Progressive pot-stirrer Sean McElwee has some thoughts about what went wrong for Sanders supporters, and how they can get what they want (eventually).
McElwee defies conventional wisdom for progressives by saying progressives need to embrace conventional wisdom — polling, focus groups, and changing the message to suit the district.
He popularized the slogan “Abolish ICE” — even had it as part of his twitter handle — but advises Democratic candidates to be extremely cautious using it themselves, because it’s just not a slogan that will win many elections.
Talking about which policies could work politically in Trump districts is not a fun conversation to have, but we need to have those conversations.
This article comes at a good time for me; I’ve been disgusted by national Democratic Party politics, discouraged and pessimistic about the future of the US. But now I’m reminded politics is incremental. Getting Trump out of office and keeping Congress would be a big win and it seems very achievable. Winning the Senate and a few state houses would be even better. That would only be the beginning — if Democrats fail to deliver real improvements in people’s lives, they’d be out of power by 2024. But victory in 2020 would be a great start.
Time zones are confusing to people who routinely communicate or travel across them, and some people are proposing to put the whole world on one time zone - UTC, which is five hours ahead of Eastern time in the US.
This does not mean that New York businesses would open five hours earlier. A business that opens at 9 am today would open at the same time under the new system, it’s just that the clock would say 2 pm. Everybody would get used to it quickly, say proponents of the change.
I think this is a bad idea, simply because I don’t think there are enough people doing business across time zones to make it worthwhile to change the system for everybody.
However, I have thought for years, that there should be a custom of using universal time for those of us who DO have business crossing time zones. I’ve been routinely doing business across time zones for many years, and even now I still occasionally miscalculate, or propose a meeting time to someone without specifying which time zone I mean.
“Blade Runner: The Lost Cut” is a 20-minute fan film that splices Blade Runner with
… other films that star Blade Runner cast members, plus more films starring those films’ co-stars, resulting in a masterfully edited cinematic rabbit hole where Rick Deckard is hunting down a cast of replicants including Gene Hackman (via The Conversation, one of Harrison Ford’s first films), Steve Martin (via The Jerk, which stars M. Emmet Walsh, who plays Deckard’s boss Bryant), and John Belushi (via The Blues Brothers, which features Ford’s Star Wars co-star Carrie Fisher).
Getting on lunchtime here so I think I’ll be watching this while I eat.
The coronavirus pandemic is heightening the need for “Right to Repair” – eliminating laws that make it illegal to fix the machines you own.
Cory Doctorow writes about two instances: A researcher has released a proof-of-concept for a hack that allows a relatively inexpensive CPAP machine to function somewhat like a ventilator.
Also, several state treasurers have demanded ventilator manufacturers release documentation so hospitals can maintain their equipment during a crisis.
Also on Cory’s Pluralistic.net today:
One guy is in charge of oversight for $2.2T in stimulus. He’s got no staff and he communicates by Twitter. He formerly worked for Elizabeth Warren so we can be optimistic he’s both honest AND competent – but nobody is that honest and that competent.
Universities want to install mandatory, undetectable spyware on students' computers.
This article seems more timely now than it was a year ago when it was published.
American collapse is not preordained – we have free will, both as individuals and as a society. But every day Trump remains President and the Republicans remain in power, it’s a day closer .
The Democrats are better. But on a national level they’re still not good. Just not as bad.
The Wonders, the fictional group at the center of the 1996 movie “That Thing You Do,” will reunite on Friday for a community watch party of the film to benefit the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund….
Funds raised through the watch party will aid musicians and touring professionals who are out of work because of the coronavirus.
The watch party also will pay tribute to Adam Schlesinger, The Fountains of Wayne musician who died recently of complications of COVID-19. Schlesinger wrote and composed “That Thing You Do,” the song that launched the fictional band ― initially and confusingly called the One-ders ― to brief stardom in the film, set in 1964.
“ … Bloomberg News killed an investigation into the wealth of Communist Party elites in China, fearful of repercussions by the Chinese government. The company successfully silenced the reporters involved. And it sought to keep the spouse of one of the reporters quiet, too.”
Bloomberg was concerned about being locked out of the lucrative Chinese market.
Amazon fires tech workers for warehouse worker solidarity.
Southern states are in for the worst coronavirus misery. Poor healthcare and social services contribute to the problem, and the burden will be borne more heavily by PoCs, who are more likely to have chronic untreated health conditions, no savings to allow them to take time off, and no healthcare – which is of course why Republicans are OK with it.
Also:
“… if billionaires need you to go back to work to keep their fortunes intact, then it follows that your work – not theirs – is responsible for those fortunes to begin with.”
And Cory’s doing a charity reading for #podapalooze, reading an hour of his novel “Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town” – one of my favorite of his novels. It’s is about a man’s quest to build a mesh Wi-Fi network in Toronto. The man’s father is a mountain, his mother is a washing machine, one of is brothers is a zombie, another is a set of nesting dolls, and his girlfriend has wings.
