* Fascist foreign policies leads to fascist reactions. This time, Trump's bellicose policies toward Iran have given the Iranian government permission to engage in crackdowns against dissent, after Iranians took to the streets protesting high gas prices. The reformers who negotiated the Iran nuclear deal with the Obama administration are now on the run. Personally, I think the Iranian government needs to follow American practices to keep people off the streets: Flood the market with self-help books designed to make us feel like the only problem we face is ourselves as individuals. Tell people it is never systemic, or, if you hear that, just say, "You are not taking personal responsibility!" Then, make sure you load up the television, Internet, or radio with diversions and distractions. And make sure you keep telling citizens how they live in the "greatest country in the world." It does not matter if it is patently untrue. Any number of economic indicators show it is not true in America, but we keep telling ourselves that over and over--so inbred is this belief. Cue Lee Greenwood and salute the flag, you ingrates!
* If you have to engage with the proverbial uncle at Thanksgiving--thankfully, pun intended, I do not--here are some handy statistics from The Century Foundation. I know, I know. Factual analysis and information is irrelevant to the proverbial uncle, but our more sane family or fiends may find the information useful. Recently, a Trumpist told me Obama never had a quarter with 4% GDP growth, but Trump presided over one that did--in 2017, early in his presidency. I thought, though, that can't be true--but it was. However, the charts in The Century Foundation link provide charts showing why that one quarter was an outlier of a downward trend. To me, however, the whole thing about quarters and GDP growth applied to presidential administrations are more silly than not because the president has less immediate and direct impact on quarterly results than we ascribe. I said this consistently during Obama's years, and say it again now during Trump's. Still, it's okay to use the charts in The Century Foundation article as a cudgel against the proverbial uncle who thinks the economy only got going under Trump, and that somehow making air and water less clean made the unemployment rate drop to 3.9%. I also like to remind people the definition of unemployment in the US unemployment rate includes people working part-time who want a full time job. That started under Reagan to give the impression unemployment was falling, and since then, no politician wants to change it back--even though most western or advanced nations count part-timers who want full-time work as unemployed. Then, Obama changed the definition of when one dropped out of the work force from 99 weeks with no job to 260 weeks with no job. This played havoc with decades old comparisons regarding workforce participation. But, hey. Don't talk about this stuff with your proverbial uncle. It may get him too confused. You may sound like you are looking at economic indicators with intelligence and nuance, which may make his head explode.
* But maybe making your uncle's head explode is a good thing? I mean, really. Do we need Baby Boomers at all anymore? The website, College Humor, has an interesting take on us Baby Boomers, somewhat akin to my 2016 short story, Boomerang. And yeah, Boomers and addled Oldsters. Keep pissing on your children and grandchildren, and making fun of them for cultural matters you don't understand. I am sure they will be glad to shore up your social security payments in twenty years since you are all doing so well as you enter retirement. The article highlights a dirty secret corporate media doesn't often tell, which is, without social security, most elderly would be impoverished.
*So a hyper-partisan investigation into the FBI's concerns over Trump's ties to Russia while he was running for president found no bias? This investigation was the subject of fevered, delusional rhetoric all around the right-wing social media and right-wing corporate media (I'll save you the disgust from reading links)--as if the FBI had no probable cause to be concerned about Trump's Russian ties and communications. The report finding was dropped into the laps of news reporters on Friday, I believe, and is not getting the coverage it should be receiving. But too bad. Nonetheless, the right-wing media, which FoxNews leads, is having none of that conclusion. They think, simply because an FBI lawyer they long hated, Peter Strzok, was ahead of his own curve in terms of evidentiary support for the Russian-affiliated Carter Page, My God!, they scream. This is the first time in history that a government lawyer (whether District Attorney, Attorney General, etc.) was ahead of his or her own evidence in a search warrant demand from a judge! Stop the presses! Esquire has a round up of more Friday dumps that should be shoved into the faces of Trumpists.
