Donald, The Anti-racism Daily newsletter that pops into my inbox every morning around 3am provided excerpts from and links to five of Dr. King’s speeches: Letters from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963)Beyond Vietnam (April 4, 1967)The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement (September 1, 1967)The Other America (March 14, 1968)I’ve … Continue reading On this MLK Day most Whites are still only scratching the surface of racism
Science
COVID, cognitive dissonance, and cults
Mr. Can’t Be Out of Here Soon Enough, Last night I noticed a not very big or bold WP headline tucked two-thirds of the way down about how an ICU nurse in South Dakota has been caring for patients dying of COVID who insist they can’t be dying of COVID because there is no such … Continue reading COVID, cognitive dissonance, and cults
Bitter and sweet, sweet and bitter
President* for only 73 more days (and counting) Trump, My word of the day today is “bittersweet”, which is defined as either “bitterness and sweetness combined,” which I think is rather too literal and pretty lame, or as “pleasure mixed with overtones of sadness,” which I like quite a bit better (https://www.yourdictionary.com/bittersweet). In this morning’s … Continue reading Bitter and sweet, sweet and bitter
God save the data! Or else.
President* Trump, It took me three days, but last night I finally made it all the way through the HP’s long (long) report on the myriad ways your administration has undermined, thwarted, hacked, misrepresented, and disappeared, the data that the US government needs to do its jobs properly (https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/index.html#credits). It was a huge effort (5 … Continue reading God save the data! Or else.
No COVID protections and yet another quid pro quo
President* Trump, Now maybe Katie Shepherd (WP) isn’t relaying the following quote sufficiently and the White House spokesperson didn’t really indicate that a non-sentient entity (i.e., the White House) was being charged with keeping the POTUS, his family, and the WH staff safe, but I’m betting she did the best the could with what she … Continue reading No COVID protections and yet another quid pro quo
Other countries’ histories are instructive too
President* Trump, One of the things I most appreciate about Laura is that she’s an excellent curator – for the entirety of our now quite long relationship, she’s played me music she thinks I’ll like (most of which I do like), pointed me to books, movies, and articles that she knows I’ll find interesting and … Continue reading Other countries’ histories are instructive too
Trumpian death panels
President* Trump, We’re back in the red “unhealthy” zone as far as air quality this morning after being in the orange zone for what felt like a nanosecond last night. Right now the air quality forecast doesn’t include the orange zone so I can’t tell what it’s called. The yellow zone is “moderate” – just … Continue reading Trumpian death panels
Smoke, lies, and a couple of bright spots
President* Trump, I think Lifesaver and mint sales will spike in the Northwest this weekend as people try and mask the nasty metallic taste of the ash particulate we’re all inhaling all the time. It’s really eerie here – it’s 9:30 in the morning and lots of the street lights are still on, hardly anyone … Continue reading Smoke, lies, and a couple of bright spots
Hydroxychloroquine and schools ~ all of a piece
President* Trump, I am now convinced that the Twitter-person who linked you and Jr. hydroxychloroquine push to your desire to get people out working and spending again is correct. I was pretty well convinced last night, but after reading more about the debacle that is the coming school year and your all’s desperate, desperate desire … Continue reading Hydroxychloroquine and schools ~ all of a piece
They simply don’t care
President* Trump, Last night shortly after learning that the day’s number of new covid-19 cases had exceeded 50,000, Laura and I were talking about how very strange everything feels. Part of this involved doing something of a compare and contrast between the pandemic and 9/11 since these are clearly the biggest national crises either of … Continue reading They simply don’t care
