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City of stolen ideas
Today’s list of Days includes Marmot Day, an obvious ripoff of Groundhog Day. Marmot Day is a Spokane specialty because we supposedly have a monopoly on marmots. I’ve only seen them in the downtown park, not elsewhere. Sure enough, “local” media had to mark Marmot Day. So Spokane owns two official Days, both plagiarized. Fathers…
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Mexico joins the Allies
Later: Mexico is planning retaliatory tariffs like Canada, but not quite as specific yet. From Reuters: With a universal tariff of 25%, it is estimated that exports could fall by around 12%. Sheinbaum also rejected as “slander” the White House’s allegation that drug cartels have an alliance with the Mexican government, a point Trump’s administration…
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Is this what he’s doing?
Trump was trained by Roy Cohn in Agent Provocateur tricks. Cohn used the tactic on Joe McCarthy and later on the Birchers. He took charge of Joe in the 50s and JBS in the 70s, turning each into a grotesque extreme parody of a rational belief system. The Agent Provocateur trick was first perfected by…
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Unthingable
Now that all the tech tyrants are pursuing the AI stock bubble, previous stock bubbles are popping fast. Before AI, virtual reality was the earth-shaking new technology, the Transformative Universal Fix for all the world’s problems. Facebook and Google already dropped VR last year. Apple is dropping it this year. Meanwhile, AI has already been…
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Saluting Canada
Polistra and friends salute Canada and Trudeau’s excellent action. And to customize the tribute, linking to a series I did back in August on Reginald Fessenden, Canada’s own radio pioneer. Fessenden was unstoppably creative, working on a wide range of problems, always strictly scientific, always coming up with unique ways to deal with every detail…
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Amazingly good
Trudeau’s response to Trump’s pointless lunacy is pretty damn good. He starts with a history of Canada and US working on the same side in wars and crises. He actually understated Canada’s WW2 contribution, since Canada started fighting a year earlier. Then he talks about the shared economy, missing the earlier period when Canada was…
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Unsolvably stupid
Journalism is beyond salvation, and journalists are beyond salvation. Even when they talk about checking their own hidden assumptions, they make the same fucking hidden assumptions. One paragraph: = = = = = START QUOTE: A lot of time and energy is spent by news organizations trying to convey that they know better than their…
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Sounds promising
Canada and Mexico are finally showing some guts after many decades of willing servitude to the US empire. Trump’s crazy threats of Mutually Assured Destruction for all sides have finally awakened some noise, if not some action. The clip features the premier of Newfoundland who has the right idea. This is a chance for Canada…
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Survival of the misfittest
Continuing inspiration from Sherri Olson’s marvelous book on English peasants in 1300. = = = = = Court sessions were participatory performances. = = = = = START QUOTE: Many ears are listening to a story that is being worked out as it goes along, a story that is searching for assent as it unfolds,…
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Did science as entertainment continue?
Yesterday’s mention of symphonies that wear out the bass drum and the eardrum with endlessly hammered final movements reminded me of Peter Schickele’s classical parodies. Schickele mainly focused on the finicky excesses of Baroque Purists. I was a finicky Baroque Purist, so I appreciated his work. This led to a broader thought about science as…
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Worthy question
Note seen on Substack: The only writing advice I can give is always cut your last sentence. 99% of the time you’ve already said what you want to say, and you’re just trying to tie it up with a bow. Writing doesn’t need bows. Unlike most notes, this is a worthy question, not immediately dismissable.…
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Powell holds the line.
Powell is holding steady to support HONEST business and REAL economics. He’s clearly sending a message to Trump and Elon that he won’t back down to satisfy Elon’s endless universe-consuming greed. Trump is NYC. Trump is Wall Street. Trump wants ZIRP and QE to return so his allies can finish bombing the country down to…
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Fast end to fakery
After only 9 days in office, Trump’s old trick is already obvious. = = = = = Reprint from 2019: Faker Trump has pulled his favorite fake trick again. He wrote a fake “executive order” designed to provide political ammunition for the enemies of populism without actually changing anything. His previous fake “order” encouraging religious…
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Meaningless meandering about dreams
For the last 10 years or so most dreams have signaled time to wake up by catching the bus from downtown Spokane to home. This was the real-life routine during the 90s. After 2001 I’ve been working from home. Dreams always run 20 years late; in the 90s most dreams were still in Oklahoma where…
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New meaning for old acronym
We know how the LBO predators work on corporations. Old-fashioned protection racket. They barrage the company with lawsuits and obstacles and “accidents” and low-priced competition until the company finally gives in and sells cheap. We’ve seen the same thing with the “global warming” racket, which gives insurers a “protective” reason to cancel coverage, again driving…
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