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123 entries. 57,950 words.

September, 2016

  • On The First Debate. 2016-09-28 11:50 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I don’t even know what to say about that debate. In the first five or ten minutes, I thought for sure that Trump was going to be the next president. Clinton started awkwardly, and Trump killed. Then the rest happened. I’ll be honest. Monday night was the first time I watched either candidate in action. Previously, I had only read reports about them, or seen the occasional clip on a news or comedy show. 608 words.

October, 2016

  • On The Veep Debate. 2016-10-05 11:15 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Tim Kaine is a known quantity for me, since he was my governor and now he’s my senator. Granted I didn’t pay much attention to what he did, but that’s the kind of politician he is: He doesn’t make waves unless you’re into hyper-partisanship. I’ve always seen him as your basic run-of-the-mill politician, stamped out of the politician factory, with the party switch set on “Democrat.” So my main interest in the veep debate though was sizing up Mike Pence, who I imagine we might be seeing run for president in 2020 or 2024 or both. (I mean, who else is there?) Pence is white and handsome and likable and articulate and funny … and very conservative … and lacks a southern accent. He’s the complete package. If the alt-right adopts him we’ll probably be seeing him again. (I actually don’t know what Trump supporters think of Pence.) 793 words.
  • On The Newest Trump Scandal. 2016-10-09 2:52 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about the election, but here I go again, talking about everyone’s favorite emotional trigger. Twitter exploded Friday night and Saturday with a new controversy over Trump saying some terrible stuff about women in a video from 2005. My first reaction: I guess I’m confused. Didn’t everyone already know Trump was a horrible person and still nominated him for president? I mean, it wasn’t a secret. His very un-electability is exactly what appeals to his supporters. 759 words.
  • On The Second Debate. 2016-10-11 11:00 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Trump did better than expected in the second debate, better than the first debate, in my opinion. I’d probably call it a draw, in the sense that neither candidate wiped the floor with the other. Trump’s still struggling, but everyone expected (hoped, perhaps) he would implode-and he didn’t. When I watch the debates, I’m purposefully trying to look past the surface stuff and see things that will get buried later. The media tends to focus on the more sensational things that happen, but I guess I’m more interested in the boring stuff. 1,014 words.
  • “Revolution”. 2016-10-12 1:01 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    This is exactly what I’m worried about: “No, no, no,” @mike_pence said when a woman suggested "revolution" if Hillary Clinton is elected. "Don’t say that.” https://t.co/IjOzsTSkPm — Jason Noble (@jasonnobleDMR) October 12, 2016 Good on Mike Pence for challenging it. Kind of. Using divisive rhetoric to win support is kind of double-edged sword. Pence can’t exactly say to the crowd, “I know we’ve been *saying* that demons will erupt from the earth to devour your children if Hillary is elected, but you guys know we’re only saying that so you’ll vote for us, right? We don’t actually *mean* it.” 99 words.

November, 2016

  • Post-Election 2016. 2016-11-10 3:24 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    This post has taken days to work on, and it’s not finished, but I gave up and you’re just going to have to deal with it because I’m ready to move on now. I’m aware that people feel very passionately about this election, so I will warn folks on both the left and the right that there might be some triggers below. I’m still a centrist, and I view this election and this country through a fairly dispassionate moderate filter. Still, even I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the anger and fear and disappointment I’ve seen after the election. Most of my Internet circles experienced this election result quite like another 9/11. So it might be better if you wait a while to read this. I don’t want to throw gasoline on any fires here. 4,169 words.
  • Deep Breaths Please. 2016-11-10 11:32 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’ve been watching Trump *very* closely since election night. He hasn’t said more than a handful of words since his victory speech. He hasn’t gloated. He hasn’t blustered. Everything is going very well. Extremely well. Shockingly well. Everything is proceeding exactly like the peaceful transfer of power should go. Everyone in Washington appears to be conscious of the nation’s fears and taking deliberate steps to calm things, despite all the reporters trying their best to rile things up again. Frankly this transition so far appears to be going better than the one from Bush to Obama, which I also thought went very well. 892 words.
  • A Slight Correction. 2016-11-11 12:45 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I was thinking about this and I want to issue a slight correction to what I wrote in my last post: On those Electoral College hopes: Again, I understand. Nobody in your circles wanted Trump to be president. You’re seeing some bad things spreading like wildfire all across social media, and you’re panicking. The nightmare might be coming true. Trying to convince electoral college voters to change their votes before it’s too late sounds like a great plan. But it’s illegal. It’s unethical. It’s sinister. And I’m sorry to say this, but it’s UN-AMERICAN. 597 words.
  • Safety Pins, Fun Protests, and Yet More. 2016-11-12 10:50 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    More from the “random post-election thoughts” bin: I don’t think I ever documented this, but Clinton won (or “is winning” I should say) Virginia 49.60 to 44.56 with 99.88% of precincts reporting. (I was going to round that but I suddenly realized I have no idea how you’re supposed to round election results. Normal rounding? Truncation? One up, one down?) It’s a bit outside the range I guessed (I guessed that if Clinton won by less than 3-4 points the election would go to Trump) but Trump still won. 1,041 words.
  • On The Third Debate. 2016-11-13 4:50 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Note: This was written, well, after the third presidential debate, but I never actually published it until now. Some of the things I wrote are kind of hilarious with the hindsight knowledge of how the election turned out. Where to even start. Chris Wallace was the best moderator of the three debates, at least in the sense that he asked the best questions. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to keep the candidates on track any better than the others, or keep them from cross-talking or keep the audience from cheering. He also seemed really nervous. (Not that I blame him.) 1,359 words.
  • Another Correction. 2016-11-13 5:04 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Once again I woke up thinking I needed to correct and expand upon my earlier post. Regarding the safety pins, I completely forgot to mention that I fully support the idea of making minorities feel safe. Even if I don’t feel like I can participate myself, I applaud others for doing so. In my real life activities, based on past experience, I don’t think it’s likely that I would encounter any bad situations, but if I did, I’d like to think I would try to intervene if I could. It’s not really my forte, though. 186 words.
  • Hitler Versus Trump, A Game Of Points. 2016-11-13 12:45 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    This is a very simplistic examination of Hitler’s rise to power compared with Trump’s, and what Trump might have to do to assume the same level of dictatorship that Hitler had. I’m distilling most of this from the excellent Wikipedia articles on Hitler’s rise to power. If you want the full story, go there. Then find some books because Wikipedia doesn’t make much sense sometimes. I’ll be trying to keep this a bit light, but don’t take that to mean I don’t take this seriously. 2,648 words.
  • Passive-Aggressive Protests. 2016-11-13 1:28 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I saw this story about a crazy guy driving into #NoDAPL protesters and shooting a gun. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but it doesn’t sound like the guy has been arrested or anything either. I’m on the fence about the #NoDAPL thing personally. After cursory review, I understand the outrage, but it also looks like the proper due diligence was done by the Big Evil Corporation. But that’s beside the point. The part of the story that struck me was this quote by a protester: 277 words.
  • The Swamp. 2016-11-13 9:28 PM.
    • Blog
    • swampip.com

