The subhead above says you need to watch this. I’m repeating that here. You do.
Carole Cadwalladr tells it like she sees it. More importantly how many of us see it. But she is brave enough to speak it.
In her post announcing the release of this video of her TED Talk this year, she recounts how she knocked the Silicon Valley World off its axis with her 2019 TED Talk implicating Facebook, and Silicon Valley as a whole, for their role in Brexit. She’s back and talking about the ever increasing dangerous threats we’re facing today given how much we’ve already surrendered and those in control of our digital lives have capitulated to those in control of our politics. Or is it the other way around? As she puts it “a digital coup.”
Of course, I think she’s spot on.
I could go on and on, with words describing her thoughts, but your time would be better spent watching and listening.
A big hat tip to Ian Robinson for sharing these links on Mastodon.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Two of Donald Trump’s minions, Elon Musk and Peter Navarro, are feuding with each other over tariffs and trade wars, taking the high road by tossing insults at each other like “moron.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to a press query about the feud by saying, “Boys will be boys, and we’ll let their public sparring continue.”
Nice.
I remember growing up in the hills of Virginia in an age when moonshine and dangerous racing up and down and around curvy mountain roads was quite a potent entertainment mix. On more than one occasion someone would crash and end up dead, wrapped around a tree.
I also remember quite a few of my elders commenting in the aftermath that “boys will be boys.”
I don’t seem to recall anyone saying that at the funerals though.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
We separated ourselves from our screens this past weekend and did a little antique shop browsing. The thing is we stumbled into a number of vintage screens that would qualify as sci-fi nostalgia these days.
These early televisions are from the companies including Motorola, Admiral, and Philco.
Fun times.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
A bit of politics, a bit of tech, and a bit of hope and coping. All tariff free.
This week’s Sunday Morning Reading is tariff free. As usual, even in unusual times there’s some politics, some tech, and things pulled from the cultural file. Enjoy.
For some good context that gets lost in all of what’s washing over us, Jill Lapore takes a look at The Failed Ideas That Drive Elon Musk. Everything old is new again is the saying, even bad things.
Trying to pin down any real coherent details or point of view about what’s happening in the economy is a fool’s game played by the foolish at this point. But context does help. Hamilton Nolan thinks the recent foolish moves will eventually make the rich poorer. I agree. Take a look at what he calls “a deep, dark ocean of harm” in Divergence From The Interests of Capital.
Like the political world, the tech world is seeing its myths and myth makers exposed for the frauds they often are with new layers of the onion peeled back daily. Joanna Stern in the Wall Street Journal takes a look the erosion of trust in her piece, Apple and Amazon Promised Us Revolutionary AI. We’re Still Waiting. It’s a soft headline. Here closing line hits harder, “Where’s the trust?”
Lest we forget that our culture and society is one weird, yet overly predictable wrestling match over how to, or not to control our animal impulses, comes word that Hooters is filing for bankruptcy. Annie Joy Williams takes a look at The End of Hooters.
We’re all staring at everything we’re facing hoping, perhaps against hope, that none of it will lead to any permanent damage, yet teetering on the verge of grief because we recognize our personal impermanence means it might be permanent enough in our short respective lifetimes. That strikes home when someone brave talks about a moment of personal grief. Check out Death Comes Gently Into The Night by NatashaMH.
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.
So much of what we’re living through in this age of destruction in America was unavoidable before it started, but and yet we avoided doing what was necessary. Damage is happening and will continue. The children’s rhyme of Humpty Dumpty comes to mind and that doesn’t have a pleasant ending.
Even if you can’t put all of the pieces back together in the same way they were before, the attempt is worth it. It’s not easy and it’s not without risk. The question of the moment is all about how American businesses will respond to the Trump tariffs. The general consensus is those costs will be passed along to consumers, in effect creating a tax.
I happen to agree with that consensus. Our problem is that too many American businesses are afraid to confront the bully, and also afraid to cut into their profit margins. The only way to conquer that last fear is to confront the first one.
