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It’s a post post post truth world

Friday, December 2, 2016

Years ago, Stephen Colbert coined a new word: truthiness. I’m not sure he ever precisely defined it, but I took it to mean that something was truthy if one wanted to believe it. At the time, truthiness was a part of our discourse, but it was still fairly peripheral. Now, we are swimming in truthiness. In fact, truthiness is really so 2008. We are truly (does the word “truly” mean anything anymore?) in a post-truth world. Here’s a couple of data points demonstrating that the concepts of truth and fact have become totally outdated.

My Facebook feed is mostly free of fake news stories, and when they do cross my feed I usually ignore them. I think I have a fairly advanced built in bullshit detector. But some people don’t, and it would be amazingly helpful if such people were offered a little guidance; at least a warning that the unbelievable story they are reading is, in fact, something they should not believe. Zuckerburg claims there’s no way for Facebook to filter out the bullshit, or even warn it’s users that they may be consuming bullshit. What he probably means is that he can’t make any money doing that, and he might anger some folks on the right, and particularly with Donald Trump looming, that might affect his bottom line.

Well, it turns out that it’s not at all impossible to warn users to beware:

Last night, TechCrunch ran a story purporting that Facebook was showing certain users red warning labels above fake news links. But as it happens, this wasn’t Facebook’s doing at all, but rather the work of a Chrome plugin called B.S. Detector, made by activist and independent journalist Daniel Sieradski.

If that irony wasn’t interview-worthy enough, with the backdrop of an ongoing public crisis over Facebook’s involvement in fake news, the social network appears to have just actually just banned the plugin, according to Sieradski.

via Motherboard

For those who aren’t total computer fanatics, a plug in is a piece of software that the user can, at his or her option, install into a software program such as a browser. It’s totally voluntary, so Sieradski wasn’t messing with anyone’s computer or with Facebook. He was actually quite conservative in terms of his warning system; Fox News stories get a pass. The conspiracy sites, however, don’t. They may be truthy, but they don’t tell the truth. It is hard for the rational mind to see why Facebook won’t let people voluntarily elect to get a warning when they are fed a suspect news story, but maybe Zuckerburg agrees with the Republicans that it’s important to keep the populace as ignorant and deluded as possible.

But is there such a thing as truth? Apparently not, according to Trumper Scottie Nell Hughes:

And so one thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch, is that people that say facts are facts—they’re not really facts. Everybody has a way—it’s kind of like looking at ratings, or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth, or not truth. There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts.

via Daily Kos

I’m not quite sure why he put the word “unfortunately” in there, since it’s a condition he helped to create. I guess I’m a bit old fashioned. I still believe in facts, and I believe they are stubborn things. For instance, global warming is a real thing, whether Scottie wants to believe it or not. I do so hope he owns shorefront property in Florida.

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Grifting the USA

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Blogging has been sparse lately, as I’m still getting over the shock. It’s not easy facing up to the fact that I will quite likely witness the end of a republican (small “r”, you’ll notice) government in the United States. Sooner or later everything put together falls apart, but I figured we had at least several more decades.

On that cheery note, a few observations. I am just beginning to get back into reading the newspapers and my blogs, as I couldn’t face them for a while. Something has struck me, and while I’m sure I’m not alone in this observation, I’ll still pass it along.

It’s an odd thing that while Trump is the man in the middle of the forces that are destroying the American experiment, it is totally unclear whether he has any significant role in what is being done in his name, other than the corruption that is his stock in trade. Just to remark on one thing, consider the Trump tweets.

Recently Trump tweeted something to the effect that flag burners should be imprisoned or lose their citizenship. This was a brilliant move, or at least it was if it was a strategic move. But it’s impossible to tell. It is perfectly possible that Trump is just exhibiting the symptoms of his mental illness, and is not at all aware of the political function served by these tweets.

Why are they brilliant? Because they serve admirably to distract attention from the actual harm he and his handlers/minions are doing. At around the same time he tweeted about flag burning, he signaled, in a far less attention grabbing way, that he was on board with Paul Ryan’s plan to destroy Medicare.