* And really, after all the nonsense attacks on Clinton and Obama (and Susan Rice) over what occurred in Benghazi, Libya, one would think these Trumpists and right-wing media should be demanding Trump be impeached for this enhancing of ISIS alone.
* The Confederacy, now joined by Nebraska, has decided they would rather not count their own citizens and residents in the next Census.
* I feel bad for the Boy Scouts. The organization long made the necessary reforms against sexual abuse, and I know from experience with my son, I had to take an online course, and know how strongly the rules were enforced to protect the pre-teen and teen boys. Yet, because of the change in he statute of limitations (essentially dropping statutes of limitations) in various states, the Scouts now face lawsuits for events thirty and forty years ago, which may well bankrupt and destroy the organization. The beloved Philmont camp is now collateralized to pay for insurance premiums and related costs to the various litigations. I have to say, as I have said before, the US tort system is a part of the dog-eat-dog capitalist ethos of vengeance and greed, which system we should rein in, once we establish societal norms where people can be helped and protected in a humane way. We should not make millionaires of a few litigants and their lawyers. Oh well. I am certainly out of step with victim culture in that particular respect.
*Can we ever do economic development in a way that actually helps poor and working class people, as oppose to helping the wealthy, i.e. gentrification? Looks like we are in for another round of gentrification in the deserts of California.
* The CA ACLU organizations have been busy defending people's rights. Here, they are helping students who did activist art after the teacher said...Create activist art. And here, the ACLU is holding UC to its commitment to not discriminate in providing abortion and abortion-related services simply because the UC has a contract with a Catholic hospital. I think Mike Hiltzik's column is correct, and it is what we used to call a sticky wicket for the university. However, maybe the UC needs to promote secular hospital contractual relationships, and help limit the ever-growing power of religious-sectarian hospitals, which deny abortions are part of women's health.
* Krystal Ball, who is my hero in the corporate-owned media these days (through readers here know I am not in full agreement with her on the Trump impeachment issues), has a Bernie has a path commentary worth seeing, and the ending, which goes beyond that topic, is worth considering. Here is Matthew Rosza, at Salon.com, who has not been a Bernie fan, saying something similar. But let us remember, American men, and some white American women, are still having a hard time getting their heads around a female president. Pathetic.
* And this article made me happy to see, because I always admired Eric Dickerson. If I recall right, I saw six of the eight home games that season when Dickerson set the NFL record for most rushing yards. It has never been broken in thirty-five years. The story ends with how Adidas shoes, which sponsored Dickerson, gave him a cake, when Walter Payton received a fancy car. Dickerson, unlike Payton, was a guy who took no crap from the media, and paid for it. He also stood up to the Rams' owner, a chorus-woman widow of a jerk of a business man, who literally ran down the Rams' team to get an excuse to get a big payout from St. Louis municipality and its citizens in moving the Rams from the Los Angeles/Orange County area to Missouri. And I have long admired NBA start, Chris Paul. This article shows why I like him so much, besides his amazing athletic abilities.
* I have long loved the LA Times' Calendar section because of articles such as this one on Netflix's She-Ra series using "they/them" to describe a non-specific gender character. I used "they/them" after a single subject noun, such as "student," "lawyer," etc. when I was in high school and college. However, a poli-sci prof at Rutgers, a woman, said it was terribly wrong from a grammatical viewpoint and marked me down in grades for my use of the terms. I said I found "he or she" to be tiring to a reader after awhile, and thought it would be easier for a reader to use "they/them." Because of that, I studiously tried to say "he or she" or find some other way, consistent with traditional grammar, to express myself in such a situation. Now, with the transgender movement, it appears this is the new way to use those group pronouns, even when discussing a single named person, as opposed to a generalized noun, as I did. I think the prof, who is no longer alive, would have been appalled, though, as a liberal minded person, she may have come around to the idea. :)