While not the same by any stretch of the imagination, here’s a story from my past that’s somewhat analogous, at least on the bully fighting part.
I used to run the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Virginia. At the time it was indeed a one stoplight town. The theatre served the local surrounding counties (it sat geographically at the intersection of three counties) and parts of two adjoining states (West Virginia and Maryland). It also served the Washington DC suburbs with easy access down Interstate 66. In the immediate town the theatre helped bring customers to several restaurants and antique stores along its one Main Street. Saturday and Sunday matinees were always a delight to see folks strolling down the sidewalks between the various businesses before and after a show.
After years of the same very local political leadership, a newcomer to the town succeeded in ousting the mayor. One of his first initiatives was to approach me and say that he was going to enact a $1.00 per ticket surcharge on the theatre to increase the town’s revenue.
We argued back and forth about this for few months because obviously I didn’t want to see this happen. When I suggested to him that we’d print out each ticket with his name on it saying “This $1.00 Surcharge Brought To You By Mayor Brown,” he didn’t take me seriously at first, but when I showed him a mock-up of the ticket, he saw the light.
He and I had several other contretemps over the years but ended up being friends in the end, primarily, I believe, because I did stand up to him in that first instance. I’ve won and lost battles to bullies in a similar fashion throughout my life and career.
Again, it’s not a perfect analogy of what we’re facing as a country, as a society, and as a planet. Even so, to my way of thinking, when you’re confronted with a challenge from someone who wants to toss around their power — real or make believe — you need to stand and deliver or sit down and shut up, taking what you deserve. You might indeed lose, but otherwise you’re just a coward for not trying.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Damnit. I miss the fun of April Fools’ Day. Those days are apparently gone forever and I miss them.
It certainly seems like it was a more innocent time, because while some would get offended, they were usually in the minority. Certianly compared to those who got a good joke and recognized a good leg pull for what it was and not some violation of personal space.
I recall being fooled and doing some fooling of my own. I recall entire websites publishing April Fools’ Day issues. (I worked for one that did.) And I recall the warnings to not take things too seriously. But these days the fun has been stripped from that way of thinking. That kind of fun left the room long before the painful moments we face very day, many of which seem like a joke because they seem so unreal. Yet, real they are.
I guess the negative reactions started to take over when the Internet, home of more copycats than original copy, made the proliferation of pranks available to all including those who would do so for malicious reasons. Call it Internet gluttony. That joke is always on us, because while humans do enjoy a good laugh, we also seem to enjoy overdoing just about anything to the point of pointlessness.
Some say you lose your taste for the kind of hijinx April Fools’ Day would bring as you get older. I’ve certainly gotten older, my tastes in most things have certainly matured. But damnit, I haven’t lost that longing for a good prank.
And that’s no joke.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
I’m not sure about how you’re viewing all the things swirling around us these days and maybe it’s just the prism I’m seeing the world through, but most of the writing that attracts me all seems to relate. The common denominator is human arrogance, (perhaps it’s arrogant for me to say that). On the other hand is the push back against it, whether it be in global or national affairs, technology, or simply finding a new way to connect in what seems like old ways. Anyway, that’s a thread running through my mind as I share this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.
Freedom of Speech and Disinformation are two sides of the same worn coin that I’m afraid is on the verge of losing any of the value it once represented. Ian Dunt says that Progressives Are Rediscovering Freedom of Speech after the populists essentially used it as a cleaver to butcher it.
Timothy Snyder has one of the best pieces I’ve seen on SignalGate called SignalGate: Violating National Security. It doesn’t get more simple than that title, and yet, we’re in a world where we let it get stupid, silly, and so much more complicated than it needed to be.
