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.
It’s all about attention, for David Kessler. Attention compelled by various stimuli, both external and internal.
Secretaries of Energy:
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.
http://vihart.com/a-mathematicians-perspective-on-the-divide/
From Vi Hart. Lots of correlations of all the different measurements that were taken: breakdowns by race, urban/rural, … lead her to one factor: age. Old people tend to view Trump more than young. Have a read.
Thinking more about the automa-pocalypse and how the money economy keeps working when there aren’t any jobs. The Universal Basic Income that I saw a few years ago (see this blog 🙂 is now the generally-accepted solution, but it hasn’t been really tried and has a number of flaws: it’s too expensive, it’s a moral hazard.
So, thinking some more. I proposed the idea of everyone “on salary” before. Now, I’m thinking: everyone becomes a profit-sharer or stockholder. The corporations generate piles of income on high margin automation, people are laid off in droves but given a pile of stock as severance. Everyone starts living off the fat, not just the 1%.
This has got to appeal to the average capitalist, right?
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-idUSKBN13B05C
This is the architect of the more draconian Muslim-related immigration policies. Let’s see if he ends up in the Federal government.
http://vihart.com/context-for-black-lives-matter/
a lucid explanation for understanding what the point of the organization is and why it needs to exist. Thanks, Vi.
http://vihart.com/
Constantly thoughtful interesting blog, offline for a couple of years and back now.