    This blog contains all of my “controversial” writings. I was inspired to start writing about politics and current events again, as you might guess, by the election of Donald Trump in 2016. There was such an incredible explosion of fear, outrage, and yes, gloating, that I just had to say something. I try very hard not to deliberately offend people but of necessity these are going to be the “hot button” topics that make people mad. Please note that I have disabled comments for most of these posts because I simply don’t have the time or energy to debate this stuff. 101 words.
  • It’s A Lock, Oh Wait…. 2016-11-13 10:51 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I thought it would be funny to point out what I wrote after the third debate: Anyway, at this point I would say the election’s a lock for Hillary, unless something really, really strange happens in the next few weeks. Or, you know, nobody shows up at the polls except Trump supporters. Or if there’s a secret conspiracy by Trump supporters to answer poll questions incorrectly. (I think that would be cool actually. I think it would be fun to teach kids in school to always answer poll questions with a blatant lie.) 158 words.
  • Trolling Begets Spray-Painting. 2016-11-14 12:25 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Given the culture of trolling the Internet has created, is it really surprising to see people spray-painting churches with swastikas and the like? 23 words.
  • Just Don’t Call It Trumpcare. 2016-11-14 1:11 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    If whatever Trump does to Obamacare turns out to be called Trumpcare, I’m gonna start throwing bricks through windows. Because then we’ll be right back here again in eight years, with the Democrats having spent eight years blocking progress on it and promising to “repeal and replace” it, when in fact all they’re going to do is tweak it and change the name. The point is, don’t put a president’s name in the law, even in jest. 93 words.
  • Priebus and Bannon. 2016-11-15 1:12 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Trump named Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff and Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist. Priebus seems like an uncontroversial, safe pick and I have nothing to say about it. Bannon, on the other hand, has made the left lose their minds, since he’s the man behind Breitbart “News.” They call him a racist, anti-Semite, a “white nationalist” (whatever that is-I guess it’s a new political code phrase I need to learn). Twitter is urging people to call their representatives and tell them to oppose Bannon, providing scripts and everything. 195 words.
  • Protests End In Richmond?. 2016-11-15 5:14 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Richmond’s election protests seem to have stopped on Saturday the 12th. At least they haven’t been big enough since then to warrant a news story. I didn’t think they would last long here. They didn’t seem to be fueled by any specific election outrage, just the general anarchy most people feel in college. 53 words.
  • Deportation Plans, What Do They Mean?. 2016-11-15 5:26 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    In Trump’s interview for 60 Minutes [I can’t find a legitimate source for the actual video], which I’m pretty sure was recorded several days before it was aired, we heard that Trump plans to immediately deport 2 to 3 million criminal illegal aliens. Or undocumented workers. Or whatever you’re supposed to call them. But what does that mean? What is he actually planning to do? The sinister view is that he will do what he says: Round up 2-3 million Latinos and drive them out of the country in trucks. One can imagine scenes of terror as jack-booted thugs kick down doors and drag fathers away from their crying wives and screaming children. It’s possible that a small percentage of Republican voters may also be imagining exactly that, but I’m going to give them the overall benefit of the doubt. 444 words.
  • At Least They Aren’t Planning Secession. 2016-11-15 5:42 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    In case anyone forgot, after Obama was re-elected in 2012, there was a petition in every single state to secede from the Union. So yes, poor sportsmanship after an election loss is a bi-partisan phenomenon. It just manifests differently. Liberals march in the streets, conservatives try to secede. 48 words.
  • Runner-Up Word of The Year. 2016-11-16 10:44 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    “Post-truth” was named the Oxford international word of the year. The runner-up should definitely be “normalize.” *ducks* I kid, but I have seen the word “normalize” used so often in the past week that it’s normalized itself beyond any significant meaning. Warning people not to normalize is the new normal. 50 words.
  • A Fantastic Read. 2016-11-17 11:23 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    You should read this: You Are Still Crying Wolf by Scott Alexander If I had unlimited amounts of time, it’s something I might have written. It does the thing that is almost always missing from every Internet article and news story: It puts numbers into context. 46 words.
  • Three More Roles Filled. 2016-11-18 10:51 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    We’ve got three more administration picks from Trump to scrutinize. (Real ones, not speculative ones.) Adding to Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, we now have: Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) as Attorney General. Florida Congressman Mike Pompeo (R) as Director of the CIA. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor. I know nothing about any of those names. Based on the level of Internet outrage from the left, one might assume that three serial killers were nominated. (I think we can safely assume that the left is going to oppose everything Trump does, no matter what it is. Expect to hear the phrase “Trump derangement syndrome” make a triumphant return to discourse from the right.) 266 words.
  • Trump Twitter Wars. 2016-11-19 8:29 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    The Hamilton story blowing up on Twitter today isn’t really worth commenting on. (Fun fact: I haven’t seen or heard Hamilton.) It’s The story is blown way out of proportion (on both sides). https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/799972624713420804 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/799974635274194947 Just my two cents but I think Trump enjoys making the Internet dance to his puppet strings whenever he tweets something. And the Internet appears perfectly willing to dance for him. I’m sure his team is glad to know it will be really easy for them to distract people from any policy mistakes made over his term. 192 words.
  • Timeline Updated. 2016-11-20 3:47 PM.
    • Blog
    • swampip.com

    I updated the Post-Election Timeline. 5 words.
  • Media Template. 2016-11-20 5:22 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m inclined to agree with Trump that the media is a joke. I’ve seen these patterns repeated quite a lot in the past week: Intereviewer: Thank you for joining us, Important Person Joining The Trump Administration. Did you mean that outrageous thing you said or did in the past that nobody would ever in a million years acknowledge on television? Important Person: Of course not, that’s silly. Interviewer: Do you think that other guy joining the administration meant it when he said or did that outrageous thing in the past that nobody would ever in a million years acknowledge on television? 147 words.
  • Trump And The Media. 2016-11-23 1:30 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I read an interesting article on The Guardian today about the media’s role in Trump’s election. These kinds of articles are pretty common now, but this one seemed more thoughtful than usual. Essentially they wondered if maybe Trump had been playing the media for chumps the whole time, and maybe they didn’t do a good job covering him. To which I can only respond with, “Duuuuuuuuuuh.” It was incredibly obvious that the media was covering Trump more than any other Republican primary candidate. It was stupifyingly obvious that the media was covering Trump more than Clinton after the conventions. It was mind-numbingly obvious that Trump was taking advantage of all of it. I mean, stunningly, staggeringly obvious. 289 words.
  • My Precinct. 2016-11-23 11:50 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Incidentally, as a followup to my Election Day Tale, this is how my precinct voted, as of 11/23/2016: (Graph from vpap.org.) 21 words.
  • What Is He Even Thinking?. 2016-11-29 3:07 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here’s the basic problem with the Trump presidency so far: Twitter. He really needs to stop talking on Twitter. You see, every time he tweets, I lose a little bit more respect for him and inch a little bit closer to thinking, “Okay, yeah, let’s just get Mike Pence in there. We’ll go to war with Russia pretty quick but at least he’ll keep all his back room political dealings secret like the Founding Fathers intended.” 690 words.

December, 2016

  • Trump Outrage Fatigue. 2016-12-20 12:21 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    FYI I am suffering from Trump Outrage Fatigue, meaning that I’ve seen so much manufactured outrage over the past month about Trump that it’s blurred into one big mass that I can’t even make sense of any more. Sure, there are things to be concerned about, but overall I think “the left” (a gross generalization that I wish I didn’t have to use) is overly worried because of so-called “fake news” that is biased, premature, unsubstantiated, or otherwise lacks sufficient context. (Not even counting news that is made up out of thin air.) 93 words.

