The resin I ordered a week and a half ago appears to be shipping from an address in Great Britain by a guy with a Russian surname. A shipping label was created and then canceled and then re-created last week, but apparently it hasn’t left the facility it’s being manufactured at yet. I have no idea when it’s going to get here, but I’d love to take the next step with that project. In this day and age of Amazon and overnight shipping, I’ve gotten very spoiled.
This article hit my LinkedIn feed on Friday, and it answers a question I’ve had rattling around my head for a couple of months: How the cuts in foreign aid affecting my old employers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health? The answer is: scorched earth. Hopkins will have to lay off 2,000 people across the globe, with a large percentage here in Baltimore. My program was called the Center for Communication Programs, which was focused on teaching family planning in the global south, with a focus on educating and empowering women. We did a ton of partnerships with USAID, which is where I developed my intense hatred for their current logo, which I still have to deal with to this day. At that time our program was focused on preventative measures (we did not advocate or promote for the A-Word) but I’m sure whatever shape the program has taken now, it’s directly in the crosshairs of the right-wing christians. It was good work and it raised women up in places where they desperately needed it. I hope there is a way those programs can be kept alive.
In the meantime, one of the main offices for Social Security is about three miles north of here, and apparently the stooges are already there poking around.
98% of Costco shareholders voted overwhelmingly to reject a review of their ongoing diversity programs. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, put forth the proposal, claiming DEI initiatives are somehow a risk to shareholders, which is fearmongering nonsense. We’ve been Costco members for years now, and I couldn’t be happier about it. In a time when we need to vote with our wallets (because our regular votes don’t seem to matter), this is one small bit of support my family can offer.
I can’t remember where I found this link, but it’s a Google doc outlining how we got to our current political situation and what we can do to change the direction our country is going. One paragraph stood out above others, and it bears repeating here because I haven’t seen any of the chuckleheads on TV saying this, and I don’t think I’ve really fully processed what happened yet:
Voters rejected the status quo — they didn’t embrace fascism. The best way to understand this is that voters were given a choice between the status quo and “not the status quo.” President Biden’s approval rating sat under 40% for this entire election season; by wide margins, Americans said the country was on the wrong track, and large majorities cited lingering and intense economic pain due to inflation and the aftermath of COVID. Vice President Harris ran an impressive campaign on an impossible timeline — but she couldn’t overcome the widespread frustration with the incumbent. The result was that a bunch of people chose “not the status quo,” either by voting for Trump or not voting at all.
There’s so much more good stuff in here—I’ve read through it once and my head is kind of full—but I’m going to return to it for a reality check and a roadmap to help make things better.
Carole Cadwalladr in the Guardian:
2 Journalists are first, but everyone else is next. Trump has announced multibillion-dollar lawsuits against “the enemy camp”: newspapers and publishers. His proposed FBI director is on record as wanting to prosecute certain journalists. Journalists, publishers, writers, academics are always in the first wave. Doctors, teachers, accountants will be next. Authoritarianism is as predictable as a Swiss train. It’s already later than you think.
5. You have more power than you think. We’re supposed to feel powerless. That’s the strategy. But we’re not. If you’re a US institution or organisation, form an emergency committee. Bring in experts. Learn from people who have lived under authoritarianism. Ask advice.
7. Know who you are. This list is a homage to Yale historian, Timothy Snyder. His On Tyranny, published in 2017, is the essential guide to the age of authoritarianism. His first command, “Do not obey in advance”, is what has been ringing, like tinnitus, in my ears ever since the Washington Post refused to endorse Kamala Harris. In some weird celestial stroke of luck, he calls me as I’m writing this and I ask for his updated advice: “Know what you stand for and what you think is good.”
10. Listen to women of colour. Everything bad that happened on the internet happened to them first. The history of technology is that it is only when it affects white men that it’s considered a problem. Look at how technology is already being used to profile and target immigrants. Know that you’re next.
(via Kottke)
My anxiety levels are rising.
NPR is reporting that over 200,000 subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions to The Washington Post after Jeff Bezos prevented the Editorial board from endorsing a candidate for the first time since 1980. This is how democracy dies; people fail to stand up to racists and dictators. Bezos is one of the richest men in the world; the paper should have been set up to weather this kind of thing in spite of his ownership.
Seriously, how hard would it be to set aside a half a billion dollars of that incredible fortune as an endowment for an independent press organization? Why are we consumed by the business-school idea that everything needs to pay for itself or turn a profit, like a business? What if they are just things we pay for that benefit the public?
Richard Benjamin, who now lives in a memory care unit at an assisted living facility, would look forward to the emails and texts, and especially to the ones thanking him for being a true American and patriot when he donated his money. This eventually led him to give about $80,000, leaving him tens of thousands of dollars in debt and his children angry at the campaigns who they say tricked their dad and took advantage of his compromised state of mind.
From CNN: Elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns. I can confirm this practice firsthand. The day after Election Day, Jen and I are going to work the phones and shut the spigot off for her father.
Wow, I’ve never thought of this situation quite this way, but it totally makes sense: John Stoehr argues that Biden let the press corps define him and his campaign (He’s too old, he’s confused, etc.) by making it about vibes and not about substance. Kamala is not giving the Washington press corps unfettered access, engaging them if and when she chooses, thus refusing to let them define her the way they want to. And it’s driving them nuts.
Vibes are this press corps’ forte, not fact and substance. If fact and substance were its strength, there would have been a different reaction to The Disaster Debate during which Biden talked about policy and issues while Trump didn’t bother. Trump was incoherent and false, but he came off as confident and strong, and he came off that way, because the press corps’ forte isn’t fact and substance.
Now that she’s in the race, her campaign is being judicious and strategic about what she says to whom, and it’s working.
This is a democracy. Harris is obliged to talk to Americans. That’s the end of her moral and democratic obligation. She’s not obliged to talk to the press corps, as if it were a constituency.
President Biden offers three simple ways to reform the Supreme Court: a Constitutional amendment to clearly state that no person is above the law; an 18-year term limit for sitting justices, and a binding code of conduct. Simple, commonsense, and desperately needed.
In America, no one is above the law. In America, the people rule.
We were in the car on the way back from a lovely bayside brunch when an alert popped up through CarPlay from Jen’s brother, prompting us to look at the news. I can’t say I’m surprised. My anxiety has been ramping up over the last couple of months from a distant rumble to an almost deafening roar; it seems like every new thing I read about is another giant roadblock for my team or portent of doom for my country. It’s to the point now that I’m pausing making any long-term plans past the fall because I don’t know what’s going to happen and I don’t know how bad things are going to get. I stand against facism, xenophobia, racism, and oligarchy. The fact that one half of the country is nakedly, enthusiastically embracing these values is confusing and heartbreaking. I feel like the bad guys have all the money, attention, and momentum and I can’t do anything to stop them.