Nothing we didn’t know – but something’s missing

The news today was crammed full with reactions to the anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times. The column, written by a “senior official” in the regime of the current occupant of the White House reinforced things we’ve already been told by others, but something more than a byline is missing.

The territory covered by the piece was also covered in books, such as Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and the soon-to-be-published Fear by Bob Woodward (Full disclosure: Both links are to Amazon and include my Amazon Associates number). Many news articles have also reported many of the same details. So, despite the current occupant’s “volcanic anger” about the Op-Ed piece, there’s not really anything new in it.

There’s one important thing missing, however: Courage. Whoever wrote it will ultimately be revealed and fired by the current occupant, unless it was Vice President Mike Pence, who can’t be fired. He has reasons for not being public—it would look like he was plotting an actual coup, for one thing. But wouldn’t it be cowardly to let suspicion fall on others, endangering their jobs? Would he come clean if someone else is fired for what he did? (Of course not).

There are also issues with the punditocracy’s other favourite suspect, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats. He has absolutely nothing to lose: At his age, he has no more elective offices in his future. He can afford to burn his bridges. But if he was really the author, and the current occupant’s disrespecting John McCain was part of his motivation, then wouldn’t publishing anonymously also disrespect McCain’s legacy?

Maybe it was neither of those two, but someone else entirely. How would they not similarly be a coward rather than principled? Whoever the author is, he or she could have resigned in a blaze of protest that would have dominated the news, too.

On the other hand, maybe this was brilliant strategy. By remaining anonymous until unmasked, the author can keep the piece in the news cycle for longer than would have happened in the “resign in protest” scenario. Personally, I hope that’s what it is, not actual cowardice. We’ll know sooner or later.

But all of that is beside the point, really, because something else is also missing: A conscience. This regime has done some horrible, shameful things, but the author praises the regime for cutting the taxes of corporations and the ultra rich, something that won’t benefit even most the non-millionaires who voted for the current occupant. The author also lists “effective deregulation”—seriously? The stuff that will put lives at risk through increased pollution and looser work safety rules (among so many other horrible things)? A “more robust military”? Spending more money isn’t the definition of “robust”, and banning transgendered servicemembers doesn’t make the military “more robust”. Also, what are the “other things”? That white supremacists in Charlottesville had “many fine people” among them? That children of asylum seekers and refugees were illegally ripped from the parents’ arms? The regime’s Muslim Ban?

But at least the author recognises that the current occupant branding the free press as “the enemy of the people” is inexcusable, as are all of his other anti-democratic attitudes. Also singled out, rightly, is the currant occupant’s “preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.”

The current occupant is tearing the USA apart, and destroying the country’s standing in the world—along with the alliance that’s defeated fascism and kept world peace for three-quarters of a century. He is dangerous and unhinged. The Centre and Left are doing what they can to stop the regime and its agenda, but so far all the Republican Party is doing is a—at the VERY most—uttering a near silent “tsk, tsk, tsk”.

Plenty of conservatives have abandoned the Republican Party to call out the regime and to talk about how the current occupant of the White House is unfit for office. The problem is that politicians living in the party now, or within the regime, are publicly missing. Until that changes, the battle to get rid of the current occupant will continue to be very, very difficult—unless Democrats win in a landslide in November, maybe.

But in any case, and no matter what happens in November, this is the time for Republicans who have a moral centre to stand up and call out the man in the White House who has none.

The state of America

It has caused a constant state of confusion, the habitual lying by the current occupant of the White House. People of good character cannot understand how anyone can so brazenly and shamelessly lie about things that are so easily checked, and transparently lies. What such people don’t understand is that they’re not playing the same game. It’s not just that the current regime doesn’t care about truth or facts, it’s that they’re focused on one thing alone: Power.

The video above is the latest in Vox’s “Strikethrough” series of videos. They said of it: “For leaders like Trump and Putin, telling big lies isn't about persuasion – it's about power.” The reality is that the constant lying by the current occupant isn’t accidental, nor is it entirely deliberate, at least, not always. Instead, it’s part of a well-proven path to power employed by tyrants since the fascist dictators of decades ago. And there will be no letting up.

What the current regime’s opponents most need to understand is the conundrum they face: Fact-checking and debunking the regime’s constant lies only serves to reinforce them. It’s not because people reject the truth, though the regime’s supporters actively do. Instead, it’s that most people simply don’t pay close attention. When the current occupant’s lies are constantly repeated—even to debunk them—the lies enter people’s vague awareness, and they recall them as something that’s probably true—the opposite of what opponents want to happen.

So, debunking and fact-checking is actually totally counterproductive: It actually reinforces the lies the current occupant tells, gives them legitimacy for the majority of people who aren’t paying attention, and it helps the regime undermine faith in fact, truth and the evidence of our eyes and ears, which the current occupant himself recently told us all to ignore.

There are well-known reasons why this happens. About a month ago, TIME Magazine published “How Your Brain Tricks You Into Believing Fake News”, and it talks in some detail about the reasons that fake news—and the current occupant’s constant lies, too—work, even for smart, educated, and aware people.

And that’s the second thing that the current regime’s opponents most need to understand: People who believe the current occupant’s lies, or his regime’s genuinely fake news, aren’t stupid. They aren’t even necessarily supporters of the current regime. The reality is that the current occupant is playing them like a violin.

How do we move beyond that? We must tell an alternative story. First and foremost, we need to talk about the things that real people really care about. This is the strategy used successfully by Democrats all over the country in special election after special election. Voters don’t want to hear what we’re against—they want to hear what we’re FOR.

Second, we need to stop debunking and fact-checking the current occupant every few minutes. Instead, we need to talk about things that are based only on verifiable truth and that are fact-based, but we mustn’t compare them to the lies of the current occupant. We must pretend he’s never said a word.

Ignoring the current occupant is the hardest thing opponents will ever be called on to do, but it’s also the most necessary. We cannot tell an alternative story if we’re obsessed with singing from the current occupant's song sheet.

