The Long Road Out

 The idiot in the White House believes that it's a good idea for 17-year old kids to load up with weapons and drive to minority communities to defend property.  He believes that such a kid, after a two-hour drive filled with intentionality, has a right to a self-defense claim when he unloads his weapons into a crowd.  So, I want to make it absolutely clear:  you won't even let 17 year olds into our military or secret police.  Now, without any training, you want them on the streets, near schools, and on the fringes of agitated citizens? What the serious fuck.  You, Donald Trump, are a dangerous accessory to murder.  Here's a baseline principle: no teenager should have access to weapons.  This would reduce the teen suicide rate in the United States by half in an instant. It would reduce the number of women murdered by young boyfriends. And it would save our Democracy.  As has always been the case in the United States, people who reject the gove...

There’s a snow removal company in Truckee, California that has a monopoly. Elements it’s called. We’ve had 5+ feet of snow here in three days and it’s still snowing.    For two 26 hour periods in there, we've been snowed in--it's very comfortable in our house, and we have lots of food, and Netflix, and all the rest.  And, we're trying to quarantine in the belief that somehow we're helping hold back the worst of Coronavirus. Who needs self-regulation when you're actually help prisoner in your house (not entirely true--we've climbed out on snowshoes and cross country skis).  Having snow up to the top of your garage door actually has a calming effect--your choices are eliminated.  So, you get the picture: a service provider with terribly low standards of customer care, failing again during this current storm. Elements sent out a message yesterday that should be a reminder to all of us about how to care for your neighbors in times of anxiety, troubl...

Today's wacko news:  five or seven individuals, perhaps Chinese high school students, have been kicked off Facebook and Twitter for posting pro-Chinese depictions of the Hong Kong protests.  Presumably we've also kicked some Russian programmers off those platforms too because they posted stuff that supported Trump for president. The reason:  stating government points of view on the platforms so that you and I could possibly see them here in the United States.   Please note the ludicrousness of this--the Chinese government itself has banned the platforms domestically, so clearly China (and Russia) has very little reason to care what gets posted since their own citizens can't legally see any of it (not even all the selfies!). Still-- the media, including NPR for instance, characterizes the high school student posts as "an international propaganda campaign." Two points of insanity destroy this perspective: The Chinese government has been heavy-handed, but ...