So, what do we hear about? My wife tells me that the New London Day devoted an entire article today to flag burning, a form of protest that is both rare and self defeating. The press is like that. It may hint at the fact, or even come right out and say, that Trump’s tweets are absurd and full of lies, but like dogs following a scent, they will keep to the trail that he lays down. Meanwhile, the actual harm that he is doing is pretty much ignored. Has the Day covered the fact that he wants to destroy Medicare with the same thoroughness that it covered the flag burning non-issue? Not likely. Are the American people being made aware of the fact that the nominee for Secretary of Education wants to destroy public education, and that she makes even Obama’s charter school loving appointee look like a public school fanatic. Are they being made aware that his nominee for Attorney General is a racist, or that his nominee for Secretary of the Treasury is a Goldman Sachs alum, the same Goldman Sachs that he trashed on the campaign trail. I’m not saying that these facts cannot be discovered; I’m merely saying they aren’t getting anywhere near the attention that his seemingly mindless tweets are getting. Distraction is a useful tool if you want to manipulate people into not just accepting, but embracing, policies that cause them harm. Trump is a grifter, and, whether deliberately or through pure instinct, he’s bringing those skills to bear on the presidency. It won’t work if the grift is exposed, but the chance of that are slim to none.

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Ten years too late

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Sometimes late is not better than never, and this may be one of those times:

A panel of three federal judges said on Monday that the Wisconsin Legislature’s 2011 redrawing of State Assembly districts to favor Republicans was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, the first such ruling in three decades of pitched legal battles over the issue.

Federal courts have struck down gerrymanders on racial grounds, but not on grounds that they unfairly give advantage to a political party — the more common form of gerrymandering. The case could now go directly to the Supreme Court, where its fate may rest with a single justice, Anthony M. Kennedy, who has expressed a willingness to strike down partisan gerrymanders but has yet to accept a rationale for it.

Should the court affirm the ruling, it could upend the next round of state redistricting, in 2021, for congressional and state elections nationwide, most of which is likely to be conducted by Republican-controlled legislatures that have swept into power in recent years.

“It is a huge deal,” said Heather Gerken, a Yale Law School professor and an expert on election law. “For years, everyone has waited for the Supreme Court to do something on this front. Now one of the lower courts has jump-started the debate.

“If this were to be a nationwide standard, 2021 would look quite different,” she said, “especially for the Democrats.”

via The New York Times

There is a slim possibility that this case will survive appeal in the Supreme Court. Justice Kennedy may be so appalled at the prospect of Trump that he’ll accept the mathematical approach advocated by the plaintiffs. But the fact is that by the year 2020 we will likely also have at least one more Trump appointee in addition to the Scalia vacancy. I won’t mention names, but there are some people who don’t know when to retire, so we have to hope, and it may be a vain one, that the person(s) in question can live out the next four years. Even if that were to happen, there’s a good to excellent possibility that massive voter suppression will be massively legalized by the present court. By 2020 there’s a good chance that there will be only a few state legislatures that are not wholly owned subsidiaries of Koch Industries.

Had this happened ten years ago, it would have made a huge difference, but the vote suppressors and the autocrats are now far too firmly in control. Even if the case is still the law of the land in 2020, it will be up to a horde of right wing judges, along with a right wing justice department, to enforce it. Good luck with that.

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Impeachable Offense, #2

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Using his office for personal enrichment:

A stalled building project in Argentina bearing President-elect Donald Trump’s name reportedly picked up steam days after he spoke with Argentina’s president.

According to Quartz, three days after Trump spoke with President Mauricio Macri, one of his real estate projects in Buenos Aires made headway after years of delays. That report was based on a story out of the Argentina-based La Nacion.

The report noted that there is no substantive indication that Trump’s conversation with Macri had anything to do with the project getting a green light, but is just the latest in a series of questions about possible conflicts posed by Trump’s efforts to serve as president while maintaining a global business portfolio.

Construction on that $100 million building is set to begin in June 2017, but still has to be permitted by the government.

