owlmoose | Entries tagged with linkspam

This is it folks, this is the big one. I don't need to tell you that, I suppose, but here we are. Even in California, where my Senators are firmly No-votes and leaders in the resistance, there are things we can do to stand up and fight -- here's a short to-do list for anyone who lives in a state with two Democratic Senators.

A few links on healthcare:

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey went through the bill, line by line, to point out some of its more terrible effects.

Politico reports that the Senate Democrats will be playing hardball. Placing our calls in support of this tactic is one of the important things that blue-staters can do.

With the urgency of our desire to kill this bill, I've seen a resurgence of the desire to call Senators from other states. Here's a good Twitter thread on the importance of NOT doing that, tempting as it may be, especially when there's evidence of Astroturfing from the other side. I know it's scary, but this time, fighting fire with fire would do more harm than good.

And other things:

The Brookings Institution put out a scathing editorial on voter suppression in the United States, a good overview of recent court decisions with some damning statistics.

The Associated Press published a report on the effects of gerrymandering, and it's not pretty.

It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that the Democrats lost the special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, and in fact the narrow loss continues the trend of being competitive in districts that ought to be safe GOP, but given how much effort and money we poured into that district, it's also understandable that people were disappointed. But the rush of pundits and BernieBots to blame Nancy Pelosi for the loss is both a headscratcher, and almost unbearably stupid. Charles Pierce explains why.

And maybe before you get too invested in demonizing one of the most powerful women in the Democratic party, maybe you should consider who is in the trenches, doing the actual work in places like the Georgia 6th.

Meanwhile, another Congressional special election flew completely under the radar: the South Carolina 5th. The Republican won that seat as well, but by an even smaller margin. This is not a seat that any polls suggested ought to be competitive, and the Democrats spent almost no money here. This ought to scare the GOP; we'll see if they heed the warning.

Maryland and the District of Columbia have sued Donald Trump for violations of the emoluments clause and other conflict of interest laws.

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: "Jandoubi" - Disparition

I'm sure no one really wants to think or talk about anything other than the House's narrow passage of the AHCA today, the bill that's intended to replace Obamacare and dismantle our entire healthcare system in the process. It's terrible, awful, and terrifying for a lot of people; I don't expect to be affected in the short term myself, but the ripple effects could be tremendous if this bill becomes law. It's hard to know what the odds of that happening are. The GOP got away with this in part by rushing the AHCA through before the CBO could prepare its report on how much the updated bill will cost, and how many people it will affect, and that report is expected to be ready before the Senate can vote. It's also commonly thought that the House bill is too draconian to pass the Senate as-is, but if the Senate softens it up too much, it might not survive another House vote. (Never forget: the GOP got this bill through the House by insuring fewer people. I think about that, and compare it to Obama's fruitless efforts in 2009 to win even one Republican vote for the ACA, and it makes me want to cry.) But never underestimate what this group of thugs, bullies, and fascists is willing to do. That said, if you are feeling defeated today, I recommend you to this Twitter thread, which I found a small beacon of hope on a dark day. Friends, we were dealt a setback today, maybe the worst one since January 20th; it's okay if you need a little time to rest and regroup. But I hope you come back refreshed and ready to fight another day. The marathon continues.

Some other stuff that happened:

Lest we think the Democrats are perfect, in the last couple of weeks I feel like they've been ramping up their chase of the Great White Male vote, with everyone from Bernie Sanders (of course) to Nancy Pelosi (oh hell no) stating that lack of support for abortion rights ought not to be a disqualifying factor for Democrats to support a candidate for office. *rubs forehead* Look, I get that being loud and proud pro-choice isn't going to fly in every single district or community, and people can have whatever personal beliefs they want. But when it comes down to votes and proposing legislation, Democrats had better not get all wishy-washy. Single-issue anti-abortion voters left the Democratic party a generation ago; trying to lure them back is only going to alienate the current party base, which is women and people of color, particularly women of color. As I suggested above, I don't really expect anything better from Bernie right now, but from Nancy Pelosi it's like a knife in the heart. At least Tom Perez got with the program, recently stating that reproductive rights are a non-negotiable issue for the DNC (note, annoying auto-play Bernie video at that link) -- but only after a lot of pressure, mostly from women.

Speaking of annoying auto-play Bernie, he has been everywhere lately, and I am tired of it. This article does a good job of summing up why.