On the technology front, Artificial Intelligence keeps dominating most discussions. Steven Levy takes a look inside Anthropic and its version with Anthropic’s Claude Is Good At Poetry-And Bullshitting. Here’s the thing that always makes me laugh about AI fluffing and fulminating. We keep playing circular games with these things, creating them, we’re told, to be better than our falliable selves at reasoning and to be more efficient to free our minds from drudgery. We are good at the creating part yet seemingly not smart enough to recognize the fallibility in all of our arrogant bullshitting. We’re obviously not smart enough to recognize that, so what makes anyone think anything artificial we create will do any better?
Apple continues stewing in juices of its own making as it heads into its next cycle of OS releases, leaving many aching for the days of Snow Leopard, a release which supposedly was aimed at bug fixes more than new features. Matt Birchler reminds us that this was one of those bullshit marketing myths too many fell for in The Snow Leopard We’ve Built Up In Our Heads and links to a terrific rundown of why that was indeed a myth from Jeff Johnson in The Myth And Reality of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
As for the pushing back part of today’s introduction, take a look back, or listen back in cultural history at this piece in OpenCulture. Turns out after World War II, as the KKK was once again gaining some momentum, Superman stepped in to help slow things down. Check out Superman Vs. The KKK: Hear The 1946 Superman Radio Show That Weakened The Klan.
Watering holes are great places for connecting with other humans whether it be for refreshment, survival, or merely just a human connection. David Todd McCarty publishing on LinkedIn takes a look at The Return of The Speakeasy, reminding us that nothing was or is easy.
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.
It’s only a matter of time before the Nazis currently running America into the ground recycle Degenerative Art as a naming convention. At this point I’m not sure what’s holding them back giving their predilection for attacking anything other than the privileged white bread culture they seem to love. Although I doubt many of them actually eat white bread.
Doing his worst to try and remake culture and history into something most of the world has left behind, Trump yesterday issued another of his plans. This time it’s directed at the Smithsonian Institution proclaiming that there has been a concerted and widespread effort to replace the “objective facts” of American History with a “distorted narrative.” Oh, yeah, it’s now called “improper ideology.”
The Nazis played a similar game with history and culture, labeling some of the art they didn’t like, or that didn’t support the world they wanted to create, as “degenerate art.” Funny though that those same goons sent troops all over Europe to snatch and grab quite a bit of that artwork for their own personal use. Go ahead, tell me who were the real degenerates.
As I said, I’m not sure why the cowards in this administration haven’t stolen the “degenerate art” label for themselves, while they are stealing everything else. I’m sure there’s a Signal thread running around discussing it somewhere.
I don’t need to lay out why this is bad and yes, stupid. The Smithsonian isn’t the only target and other cultural institutions are on the list, of course the most prominent prior to this being The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. There have been and will continue to be many more sad and horrific days with horrific and misguided attempts at forcing blinders over muzzles.
At some point those you try to muzzle bite back.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Severance is quite a streaming hit for Apple TV+ and Apple is going all in on hyping the show and it’s Mac computers on the Apple Store.
To push a behind the scenes look at the editing of Severance on Mac computers Apple added a pro version of the Lumon computer used in the show to the Apple Store website. Of course, they added the Pro version. You can visit the page while it’s still around by going to the Apple website and selecting Mac, then selecting The Lumon Terminal Pro at the top of the page. The video link is included on that webpage.
By the way, the behind the scenes video of the editing process using Macs and Apple software is quite good and worth a watch.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Whoo boy. We’re splitting pubic hairs and redefining words as fast as taking a breath allows.
The Atlantic released the contents of the Signal chat between U.S. National Security Officials and The Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg. This comes after denials that any classified information have been flying fast and furious from those under fire for being so arrogantly careless.
Who knows where this story is going to go. Like a turd in a toilet bowl it can either be flushed or remain a floater. We’re effectively in an endlessly swirling toilet waiting to see. But sure, let’s spend time debating the difference between war plans and attack plans, what’s classified and what’s not. It’s been said a million times, so I guess it really doesn’t matter, but these are not serious people.
The whole world used to be watching. Now they’re just laughing. At some point this comedy of errors is going to end in real tragedy.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 