There’s an added fact about this strategy: The thing that infuriates the current occupant more than anything else is being ignored. Doing so is sure to make him lash out in unhinged anger, and that behaviour is always unattractive and off-putting to mainstream people, reinforcing his well-deserved image of being “just not right” and emotionally unstable. It’s important that we don't react in anger, but do show sadness and pity, to reinforce the obvious truth, namely, that he is unfit to be president.

None of this is about “attacking” the current occupant, but, rather, about letting him be himself. Meanwhile, we keep presenting our alternative story about the things that real people really care about, always based only on verifiable truth and that are fact-based.

We’ve tried it the other way, always reacting and debunking, and the support for the current occupant remains stubbornly high. It’s time to try a different way. And, anyway, shouldn’t we be focused on where we want to go and how we’ll get there? That’s what ordinary voters want. As well they should.

Toward better Supreme Court nominees

The upcoming debate over the nomination to the Supreme Court will be epic. Those of us who are opposed are adamantly opposed, and the folks in favour have too much to gain to offer anything other than fevered, fervent support along with bullying of opponents. It really doesn’t have to be that way.

A real-life friend posted something on Facebook that struck a chord with me:

Am I the only one who thinks that the Supreme Court should be totally Bi Partisan? No Liberal and No Conservative, No Republican, No Democrat. They should prove that they make decisions based on right and wrong and leave their personal biases at the door when they put on their robes. That should be the litmus test of how we select who gets on the Supreme Court. Then it wouldn't matter who selects them because we would have selected honorable people who hold the Constitution to a higher standard.

In a perfect world, Supreme Court justices would be NON-partisan, not bi-partisan, and they would interpret the Constitution according to the rule of law, not politics. But the reality is that that ship sailed decades ago when Ronald Reagan nominated the hyper-partisan ideologue Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. He was responsible for implementing Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre”, the event that assured Nixon would have been impeached and then removed from office if he hadn’t resigned. [See also "Not borked", my recollections about the battle to stop Bork].

Supreme Court nominations have been more or less politicised ever since Reagan, with presidents looking, at the very least, for nominees who can be confirmed, not who is the best possible candidate. Things are worse now than ever, with the current terrible purely political nominee being a prime example of that.

Senate Majority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, weaponised Supreme Court nominations when he flat out refused to allow Merrick Garland to get a fair hearing in the Senate because he wanted only a Republican President to be able to nominate someone. In fact, McConnell and every senior Republican in the Senate vowed that if Hillary Clinton was elected president in 2016 they would refuse to consider ANY Supreme Court nominee from her, ever. That’s just pure partisan political gameplaying, and it betrays the Constitution and the American people.

So, the precedent of Supreme Court nominations being nothing but hyperpartisan games has now been set. Given the precedent Republicans have set, Democrats could easily choose to do the same thing if they win control of the Senate in November, and then the Republicans will do it again when they gain control, and so on.

The worst thing is, there’s not much that can be done about it. Going to some sort of merit selection of justices would require changes that are impossible, particularly the need for politicians to give up power. It would probably also require a Constitutional Amendment, something that’s so difficult to do that it’s nearly impossible.

If we change the way the US House is elected to make it better reflect the will of the people, that’s something that will eventually filter up to the Senate. Aside from that, we can hold politicians accountable: We must never—ever—let them get away with talking in slogans or pandering to people’s basest feelings. We must constantly ask them, “how?” How are they’re going to do what they say, because more often than not they—Republicans in particular—can’t answer without resorting to mere slogans and more empty blather.

What I’m saying is simple: If we want a better class of Supreme Court justices, we’re going to have to start with electing a better class of politicians.

And that’s the hardest job of all.

This post is based on a comment I was originally making to my friend’s post. For some reason, Facebook wouldn’t let me post it. It’s here instead, revised and expanded from the original version.

Weekend Diversion: Imagine Dragons

I can’t believe I haven’t talked about Imagine Dragons before, because they’ve produced some of my favourite songs of the past year or so. What reminded me to share them, however, was I saw a video about a side project by lead singer Dan Reynolds, and now I like them quite a bit more. I like when pop music and my values combine, especially when it helps LGBT+ youth along the way.

First things first, though, because it was about the music before I ever heard about Reynolds’ work. I like Imagine Dragons because of the usual things—melody, arrangement, performance of the band and Reynolds’ vocals, and also for the often very complex lyrics. I like empty pop songs as much as anyone else who, um, loves that sort of thing, but I especially love pop music that offers me more than a good beat and a catchy hook, and Imagine Dragons has always given me that.

The first song that made me finally learn the band’s name was “Thunder” (video above). It was released April 27, 2017, the second single from their third studio album, Evolve. The song reached Number 3 in New Zealand, Number 2 in Australia, Number 4 in Canada, Number 4 in the Billboard Hot 100, and Number 20 in the UK. The video is visually striking, so much so that it practically forced me stop and watch it, and because of that, I paid attention to the band. From my narrow perspective, that video was worth every cent they spent on it.

The first single from Evolve was “Believer”, which has gone on to become a sports anthem and lent its name to a documentary (more about that later). I saw this video well after I noticed “Thunder”, or maybe I had and noticed it because of "Thunder". Either way, I liked that song, too:



The thing I didn’t realise at first was that I’d heard “Believer” on the radio, though I didn’t realise it until I paid attention to them on our music video channel. In any case, the song hit Number 21 in New Zealand, Number 33 in Australia, Number 7 in Canada, Number 4 in the Billboard Hot 100, and Number 42 in the UK.

