What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Legal observers described the action as “political theater,” arguing that the order does not change existing federal law and will have no bearing on federal courts.
Trump Signs Executive Order To Weaken Social Media Companies : NPR
So Trump’s response is try and limit their Freedom of Speech? How typically comic book villain of him.
Troopers Who Pulled NH Man By Dreadlocks Followed Policy: State | Concord, NH Patch
What the f**ck is this shit???
Nope, not OK. Not at all OK. If that is the policy then the policy is an insult to law and order.
Here’s hoping he sues the individual Troopers and the Department back to Kingdom Come. IF there is one thing NH taxpayers won’t abide it’s wasting money. And having polices or paying Troopers who invite lawsuits is a waste of money.
One thing astronauts have to be good at: living in confined spaces for long periods of time. Here are some tips for all who find yourself in a similar scenario.
…NASA astronauts and psychologists have examined what human behaviors create a healthy culture for living and working remotely in small groups. They narrowed it to five general skills and defined the associated behaviors for each skill. NASA astronauts call it “Expeditionary Behavior.”
Skill 1, Communication
Definition: Communication means to talk so you are clearly understood. To listen, and question to understand. Actively listen, pick up on non-verbal cues. Identify, discuss, then work to resolve conflict.
To practice good Communication EB, share information and feelings freely. Talk about your intentions before taking action. Use proper terminology. Discuss when your or others’ actions were not as expected. Take time to debrief after success or conflict. Listen, then restate messages to ensure they are understood. Admit when you are wrong.
Skill 2, Leadership/Followership
Definition: How well a team adapts to changed situations. A leader enhances the group’s ability to execute its purpose through positive influence. A follower (aka a subordinate leader) actively contributes to the leader’s direction. Establish an environment of trust.
To practice good Leadership/Followership EB, accept responsibility. Adjust your style to your environment. Assign tasks and set goals. Lead by example. Give direction, information, feedback, coaching and encouragement. Ensure your teammates have resources. Talk when something isn’t right. Ask questions. Offer solutions, not just problems.
Skill 3, Self-Care
Definition: Self-Care means keeping track of how healthy you are on psychological and physical levels. It includes hygiene, managing your time and your stuff, getting sleep, and maintaining your mood. Through self-care, you demonstrate your ability to be proactive to stay healthy.
To practice good Self-Care EB, realistically assess your own strengths and weaknesses, and their influence on the group. Learn from mistakes. Identify personal tendencies and their influence on your success or failure. Be open about your weaknesses and feelings. Take action to mitigate your own stress or negativity (don’t pass it on to the group). Be social. Seek feedback. Balance work, rest, and personal time. Be organized.
Skill 4, Team Care
Definition: Team Care is how healthy the group is on psychological, physical and logistical levels. Recognize that this can be influenced by stress, fatigue, sickness, supplies, resources, workload, etc. Nurture optimal team performance despite challenges.
To practice good Team Care EB, demonstrate patience and respect. Encourage others. Monitor your team for signs of stress or fatigue. Encourage participation in team activities. Develop positive relationships. Volunteer for the unpleasant tasks. Offer and accept help. Share credit; take the blame.
Skill 5, Group Living
Definition: Group Living skills are how people cooperate and become a team to achieve a goal. Identify and manage different opinions, cultures, perceptions, skills and personalities. Demonstrate resilience in the face of difficulty.
To practice good Group Living EB, cooperate rather than compete. Actively cultivate group culture (use each individual’s culture to build the whole). Respect roles, responsibilities and workload. Take accountability; give praise freely. Then work to ensure a positive team attitude. Keep calm in conflict.
You can be successful in confinement if you are intentional about your actions and deliberate about caring for your team.
An Astronaut’s Tips for Living in Close Quarters | NASA
n/t
Sanders’ “political revolution” was uncompromising.
…It was #NeverBiden on Twitter and open disdain for the bougie, suburban “wine mom” voters whom mainstream Democrats were obsessing over.
