We’re all happily pointing and laughing at the President’s absurdities over the past week: crowd sizes, press secretary harrumphing, twitter ejaculations.  We’re patting each other on the back for the feel-good march we participated in over the weekend.

The real work’s being done in the Congress. What have they been up to this last week? What bills have come out of committee ready for vote without a reading? What policy has been made, but not announced?

This is misdirection, not entertainment. We’re not winning here, people. Let’s pay attention.

You ever see that great movie with Al Pacino, where he plays a low-end lawyer who takes on the big corporation?  I remember walking out of that movie as a teenager feeling really pumped up about serious, moral people doing good in the face of maybe irresistible pressure.

That’s what I felt like after watching this.  Fantastic documentary.  What makes the Times go, as an organization.  Admittedly, lots of footage of David Carr, who turns out to be hugely photogenic and quotable on camera, so that doesn’t hurt.

With all this miasma floating around about the death of fact, “fake news” (propaganda, why doesn’t anyone use the term of art?), limiting press access to the government, new media … the clear theme of the movie is: real journalism matters.

Watch Page One: Inside the New York Times Online at Hulu.

I might start referring to myself as the Vulgar Mechanick (sic)  I’m not a composer any more, and I’ve never been an engineer.

The Vulgar Mechanic and His Magical Oven – Issue 12: Feedback – Nautilus.

http://blog.finji.co/post/155765443093/this-is-not-ok-disclaimer-we-would-not-normally

http://www.openculture.com/2017/01/1958-tv-western-had-a-character-named-trump-who-promised-to-build-a-wall-save-the-world.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/12/donald-trump-press-conference-cnn-journalist-acosta

The traditional media are in a bit of shock over the disintegration of what has been a long and happy relationship with the American executive branch.  Time to man up and re-evaluate their role, as the fourth estate independent of and sceptical of the government, especially this government.  We need them to rediscover their true purpose.

A Unified Theory of Mental Illness: How Everything from Addiction to Depression Can Be Explained by the Concept of “Capture” | Open Culture.

It’s all about attention, for David Kessler.  Attention compelled by various stimuli, both external and internal.

Secretaries of Energy:

• 2009-2013, Steven Chu, winner of the Nobel prize in physics, professor of physics at UC Berkeley, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
• 2013-2017, Ernest Moniz, professor of nuclear physics at MIT, former under secretary of Energy
• 2017- , Rick Perry, the man who couldn’t remember the department’s name.

via the Atlantic blog

UN ambassadors: Trump’s nominee is Nikki Haley, Obama’s selection has been Stephanie Power.

Power’s qualifications: 

Power covered the Yugoslav wars as a journalist, won a Pulitzer for a book on genocide, attended the Harvard Kennedy School where she led its Human Rights Initiative, and served as a foreign policy adviser for then-Sen. Obama before joining the National Security Council when he became president. Powers is known for advocating moral intervention.

Haley’s:

During her tenure as governor, which began in 2011, Haley has taken “at least eight” trips abroad according to her home-state newspaper, the Post and Courier.

(From Think Progress, https://thinkprogress.org/nikki-haley-un-climate-2045ef787745?source=rss—-e5293acf313e—4)

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/

The failure of our ability to imagine it happening here, and how to work with that going forward.