While I later heard them in other songs, it was those two songs that I was most familiar with. Today I was catching up on my YouTube subscriptions, and saw a video suggested to me, including one from ABC News titled “Imagine Dragons lead singer on his Mormon faith and supporting LGBTQ community” and posted August 8:



I didn’t know about any of this until today, and I instantly liked Dan Reynolds as a human being, not just as a singer/songwriter/performer. Naturally, I wanted to see a bit more:



I think both those videos were well done, talking about different things, but the same general topic. There’s an excerpt of his documentary “Believer”, the documentary he talked about on The Daily Show, available online (the HBO trailer can’t be viewed in New Zealand, so I won’t include that):



So this was a band I liked as soon as I saw their video for “Thunder” on our free-to-air video channel. Now that I know more about lead singer Dan Reynolds, I like them a bit more. But it really is all about the music.

In the ABC video, their song “It’s Time” was mentioned in passing. It’s a good song (from 2012):



The song was the band’s first Top 40 commercial hit, reaching Number 37 in New Zealand, Number 27 in Australia, Number 30 in Canada, Number 15 in the Billboard Hot 100, and Number 23 in the UK. Part of the success was because, as the ABC report said, the song was covered on Glee [WATCH/LISTEN], and it was used in commercials.

From their first single, on to their newest single, “Natural”:



There: I think I’ve made up for not talking about Imagine Dragons before. And I’m glad I found new reasons for liking them.

Welcome, Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring, and this makes me far happier than it probably should, but I love warm weather, and hate winter, so it figures. While Auckland winters are much milder than what I grew up with in Illinois, I don’t live there, I live here: What matters is what we face here, and I don’t like it. Give me summer!

It was foggy this morning, the third day in a row. And, of course, we had a lot rain this month, along with some fairly cold mornings the past few weeks. All of which happens in Auckland in winter, but all of it has stayed around longer than is polite.

Despite all the rain, cold, fog and other winter weather we’ve had, the month of August was productive for me: It was my most-blogged month of the year, stealing the crown from last month. Last month, I had a surplus of 8 posts above my goal of an average of one post per day. In August, I published 45 posts, which is a surplus of 14 posts more than the monthly goal. That means that over the past two months I’ve made up for three weeks of posts that I never did.

I’ve also now more than passed the halfway point of posts for the year, however, the midpoint of the year was July 2. That means I hit the midpoint in the number of blogs posts the end of August, not the beginning of July. Despite the progress of the past couple months, I’m still well behind the average. As of yesterday, I was 54 posts behind where I needed to be to meet my annual goal of an average of one post per day.

At the moment, including this post, I need 175 posts to make the annual average. That works out to about 1.45 posts per day, which is—theoretically—achievable.

As it happens, I’m not the only one who pays attention to that trivia on this blog: Roger Green does, too. Obviously, none of this matters, and the goal should be about quality, not quantity. But as any regular blogger knows, odds are good that no matter what, some posts will always be better than other ones. Publishing a lot of posts increases the odds that at least a few of them will be pretty decent. Besides, there’s so much these days that we’re powerless to control, and perhaps to influence. This is one little thing I can control, so I’m grabbing with both hands. Well, four fingers and two thumbs, which is what I usually use when typing.

That wasn’t the end to the productive month. I pretty much did all I can do to reorganise the garage without Nigel’s help (a few things are too bulky or heavy to move by myself). So, that project is now all but finished (finally). The battle now moves to the rumpus room and my office, where a lot of the stuff formerly in the garage now lives.

But, hey: Today was only the first day of September, and of Spring. Things have clearly been looking up over the past couple months, and I think this month will be productive, too. I'm glad about that, no matter what actually happens.

Bagging change

New Zealand is about to ban single-use plastic bags, and, in fact, grocery stores are already going plastic bag-free and the one I use for deliveries is switching to paper bags. So, no matter what people think about it, and whether or not we’re ready, change is coming. It’s about time we came up with answers to what we’ll do next, and that’s what I’ve now started.

The photo above is of a roll of compostable rubbish bags I recently bought to try. I’ve considered paper rubbish bags, but what’s available here is intended for a big bin—they’re far too big for a kitchen bin. So, I needed a reasonably environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic.

Compostable bags are made from cornstarch, and break down in compost systems. The bags usually need to be exposed to ultraviolet light to begin to break down (which means they need sunlight, basically), and they need higher temperatures. Generally speaking, they take six months to break down in a commercial composting facility, and about a year in a home composting system.

And that’s the main problem.

There are few commercial rubbish composting operations at the moment, and fewer in New Zealand. This is a problem because they don’t easily break down in a landfill. Even so, they DO break down better than plastic bags do, so they’re a better option than plastic.

Problems aside, they’re definitely better than “biodegradable” bags that are still plastic and eventually break down to smaller bits of plastic that are still a problem. They’re a non-starter. Until I researched all this, I didn’t know that and bought “biodegradable” bags thinking I was helping the environment. I was wrong—I should have done more research.

One problem I’ve had has been that our kitchen rubbish bin is around 35 litres, but a bag that size doesn’t leave any extra to fold over the top of the bin. That means the sides can slide down, which is a problem.

Of course and obvious solution here is to not use a bin liner at all. This will become more viable in a year-ish when our area switches to Auckland Council’s new wheelie bins for rubbish (which is a VERY bad idea, in my opinion, but that’s a topic for another day). When they’re here, I could just dump the kitchen bin into the big bin without any bag.

Even though we recycle everything we can, there’s still rubbish left over, and some of it can be messy. This means I’d need to wash out the bin, maybe even weekly. I know that it wasn’t that long ago that this was common enough, but, well, we’ve moved on, haven’t we? Dumping the bokashi bin saves me time, so I can use that for washing the rubbish bin, right? Yes. But I don’t particularly want to.

The main reason I want a bag solution is actually much smaller: Disposing of cat litter. It has to go to landfill, for a whole lot of reasons, and I don’t want to use plastic bags any more. I originally wanted paper bags, but they’re expensive because they have to be ordered from specialty suppliers—so far, I haven’t even seen paper lunch bags, which kind of shocked me.