It took awhile, but United Airlines finally made what feels to me like an adequate response to the incident in April when a passenger was forcibly removed from an airplane. New policies announced include changes to their rules for when flights can be overbooked, and last-minute changes to move crew, greater employee discretion in offering incentives, and an absolute ban on removing someone who has been seated on a plane unless there's a clear security issue. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better, as long as they follow through. (I still hope the guy sues for all he can get, though.)

Another day, another Trump appointee who wants to destroy the agency they've been tapped to run: Teresa Manning, who has been nominated to run the Department of Health and Human Services office that manages family planning, believes that contraception doesn't work. Perfect.

The House Oversight Committee finally started doing its job and is investigating Michael Flynn for real. In a statement released on April 25th, Jason Chaffetz said, "I see no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law." So-- that means he broke the law, then? As in, committed a crime? How about that.

Probably the stupidest "controversy" of the past few weeks is the handwringing over Barack and Michelle Obama getting paid to make speeches now that they are private citizens. Let me repeat that: as influential as they might be, they are PRIVATE CITIZENS. They don't hold public office, and Barack never will again (and I'd be surprised if Michelle went that route), so why the fuss? Oh right, because money is dirty, unless it's going to white dudes, in which case it's fine.

One recent bright spot was Bill O'Reilly losing his Fox News gig, due to advertiser pressure over the sexual harassment allegations that have dogged him for years. But I'd be surprised if that were be the end of it, and in fact Sean Hannity is facing new allegations already. Vox has a good video on Fox's culture of sexism that goes way beyond just O'Reilly and Roger Ailes.

Also good news: Morgantown, WV, recently swept a progressive city council into office. I also recommend this follow-up article on how they did it.

Here's a report on automatic voter registration in Oregon and how it dramatically increased turnout. A model for more states to follow.

The media has often tried to paint Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, as a moderating influence on the president, and this urge has only ramped up with the recent release of Ivanka's new book. Don't fall for it.

Today's fun link: The Sandwich Alignment Chart. "What is a Sandwich" is possibly my favorite low-stakes debate topic, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if we come back to this one.

I was mostly offline for a few days last week -- Wednesday through Friday. It turned out those were some pretty eventful days to be offline.

Montana's probably-failed vote by mail bill is mostly notable for the state Republican party's opposition letter, in which they straight-up said that they opposed it because it made it too easy for Democrats to vote. They aren't even pretending to make it about voter fraud anymore, are they?

This New Yorker article builds a compelling and terrifying case for how the White House halted the US House investigation into the Russian election shenanigans with the active help of US Rep Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Democrats are making louder and louder calls for an independent investigation like the 9/11 Commission; it's pretty obvious that we're never getting to the bottom of this otherwise.

This Twitter thread is a good explanation of how the GOP broke the ACA by refusing to fund the risk corridor (in which the federal government would help insurers with the cost of covering higher-risk patients). It also links to an article explaining what the risk corridor is and how it was supposed to work, as well as detailing the problems with it now. It's hard not to think that the GOP purposefully made the ACA worse to drive public opinion toward getting rid of it.

Of course, we all know how well that worked out. We need to keep wary -- there's no doubt that Paul Ryan will try to kill the ACA again. But for now, we all live to fight another day.

The other big story last week was the Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination. The Democrats are, as usual, weighing whether to fight or cave. Myself, I don't particularly care about Gorsuch or his politics; the person who deserves the first committee hearing and up-or-down vote is Merrick Garland. That Supreme Court seat is stolen, and I will never feel differently, and I am perhaps angrier at the Democratic party for letting the GOP get away with it than I am about anything else they've ever done, up to and including the loss of the 2016 presidential election. The Democrats need to consider that rolling over on Gorsuch will demoralize their unusually energized base. Can they afford to do that, when a victory in 2018 depends so heavily on voter turnout? Time will tell, but I still hope the Democrats stand their ground on this one.

Here's an article on "blue lies" -- lies that are meant to reassure a group while being obviously false to people outside that group -- and how they might explain the rise of Trump. I think it explains a lot of other political phenomena, too; Bernie Bros come to mind, and climate change deniers.

Men Just Don't Trust Women, and This Is a Problem: A thoughtful article by Damon Young looks at the ways in which men don't trust women to speak their emotional truth, and how this wreaks havoc not just in relationships, but throughout public life.