January, 2017

  • Four Years Of This?. 2017-01-09 1:54 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Meryl Streep gave a speech at the Golden Globes yesterday. Trump wrote a bunch of tweets in response. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818419002548568064 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818421066859167746 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818422930157830144 Is it really going to be four years of Hollywood versus Trump? Four entire years? I’ve never really bought into the whole “ivory tower elites” thing but Hollywood really is acting like a bunch of spoiled whiny children lately. But so is the president-elect so I guess it evens out. 71 words.
  • One Press Conference Later. 2017-01-18 3:15 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I forgot to publish this… So about this compromising information that Russian intelligence has on Trump. My understanding is that Buzzfeed published the compromising info without any shred of corroboration or source-checking, like you’d expect from Buzzfeed, a place with zero journalistic credibility. Then CNN published a fully fact- and source-checked story that there was potentially-compromising intelligence information being passed around, but leaving out the specifics because they could not corroborate it, like you’d expect from journalists with credibility. 580 words.
  • Self-Censored Tweets. 2017-01-20 2:51 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I swear, looking at my Twitter feed tonight, the night before The Inauguration Of Donald Trump, is like staring at alcoholics chugging down mixed drinks. This is probably the closest I will ever come to understanding what it must be like to be a parent to a stubborn teenaged child. It’s soooooo haaaaaard not to intervene and point out factual mistakes, or philosophical mistakes, or logical mistakes, or historical mistakes, or cognitive-behavioral mistakes. (Closing your eyes and pretending that reality doesn’t exist is not a healthy attitude!!) I’m reminded again and again of “dancing mania” and the phenomenon of mass hysteria. It’s fascinating and scary and sickening and discouraging all at the same time. 500 words.
  • White House Web Site. 2017-01-21 12:26 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I didn’t watch the Inauguration, not for political reasons, but because I was at work. However I saw a lot of tweets related to it. For example, I saw a lot of tweets saying something along the lines of, “It’s only been X minutes and Y has been removed from the White House web site.” Speaking from some personal experience, I was amazed to see that any government staff could make a web site change at all on a Friday. To expect government staff to get such web site changes right on the first try is somewhat like expecting the moon to turn purple. My personal guess is that somebody was just deleting random files on the production web server hoping to get the right outcome, and over the coming weeks, what they actually intended to do will eventually occur as the project leaders return from their extended vacations. [Update: This is a joke. My point is that the government doesn’t have a great track record with web sites. Remember Healthcare.gov?] 403 words.
  • That @POTUS Thing. 2017-01-21 4:54 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    You may or may not know that in the days before the Inauguration, there was a big campaign on the Twitters to remind everyone to unfollow the @POTUS account. Personally I felt this was silly, and possibly the most ineffective form of government protest imaginable, not to mention irresponsible citizenship. “Hey, we have a frightening president now, let’s not look at anything he’s doing! That’ll keep us safe!” Anyway, roughly the time of the Inauguration, Twitter renamed the @POTUS account to @POTUS44 to keep an archive of Barack Obama’s tweets. It’s apparently run by the National Archives, which makes sense. That action meant that everyone effectively unfollowed Trump’s @POTUS automatically, rendering the whole unfollow campaign beforehand moot. 357 words.
  • Behind The Retweets: “Twitter in Trump era”. 2017-01-21 5:02 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m going to start this thing where I highlight I tweet I saw going around and then explain why it’s bad to retweet it, highlighting the general misinformation that it carries. I can’t do this on Twitter because, you know, 140 characters. Twitter in Trump era: 1) Trump bans national parks from tweeting, even on safety 2) Twitter forces users to follow Trump, even if they block — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 21, 2017 659 words.
  • Heavy Sarcasm Alert. 2017-01-21 5:17 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m really glad to see that “Nazi” is a word that isn’t being devalued. You know, those folks who were generally responsible for 60 million people dying in World War II. I think it’s cool that we now use that same word to describe random people who say dumb stuff. Nothing at all wrong with equating those two things. In a way, it really honors the sacrifice of those 60 million dead people, don’t you think? #satire #sarcasm #wordsdontmatteranymore 79 words.
  • . 2017-01-21 11:32 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I support today’s Women’s Marches completely. However I think the gravitas of protests are slightly undermined when all you see or hear about it are the funny signs. It makes it look more like a funny sign competition than a serious political statement. It would have more of a frightening effect if there were no signs at all. Either that or the signs should be, you know, frightening, not funny. I mean, the point of a protest march is the scare the crap out of the government, right? To overwhelm the police force through sheer numbers? To show you have the numbers to literally run over all obstructions, into the White House, to tear the president into little pieces with your bare hands? Julius Caesar style? 171 words.
  • What Is Trump Actually Doing. 2017-01-22 12:20 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I was looking around for a good source of what Trump is actually doing in office, in terms of executive orders, bills he is signing, etc. It’s a little distressing to see that even though we know Trump has already signed an Executive Order, that page on WhiteHouse.gov is still very blank. Most of the government sources I would normally go to are still showing Obama stuff. But I found this on VICE: 241 words.
  • That Press Briefing, Amirite?. 2017-01-22 8:16 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Well Trump certainly knows how to set a tone, I’ll give him that. I specifically linked to CNN’s YouTube video because if Twitter is to be believed, they did not cover the briefing live, and I give them high marks for that. CNN did not carry @seanspicer’s White House briefing live. — Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) January 21, 2017 (Mike Grynbaum is a New York Times correspondent covering media, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt on accuracy.) 2,119 words.
  • On Alternative Facts. 2017-01-23 1:52 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Kellyanne Conway said on Meet The Press Sunday morning that Spicer had provided “alternative facts” in his press briefing. I just watched the clip for the first time when I embedded it in this post. She is unbelievable. If I had a news show, I would never invite her back. Anyway, “alternative facts” became an Internet meme immediately. In that clip Chuck Todd responded that “alternative facts” were “falsehoods.” 247 words.
  • Spicer, Take Two, and Executive Actions. 2017-01-25 12:32 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Sean Spicer’s second press conference (23 Jan) was considerably better than the first one. His tone was much more moderated and he seemed more in command of the proceedings. Oddly, he called on the New York Post first, which I understand in some circles is considered a newspaper. One rather obvious thing I noticed about Spicer’s second press conference: Everyone asked really good questions about Trump’s plans and policies … except the major television news networks. They all insisted on talking about the inauguration crowd and “alternative facts.” (Spicer walked back his comments from Saturday quite a bit, by the way, admitting that he had given incorrect facts regarding the Metro-you’d never know that by looking at Twitter.) 490 words.
  • Twitter and Censorship. 2017-01-26 12:11 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    It’s time for some basic education on what censorship means again. News came out yesterday (24 Jan) that the EPA had received a directive to cease using its Twitter accounts. Censorship! Well, no. That is not censorship. It’s more like risk management. The government is legally accountable for everything that goes out on those Twitter feeds. They are well within their rights to set a policy for how they are used. The government would also be within their rights to fire people for misusing those Twitter accounts. It’s probably one of the few things you could do to actually get fired from a government job. (Hey-oh!) 465 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Silencing of federal government. 2017-01-27 12:18 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here’s another tweet I saw going around: Silencing of federal government Gag rule Actual Nazis Threat of martial law $20b border wall Goldmann-Sachs cabinet State Propaganda pic.twitter.com/Xu5hEsTo4P — Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) January 25, 2017 Again I’m all for keeping an eye on what the president is doing, but … “Silencing of federal government” doesn’t even make sense. “Gag rule” is wildly out of context. “Actual Nazis” is actually not true because actual Nazis are registered with the actual NSDAP party which actually dissolved in 1945. 162 words.
  • Behind The Status: Trump Wall. 2017-01-27 12:31 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    In case you think I only rag on liberal viewpoints, here I will passive-aggressively respond to a very conservative Facebook post: The true purpose of The Wall is to create a government welfare program for construction companies. Zing! (Apologies if that person does happen to read this blog someday, but I don’t engage with politics on Facebook ever, for any reason.) 61 words.
  • Behind the Status: This is funny to us. 2017-01-27 8:15 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Note: This is my first post after making some changes to the site’s infrastructure. I hope it’s still working. Here’s another fun bit of conservative propaganda I found on Facebook: Once again I have to point out that you can make any political point with data and statistics, liberal, conservative, or any variation between. And here’s another reminder that I still don’t know the source for that picture of the National Mall or when it was taken. However, calling it “not accurate” is … not accurate, as I’ve discussed before. 329 words.
  • Executive Order On Immigration. 2017-01-28 8:54 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m not pleased with Trump’s Executive Order restricting immigration. It runs contrary to the spirit of America. I understand the need to vet immigrants, but a universal ban on immigration, particularly banning refugees from war-torn Syria, sends a really bad message to the world that I’m embarrassed to be a part of. I’m particularly embarrassed by the priority given to Christian immigrants. That, in my opinion, is the work of Mike Pence, who I’m increasingly worried is pulling Trump’s puppet strings. 349 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: Rumors are true. 2017-01-31 1:20 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here’s another beauty: That’s completely preposterous. Pure fear-mongering. Throwing gasoline onto a fire. Whatever other metaphor I can think of. I don’t believe these “rogue” government Twitter accounts are real for one second. I was instantly suspicious the moment I saw them. Why? Because real government whistle-blowers go to the press, where they get protection. Also, you know, I read some of their tweets. Like the one above. They aren’t credible. They’re probably the same anarchists who protest in the streets regardless of who wins an election. 214 words.
  • Weekend Immigration Protests. 2017-01-31 1:37 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    By the way, there is much more to talk about regarding the Executive Order on Immigration and its impact over the past weekend (detainees at airports, ACLU, stays, etc.), but the news is flying around so fast and furious that it’s basically impossible to sort out what’s real and what’s fiction right now. Depending on who you listen to, everything is either back to normal, or there are armed stand-offs between all three branches of government. (That is an exaggeration for comedic effect, I have not actually heard that-either claim, actually.) 102 words.