So, using compostable rubbish bags is a kind of a temporary measure at the moment because there are no good—and easy—alternatives. It’s better than plastic, though, and that’s the main thing.

This is clearly a story that’s evolving, and I’m sharing it in real time.

Related:

Online buying and getting change – about changes to bags for online ordering
Banning the bags – about NZ’s switch from plastic bags

Old Gays React to Troye Sivan Videos

The video above is the latest in the “Old Gays…” series of videos from Into on their Intomore YouTube Channel. They have a similar “Old Lesbians…” series, and in both cases they show people from earlier times what younger LGBT+ people are into now. It can be interesting and entertaining, and this one is a bit of both.

I wrote about Troye Sivan’s Blue Neighbourhood trilogy back in 2015, so I was interested to see what these older gay men thought of it, and that many of their reactions were similar to my own. I don’t know if that means I’m “old” or that what I saw is typical enough of old-ER gay men, or maybe even more common than that. But I kind of felt vindicated, for lack of a better word.

Later in the video, they talk about Troye’s song “Bloom” (video below). Apparently, he received a lot of flack for it because it is about bottoming for the first time, and because of the gender-bending visuals. He, however, was nonplussed [See “Troye Sivan Refuses To Feel Ashamed For Singing About Gay Sex” in Sydney’s LGBT newspaper, Star Observer].

One of the things that LGBT+ people don’t talk about very often is the divisions between and among us. We have sex-positive folks and deep prudes, we have hyper-masculine types and ultra-feminine, and we have people within our LGBT+ communities who hate those people. I don’t understand that, and it exasperates me when LGBT+ people start excluding other LGBT+ people because of who they are or how they present. It seems to me that people from a still marginalised community have no business oppressing anyone. Besides, they miss so many awesome people by being so bloody narrow-minded.

In any case, I still like Troye, and recognise his voice whenever I hear it. In fact, just this evening TVNZ’s “Seven Sharp” programme played a snippet of “Bloom” as their closing music. Quite a coincidence considering I was planning on this post.

There’s one thing more. There are so many young gay people on YouTube, young guys in particular, and even though many of them are really good at what they do and are interesting, it’s still really nice to hear from some older LGBT+ people, at least sometimes. I think we older gays deserve to have our lives and realities reflected, too.

Easier targets first?

Every day’s news reports reinforces the view that there doesn’t seem to anything too extreme or too unthinkable for the current regime to do. The current occupant of the White House has made his racism and nativism crystal clear, and his regime is working to operationalise that. So the regime’s moves to make people “uncitizens” is not at all surprising—but it may be just the start.

Today The Washington Post reported today that the regime is denying passports, or revoking them from, citizens born along the Texas border with Mexico. The underlying issue isn’t new: Allegedly, in the 1990s some midwives in South Texas faked the birth records of children who were actually born in Mexico to state they were born in Texas. Because of that, successive governments have treated anyone born in that region with suspicion.

There are huge problems with this, not the least the presumption of guilt, but extends on to creating possibly unattainable requirements for additional proof that someone really was born in the USA. Additionally, revoking passports means the person is no longer considered a citizen, potentially making them vulnerable to ICE raids and deportations—despite living their entire lives in the USA, paying taxes, voting, and even serving in the US military.

These are people who even some otherwise reasonable citizens might think are fair game, thinking that if their births were registered in the USA falsely, they have no defence. The problem with that is that if those otherwise reasonable citizens can excuse harsh treatment of the people in Texas, who would be safe from the regime’s excesses? Will it only be Hispanics singled out? Or Mexicans in particular? Or the children of any immigrant family?

There really can be a “slippery slope”, in this case, accepting oppression of one group of people makes it easier to accept the oppression of other groups, until all hope of control and restoring the rule of law is lost.

Among the easiest targets after immigrants are expat American citizens returning home. In fact, it’s now one of my very real fears about returning to the US for a visit. After the current regime finishes going after easy targets, they’ll expand it, and that means returning expats could easily be on the list of folks to harass. After all, there aren’t all that many (easy number of people to contain), but they all have friends and/or family in the USA who will hear of their ordeal. And that would be the point.

The regime’s first goal in all this is to harass and oppress immigrants, either by making up alleged offences so they can be deported, or to make them fearful enough to leave the USA. By expanding harassment, they would also stoke fear among native-born Americans so that they don’t offer any opposition to the current regime.

All the regime has to do is put some returning expat Americans into ICE concentration camps for a few months while the victim proves they were born in America, as they ultimately would. The result would be that ordinary people would decide it’s best to remain silent and offer no opposition to the regime. Silencing opposition if the first and most important step in eliminating it.

Here’s the thing: Even in the darkest days of Bush the Second, I would’ve laughed at any suggestion like this as mere paranoia. Under this regime, however, we’ve learned absolutely anything is possible, and nothing is off the table or goes too far.

Will this happen? I don’t know of course, but if it does, it’d be after they’ve gone after all the easy targets. But if this regime is deposed, first in the elections in November, then by taking back the presidency in 2020, all of this can be avoided and we can all return to the certainty that there are some things that go too far for any government.

In the meantime, there doesn’t seem to anything too extreme or too unthinkable for the current regime to do. And that is terrifying.

This Post is a revised and expanded version of comments I left on a friend’s Facebook share of the article I linked to. I also saw the article because I subscribe to the Washington Post electronic version to help support journalism because, as they put it, “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.

‘Celia’ – A NZ documentary

Earlier this month, Nigel and I went to see the documentary about social justice advocate and storyteller Celia Lashlie called Celia (trailer above) at the New Zealand International Film Festival. It was the first time we’d seen a film in the NZIFF, and it was a good one to choose. A powerful film and a call to action, the film ought to be required viewing for every New Zealand politician.

The film was made by former TV journalist Amanda Millar who called the project, “the most important assignment of my life”. The film featured archival footage along with interviews with Celia in what turned out to be her very last days. Celia died of pancreatic cancer in February 2015, less than two months after being formally diagnosed.