In news that surprises no one, the cuts in the White House budget bring the most pain to the people they purportedly "help" by cutting taxes. Newsflash, GOP: most of the people helped by government social programs aren't the ones who make enough money to be paying a lot of taxes.

This article on liberal transphobia was a hard read, but an important one, especially in the wake of the controversy sparked by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her comments about trans women. It's not always an easy issue for cis women to confront, but we need to get better at it. I also recommend Raquel Willis's response to Adichie. I want to make it clear that I admire so much of Adichie's work and think she is an important voice for the feminist community to support, but she got it very wrong here, especially in her attempts to respond to the criticism.

For the "actors who were born to play their characters" file, Chris Evans lays out his feelings about the Trump presidency in an Esquire interview. Also, in case you missed it, it's worth checking out his Twitter fight with David Duke.

Today's fun is politics-related, but I couldn't not include a link to the best hashtag of recent weeks, #GOPDND, which re-envisions GOP politics as the worst Dungeons and Dragons campaign ever. The Mary Sue has a good roundup.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: "Planet You" - allMeadow and Rob Costlow
Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/770138.html

This will be my last link collection for the year, since I'll be out of town the week after Christmas.

I haven't read this yet, but The Indivisible Guide sounds like an amazing resource. Basically a plan of action for creating the progressive version of the Tea Party, to stand against the Republican majority and build up the party for the future. I need to download and take a closer look.

In an interview with NPR, Barack Obama talks about his intention to mentor and develop young Democratic talent once he leaves office, with the goal of strengthening the party at the state and local level. This work is sorely needed, and I can't think of anyone better to take on this role.

From the Columbia Journalism review, an article on how Vanity Fair protected one of its writers from doxxing and harassment after she wrote a review panning Trump Grill. More publications need to take the threat of Twitter harassment seriously, and it's good to see a strong, effective example of how it might be done.

The Resistance Party is a coalition of Democrats who plan to take an active stand against the incoming government. I'd like to know more about who's actually behind it -- are any elected officials or power players already on board? -- but the platform is promising. And when I retweeted it with a comment that I wish it had more explicit mention of women's issues other than abortion and women's health, I got a quick response back informing me that they'd already heard that feedback and were planning on incorporating it in the next draft. Something to keep an eye on at least.

For another prong to the resistance, NARAL has announced that they will not support any Democratic politician who votes to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. I think this is a good development; Democrats are too quick to cave in to GOP demands, and we need to hold our own party accountable.

Serenity in the Time of Trump: important piece on the problems with playing the blame game -- especially since most people will try to deflect responsibility for their failures onto someone else, like mainstream media focusing on the role of fake news to dodge their own incompetent coverage -- and the dangers of succumbing to despair.

Speaking of mainstream media and fake news, apparently Google's algorithm gave the top search result for "did the Holocaust happen" to Stormfront. At least, until a reporter at the Guardian paid the company to put an ad in that spot. Good reminder of the limits of search technology -- and why Google's "don't be evil" motto is less convincing every day.

In better news, Brianna Wu is planning to run for Congress!

Today's bit of fun: I was reminded of one of my favorite pieces of meta-media: the fake Lucas Lee movie posters from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, featuring Chris Evans. Sadly, the original article with Evans's own commentary no longer seems to be online, but there's a screencap here, and larger versions of just the posters here.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "Scarlet's Walk" - Tori Amos
Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/762555.html

Here's a pretty fascinating look at how different state boundaries would have affected the Electoral College results. Based on such things as commute patterns, phone call patterns, states of equal population, etc. A good reminder of how arbitrary the Electoral College is as a way of deciding anything.

The always-excellent Jamelle Bouie writes about Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns and how they might serve as a blueprint for Democrats to strengthen their economic message without sacrificing social justice issues.

Good piece on what it really means to empathize with conservatives, and what that means for moving forward.

This article on fake news and media credibility is a little harder on the mainstream media than I would be, but it's a thought-provoking perspective nonetheless.

Speaking of fake news, here's an interview with the creator of a browser plug-in that detects and flags dubious sources, called (appropriately) BS Detector. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I'm curious. Could be a valuable tool if it works, although I worry that the people who most need it are the least likely to install it.