This was a revolution for the virtuous — a white working class awakened to its true interests, Black and Latino voters coming around to cranky Uncle Bernie, and young people showing up at the polls in record numbers.
Only, they didn’t show up. Not enough of them, anyway.
…[Sanders] embedded a strain of democratic socialism in a major American political party.
“That’s a huge accomplishment,” says Kazin. “Arguably . . . the left hasn’t had that sort of presence since the New Deal.”
But in retrospect, it’s clear that many progressives over-interpreted his strong showing in that first presidential run.
What they saw as evidence that white, working-class voters in the heartland were warming to a populist, lefty politics was, for many, a simple rejection of Sanders’ opponent.
…If the left is going to be an effective force in American politics over the next four, or eight, or 12 years, uncompromising won’t work.
The movement will need to reach out to the Chardonnay set. It will have to work with Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. It may even be required to reach out to some Republican senators.
…Meanwhile, moderate Democrats trained their focus on the managerial class in the suburbs, won a bunch of seats, and flipped control of the House of Representatives.
…Progressives also need to think carefully about messaging, he says. Campaigns built on paid family leave and child care, climate action, and lowering drug prices are likely to be most potent in the suburbs.
That doesn’t mean giving up on a more confrontational politics altogether. It just means deploying that politics where it can succeed.
…Add it all up and you get a carefully calibrated strategy for success: make a hard run at deep-blue urban districts, challenging moderate Democrats where necessary; offer suburban voters a message tailored to their concerns; and when you win, be willing to forge coalitions with moderates in Washington to get things done.
…The left could make overtures while it waits for the revolution. It could make overtures to all sorts of people.
But it must be willing to hold its nose.
…Pushing the Democratic nominee is an entirely defensible tactic as long as Sanders voters come around in the end. But if the #NeverBiden faction actually sits out the election, it could be disastrous for the left.
It’s not just that the former vice president is running on an undeniably progressive platform — a platform that would go out the window, of course, if President Trump won four more years. It’s that the pandemic offers a unique opportunity to get it passed.
mmmhmmm
Christian Cooper (no relation), a Black man and a bird-watcher, asked Amy to leash her dog.
…Amy, clearly offended, responded by saying that she was going to call the police on him.
…Amy can be heard saying, “I’m taking a picture and calling the cops,” as she appears to strangle or roughly handle her dog with the pet’s collar. “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
Amy repeatedly and insistently stresses the term “African American,” giving viewers the impression that his race is significant here, perhaps in terms of how he can expect to be treated by the police.
…In a city and a state that skews heavily liberal, there’s a good chance Amy Cooper is the ideal liberal on paper. She also threatened to call the police and falsely report “an African American man” was “threatening her life” in a country well-known for allowing fatal police brutality against unarmed, innocent Black people.
…Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg may well be a Democrat and a self-identified liberal, for instance, but his handling of the killing of Eric Logan by police traumatized the Black community.
To take a slightly different view than the author, Pete Buttigieg isn’t a liberal by ny stretch of the imagination. He may have been adopted as the cause du jour of Progressives for a hot minute but he is not and never was a liberal. John Kerry isn’t much of a liberal either. And for the love of God, despite all of the wishful fantasy and mis-representations surrounding the man, Barack Hope-Spring-Eternal Obama never was a liberal either. At most, those three men are moderates who support a quasi-authoritarian approach and are quite hawkish in foreign affairs.
Despite what the echo chamber tells us being a Democrat does not mean being a liberal.
Now that we have that established. Yes, it very possible, and not all that infrequent that Democrats are bigots too.
As you were.
“I think women have obstacles placed in front of them that men do not have.”
…Warren herself commented on the issue when she publicly dropped out on Thursday outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“You know, that is the trap question for women,” she said after a reporter asked what role gender played in her campaign. “If you say, ‘Yeah — there was sexism in this race,’ everyone says, ‘Whiner.’ And if you say, ‘No, there was no sexism,’ about a bazillion women think, ‘What planet do you live on?'”