I well remember when she came onto the public scene talking about ways of doing things differently. She argued passionately for better ways of helping people earlier, rather than waiting and allowing things to fall apart, and good kids to grow up and go to prison. The documentary summarises her salient points, and gives some idea of the passion she had for her life’s work.

Politicians’ reactions to her were varied. Some understood her message and wanted to make it work, while others resisted mightily. Most probably didn’t understand, or just wanted to take the cheapest option, as most politicians normally choose. But she called us to do better so we could be better. That work isn’t finished.

Fortunately, plenty of people are committed to advancing her work. A website, “Celia’s Army” provides hints and ideas so that people can get involved in making New Zealand a better place. Her own website also has some of her writing and more about her work.

There were a lot of good and important messages in the film, things that can help make New Zealand better. But one of the most poignant and powerful points for me on a personal level was in one of those final interviews when she said she’d planned to spend more time writing and following her creative passions, but her body called time after years of refusing to listen to her spirit’s call to follow that passion. I’m not a big believer in metaphysical stuff, but the message is important all the same: At some point we need to stop wasting time, because time will inevitably “waste” us.

There’s talk of some international distribution, and wider release in New Zealand, but it’s likely to be difficult to get a chance to see it, at least for a while. Even so, it’s well worth the effort. Celia was a remarkable woman, and Amanda Millar’s documentary does her justice.

New TV commercial – and imagery

It’s just not possible for me to stay away from TV commercials for very long, and I saw the TV commercial above for the first time tonight. The ad itself is about a particular aspect of life in New Zealand, but it was the imagery—one segment in particular—that caught my attention.

The ad is talking about people having one power account for both their home and their bach (pronounced “batch”), which is a holiday (vacation) home. Baches have been a traditional part of New Zealand life, and they’re generally not particularly grand. They’re also handed down within families.

The deal they’re getting at is that company doesn’t charge a daily charge as a separate power account would, but, instead, they charge only for power actually used. That, they say, is “fairness”.

So, the ad uses all sorts of images relating to fairness and fair play—including the rainbow flag, which isn’t actually discussed, but appears right after the announcer says “fairness”. It’s not often that the flag is used in mainstream advertising, nor is it used as a symbol to reinforce ideas of fairness, as this usage does.

To be honest, I’m not sure how helpful using the rainbow flag is because it’s divorced from its actual context. However, even casual reinforcement of the image, especially when tied to the word “fairness”, is good, even though it’s being done to sell the services of an electricity company. I’m always a pragmatist. So, on balance, I think this is okay—and I even forgive them flying the flag upside down.

Of course, it’s not unusual for New Zealand advertisers to include actual same-gender couples in their campaigns, as I talked about earlier this month. It’s a little unusual for a commercial to have LGBT+ imagery that has no particular context, or, probably, actual relevance to what’s being advertised. Since the rainbow flag in this ad reinforces ideas of fairness, I’m okay with it.

But next time they really should fly the flag right side up.

The 15 second version:

Bokashi bin and done

About a year after we first started using it, we’ve decided to stop using the bokashi composting bins, which are designed to take nearly all food waste, raw or cooked. It was a good idea, and held promise, but in the end it was a lot of work and smelled horrible. Besides, our needs changed.

When I talked about the bins and our experience with them back in May, I said “there have been two times in which the bin smelled kind of like a wet ashtray—like cigarette ash, the paper, butts, unused tobacco and water all mixed together.” Since then, there have been two more.

A bad smell is supposed to be a sign of a bokashi system that’s failed, and, apparently, one is supposed to start over. I have no idea how to do that, even now.

The worst of the bins that weren’t working properly smelled like a particularly bad rubbish bin—it literally smelled like garbage. That’s not only extremely unpleasant, it’s entirely avoidable by not using the system in the first place.

The last bin-load was about half-full when I aborted it and left it to sit so I could add it to the ordinary compost bin. It smelled bad, with mould and fungus growing in the drainage bin, and it was so bad that I put it outside the house because it was stinking up the place. Unfortunately, it’s winter, which slows everything down, so I gave the bin a few more days than normal before I emptied it.

I wouldn’t recommend the bokashi bin system to anyone, but someone with a lot of time, energy, and commitment might be able to make it work, as long as they can put the bin somewhere outside their house. I can’t imagine it actually working in someone’s house because it never really did for us.

This actually isn’t a big change for us. We produce very little food waste, anyway, nothing other than, say, lettuce or carrots that we kept too long, and they can go in the normal compost bin. We don’t have extra cooked meat, and cheese never gets a chance to go off, and so, we don’t really create much organic waste that’s not compostable in a normal bin.

However, by abandoning the bokashi system, I do gain some time, spare some effort, with only a tiny potential increase in the waste we put into landfill-bound rubbish. That’s all acceptable, but the effort to become more sustainable will continue, just in different ways.

McCain's Farewell Statement

My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.

I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

“Fellow Americans” – that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.

I feel it powerfully still.

Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.

This farewell statement from Senator McCain was read today by Rick Davis, Senator McCain’s former presidential campaign manager and a family spokesman, at a press conference at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona today. [SOURCE]
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I can’t remember a public figure who has worked out a final statement to be delivered after they’ve died, which makes this very unusual. So, too, is the extent to which it calls out to what President Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature”—how we can, and should, be better than we are.

Many mainstream media commentators noted the veiled attack on the current occupant of the White House (“when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down”), and there was that and others. But I also noted a direct attack on the white nationalism that’s at the core of the current regime: “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil.” [emphasis added]. That phrase is beloved by white supremacists, and McCain’s use of it cannot be accidental. I'd never have known about that if I hadn't read the entire statement.

People can disagree about McCain, his record and his legacy, and they certainly will do so. That’s healthy in a democracy. But the powerful optimism in McCain’s final statement is undeniable, even if some of us may not entirely share it. But whether we believe, as he did, that “We will come through [these challenging times] stronger than before. We always do,” maybe it couldn’t hurt for us to be encouraged to make that happen.