And for today's fun link: The San Francisco SPCA partners with the downtown Macy's every holiday season, creating a store window display of cats and dogs who are available for adoption. I try to get there at least a few times every year to witness the adorable in person, but this year they've added three webcams. (Requires Flash.)

Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/761371.html

I've been thinking I'm sharing most of the best resources I find on Twitter and Facebook these days, and given the speed at which things have been happening since the election, good stuff sometimes gets lost in the social media firehose. If I noted the best of those links and posted them here, say on a weekly basis or so, would people find that useful and/or interesting?

I'm a librarian; curating and sharing information is what I do. If I can take that task on in a way that helps people, I feel like I should. So I'll try this for now, but if folks have feedback or suggestions, definitely let me know.

If I had to pick one and only one issue to fix, it would probably be voting rights. There is no question in my mind that the gutting of the Voting Rights Act was a key factor in the PEOTUS's electoral college victory, and according to this ThinkProgress piece, emboldened Republicans are likely to double down on restricting voting rights even more. In the long run, I think a Constitutional amendment explicitly guaranteeing the right to vote is the best solution, but that'll never happen in the current climate. Meanwhile, we need to work on getting more state governments in the hands of Democrats, because Democrats don't pull this shit. This is one of the reasons the 2018 midterms are so crucial.

Speaking of midterm elections, the courts have ruled that North Carolina is so badly gerrymandered that the districts violate equal protection laws, and the state needs to redraw the districts and hold a special election for the state legislature in 2017 to ensure fair representation. Since the awful Pat McCrory finally conceded the NC governor's race yesterday, I have some hope that this might actually happen. Virginia and New Jersey also hold state elections in 2017 (not on a special basis -- they're just on a different cycle). So let's keep our eye on those balls as well.

Jay Smooth posted his first video since Election Night and urged us to get to work, whatever that means for us.

"Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Absolute must-read from this wonderful author, who reminds us that words matter.

"Things I Blame for Hillary Clinton's Loss, Ranked": I'd probably order these things differently (I'd list Bernie somewhat lower, for one), and there are items missing, but most of those are covered by 1-199. And with that placement, I absolutely agree.

For a different perspective on a similar topic, David Roberts takes a deep dive on the many factors that led to this outcome. Although not much of this was new to me, I appreciated the detailed and thoughtful look, and having all these arguments in one place.

Also see this long but excellent tweetstorm that examines exit polling and other data to explain what happened with the white working class.

Reddit is feeling the strain of being overrun by pro-Trump and alt-right trolls in the wake of their victory. My heart bleeds. *insert eyeroll emoji here*

And now for something completely different: NPR's Monkey See blog is putting together a Pop Culture Advent Calendar, sharing one perfect pop culture moment from 2016 per day. I love this idea, and perhaps in its spirit, I should make sure to include at least one happy or uplifting thing in each links collection. We can't have four years of unalloyed misery, no matter how bad things get -- that way lies burnout and despair. As I've said before, we need to take our bright spots where we can get them, even if it feels like trying to keep a candle lit against a firehose. This is my candle, and I will do whatever it takes to keep it burning.

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Tori Amos - "Sugar"
Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/761319.html

Wow, I have been really bad about posting here lately. I'm following both flist and circle, commenting some, but as for writing my own posts (about things that are not The Vorkosigan Saga), not so much. Between travel, a new quarter, sickness, and just plain feeling boring right now, I guess it's not so surprising.

So, in lieu of real content, here are links to three things that have made me happy lately:

Is there anyone left who has not seen this awesome video of a cat playing with a dolphin? Just in case, I leave a link to it here.

Speaking of awesome videos, Apeture Science Investment Opportunity #1. There are four in the series and they are all great. I loved Portal's sense of humor, and it looks like we can expect more of the same in Portal 2. I am so excited for this game.

#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement: Stephen Colbert at his finest.

What's been brightening your day lately? Silly things, cute things, big or small, feel free to leave a comment.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Maneki Neko - "The Road to Madurai"
Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/523084.html

These are all things I need to either finish reading or take a closer look at. But I thought they made an interesting contrast.

Technology Doesn’t Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds. (A response to the much-blogged, much-quoted Atlantic article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", which I also still need to read.)

The End. (Speculation on the impending death of the book publishing business.)

Can games make your kid a better citizen? (Reporting on a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. I wonder if they ever hire librarians?)