February, 2017

  • Can’t Keep Up. 2017-02-07 12:47 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    It’s official: I can’t keep up with Trump anymore. Every day he signs new orders, says new things, writes new tweets, and I don’t have time to keep reading them and trying to figure out what the heck they mean or whether to push the panic button or not. This was undoubtedly the plan, the way to keep us ordinary citizens from keeping an eye on the government, forcing us to rely on media organizations to distill it down for us, which they always do wrong. 117 words.
  • Fun with 8 US Code 1182. 2017-02-08 12:23 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I watched Sean Spicer’s press conference when I got home tonight, and one part struck me as information I had not heard before. He cited 8 US Code 1182 as the president’s authority to suspend immigration in his Executive Order (around 7:00 in the video). He read it out loud, and it sounded pretty clear-cut to me. It was the first time I heard any mention of where they derived their authority. 305 words.
  • Confidence in Separation of Powers. 2017-02-10 2:04 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    With all the celebration I’m seeing about the 9th District Court’s ruling this evening, I can’t help wondering: Where was all this confidence in the separation of powers back on election day? And can we maybe back off on the Hitler and fascism talk now? 45 words.
  • Piers Morgan Demonstrates Centrism In America. 2017-02-13 8:07 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    On Real Time with Bill Maher, Piers Morgan did an excellent job of demonstrating what it’s like to be a centrist white guy in America right now. The above clip is just one example. Say something completely reasonable and true? Get shouted down, because it doesn’t fit the left’s current narrative that the world is ending. And because it comes from a white guy, the opinion is automatically invalid (because the narrative is that of course white guys don’t get it because Trump’s agenda won’t hurt white guys). 114 words.
  • On Sally Yates. 2017-02-15 12:30 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    From old drafts, c. January 31, finally remembering to post: Regarding the firing of Sally Yates as temporary Attorney General: I don’t like the ugliness of it, but Trump is well within his rights to fire her or anyone else who refuses to carry out his directives. He could have done it gracefully or like a big old meanie, and of course he chose the latter, sounding very much like a tyrannical dictator in his statement. The clear intention is, “You will be loyal to me or you will be fired.” He’s trying to run the federal government like a private corporation. 205 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: Possibility of New Election. 2017-02-16 2:04 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    It’s time for another episode of Behind The Tweet. This time, another “rogue” account: “GOP worried if they press Rus-Pres ties & impeach, possibility of new election could occur; smartest play for dems - promise no redo.” - @RogueSNRadvisor If you still held any lingering doubts about whether these rogue accounts were fake, this should seal it for you. Either it’s fake, or senior White House advisers are dumb as rocks, which would be even more alarming. 270 words.

April, 2017

  • Behind The Tweet: Crucify Him. 2017-04-14 8:38 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Tonight, on a Very Special Episode of Behind The Tweet, we look into one of *my* tweets. I’m sure everyone’s heard about the Sean Spicer Incident of 4/11/2017, the one where the press secretary mistakenly tried to compare Syrian dictator Assad to Hitler. I listened to snippets of it, and it’s very clear to me what he was *trying* to say, it’s just that he got tongue-tied, because he was aware that he had suddenly stumbled onto dangerous ground, and his attempts to extricate himself came out really badly. (Seriously, who *wouldn’t* be alarmed if they accidentally started talking about Hitler?) He apologized and corrected his remarks immediately after the press conference, from what I understand. 1,662 words.

May, 2017

  • The American Health Care Act, Part Deux. 2017-05-04 10:02 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    There is a lot of consternation about today’s House vote on H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Back in April (I think?), Republicans pulled the bill before voting because they didn’t have enough votes, and the world rejoiced. This time, the rumor mill says that it might pass by as little as 1 vote. Activists have been out in force imploring people to call their Representatives. Update: H.R. 1628 passed 217-213, with 20 Republicans voting no, and 1 Republican not voting. (All Democrats voted no.) The bill now has to go to the Senate where it will undoubtedly undergo further changes, then it goes back to the House to approve the Senate changes. 723 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Constant Diet. 2017-05-25 11:19 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here’s a sequence of tweets that caused me to snort with laughter: NEW: Source close to Gianforte campaign says it's raised $100K+ online in last 24 hours — most of it coming after reporter "body slam." — Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) May 25, 2017 This is what a constant diet of propaganda and conspiracy theories do, turn conservatives into the kind of people who cheer assault https://t.co/ixyBVR5BgE — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) May 25, 2017 331 words.

June, 2017

  • Behind The Tweet: Twitter Suspends RC Cola. 2017-06-02 8:01 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I saw a retweet complaining: “Twitter suspended the RC Cola twitter account over this tweet yet racists and other Rubes can post anything!” It got my attention because, like the retweeter, I too thought that sounded awfully hypocritical. But *unlike* the retweeter, I decided to dig a little deeper to find out more, because it didn’t quite sound right. It didn’t pass the “smell test” so to speak. It doesn’t make sense that Twitter would shut down the account of a major brand just for mentioning covfefe. 262 words.
  • Defining Single-Payer. 2017-06-29 2:59 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I finally looked up what “single-payer healthcare” means. I’ve seen this term “single-payer” bandied around in the healthcare debate for years but I’ve never been able to wrap my mind around what it meant in the context of these debates. I’ve always assumed that it was a debate over how to implement health insurance. Thus I’ve never really cared that much about it, because it felt like an “inside baseball” topic. 258 words.
  • Virginia Primaries. 2017-06-29 4:45 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Time for an incredibly late recap of the Virginia primaries! This didn’t get nearly as much national attention as the Georgia 6th District Special Election, but Virginia held their primaries for governor and lieutenant governor on Tuesday, June 13th. The winners were: Governor:Ed Gillespie (R)Ralph Northram (D) Lt. Governor:Jill Vogel (R)Justin Fairfax (D) At this moment I don’t know if there are any third party candidates and I don’t know who is running for Attorney General. 369 words.

August, 2017

  • A New Word Is Needed. 2017-08-13 9:46 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    This has been driving me crazy. May I just say that “Nazi” is not a particularly strong pejorative word? It has roughly the same epithetic power as the word “Nerd.” Whenever I see someone talk about Nazis, I always think of Indiana Jones and Call of Duty. Fun movies and fun games. And now, I think of Funny Twitter Memes made by Millennials. So … not very scary. One needs to be about seventy or older to really feel the cultural significance of the word “Nazi.” 105 words.

September, 2017

  • Rush Limbaugh Versus The Hurricane. 2017-09-08 9:22 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    You know the liberal bubble is 100% airtight when people actually believe Rush Limbaugh said that a hurricane is a liberal hoax. Exclusive video of Rush Limbaugh fleeing Florida after calling Hurricane Irma a liberal hoax. pic.twitter.com/PZcloMao4n — Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) September 8, 2017 Rush Limbaugh - who called Irma coverage a liberal hoax - has decided to flee the liberal hoax. — Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) September 8, 2017 220 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Letter of Intent. 2017-09-09 11:48 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Yet another example of why you should never trust a tweet. Saw this on Twitter: BREAKING—In mere weeks we went from "no collusion with Russia" to "here's a Letter of Intent Trump signed with some Russians while running." pic.twitter.com/GcFmGRnpd8 — Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 9, 2017 Seth Abramson, a lawyer according to his bio (but mainly a pundit) said, and I quote, “here’s a Letter of Intent Trump signed with some Russians while running.” 230 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Outrage. 2017-09-12 11:14 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Saw this tweet come through Tweetdeck: UPDATE: To be clear, I don’t follow that account. It was retweeted. “Everyone should be outraged,” it said. About what? I hovered over the link and found the title of the story: “New Hampshire police refuse to discuss apparent lynching of biracial boy.” That is the correct way you should respond to questionable tweets in your feed. Note that at no time did I click any part of the tweet. I did not retweet it, I did not click the link. 498 words.
  • Behind The Tweets: Sean Spicer at The Emmys. 2017-09-18 2:08 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    CNN’s Kaitlan Collins’s tweet is representative of the Twitter backlash against former White House press secretary Sean Spicer appearing at the Emmys last night: Is it supposed to be comical that the former White House spokesman is now tacitly admitting that he lied to the American people? — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 18, 2017 No, but it’s comical that the American people-and journalists, of all people-don’t understand that the literal job of the White House spokesman is to lie for the president. 263 words.
  • Straw Man Tweets. 2017-09-20 10:24 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    It occurred to me while browsing through my Twitter timelines that there are a lot of tweets that have built-in straw man logical fallacies. They usually follow one of these forms, which I’ve made up: Them: Some ridiculous claim that doesn’t make sense. Us: That’s a ridiculous claim that doesn’t make sense! “The moon is made of green cheese.” That’s dumb! Everybody knows the moon is made of blue cheese! 427 words.
  • Insidious Propaganda Labels. 2017-09-24 10:01 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I have to be extremely careful about this post, because it’ll be easy for someone to pick out some words here and there and conclude that I’m a white supremacist racist bigot kitten killer. I think “white nationalist” is one of the most insidious negative propaganda labels I’ve heard in a while. It dawned on me one day that you can use that label to describe basically any white person who expresses any positive sentiment about their country. (America, in this case.) 368 words.

