Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Today's News: "In the Covid era, the vulnerable die earlier, the remaining become vulnerable earlier"

I've been noticing and collecting a variety of recent posts and tweets about Covid and our situation these days, and the challenges we will be facing in 2023.

This pretty well sums it up, really: And as for the continuing political implications: Yes indeed: But wait, there's more....

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Today's Great Stuff

Here are some of the funny tweets and stories I have seen over the last couple of weeks:

Yeah, and here's a Modern Problem:

Friday, January 27, 2023

Today's Scene: Enshittification

I used to title these posts "From the Substacks" but good commentary is not just Substacks these days, its Medium and Patreon and blogs and opinion pieces from all over. 
So I will call these posts Today's Scene - a collection of observations and opinions by various authors from various places. 

As Twitter continues to implode, and as Facebook allows Trump back on, Today's Scene is a discussion of what is happening to various websites and social media platforms. 
Setting the scene is a fascinating graphic from Visual Capitalist, The Top 50 Most Visited Websites In The World


Wednesday, January 25, 2023

And whoosh! The McGonigal spy story is gone!

Was there ever a conspiracy theory more bizarre, more crazy, than believing that Russia was behind Trump's unexpected 2016 election victory? 
But just because something sounds crazy doesn't mean it isn't true. 
For years now, I have believed somebody close to Trump was working for Putin - Trump himself is too stupid to play a spying role himself, and too ill-informed, but he is also so credulous it is easy to get him to believe just about anything. Far too often Trump and the people working for him did or said something for Putin's benefit, too many times to be explained by mere coincidence. 
So now a guy high-up in the New York office of the FBI has been arrested and charged with working for Russia. Quel suprise!

Friday, January 20, 2023

Today's News: Another one gone

One of our growth industries these days is baby boomer deaths -- today, it was David 
Crosby:

  On a lighter note:

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Ukraine update - Bob Rae: "To base decisions on fear would be devastating for democracy"

I'm doing a Ukraine update every two or three weeks now - my last one was Dec 28, when I talked about the resilience and courage of the Ukraine people.
Tonight's update covers the recent events in Dnipro, as well as analyst expectations for the future -- it isn't victory, not yet, but the shape of victory is becoming clearer, and maybe that riderless horse isn't galloping quite so madly across history.
First, these Russian attacks on civilians are horrific:

Monday, January 16, 2023

I'm so tired of Teh Stupid!

 
The question asked by nations around the world in 2016 was "Why is US politics so stupid?" because America's idiotic Electoral College system allowed Trump to become president even though he did not win the popular vote. 
Now nations will again be asking "Why is US politics so stupid" if America's idiotic Republican politicians allow the world economy to crash because they can't make a simple fix to their debt ceiling procedures. 
In both cases, America knew what the problems were but wouldn't or couldn't summon the political will to fix them. 
The United States already lost political prestige and influence around the world because of Trump -- it took Biden some time and lots of meetings to get the world community to forgive America for Trump.
Now America is risking its economic credibility and clout with the debt ceiling debacle -- and the easiest solution seems to be to print a trillion-dollar coin!

Saturday, January 14, 2023

What a week!

 
Sad news from all over today: In other news, one has to wonder how incredibly stupid will this get? Increasingly, I am convinced that Garland will never have the courage to indict Trump for anything - I doubted he would do it even before the Biden documents were announced, but now it would likely be impossible. Oh well.... 

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Some things to think about, when you have a minute...


Here are some predictions for 2023 from Visual Capitalist

Here's something else to ponder: And here's another:

Monday, January 09, 2023

Some neat stuff


And here's some more neat stuff.  First, some great articles -- 
- From the New York Times, a 2023 Astronomy and Space Calendar that you can add to your Google calendar, plus an article about how the Calendar was developed
Here is the tweet about it:

Saturday, January 07, 2023

Finally the crazy is over!

Yeah, sure.


I spent the evening watching the US House of Representatives try to elect a Speaker. Finally, they did. Just barely.

Thursday, January 05, 2023

Today's News: Update on Covid


I haven't posted much about the Covid news lately, but I have been gathering together some of the articles and tweets that seem to summarize the most helpful advice right now.
TL,DR: wear a mask, damn it!

Tuesday, January 03, 2023

Animal crackers

Sunday, January 01, 2023

Happy New Year!


To bring in the new year, I have gathered some of the funnier posts I saw over the last few weeks.