Hurricane at Lafitte’s…
Author: Patrick Rhone
Winter of Wine…
I’m apparently of the age where I wake up at 6:30am no matter what. Even on vacation. It’s become my natural wake up time. Not sure how to feel about this.
It’s official. My wife and I have chosen our “Idea of The Year”. Ready?
Perks.
People love perks. They remember perks. Seriously, people might forget a holiday bonus on a paycheck but they’ll talk about the swag bag and use the company branded mug all the time.
Give perks.
Maker spent three years inventing a new coat hanger
I have absolutley no use for this, and the Kickstarter is already over 4x its goal, but I absolutely love the idea and the video is super adorable.
Tonight’s entertainment…
Beatrix is Margaret Dashwood.
Just in time for my trip there next week.
FWIW, any local like myself woould have given you the same answers as the example ones in the linked post. I guess that means the bot seems pretty a’ight!
Context Matters
As you know, I rarely discuss politics.
I’ve been seeing this piece by Jamelle Bouie (who is someone who I have respect for as a journalist and op-ed writer) making the rounds:
Opinion | Trump Wants Us to Know He Will Stop at Nothing in 2025 – The New York Times
Here’s a pull quote to use as an example:
With the help of these unscrupulous allies, Trump plans to turn the Department of Justice against his political opponents, prosecuting his critics and rivals. He would use the military to crush protests under the Insurrection Act — which he hoped to do during the summer of 2020 — and turn the power of the federal government against his perceived enemies.
Now, I’m not going to discuss whether I agree with it or not, because that is unimportant to the critique I’m about to provide. It is something that, frankly, large journalism as a whole continues to fail at time and time again when discussing these ideas. It is missing some very important context. Because, if you’ve not been paying close attention, here’s what you need to understand about not only Trump’s and his allies plans but, also, why his supporters and, frankly, the majority of modern Republicans/Conservatives are A-OK with those plans…
They believe this is already happening. They believe that the administrations of Obama and now Biden have weaponized the justice department and used it to punish its political enemies already. This is why it’s important to listen when they discuss “the Russia hoax” or “the stolen election”.
This is the tell. This is them telling you that Democracy, as they know it, is already dead. This is them explaining to you that all of these charges against Trump are not because of anything he actually did — they are only due to the fact that he’s the leading candidate (by far) for the Republican nomination.
Therefore, who cares if Trump not only does it in return when he is President again. They believe that he should do it even better, go even harder, and end Democracy even further? I mean, at least he’s doing it to the people they don’t like instead of the other way around.
Seriously, if you don’t understand that, to them, Democracy died almost 20 years ago already then you won’t understand why talking about saving it doesn’t matter to them now.
Yet, I rarely see this context really discussed in the media. The “what” makes a better sound bite but is useless without the “why”.
The real ones | A Working Library
A lot of people have benefited from the association of Luddism with irrational technophobia. But maybe instead of avoiding the specter of Luddism we should reclaim it. Asking good questions about how a technology will impact people isn’t unreasonable and it isn’t irrational; it’s right and appropriate and necessary.
What we believe in.
I’m trying to explain that I’d like to get up and get stuff done but this girl is not understanding me and doesn’t seem to care.