October, 2017

  • What’s In A Terrorist?. 2017-10-02 5:26 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Whenever there’s a mass shooting, one of the most important things for left-leaning activists in this post-Trump world (I should start naming them as “The Resistance”) to find out is whether the shooter is a white guy or not, and if so, to label him a terrorist. I understand the reasons for it, because Trump and the right in general have spent so much time trying to label brown people as terrorists. Trump wants to ban immigration from certain predominantly brown-people countries for fear that terrorists will infiltrate the country. The vast majority of brown people are *not* terrorists, so the left feels the need to turn the tables on the narrative and point out that Americans are more likely to get killed by mass-murdering white terrorists already inside the country than brown terrorists from abroad. (Which is 100% true. It’s also true that Americans are more likely to get killed in a car accident or from a heart attack than by either white or brown terrorists. Statistically speaking, no American should be afraid of terrorism in any shape or form.) 692 words.
  • The Race To Condemn Politicization. 2017-10-02 7:27 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    One other observation about Las Vegas: In the wake of mass shootings in America, another important battleground for activists of all stripes is the race to place blame on who politicizes the event first. Activists believe that whichever party America thinks politicized the event first “loses.” So it is incumbent upon Republicans to point out if Democrats try to use shootings to enact gun control legislation, and it is incumbent upon Democrats to point out if Republicans try to cover up domestic terrorism. (That is pretty much standard operating procedure for activists in every situation every day, to be honest.) 100 words.
  • Followup: Outrage. 2017-10-03 12:41 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Remember that alleged lynching of a bi-racial kid in New Hampshire? Periodically I’ve been Googling for new information, because you may recall I applied my superpowers of skepticism to that story and found it didn’t pass the smell test. I’m not sure I consider Newsweek to be the most journalistic of sources, but here’s an interview with the parents of one of the alleged attackers. And here’s an ABC News story with more detailed information from all sides (the photograph did indeed come from Facebook). 132 words.
  • Logistical Issues With Gun Control. 2017-10-03 6:57 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    This is just my personal opinion, but the basic problem with implementing gun control in America is that “the genie is already out of the bottle.” There are tons and tons of guns stockpiled in the hands of American citizens. Setting aside the issue of whether or not it *should* be done, let’s say you pass legislation tomorrow that bans the sale of all guns and ammunition. That still leaves a whole lot of people out there with a whole lot of deadly weapons already in their possession. (If a bill like that passed, incidentally, firearms would suddenly become more valuable than gold, so perhaps it’s a good investment opportunity to buy them now-which is almost certainly one reason people buy stockpiles of guns and ammunition.) 725 words.
  • How To Save America. 2017-10-13 2:05 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    So we all know America is hurtling towards a violent break-up, right? Just kidding. Kind of. Actually I’ve been reading a book about the breakup of the Soviet Union and there are some remarkable similarities. Michel Gorbachev was a radical reformist who basically turned the entire Soviet status quo upside-down over the span of six years. The result? Violent protests, internal power struggles, and eventually the end of the Soviet Union and the birth of something new. 366 words.
  • Fake News on Facebook. 2017-10-14 10:01 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I think it’s great that people are looking into Russian hackers spreading fake news on Facebook. But is anyone looking into Republican and Democratic activists spreading fake news on Facebook? Probably not. This is why the real solution to the fake news problem is to educate people on how to tell the difference between real news and fake news. 59 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Literal Meaning. 2017-10-25 1:36 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here’s a fun one: https://twitter.com/yonatanzunger/status/922202212457070592 That is correct. The meaning is straightforward and literal, and every time someone uses the word “Nazi” outside of a historical context, they disrespect the memory of everyone who died fighting *and defeating* Nazism in World War II. A “Nazi” literally belonged to the Nazi Party, which no longer exists. You can look that up. It’s a historical fact. The correct terms to use today are “neo-Nazi” and “white supremacist,” or if you really want to be precise, the name of the actual radical organization which applies (they do have names, you know). I might even accept Nazist, because it at least acknowledges the issue. But I will not take anyone who believes the word “Nazi” applies in a modern political context seriously, because they are obviously ignorant of history. Or even worse, they are propagandists. 141 words.
  • Question of the Day: Immortality. 2017-10-25 3:21 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I often get on a roll with posting to this site. A question occurred to me today after I saw a tweet related to the healthcare debate: Is immortality a human right? Some people on the left of the healthcare debate believe access to healthcare is a basic human right, the same as access to food and water. If we assume that the basic purpose of healthcare is to extend human life beyond its “natural” end point, and if healthcare is a human right, does that also mean immortality is a human right? 106 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Libraries in the UK. 2017-10-25 11:34 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I think public libraries are great, but I found this funny today. Funny in a “people are utterly incapable of putting basic statistics into context these days” kind of way. There’s this guy in the UK who doesn’t like public libraries. https://twitter.com/andrejpwalker/status/922174270347804672 https://twitter.com/andrejpwalker/status/922628584619085824 Then this happened: https://twitter.com/andrejpwalker/status/922928993564856322 People are retweeting his “surrender” and celebrating victory. By my calculations, what on Twitter seems to be an overwhelming outpouring of support by 110,000 people for public libraries in the UK is: 0.2% of the adult population of the UK. 389 words.
  • Skipping Wolfenstein II. 2017-10-26 2:58 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    The ad campaign for the game Wolfenstein II was brought to my attention in my gaming Twitter timeline. These are not “fine people.” #NoMoreNazis #Wolf2 pic.twitter.com/rT5zVDaU1E — Wolfenstein (@wolfenstein) October 25, 2017 I don’t follow that account and I sure won’t now. Obviously games are marketed toward kids, and kids today think it’s the coolest, hippest thing on Earth to “punch Nazis,” thus an ad campaign for a game with cartoon Nazis is born. 742 words.
  • Mueller Charges. 2017-10-29 12:48 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    People are pretty excited this weekend about Mueller filing charges. I saw someone on Twitter who actually thought the president would be arrested on Monday. Now I haven’t read the story so I don’t know what it’s all about, but I would be amazed to see anyone around Trump (today) get arrested. The only people to get arrested are going to low-level nobodys that we’ve never heard of. But I want to go back to the dream that “the resistance” is going to see the president leaving the Oval Office in handcuffs. 372 words.
  • Virginia 2017 Election Ballot. 2017-10-30 2:10 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here's what's on my ballot for November 7: Governor Ralph Northam (D) https://ralphnortham.com Ed Gillespie (R) https://edforvirginia.com Cliff Hyra (L) http://cliffhyra.com I don’t think I’ve seen any positive ads at all in this race. Perhaps one from Ralph Northam focusing on him being a doctor. That’s about it. I’m not sure I’ve seen Ed Gillespie speak a single time in an ad. Honestly I’ve been a bit surprised how little I hear about this race on television. Most of the focus seems to have been on the Attorney General. 310 words.
  • Summer of Weinstein. 2017-10-31 1:27 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I never mentioned the Harvey Weinstein story here, mainly because I generally try to avoid the minefield known as gender topics. But I wasn’t surprised. It’s Hollywood. Stories about sleazy executives go way back, plus we all know that most people are monsters. That’s not an excuse or a defense. It’s just, “Oh, of course Hollywood is like that. Everybody knows it.” It’s why sane people don’t exactly celebrate when their loved ones run off to Hollywood. I’m not blaming the victim, I’m just saying people who try to “make it” in Hollywood should go in with their eyes fully open, and be prepared. You *will* be entering a sleazy industry, and you *will* encounter sleazy situations and sleazy people. It’s a high risk, high reward kind of industry. 1,037 words.

