From the Guardian – Wednesday 15 November 2017 The inventor of the world wide web remains an optimist but sees a ‘nasty wind’ blowing amid concerns over advertising, net neutrality and fake news Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s optimism about the future of the web is starting to wane in the face of a “nasty storm” of … [Read more…]
In the New York Review’s Daily blog, Marilynne Robinson’s essay “Year One: Rhetoric & Responsibility” reminds me that we had a President in Obama who could appreciate her gifts and actually carry on a conversation at this level. I specially like this paragraph: The Trumps are a special problem, unembarrassed money-grubbers in whom other motives … [Read more…]
In the NY Times, a review of a study from by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama, found that the enormous number of guns owned by Americans was the major correlation in mass killings. In rankings, Yemen is second to the US in both mass killings and gun ownership. Why are we … [Read more…]
In a great article capturing the current efforts to make stupid “right”, Ariel Dorfman pulls together the stings in “Trump’s War on Knowledge.” From the NY Review of Books NYR Daily column, Oct 12, 2017.
WAPO, Oct 3, 2017 … How big is the federal workforce? Much bigger than you think. A new study on “The True Size of Government,” by Paul C. Light, professor of public service at New York University, says the government’s “blended” workforce is 7 to 9 million strong — including contractors and grantees.
Well said, Rana Foroohar in the Sept. 27th NYT opinion piece which can be read here.
Louis Brandeis once warned the American people, that as a nation, “We must make a choice. We may have a democracy, or have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Democracy In Chains, p 211.
It seems to me that this breach as outlined by F. Manjoo in the NYT today is about trust. The crown jewels have been stolen. Because they all use the same dataset and we’ve always considered them interchangeable, there is no difference, TransUnion and Experian are as culpable as Equifax. So, now that the data … [Read more…]
Monsanto and BASF, what could go wrong? Washington Post, Aug 29, 2017. “This miracle weed killer was supposed to save farms. Instead, it’s devastating them.”
An interview by Mark Karlin, Truthout magazine, with writer Nancy MacLean, who’s book ‘Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America’ shines a light on the work of economist James McGill Buchanan who’s work inspired the Koch brothers, among others. If you have the nerve after 6+ months of … [Read more…]