If Senator McCain can encourage less permanent acrimony and more bipartisanship, how is that a bad thing? Hard to achieve, absolutely, but a worthy ideal to aim for.

Repaircycle?

There are many useful and interesting things to be found on Pinterest, from ideas, to “how to” instructions, to inspiration, to trends. There, as in home magazines, there are plenty of buzzwords, too, like “upcycle”, “repurpose”, and more. But what about when something is basically just repaired and returned to use? What should we call that? “Repaircycle”?

The photo above is of some metal canisters I bought years ago for coffee, tea, and one for biscuits (cookies). I liked them because they were metal, the paint was red (at the time, one of our accent colours), and the anodised finish gave it a retro look I liked.

I had two smaller canisters, two larger ones, and one large one. We hadn’t had them all that long before, one after the other, the ring on the lid broke off, all except one. We retired the canisters (bought new ones) and moved on—but they were boxed up, waiting for a new use. I found a way to use them again.

In the photo above, the canister at left (currently used for Bella’s food) is the only one left with an intact ring on the lid. To the right is a taller one as repaired. In the foreground is an unrepaired lid, plus the knob I used to repair the lid (at far left) and the underside of the broken ring pull next to it.

I decided to find a solution at all because the lids were well made: There were rubberised rings on top and below to protect the glass, and the flat washer-like think on top was separate from the ring pull.

So, I decided to buy some drawer pulls to replace the original rings (the broken-off rings were thrown away at the time, since welding them back on wasn’t something we could do ourselves, and I didn’t think it would last, anyway). I found some pulls I really liked, with bases big enough to replace the original base of the ring, BUT, they were plastic. Not a starter.

So, I bought some metal drawer pulls (pictured), and took out the original base of the old pull. The base of the pull sits in a little depression, which, at first, I didn’t like, but which I now think looks good.

I replaced the broken lid for the canister I had (canister on the right), which I used for Leo’s food. However, even after 18 months in this house, we still haven’t found all the canisters/lids. So, I still haven’t repaired them all, though I bought enough knobs to do so.

The thing is, once broken, the canisters were difficult to use, so we put them away. Repaired, they’re usable again, but we bought new canisters to replace them when most of them were broken. We’ve re-purposed a couple of the old ones so far, and I have a use for another. I have no doubt that once they’re all found and repaired, I can find uses for them all. I do still like them, after all.

But what do we call this? This is not “upcycling”, which is taking something old and worn out and giving it a new look, a new life and, quite possibly, an entirely new use. It’s not recycling, which means discarding them, and it’s not merely reusing them—though there is an element of that.

Basically, this is merely repairing them, replacing worn/irreparable parts rather than literally repairing them. We have no trendy name for that—how about “Repaircycle”? Or maybe, “Uprepair”? Sometimes these days it seems that the only way to get people interested in time-tested solutions—as, in this case, repairing something so it can be used again—is to give it a trendy name. I don’t know what to call this, but I certainly wish more people did it.

Meanwhile, I have a set of old canisters I still like that are functional for the first time in years, and that’s a good thing. They cost me very little to fix, and, since I still like them, it’s money well spent.

But, how do we make something old-school like repairing things we already own trendy again?

Weekend Diversion: Current favourite commercials

I love advertising, TV commercials in particular. That’s obvious—and why I have a tag called “Advertising” so that other fans can find those posts. At any given moment there are ads that are may favourites for any number of reasons: Because they work, because they’re well made, because they break new ground—the list is endless. These are my current favourite TV ads.

The ad up top is from Vodafone, which is running a series of ads promoting “the future according to…”. The reason I like that ad so much is that I also absolutely loathe corporate speak and its related jargon. When I first saw the ad, I thought it was as it seemed, then the joke is revealed at the end. Anything that takes the piss out of insufferably pompous corporate jargon warms the cockles of my heart.

The other newest ad in the series is cute, as the previous ones are, too:



An ad for Australian underwear sold in New Zealand was revived because it’s timely (and I first saw it recently):



This ad is one of a series for Tradie Underwear (which is apparently a good product, though I don’t know). They all have similar humour, but this one has a scene at the end in which Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins, a former Australian rugby player who is now a media personality, holds a big trophy. This is funny because it looks an awful lot like the Bledisloe Cup, a rugby trophy awarded to the winner of a rugby test series between New Zealand and Australia that’s been held every year since 1932. New Zealand has won it a bit more often than Australia has, and has held the cup since 2003, and won it again yesterday night. That’s fifteen long years that Australia hasn’t seen the trophy in its hands, hence the joke.

This ad from last year was meant to be faux arty, but it also has the same sort of humour that the other ads in the series have had for years:



How about American ads? Even on the other side of the world I see American TV ads, and my current favourite is a series of ads for some company called “esurance” that feature Dennis Quaid. This was the first one I saw:


What I like about the ad is its easy-going humour, its self-mockery in particular. It makes fun of the fact that nearly all ads use actors by using bland names for some of the people in the ad, and calls out the clichés also used in ads. And, Dennis Quaid really is likable.

Here’s the long version, which is slightly different:



And that's this week's distraction from things that matter. And, I should add, I have not been paid anything by anyone to share these commercials. Of course.

John McCain: The last ‘good’ Republican

US Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

We all knew that US Senator John McCain was nearing the end of his life, but it’s still sad that it has now arrived, and he has died. As a (very) Liberal Democrat in US politics (and Centre-Left in general), I often disagreed with Senator McCain, so I never considered voting for him in 2008. However, I never—ever—had any reason to doubt his patriotism, or question his commitment to the security of the US, or his devotion to the rule of law and bipartisan politics. His integrity was clear to see, even when I deeply disagreed with him.