November, 2017

  • Big Halloween Day. 2017-11-01 3:04 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I should break these topics into separate posts, but it’s representative of just how much information we news and current events consumers have to deal with on a daily basis. All of this happened on Halloween Day. Civil War Controversy The Twitter day began with controversial remarks by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about the Civil War. Most of my Twitter feeds (ie. gaming and authors) are *extremely* sensitive to anyone trying to put the Civil War in historical context, so of course it exploded. 1,414 words.
  • Pizza? Really?. 2017-11-02 2:59 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    People fight for their lives every day in some corners of the world, and kids on the Internet the last few days are like, “I’m putting my foot down for justice and taking a stand against racism! No more Papa John’s pizza!” I had literally no idea what fresh insanity had come over my Twitter feed. It turns out Papa John’s had a bad quarter and lost a bunch of money, and Mr. John blamed the down turn on the recent NFL protests. 191 words.
  • OMG ROFL @TwitterGov. 2017-11-03 1:05 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    OMG ROFL Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again. — TwitterGov (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017 I mean, what can you even say about the sheer vastness of blatant incompetence shown by the Twitter organization here? It’s pretty funny, at least until you really think about the consequences. 287 words.
  • Texas Shooting. 2017-11-05 11:14 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I don’t have anything to say about this, just noting it for posterity. Up to 27 killed in mass shooting at Texas church https://t.co/EmySBP97Nu — Fox News (@FoxNews) November 5, 2017 Sources: TX church shooter now ID'd by authorities; white male in his 20s from outside San Antonio. w/ @PierreTABC @JackDate @AaronKatersky — Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) November 5, 2017 Everything that I’ve previously written about mass shootings applies here as well. It’s very easy to tell the, ahem, racial identity of a mass shooter by watching the tone of Left Twitter versus Right Twitter following a shooting. There is a period of hushed silence before the identify of the shooter is determined, then there is an explosion from one side or the other. 160 words.
  • American Chemical Services Lawsuit Against Sci-Hub. 2017-11-06 10:18 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I saw this tweet today, which got my attention: A federal judge just ordered US ISPs & search engines to censor Internet traffic. ACS gets everything in its suit against Sci-Hub. pic.twitter.com/YLMrzd85lN — Steve McLaughlin🌾💾 (@SteveMcLaugh) November 6, 2017 “Federal judge censoring the Internet” is quite a claim, and deserves a second look. So first thing’s first, we apply the Universal Internet Rule to this tweet, sort of a Reverse Scientific Method of Reading The Internet: We assume the tweeter is lying through their teeth because they are in the tank for some special interest or another, and try to prove otherwise. This must be done before retweeting, commenting, or even having a single thought one way or another about the issue. 1,698 words.
  • Election Returns Live Blog. 2017-11-07 10:06 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m just going to paste some relevant tweets in here as I see them. I voted around 9:30 am this morning, for the record. Saw variations of this tweet a lot throughout the day, on all of my timelines: 🚨We are getting reports of calls to Virginia voters falsely saying that their polling place has changed. 🚨 If you receive a call: ✔️Confirm your polling place at https://t.co/3NmwdTvoHb ✔️ Report it to @ACLUVA at 804-644-8080#ElectionDay #vagov 1,155 words.
  • Curious Thing about Northam and Gun Control. 2017-11-08 12:38 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    So I’m watching Morning Joe, and they keep saying that the two things people said they cared about most in the election were Healthcare and Gun Control. One thing I specifically noticed on Northam’s web site related to gun control. When you look at the Issues menu, it lists Gun Safety somewhat prominently. The Gun Safety page is a laundry list of things Northam has done to make the NRA crazy. Voted against conceal-carry, voted for expanded background checks, supports mental health checks, supports banning assault rifles, the whole tamale. 239 words.
  • Cynical About Celebrities. 2017-11-09 10:30 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Today we learned of sexual misconduct allegations against Louis C. K. This was apparently not news to people in the industry. I made a cynical remark on Twitter but I feel like I should explain it a bit more. “The cynical viewpoint: So another celebrity career ruined aka. millionaire gets to retire early” One message we’re seeing from this year’s string of allegations against men in Hollywood is, “Women (and men) are stepping forward and telling their stories more and more.” That’s great. 218 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: First PvP Zone. 2017-11-14 12:45 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I saw someone mention on Twitter that Texas starts allowing people to carry swords today: Open-carry swords and machetes in Texas start TODAY. See all of the new laws here: https://t.co/CzHL9YAKer pic.twitter.com/kWmakefRmn — ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) September 2, 2017 https://twitter.com/shishkababoo/status/930128631980085248 Typical dumb Americans. Psssst: It was already legal to carry a sword in a lot of states already. Check your local laws. You might be surprised. I’ve always thought it would be better for personal safety to open carry a small sword than a gun. :) Unfortunately I don’t have the personality to handle all the stares and police questions. 100 words.
  • Republican and Democratic Propaganda. 2017-11-16 10:08 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Today is one of those days when I’m not entirely sure if Russian propaganda on Twitter is worse than Republican and Democratic propaganda on Twitter. Al Franken has been accused of groping and kissing a woman in 2006, before he became a senator. “I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,” Leeann Tweeden says, including this photograph in her accusation. https://t.co/iLphI1wiLU pic.twitter.com/kLKSmLwu36 — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 16, 2017 194 words.
  • Where Do I Sign Up?. 2017-11-18 3:44 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I had perhaps a slightly different reaction when I read this tweet: When I was a PhD student, my stipend was just $18,000 and my waived tuition was $55,000. Taxing someone who only receives $18,000 the same amount as someone who earns $73,000 in order to give billionaires a huge cut is the height of Republican insanity.https://t.co/zkTt5cQ7oG — Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) November 16, 2017 Where do I sign up to get an $18,000 stipend and a $55,000 waived tuition, and then a Masters degree at the end of it?? 166 words.
  • Waivers For Men. 2017-11-20 2:44 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    New joke for mythical stand-up comedy routine: I am starting to wonder if men should have a lawyer present whenever they are in the presence of women. Perhaps following behind getting signed waivers, like how filmmakers have to get people to sign waivers to appear in documentaries and such. “Did this interaction with this male make you uncomfortable in any way? Yes/no. Okay, please sign and date here. Here’s a copy for you, and here’s our copy. We’ll file it in the federal database of male/female interactions by the end of the day.” 123 words.
  • Net Neutrality Homework. 2017-11-21 10:02 PM.
    • Politics
    • Technology
    • swampip.com

    Net Neutrality is the hot topic of the day (so far-give it a few minutes, it will probably change). The FCC is planning to introduce a plan before Thanksgiving that completely repeals #NetNeutrality. Here's what you need to know. https://t.co/dEHkO49vIw #SaveNetNeutrality — ACLU (@ACLU) November 21, 2017 JUST IN: FCC will vote to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules https://t.co/xSTAtvfZwZ pic.twitter.com/WLryAUwCt7 — The Hill (@thehill) November 21, 2017 Activists are telling us that we must act fast to save net neutrality. We are not told this specifically, but it’s strongly implied that our way of life and our immortal souls are in imminent danger! Call your congressman! Call the FCC! Call anyone, just do it now! 2,071 words.
  • Net Neutrality Panic, Day Two. 2017-11-22 2:24 PM.
    • Politics
    • Technology
    • swampip.com

