting to see how this plays out. My suspcision is we’re not looking at yet another Come-to-Jesus conversion. I expect NBC wants to turn more segments into a Crossfire-like spitting match. But even that seems too simple, so who knows.

If NBC had any balls and integrity as a news organization it could have created a different story with this hiring. Maybe even practice some journalism instead of entertainment. Knowing full well the shit storm it would kick up, they could have announced it and then produced a segment with Ronna and one of their more respected show hosts, wherein Ronna is questioned hard about her past activities and statements covering for the forces that want to upend elections and the constitution. It’s all well chronicled and on tape in the NBC vaults. Set her up with a 2 or 3 block segment with Nicolle Wallace and let it play out.

But, as I said, that would take some balls. The decision to roll the announcement of Ronna’s hiring out the way it did speaks louder than the actual hiring itself.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Supreme Betrayal Is a Must Read

At times it feels like we’re uncontrollably tumbling downhill in our attempts to stave off the end of our American Experiment. At every pause in the tumble or reach for an anchor to stop our descent, it seems like more and more ground gives way threatening to bury us all if we ever reach a bottom.

If we somehow survive what’s ahead of us and historians are able to do what historians have historically done, this article, Supreme Betrayal, by J. Michael Lutting and Laurence Tribe, will be an excellent chronicle of what just happened when the Supreme Court of the United States helped the often shaky, but always resilent foundation of our democracy slip its moorings like many of the other fabled institutions we used to rely on.

I strongly encourage you read the entire piece but this excerpt is both damning and telling:

What ought to have been, as a matter of the Constitution’s design and purpose, the climax of the struggle for the survival of America’s democracy and the rule of law instead turned out to be its nadir, delivered by a Court unwilling to perform its duty to interpret the Constitution as written.

It’s much too late in the game for this to have any impact in the current election. That decision has been rendered. Let’s hope it’s not to late for the historians who will need to understand what this moment means long after most of us are gone to consider this in their chronicles. If they’re allowed to.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Things We Know

Magicians have a hard job. Everyone is looking for the trick. Politicians have it easy. No one looks for the trick. Everyone already knows it. They’re not marks. They’re part of the act.

Donald Trump is a degenerate criminal, a rapist, an insurrectionist, a scumbag, a loser, a lousy liar, and more beyond redemption than most of the evil people in recorded history. And he’s the Republican nominee for President of the United States. If you’re voting for him I feel sorry for your grandkids’ future.

Judge Aileen Cannon is on the take.

Apple is screwing the pooch when it comes to PR and policy of late. Unusual.

Even if Putin died tomorrow he wins. We’ve already given him the win. Regardless of how the war in Ukraine or the 2024 US presidential election turn out, he’s overseen the decline of the West he and his predeccesors always wanted. So much damage from falling out of a first floor window.

The Main Stream Media will blame its continued demise on everyone and everything except themsleves.

Boeing has become synonymous with the Ford Pinto.

The vast majority of Internet issues (spam, bots, etc…) could be eliminated if the companies that control communication technoloy and social media apps would forego profit from that behavior. And that’s never going to happen.

photo via sergio1972 on Shutterstock

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

Did the early voting thing today. As all the attention in the big race turns towards the fall, I encourage everyone in primary states still ahead to get out and vote. Down ballot races are just as, if not more, important. We live in a reasonably safe Blue state, so as far as the presidential primary it doesn’t mean much. Down ballot races on the other hand need just as much attention as the marquee races.

Besides, you might as well stay in practice. Otherwise it might be the last year that voting matters.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday Morning Reading as the time shifts and some are racing against the clock to turn back the hands of time in our political and social lives. Yes, some politics but also some history and some tech today.

Laughter may be the best medicine, but not when it can be used against us. Fintain O’Toole in the New York Review of Books takes a look at how cruel humor can be used as a weapon. Laugh Riot is an excellent if not troubling (also long) read.

(Side note: some folks get upset at links I offer here that are behind paywalls or require registration. I get it. Two thoughts: Writers deserve to get paid. Also, there are only a gazillion ways around circumventing these kinds of things on the Internet. Use your smarts.)

Taylor Lorenz offers up The Word ‘Viral’ Has Lost Its Meaning. I think she’s correct.

The use of Artificial Intelligence continues to baffle. Charles Bethea takes a look at The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice.

Speaking of baffling tech, Steven Aquino takes a look at How Smart Home Technology Made My Home More Accessible. Why do I say baffling? Steven’s post isn’t, but in the potential gold mine and boon for those with accessibility issues that is Smart Home Tech, no one has gotten this right yet. When it works it’s great. When it doesn’t it’s a mess.

Apparently back in 2022 the US was quite nervous that Putin would launch a nuke towards Ukraine. Check out Jim Sciutto’s piece Exclusive: US Prepared ‘Rigoursly’ for potential Russian Nuclear Strike in Ukraine in 2022. It’s a good read, although I’m not sure why it’s an exclusive as I recall most of us being worried about this.

Josh Kovensky in Talking Points Memo takes us Inside A Secret Society of Prominent Right-Wing Christian Men Prepping for a ‘National Divorce.’

Sascha Pare tells us that Scientists Just Discovered A Massive Reservoir Of Helium Beneath Minnesota. Sounds like the Iron Range might be getting a new nickname.

And returning back to time, David Todd McCarty is searching for answers. I think we all are. Well worth your time to read Frittering Away What’s Left of Eternity.

Things We Know: All Things Rot

Some things we suspect. Some things we know. Some things are just rotten.

The Republican Party doesn’t exist anymore. It hasn’t for awhile, but we’ve been pretending/hoping. The media should just start calling it for what it is. Dead and rotting. Quit dancing around and call them the Orange Party. If you’re a registered Republican, you own this rot and this death. If you’re proud of that I don’t know what to say. And if you’re in the media, I hope there’s a heaven to help your soul.

The Supreme Court is only supreme in its craven cowardice.

Donald Trump won’t need to “terminate the constitution” when he’s elected. The Supreme Court essentially did that with its recent ruling.

“Money talks and bullshit walks” used to be a truism. Both money and bullshit seem to be doing most of the talking these days.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.