Incompetent and Hilarious

Okay, this is kind of hilarious.

Apparently the White House sent this document of Talking Points to their boot-licking puppets at Fox News:

And then they also sent it to the House Democrats.

And then they realized what they did, and sent a follow-up email saying oops, send it back, plz.

Here's a screenshot of the White House asking House Democrats to please disregard the talking points on Trump/Ukraine they just emailed them pic.twitter.com/55HgOESWyL

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) September 25, 2019

It's both hilarious and horrifying. They've fucked up the country so much. Imagine what they could do if they were both evil and competent?

ETA: As a reminder, THIS is what Trump is trying to get is to pretend is no big deal:

That @realDonaldTrump thought it a good idea to release this transcript is a staggering testament to the endemic corruption of his administration. He and his close advisers have lost the ability to even see what’s incriminating. https://t.co/eXDJs0uKrZ

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) September 25, 2019

A Helpful Graphic

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/9675/what-an-impeachment-would-look-like/

Tweet of the Week

It’s been 243 years since 1776. Who would have thought that the UK would end up with a functioning Supreme Court and the US would end up with King George? https://t.co/akZAMThrgA

— Jeff Blattner (@theblatt) September 24, 2019

WTH, Amazon?

Amazon's algorithms need work.

Here's what they recommended to me today.

I mean, not only is it utterly absurd, if I even had $1400, that's not what I would spend it on, not in this universe or any other. Jeez. (Do you know how many books you could but for $1400?)

Also, that this is available at all tells me some people have waaay too much money.

ETA: And notice that people are buying these. Here's one of the five-star comments:

Love this wine dispenser. Keeps two bottles at the perfect temperature, ready for a fresh pour at will. Perfect for entertaining, and easy to use. Bought another for our second home!

Links

Buying our courts

Abortion rates at a new low. Why? Obamacare. (Also the terrible economy, but)

A look at the future

Similarly with all those ever so touching stories about the tender feelings of Trump voters

Weird childhoods

Epistemic injustice, defined

This is very cool:

Retellings of the Inland Sea: TOC Reveal

This anthology, Retellings of the Inland Seas, is the third from Athena Andreadis; her first two each contained multiple award-winning stories.

The first, The Other Half of the Sky, had my story, "Velocity's Ghost," in which we met a certain ship's crew. I'm in this one, too, with my story, "Little Bird," set in the same universe but some years before the Velocity stories.

This one is an anthology of science fiction stories that mythic retellings from the Mediterranean area. Go here for more. The TOC is impressive -- I'm pleased to be in such a crowd.

If Only

If only leftwing college profs were as powerful as conservatives think we are.

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) September 16, 2019

Thread

You will probably not enjoy this thread as much as I did unless you are addicted to books.

The Corruption of the Trump Adminstration

Two F.B.I. agents interviewed Ms. Ramirez, telling her that they found her “credible.” But the Republican-controlled Senate had imposed strict limits on the investigation. 

More here 

Teaching Criticial Thinking

In the spring, for the first time in a long time, I'm teaching Comp II, the second half of our year-long writing class which every student is required to take.

In the first half, Comp I, we teach students how to evaluate evidence, how to tell a good source from propaganda*, how to construct an argument, and how to support it with what they (now know) is reliable evidence.

In Comp II, we have them write longer papers, and we have them read a long work, and write a paper about that work. Usually it's a work of fiction, but it doesn't have to be. I'm thinking of using a nonfiction book, one that makes an argument, and having them write their longer paper in response to or in tangent to that argument.

One book I'm considering is one I reviewed here recently, On the Clock. Another is one I haven't read, but which I'm picking up from our library today, American Prison.  There's also Everybody Lies, but that might be a little too meta.

Anyone have any other suggestions?




*We give them the tools they can use to do that, I mean, and require them to use those tools in writing papers for our class. Whether it transfers to their outside life, yeah, well. I've had students come back after a semester or after six years to tell me that what they learned in that little first year class changed their lives; but I've also watched what I knew students could do slide off their backs like oil off waxed paper. I guess the lesson here is that you can give people all the tools you like, but you can't force them to use those tools.

No Matter What Lies The GOP Tells You

...this remains the truth:



The system is broken.

Here's the Scariest Article You'll Read This Week

From Science Advances:

"Production, Use, and Fate of All Plastics Ever Made"

The growth of plastics production in the past 65 years has substantially outpaced any other manufactured material. The same properties that make plastics so versatile in innumerable applications—durability and resistance to degradation—make these materials difficult or impossible for nature to assimilate. Thus, without a well-designed and tailor-made management strategy for end-of-life plastics, humans are conducting a singular uncontrolled experiment on a global scale, in which billions of metric tons of material will accumulate across all major terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems on the planet.

ETA: for some reason the site won't let me hot-link the article. But if you search for the title, it should come right up. 

We Don't Need Socialized Medicine, Everything is FINE

Dr. Skull lost his meds in the move -- he takes a non-generic medication for his blood pressure, which is hard to control. Of course the insurance will only pay for a refill every 30 days.

Luckily, we had some samples on hand, which our doctor had given us when we were arguing with the insurance company about whether they would pay for this medication at all. So he took those for awhile. But now they're running out -- he has only two days supply left, and we are five days away from the day on which the insurance company will refill the prescription.

So I called the pharmacy to find out how much it would cost for us to just buy three days worth of pills. Guess how much. Guess.

$58.00. For six blood pressure pills.

Buy them or risk him having a stroke. Hmm, which should we chose?

(Instead we called our PCP and asked for more samples -- she gave us enough to get us through. But what if we didn't have her? Or what if we didn't know to do that?)

Why I Wish There Was a God

Because then I could pray for it to stop being 95 degrees here every single fucking day, I mean sweet Jesus enough

Links

Yet another dangerous immigrant deported

Why deregulation is a terrible idea

Sheer madness, I tell you!

I see this with many of my students

We cannot assume a win in 2020. Get out the vote, because the GOP certainly will. Almost will not be enough.

Socialized Medicine v. US Health care from people who have been there

see this is why writing is important, its like therapy except you can put explosions it

— 30-50 feral hogs (@jasperlizard) September 12, 2019

I’m just leaving night court and my heart hurts. So many clients came through tonight on the most ridiculous charges. One was literally STEALING A LOAF OF BREAD. Straight out of Les Mis. The Manhattan DA’s office asked for 30 days jail. For a loaf of bread. I can’t. #injustice

— Eliza Orlins (@eorlins) September 8, 2019