Earlier, La Nacion had reported comments from an Argentine journalist claiming that Trump had raised the building project — a massive office building in the heart of Buenos Aires — in a congratulatory phone call with Macri. A spokesperson for Macri later denied that the project came up in that conversation, and noted that the two have a longstanding relationship predating Trump’s political career.

via The Hill

Take it as a given that the subject did come up in the telephone conversation, and the Argentine president got the message. Only an idiot or a Republican apologist (and I know they’re often the same thing) would pass this off as coincidence.

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Impeachable offense, #1

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Today I am going to begin what I believe will be the first in a long series of posts, within each of which I will take note of the commission of impeachable offenses by the person who is going to get the most votes when the electoral college next month, as opposed to the person who got the most votes by far from the American people. I am morally certain that I’ll miss a lot of impeachable offenses, but I’ll try my best. As Krugman has pointed out, this administration bids fair to be the most corrupt in American history, and it should be noted that, for the most part, in previously corrupt administrations, it has been the underlings, and not the top man who have been corrupt. Not so with our soon to be Grifter in Chief.

I am going to define impeachable offenses in two ways. The first is any offense which does in fact constitute a high crime or misdemeanor. The second is any offense which, by the Clinton rules, would be perceived by Republicans as grounds to launch an endless investigation. A caveat here is that I will count in the second category only those examples in which wrongdoing is actually clear or proven and which are analogous to an actual Clinton “scandal”.

For the moment, I will assume that a person can be impeached for crimes committed before taking the oath of office, since otherwise I’d have to wait until January 21st to start this series.

So, it happens that the first offense (of which I’ve become aware) is impeachable both as a matter of law and under the Clinton rules:

About 100 foreign diplomats, from Brazil to Turkey, gathered at the Trump International Hotel this week to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect’s newest hotel.

The event for the diplomatic community, held one week after the election, was in the Lincoln Library, a junior ballroom with 16-foot ceilings and velvet drapes that is also available for rent.

…

In interviews with a dozen diplomats, many of whom declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak about anything related to the next U.S. president, some said spending money at Trump’s hotel is an easy, friendly gesture to the new president.

“Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’?” said one Asian diplomat.

First, let’s take a look at the Clinton rules. There never was any evidence of a “pay to play” arrangement so far as the Clinton Foundation went. The best the AP’s in depth investigation could do is allege that Hillary met with a Nobel Peace Prize winner who had also donated to the foundation. Here, we have Trump soliciting members of the diplomatic community to line his pockets, and isn’t it clear from what the unnamed Asian diplomat has to say that they’ve gotten the message loud and clear. This would be good for at least a five year investigation were the Clintons involved. It will be forgotten tomorrow.

I call it soliciting a bribe. The Supreme Court might not, having recently legalized bribery, so long as the person being bribed is a Republican, but I still call it that. So there’s your high crime.

I should say, parenthetically, that if this administration was merely corrupt, I would be much more sanguine about the future. Democracies can bounce back from corruption.

We’ve done it before. Once autocracies are entrenched, they’re very hard to uproot.

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New London Anti-Trump vigil

Thursday, November 17, 2016

There will be an anti-Trump candle light vigil at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in New London from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, Friday. It’s hard not to be down after the election, but we have to fight back if we have any chance of fending off the dark side of the force.

In that vein, I expect that sooner or later I’ll be able to get back to blogging. I am slowly but surely getting to the point where I can look at the blogs and newspapers again. Starting slowly-comics first, reliable blogs and local news second. Still can’t face up to the normalization process going on in the mainstream, but even that will come.

Anyway, if you live in the area, come to New London tomorrow night.

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Everything put together, sooner or later falls apart

Saturday, November 12, 2016

I’m slowly unwinding from the fetal position, but it’s still the case that I wake with a jolt every day when I realize that the unthinkable has happened. I’m under orders from my better half not to be too doom-and-gloomy, so I won’t burden this blog, at least right now, with specific predictions. But, I’ve read a lot of history. There have been republics in the past. Demagogues arise, and republics cease to be. For the moment, I’ve stopped reading the papers and even my blogs, as I can’t tolerate the process by which Donald Trump will be normalized. At least I can’t right now. Anyway, as I’ve said, I’ve read a lot of history. I don’t really need to watch. I know how this movie ends.

