If we could . . .
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807-82 “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” outre-mer, 1833-4 BACK
The Sadness in Human Nature
As I watch Donald Trump sow confusion and chaos in a nation that heretofore has been known to the world as a standard in all that is good in human nature, and as I watch his own political party stand aside in silence in the face of his selfish and destructive behavior, I am reminded…
A Moral Disaster
An hour after putting up my previous post, this story was published by the Associated Press: The Trump Administration is Holding Thousands of Migrant Kids in Mass Shelters. This is a prime example of what I was talking about. Dr. Jack Shonkoff, who, heads Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child said of the 14,000 migrant…
Their Silence is Their Consent
While reading of our current American Chaos in the morning’s paper (yes, actual newsprint), I was reminded of a phrase and a quotation that seem apt considerations for our national dilemma. The first is the Latin phrase “cui bono”, which means “to whose profit?” or “to whose benefit?” It is most often used today as…
The Facebook Dilemma
The following is from an NPR Frontline notice I received as a subscriber. I know I’ve got a lot of posts recently hammering Facebook, but it seems that finally a lot of people are waking up to the platform’s dangers. There are good things about FB, undeniably. But nothing is ALL good. Facebook’s dark side…
It’s the End of News as We Know it (and Facebook is Feeling Fine)
This article in Mother Jones is an important summary of recent issues confronting Facebook, and how they’ve manipulated their response to the public and their users. I first saw this mentioned in a tweet by James Fallows. It’ll set your hair on fire. We can thank the British Guardian and the New York Times, for…
A Common Sense Website and Movement
I recently came across this website (Freedom From Facebook) and looked into its mission and organizers. I think it’s a worthy organization to pay attention to if you’re concerned at all about your data on the Internet. Don’t take your privacy for granted. It’s YOUR data Facebook is monetizing, and we need to be informed…
Jump back Jack!! Times Are Changin’ in Texas!!
Here are some excerpts from a November 9 article in the New York Times about the mid-term election turnout. Texas is on the move. “By percent of people eligible to vote, it was the highest turnout of any midterm election [nationally] since at least 1970 and the first time midterm turnout topped 100 million.…
Real America Versus Senate America
This article by Paul Krugman highlights once again, the disparity in voting weight between rural and urban Americans in an age when most of the population is rapidly shifting to urban settings. There have been countless articles about this, but this one provokes a great deal of insightful comments. I often find the comments section…
A Theory and a Story
Here’s an article by Michael Tomasky that makes an argument that I whole-heartedly embrace. It’s about how, of the two major American political parties, the Republicans’ messaging in the last 30 or 40 years has steam-rolled the Democrats, who seem to be utterly incapable of refuting it or offering something better. The main reason the…