Because of that, John McCain was what I call “the last good Republican,” a politician I could disagree with passionately and still respect, and also know him to be a good man, even when he frustrated me. There are few in the US Congress about whom anything remotely similar could be said.

There were times I was harshly critical of him, such as during the 2008 campaign and many times afterward when he did or said something I strongly objected to, especially his opposition to repeal of the infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban of LGBT people serving in the US military. In recent years I was particularly frustrated by him, and frequently wondered aloud where the old McCain had gone.

But there were also times I praised him, like for his concession speech in 2008, which was gracious. I also noted that if that John McCain had been the candidate, things might have been different. The most recent time was just last month when he condemned the performance and Putin-worship the current occupant of the White House displayed in Helsinki.

I think the biggest single mistake he made was in selecting “Caribou Barbie”, the former half-term governor of Alaska, as his running mate in 2008. That unleashed the Republican Party’s growing Idiocracy onto the nation, something that’s only gotten worse in the decade since then.

What all this means is that John McCain was no saint, but no politician is. I disagreed with him far more than I ever agreed with him, but I did agree a few times. Maybe he would have been better and done better if not for his disease.

The Left and the Right both criticised him for their own ideological reasons, and I’m well aware of what they said over the years. I agreed with one side or the other a few times over the years, at least in part, and put aside their politically motivated over-simplifications.

So, I’m no fan of McCain, but neither was I an intractable enemy. He was unlike any other Republican currently serving in the US Congress because of his devotion to the rule of law, the US Constitution, and to bipartisanship, all of which modern Republican politicians reject. Above all, whether I agreed with him or not, I believe he did try to put the country first, not his party, and not his own financial interests. If only Republican politicians could be at least a little bit like that.

In September last year, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked him how he’d like to be remembered. He said: “He served his country. And not always right. Made a lot of mistakes. Made a lot of errors. But served his country. And, I hope, we could add, honorably.” That’s the perfect eulogy. I just wish more US politicians of both parties could be seen the same way.

Dark news and being honest

Today was one of those days when the news story tells what’s happening, without telling us what’s happening. The report was that Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) had decided to end cancer treatments. We all knew what that meant: His life is nearing its end, the same way we knew that Aretha Franklin’s was ending when the news reported on her decline. Why can’t the newsmedia just be honest with us, rather than turning it into an unspoken virtual deathwatch?

The Associated Press was brutally honest: “McCain stops cancer treatment as remarkable life nears end”, the second sentence of which notes that “It’s a likely indication that the war hero, presidential nominee and longtime leading lawmaker is nearing the end of his life.” Of course it is—we all know that. But for some weird reason no American TV report I saw said as much.

I think that honesty is almost always best. It’s why I always say “died” instead of euphemisms (“passed”, “passed on”, “passed away”, etc, etc, etc). Death is inevitable for all of us, and I cannot see what benefit any of us get from pretending that’s not the case.

Some think that being vague is somehow “comforting” to the family. Seriously?! Do they really think that the family doesn’t know what’s happening or that they’re in denial? And, to be blunt, what makes anyone so arrogant as to think that the family will even be watching every single news show at a time like that? I wouldn’t be, and I don’t know anyone who would.

The newsmedia’s weird squeamishness about speaking honestly is most likely to make themselves feel better, as if by avoiding the topic of the nearing death of someone famous they don’t need to look at how they have handled that person in life. Then, when they do die, they can completely ignore all that to engage is soft-focus remembrances of someone they may not have been kind to in life.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this is all about newsmedia outlets just being as weird about death as ordinary people can be. Maybe they don’t like being reminded of their own mortality. I can appreciate that because I don’t really want to be reminded, either. But death is inevitable, and I think we should face it openly and sincerely (bravery is entirely optional). When someone famous is entering their final journey, we should be honest about saying so.

When someone famous dies, beloved or despised, there will be plenty of time to talk about the totality of their life, though most newsmedia won’t do so—another lack of honesty (a topic in itself). So, we don’t need to get into the complexity of our reactions to people at a time like this.

What I think is this: Whenever a life ebbs away, it’s a sad thing for their family, friends and loved ones, and it’s okay to acknowledge that regardless of our personal feelings about the person. But it’s also important to acknowledge that the life is waning.

I was said to hear about Senator McCain, though in no way surprised. I hope that he and his loved ones have great quality time together before the end, and that his death is painless and as easy as possible for them all. Isn’t that what we’d all wish for ourselves—if we’re honest?

Weird politics downunder

Americans can be forgiven for thinking that they have the most f-ed up politics in the entire world, in part because, well, they do. But that doesn’t mean that other countries don’t have their own Bizarro World politics. In fact, both New Zealand and Australia have exactly that right now.

Last week, someone leaked to the media that New Zealand's Leader of the Opposition, the National Party’s Simon Bridges, had spend around $114,000 of taxpayers' money on a “getting to know me” roadshow around New Zealand between April and June. It was embarrassing to Bridges (who was criticised for having a trip to introduce himself, rather than to listen to people around the country…), and he demanded an inquiry. He asserted that the leak could not have come from the National Party caucus, which leaves the office the Speaker. A couple days later the Speaker announced an enquiry.

A lot of grandstanding, and an expense to taxpayers, but maybe not a big deal—UNTIL this week when things got seriously weird: “A person claiming to be the National Party leaker has sent an anonymous text to Opposition leader Simon Bridges pleading for the inquiry to be called off, RNZ has learned.” What made this weirder is that “The author of the text warned they suffered from mental health problems in the past and said being exposed publicly could push them over the edge and put their life at risk.”

The text was sent to both Bridges and Speaker Trevor Mallard, who at first ignored it. When it became public, Bridges at first reiterated that it could not be someone from National, and then protested when the Speaker cancelled the enquiry, the only rational thing to do: The leak clearly came from within National, as everyone knew all along, and Bridges grandstanding or denial notwithstanding, that fact has remained unchallenged ever since.