UPDATE: This sort of sums it up

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Election blues

Sunday, November 6, 2016

I think it’s safe to say that I get fairly anxious before most presidential elections; 2012 being the only recent exception, since Obama’s reelection was a near certainty. But this year I’m in an especially pronounced fetal position, a position I’m sure a lot of other folks have assumed.

At the time, I considered George Bush to be the worst president ever. I still do. I thought he had fascistic tendencies, but I don’t think I ever felt he was a full blown fascist, or that he posed a threat of ushering in a fascist state. He and his ilk operated within certain norms. True, we had Dick Cheney to worry about, but even he never posed the threat that does the Donald.

Trump knows no boundaries. Since it’s all about him, he will do anything that he can get away with, and if he can get away with making himself a dictator, he will. We now know that the FBI, or at least powerful elements within the FBI, would like to see him in just that role. He has a lot of support among the nation’s police, thanks to the fact that all across the country we have trained our police to be more like an occupying force than public servants. Were Trump to decide to exercise unconstitutional power as president, who, precisely, would be able to stop him if he had the nation’s police and the FBI on his side?

We have never faced this very real possibility before, except, perhaps, in the hyperbolic imaginings of extremists or paranoids. This time, it’s different.

So, I’m in a mental fetal position, though I’m trying to do what I can. I’m not one for phone calls or door knocking, but luckily I’m our local party treasurer, and for many and sundry reasons, that’s kept me busy, so I can say I’ve done my bit. And on Tuesday, I’ll be standing at polls, giving people rides, and collecting results. You know, they also serve who only…

So, I’m looking forward to that moment when the networks flash Hillary’s picture as the winner of this election. From everything I’ve read, it still looks like a sure thing, but unlike 2012, that’s not enough this year. And as soon as she’s safely elected, I can start carping. I’ve already got plans.

After I wrote the above, but before posting it, I found that I’m not the only blogger in the state suffering from some sort of election related disorder.

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Saturday Morning Cartoon

Saturday, November 5, 2016

If you’re like me, you’re probably totally stressed, looking forward to that moment Tuesday night when (hopefully) the networks announce that we haven’t elected a fascist after all. So, consider this a stress reliever.

Anyway, this is one that I remember quite distinctly. It was an oldie when I was a kid. It teaches an important life lesson, has some cameos by Bing Crosby and (I think) Bob Hope, and some other guy who was probably famous in the early 40s, but is now largely forgotten. Anyway, I loved the song, and definitely didn’t want to grow up to be a pig, though I can think of a lot of people that would say I’ve definitely grown up to be a mule.

I recommend overlooking the little dash of (probably unintended) racism in the lyrics of the opening song. It was the forties, and at least it wasn’t directed against anyone in this country.

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More stuff you can’t make up

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

While the media is obsessed with nothingburgers like Hillary Clinton’s emails, it lets stories about Trump go by that would be fodder for multiple articles were the candidate not Trump. He is such a dishonest crook that mere fraud or manifest dishonesty is not considered worthy of mention. He literally had to admit to sexual assault in order to get the media to obsess for a while. Even that’s died down, and a

recent claim about out and out rape has attracted almost no attention.

So I guess it’s not surprising that this story won’t go beyond the Mother Jones website. This may not be illegal, but it exemplifies the fraud that is his defining characteristic:

Donald Trump frequently boasts of his hotels and golf resorts, and it’s true that they have won awards. The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences has given Trump at least 19 Diamond awards, which it calls “the most prestigious emblem of achievement and true quality in the world today,” for his various properties, according to journalist David Cay Johnston in his book The Making of Donald Trump. It also gave his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, a prize as “the best golf course worldwide.”

All of which sounds impressive. Except that the board of the Academy consisted mostly of Trump’s employees, friends, and family members.

But let’s hear from the Donald:

In May, Trump denied having any connection to the organization in an interview with Yahoo News, saying, “I mean, I receive awards from different places sometimes, but I’m not involved in it. How am I involved in it?”

He lies without compunction. In fact, he’s so pathological that it is probably the case that he believes everything he says to be true while he speaks. But hey, what’s more important, the threat he poses to democracy or some emails that may or may not (put most probably do not) prove that Hillary Clinton exercised poor judgment?

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