Sanders says ‘rampant’ sexism in US is a hurdle for women running for president – CNNPolitics
No shit, Bernie? How much of a hurdle is it among your bros?
Thank you for all you have done to change the Democratic Party platform. Now go home to Vermont, sit your divisive spoiler ass down, and shut the fuck up.
How I discovered I am white – renegade mothering
The peanut gallery usually rolls their jaded eyes at how to be woke articles but this is actually very well done.
When Aunt Bev’s across-the-street neighbor and long-time bestie, Beverly Johnson, ruined a cake, she was about to throw it into the trash when her phone rang. It was Aunt Bev, just in time to teach her a valuable Southern lesson: “We never, ever throw out a cake.” (It is this lesson, in fact, that is most to blame for my current waistline.) Aunt Bev then took the cake, which had “fallen” in the middle, and turned it into a scrumptious trifle by layering bits of the cake with pudding and fruit. That’s how Southern belles handle mistakes.
Here’s why you never trifle with a Southern belle – It’s a Southern Thing
You should never trifle with a Southern belle because they’ll just make trifle out of it.
What a cute remembrance.
Why do white people eat bland food like unseasoned potato salad? A short history — Quartz
Um, no.
Not sure how the author could have missed the fact that originally spices were also used to cover unappealing tastes. Highly spiced meat in the middle ages and Renaissance? And no mention of the strong spices masking the taste of decay? And there is also a connection between highly spiced foot and the more affordable sources of protein. Bottom feeders like catfish, scraps and offal from animals…. Strong tastes like those call out for spices more than a chicken breast or a filet mignon.
Industrialization did not create a condition where the working class consumed lesser quality foodstuffs. that pattern has existed since the beginning of time. How does the author account for soul food? Or the potato famine? Oy…. Why are there European laws about what can go into a type of alcohol? Or bread? Why are there laws about using standardized measurements? Does the author assume these rules came out of a vacuum, that they were not created out of necessity because consumers were being sold and fed inferior products?
The article starts with an interesting premise but these omissions make this piece a plate of self-indulgent, poorly thought-out crap.
North Dakota governor in tears at split over face mask use in the US – YouTube
Who would have thought we’d need to be told this? And also, fuck anyone who won’t wear a mask, let alone the people attacking others for wearing a mask,
Another reason for video chat fatigue [is] the opposite of the eye contact problem: You have to look at each other’s faces the entire time! There are rarely natural breaks in conversation on Zoom, as there might be during a typical group dinner or coffee date, and it’s much harder to have a comfortable silence (or manage an uncomfortable one) when all parties are staring at one another nonstop. There’s no peeking out a window, no studying a menu, no people-watching, no helping out in the kitchen or asking about a host’s record collection. There’s only talking, and in a video chat with more than two participants, striking a normal conversational rhythm is nearly impossible. Add in differing internet lag times and the inability to hear multiple people speaking at once, and every group discussion becomes group “monologuing,” as Ashley Fetters termed it in the Atlantic. The patron saint of lively repartee rolls over in her grave with every “Wait, what was that?,” “Sorry, you go ahead,” and “Hang on, you just froze.”
Why Zoom calls are so tiring: The science of why you’re burned out by video chat in quarantine.
hmmm
In the years between 1347 and 1351, it killed at least a third of the European population. Half of the population of Siena, Italy, died.
…The dead were buried in pits, in piles.
In Florence, wrote Giovanni Boccaccio, “No more respect was accorded to dead people than would nowadays be accorded to dead goats.” Some hid in their homes. Others refused to accept the threat. Their way of coping, Boccaccio wrote, was to “drink heavily, enjoy life to the full, go round singing and merrymaking, and gratify all of one’s cravings when the opportunity emerged, and shrug the whole thing off as one enormous joke.”
How Pandemics End – The New York Times
hmmm
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