    Well, I guess I’ll be writing about this for a second day in a row. So just for the record, I prefer Net Neutrality. But I’m a realist and a pragmatist. The Utopian dream of The Internet as a level playing field for all of humanity to come together will collapse as more and more businesses and governments get involved. Frankly, it already collapsed a good ten years or more ago. Mobile smart devices weren’t made to make people’s lives better and bring them together, they were made to trap consumers on a platform they can’t escape. They are antithetical to openness. The very existence of cell phones is the death of the Utopian Internet, because it was the opportunity businesses needed to get people off of “open” PCs and on to more controlled environments. 438 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Dear Right-Wingers. 2017-11-23 12:06 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    These are the kinds of tweets flying around that drive my crazy: Dear right-wingers, If #NetNeutrality was reversed, George Soros (😧) could buy a controlling interest in AT&T, Verizon, & Time Warner Cable and COMPLETELY BLOCK access to Fox News, Breitbart, etc. for 99% of the country. Let that sink in. This isn’t a partisan issue. — William LeGate (ig: @legate) (@williamlegate) November 21, 2017 I agree it shouldn’t be a partisan issue, because net neutrality is a technical concept, but since nobody understands computers, least of all politicians, both sides have defined it as a partisan issue, and here we are with dumb tweets like this. 247 words.
  • Net Neutrality Panic, Day Three. 2017-11-23 11:04 PM.
    • Politics
    • Technology
    • swampip.com

    The panic has died down a bit because of Thanksgiving Day, but just for the record, here is the actual proposal the FCC will be considering on December 14th. Proposal To “Restore Internet Freedom” I added the quotes to indicate where the authors decided to change the title of the document from what it actually is (Proposal To Change Boring FCC Regulations) into something that would make Republicans who don’t understand computers feel good. 123 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Who Do We Believe?. 2017-11-25 3:41 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Hmmmm. Who do we believe? The publication that's been doing good journalism for almost 100 years or the man who invented the term "fake news" as a way to deflect his own horribleness? 🤔🤔🤔 — pranas t. naujokaitis (@pranas) November 25, 2017 I imagine that more-then-100-year-old journalists would have a fair amount of dementia by now. Zing! No, you idiot, it’s not the same people all 100 years! Oh, then you’ve made my point for me. 169 words.
  • Ugh This Again?. 2017-11-26 4:58 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Millennials are yelling about Nazis again this weekend, but I’m going to be brutally honest here: They’ve cried wolf so often and so loud about this that I just don’t care anymore. I’m not even going to investigate what they’re talking about. Something about a New York Times article I think? If fascists ever really do organize again, they’ll have such an easy road to power in the U.S. thanks to the left. 218 words.

December, 2017

  • Behind the Tweet: Unwind It All. 2017-12-01 11:30 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Grumpy post incoming. Unwind it all. The entire Trump Presidency is a criminal enterprise that’s compromised by Russia. Everything Trump did gets thrown out. Gorsuch needs to be removed from the Supreme Court & America gets a new and fair election. On paper ballots. No fruit of a poison tree. — Gerry Duggan (@GerryDuggan) December 1, 2017 Lulz. Oh look, somebody else on Twitter who would fail a basic civics class, and people retweeting it as if it’s wisdom. 283 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Rage and Frustration. 2017-12-07 5:03 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Saw this tweet today: https://twitter.com/ezlusztig/status/938470343487844352 I like Al Franken, I’ve always liked Al Franken, I have a lot of respect for the work he did to transition from a comedian to a knowledgeable elected official (no small feat), and I think it’s a shame he has to resign. But this is a political no-brainer. Franken resigning is the Democratic side fighting. Fighting to at least bring back some shred of integrity to the current American government. They won’t have a moral leg, foot, or tiny pinky toe to stand on if they don’t clean house of anything and everything that even remotely hints of corruption right now. They simply cannot use integrity (“we are the Not-As-Bad-As-Trump Party”) as a voting issue in 2018, 2020, or ever, if they don’t deal with this quickly. 342 words.
  • Bad Week For Media. 2017-12-09 9:23 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    It’s been a really bad week for the media, with at least three different significant mistakes having to be corrected. It really undermines their position as the Fourth Estate. Brian Ross was suspended from ABC News for a *massive* error on the Trump investigation. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal misreported a subpoena of Deutche Bank. CNN misreported on Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks. CORRECTION of ABC News Special Report: Flynn prepared to testify that President-elect Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians *during the transition* — initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria, confidant now says. https://t.co/ewrkVZTu2K pic.twitter.com/URLiHf3uSm 541 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: Representation. 2017-12-11 12:02 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Another person on the Internet who needs to go back to Civics class (or is a Russian operative sowing dissent): Who here on twitter feels like they are not being represented in Congress and are still paying their taxes?#TaxationWithoutRepresentation I never ask for retweets but I am this one time. Retweet if you are not represented!#TheResistance — Rogue Wulf (@Wulfkat) December 10, 2017 Just because you don’t “feel like” you’re represented, doesn’t mean you’re not represented. “Representation” in this context has a very specific meaning that has nothing to do with your “feelings.” 203 words.
  • Patreon Kerfuffle. 2017-12-11 3:30 PM.
    • Technology
    • swampip.com

    A large percentage of my gaming and writing Twitter timelines are abuzz with civil unrest over a change that Patreon will be making to their fee structure on December 18th. I don’t use Patreon and I can’t really envision a scenario where I would use it prior to becoming famous, but a lot of people I follow do use it, and they aren’t happy. If you don’t know what Patreon is, it’s a site where you can donate money to a “creator” (artist, musician, writer, etc.) every month to support their work, somewhat akin to pledging money to PBS. 1,216 words.
  • The Duty of Citizenship. 2017-12-12 4:41 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I want to elaborate a little bit on a random tweet-thought I expressed this morning. …I think we are seeing recently that fame is actually more useful for changing the world than holding elected office My basic point was that it seems to me that popular, famous people are able to motivate the citizenry into action a lot more than any innate sense of civic duty. Recently (say, in the last 10-15 years, roughly the exact same time period of the rise of The Internet), I think we have seen a conflation of politics and popularity. What people remember about Obama is not his policies, but his likeableness. People presume he was a great president (especially now) because he was a cool guy with great comic timing, while completely forgetting that he authorized the bombing of hundreds of civilians with military drones. 767 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: Cancer. 2017-12-12 7:42 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Saw this retweeted: in modern capitalism, a business that merely brings in a steady profit is considered a failure, success is defined by continual unchecked growth in biology, we have a word for continual unchecked growth: cancer — Squidlarkin 🦑 System (@squidlarkin) December 10, 2017 This is an amusing analogy, but it breaks down because it’s not “modern capitalism” that defines a business’s success, it’s the modern investors, who vote with their dollars on a daily or hourly or even minute-by-minute basis. 82 words.
  • Live Blog: Alabama Election Results. 2017-12-13 12:05 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m going to write about election results from The Big Alabama Election. I’m starting about 7 PM EST, which is about an hour before the polls close. Just for the record, I don’t live in Alabama so technically this election is none of my business. But it’s the only election tonight so it’s getting a lot of national coverage. It’s like a Monday Night Football game… it’s the only one on. 1,412 words.
  • Post-Election Blues. 2017-12-13 5:40 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I drank too much hot chocolate tonight, so I can’t sleep. Therefore I’ll add a few post-election thoughts. Even though it’s none of my business what Alabamians do with their Senate seats, I was relieved to see that Doug Jones won, because it’s really disheartening to think that an accused pedophile could still win a seat in the Senate. If a story about feeling up 14-year-old girls comes out a few days before an election in The Enquirer, it makes sense to be suspicious about it. But this story came out months before the election in The Washington Post. It’s disheartening to think that we live in a culture where an accused pedophile can simply call a Washington Post story fabricated out of whole cloth and get away with it. 416 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: Number of Senators. 2017-12-13 12:39 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Bracing for a lot of tweets like this today: https://twitter.com/leedrutman/status/940755313145339907 Soooooo. Yeah. There’s this thing, you know, called a Constitution? It describes this thing, you know, called a Senate? But wait for it, there’s this other thing, you know, called, like, a House of Representatives! They represent people in a way you might like. Perhaps you should read up on it. Suggesting that the Senate also be apportioned by population is literally advocating mob rule. Maybe you like the mob this morning, but you might not like it twenty or thirty years from now when your kids and grandkids start voting. Smart people already figured this out. 207 words.
  • Patreon Kerfuffle, Part Two. 2017-12-13 7:31 PM.
    • Technology
    • swampip.com

    Just to followup, Patreon changed their mind. They will not change their fees as planned. (They still intend to address the “problem” though, so they will need to change something eventually.) But the damage was already done. Patreon destroyed their reputation with small creators overnight and I am seeing tweet after tweet today indicating they won’t be back. Perhaps a year from now people will forget, but right now, they are still angry (and rightly so). 205 words.
  • Behind The Tweet: Fake Comments. 2017-12-14 3:09 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Surprisingly few post-election tweets yesterday, but today is the FCC’s vote on “net neutrality,” and this appeared this morning: https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/941025240129441792 You just identified them yesterday, huh? I could have told you most of the comments were fake a long time ago. In fact, I think I did write that in one of my previous blog posts on net neutrality (it was to that same AG guy). Because obviously, when you open up “public comment” in the form of electronic submissions (Internet, texts, faxes, phone calls), you are just asking for a botnet assault. Only in-person comments from someone with a valid identification, and maybe even two forms of photo identification these days, can really be trusted. A handwritten letter is probably genuine, but could also be fake, given that you could pay someone on Fiver two cents an hour to sit around writing thousands of letters, gather them up, then drive around the country mailing them from various post offices with fake return addresses. It’s not like anyone is going to double-check that the sender actually sent the letter. I mean, it would be a lot of work, obviously, but people do crazy things to try to force their opinions down everyone’s throat. The point is that almost every form of communication is gameable by Russians, anarchists, hackers, or activists these days. 418 words.
  • Live Blog: FCC Meeting. 2017-12-14 3:49 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Since I’m just sitting here watching C-SPAN3, I thought I would write some thoughts about what I’m seeing. 10:30 AM - Meeting begins. 10:46 AM - These witnesses for the Blue Alerts are heart-breaking. I’m not sure I agree that Blue Alerts are a good idea (but I don’t know the full story of it), but I hope this passes for their sake. 10:55 AM - Oh I guess the Blue Alerts are being adopted. Sounds like this is something that began in the Obama administration. Jessica Rosenworcel delivered a harsh rebuke of the cost-benefit analysis. 933 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: Scalzi versus Trump. 2017-12-17 12:53 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I had an interesting thought the other day. There is almost no difference between a tweet from John Scalzi and a tweet from Donald Trump. The only difference is that Scalzi’s have better grammar. But the intent? Identical. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940930017365778432 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940567812053053441 Folks, if you roll up with "both sides are equally bad" these days, I'm gonna know you're a fucking idiot whose understanding of political issues is about as deep as a single baked potato crisp. I literally have no time for you, Pringle pal. 176 words.
  • Tax Bill. 2017-12-20 6:42 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Here is my standard disclaimer: I don’t know anything about economics and I don’t want to know anything about economics because it’s not science. I similarly don’t want to study the intricacies of homeopathy or astrology. In blunt terms, I couldn’t care less about taxes and this entire bill is about as interesting to me as paint drying. So here’s my opinion on this tax reform/tax cut/tax scam bill. Get ready. You might want to brace yourself. It will be a tremendous surprise when I reveal my centrist opinion on this tax bill. 443 words.
  • Behind the Tweet: We Must Wipe Them Out. 2017-12-21 3:29 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    There is a never-ending supply of crazy retweeted in my timelines, and it all comes from the left. Every single day I could pick something like this to highlight. It is no longer enough to retake the House in 2018. It is no longer even enough to retake the Senate. We must wipe out the GOP so thoroughly and methodically that it will be a warning throughout history to any politician who ever does this to their constituents again. 155 words.
  • That Swatting Incident. 2017-12-31 4:19 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’ve been largely ignoring the news here at the end of the year, so I don’t have much to say about whatever new controversy is going on right now. Or the other new one. I mean, let’s be honest, there has to be a new one literally every single day to keep driving traffic, right? But I did see one horrifying gaming-related news story that struck a nerve: Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in deadly Wichita police shooting 1,856 words.

January, 2018

  • Largely News-Free. 2018-01-18 2:51 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    I’m still here but nothing much to say about current events. I’m just not interested right now. I don’t care a whit if the government shuts down or not. I don’t care a whit about the president saying curse words in private meetings. DACA and Dreamers are issues that I typically don’t think about and have little or no personal stake in. Watching the “hole versus house” followup war of narratives is more interesting to me: That is, the president’s team trying, successfully I might add, to shape the controversy as the “course language” he did or didn’t use and focusing on that, which completely derailed the more substantive policy discussion. The “why” he said it was completely lost amid the deluge of “what” he said, and that was a win for Team Trump. It’s yet another lesson in how easy it is to manipulate the mainstream media and drive the news cycle (see also: Trump wins election). 167 words.
  • Shutdown Optics Wars. 2018-01-21 2:34 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    It occurred to me that this shutdown is the Republicans’ best and probably only strategy for winning elections in 2018. Prior to the shutdown, there were only two accomplishments Republicans could campaign on: Neil Gorsuch and passing the Tax Bill, neither of which are particularly great for capturing undecided voters, even if there wasn’t a truckload of negative baggage attached to each of them. Of course, they could also campaign on “Look how great Trump is!” Um. Yeah. Probably not a great strategy for most areas of the country. 323 words.

April, 2018

  • North and South Korea. 2018-04-27 11:15 AM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    The huge news out of the Koreas this morning definitely deserves a mention for posterity: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-and-south-korea-agree-to-work-toward-common-goal-of-denuclearization/2018/04/27/7dcb03d6-4981-11e8-8082-105a446d19b8_story.html https://www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/north-korea-south-korea-summit-intl/index.html http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/04/27/kim-jong-un-pens-message-peace-in-south-koreas-peace-house.html The first thing I thought was: Wow there is going to be a whole lot of cognitive dissonance happening on Twitter today, and a whole bunch of activists working overtime to spin this news for or against their favored elected officials. Even I am experiencing cognitive dissonance. There is no question this is a solid win for the Trump administration, and I have no idea how it could possibly have happened, given all the previous news. 94 words.

May, 2018

  • Hostages From North Korea Released. 2018-05-09 4:34 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Another post just to mark the event that three American hostages are being released from North Korea today: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/05/09/3-americans-detained-in-north-korea-in-good-health-and-on-their-way-back-to-us-trump-says.html https://abcnews.go.com/International/trump-americans-held-north-korea-back-us/story?id=54905339 I wondered a while back if these hostages had anything to do with North Korea’s sudden willingness to bargain. What has the U.S. given up to get these hostages back? Or did the U.S. deliver some kind of private ultimatum that forced North Korea to release the hostages and come to the table? Did the U.S. have anything at all to do with it? I don’t know, but I’ll be curious to find out the answers someday. 97 words.

June, 2018

  • Virginia Primary Results. 2018-06-26 5:51 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    Guys! It’s time to really put our money where our mouth is and get out there and really vote to let everyone know because 2018 is going to be such a huge change year and … And… Okay, you caught me, I completely forgot about the Virginia primaries. Today, I thought, Oh yeah! I should start looking into that because I saw a few people mention voting on Twitter. Well, it turns out the Virginia primaries were on June 12, precisely two weeks ago today. Suffice it to say, I’m not following daily news anymore, nationally or locally, I’m not paying any attention to whatever the daily outrage is, I’m not on Facebook very much, I’m in my own world doing my own thing and it’s very stress-free. 233 words.

November, 2018

  • Midterm Elections 2018. 2018-11-07 3:33 PM.
    • Politics
    • swampip.com

    A fun topic for everyone! Election results: Democrats take the House, Republicans gained significant ground in the Senate. So everyone is claiming victory this morning. No matter what your views are, you can find something in the election to celebrate, something to mock, and something to worry to about. To me, this reaffirms how divided the country is, and that there’s no sign it’s going to get better anytime soon. 2020 is likely to be a blood bath. 1,272 words.