Chalk this up as yet another disastrous period for the Bridges. Prediction: He won’t last another year before he’s rolled.

As weird as all that was, Australia takes the crown for batshit craziness: They have yet another Prime Minister!

Yesterday, Scott Morrison, who had been Treasurer, was selected as Australia’s sixth Prime Minister in 11 years, and the fifth in five years. No Prime Minister has lasted a full term since Prime Minister John Howard’s rightwing government was defeated for re-election in 2007. Howard was Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister, being in office from 1996-2007. Australia has had nothing but revolving doors since 2007.

Morrison has an anti-LGBT+ record, though it was a toss-up whether he or runner up Peter Dutton was worse.

Both are also racists. A glimpse of Dutton’s nationalist arrogance can be seen in the report I shared last month, and was a hardliner demanding harsh treatment of New Zealanders. Morrison exploited the issue of asylum seekers during the Australian Labor Party governments, and once in government he was even harsher.

Morrison has spent a lot of time in New Zealand, and it is hoped that he will be much better than the pretty vile Dutton would have been. Maybe. The conservative New Zealand Herald editorialised that it’s time for Australia’s Liberal Party (which is the current party leading government) to become more liberal (lower case “L”). Sensible people agree: The troglodyte politics of Dutton and his mentor, the ex-Prime Minister and all around jerk, Tony Abbott, are WAY out of step with ordinary Australians. Australia will almost certainly face an early election, which, on current polling Labor should win. Maybe: Small and fringe parties are gaining ground.

In any case, it’s unlikely that either Morrison or Bridges will ever win an election. Morrison will be Prime Minister until the next election, but Bridges never will be. Both will be good results.

More bag changes

Things are changing quickly for the provision of plastic bags at supermarkets, with many grocery stores already ending free single-use plastic bags. But it turns our that ending those bags isn’t the only change, as an email I received this week explains. I’m intrigued by this change.

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about ordering groceries online for the first time in many years. I was surprised by the reusable bags my order was packed in, but I was surprised again a few days ago when I received this email from my delivery store (graphic above is from that email; I think it's cute):

We've got some good news! From Monday 3 September, single-use plastic carrier bags will be gone from checkouts and online shopping at Countdown Pukekohe South.

Shopping in-store? Remember to bring your own bag, box, basket, bucket or whatever from home. But if you forget don't worry-there'll be plenty of reusable bag options available in-store. It's all good.

Shopping online? Your online order will now be packed into paper bags. They're recyclable, can break down easily in marine environments and don't place any onus on the customer to clean and return a reusable bag, which is obviously difficult in an online shopping service.

It's one small step for Countdown Pukekohe South, and a large step toward our commitment to phasing out single-use plastic carrier bags at all Countdown supermarkets by the end of 2018! Together, we can do some good for our environment, so bring your bags and we'll see you soon.

There are several things to say about this, beginning with the fact that this is, I’m sure, a boilerplate email sent to customers of particular stores. What that means is that this is a common-enough thing now that they need a boilerplate email, and I’m really glad about that.

Second, Countdown—and, I’m sure, its competitors—are eliminating single use plastic bags well before the government will officially ban them. That’s awesome!

But the thing that stuck out for me was the part about online shopping: Paper bags?! I still remember when paper was all there was, then when store staff would ask, “paper or plastic?”, and then when plastic was the only choice. I’m well aware that making paper can cause its own problems, but the end of life part is FAR superior, and has far less impact on the environment, than any plastic bag.

But I also noted the part that said that paper bags “don't place any onus on the customer to clean and return a reusable bag, which is obviously difficult in an online shopping service.” That’s inarguably true, but I was also well aware that many folks in America would likely be a bit squeamish about the old system, presuming the bags were somehow “contaminated” by whoever used the bags last. I wasn’t, and it also never occurred to me that anyone would need to “clean… a reusable bag” because I can’t imagine getting one dirty. Still, the move to paper fixes all that.

Ironically, I’ve been thinking about the need for paper replacements for plastic bags at home. We use plastic bags (supposedly “compostable”) in our kitchen rubbish bin, and I know there were (too large) heavy duty paper rubbish bags available. I don’t know if they’re still sold, but if they are, they’re too big for our bin, which would be a waste.

I’ve also been thinking about cleaning out the cat box. Not to put too fine a point on it, some of what I clean out is rather moist, so if I use paper I’ll need to double bag (old skool again…). But the only ones I’ve ever seen at the grocery store were for lunches, and a bit small.

The larger point here is that if we’re gong to reduce our use of plastic bags outside of stores, we need to have replacement options. Sure, there are some for, say, produce bags in a grocery store (as I talked about in a post earlier this month), but the reality is that people will want bags to line their rubbish bins. I will, too, and so far I haven’t seen good options. Which means that will probably become a blog topic in the future.

So, I’m glad to see the moves by the grocery store I use, but we still have a long way to go to reduce our use of plastic bags beyond at stores. I’m confident we can get there, but we’re not there yet.

Rainy days in winter

This small area of our front lawn had been full of water off and on for the past few weeks, especially the past few days. Most of winter was relatively dry, but now, in the last month of it, the ground is more saturated than it was in the middle of winter last year. Walking on the lawn sounds like walking on a sponge. A dry Spring would be nice. #lifeinfranklindistrict #lifeinauckland #aucklandwinter2018

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Aug 21, 2018 at 10:37pm PDT

It’s been raining a lot lately, including pretty solidly over the past few days. The area in the photo above often has large puddles when we have heavy storms, but not usually this large. It also hasn’t completely dried up in days, constantly refilled by ever more rain. Sometimes it’s rained heavily, but most of it has been much milder, just a lot of it. I’m very over it.

It rains in much of New Zealand in the wintertime, especially in Auckland. Mid winter (July-ish) is usually the wettest, and it often dries out a bit in August, only for more rains to hit in Spring. So, it’s not unusual that it’s raining in winter, nor even that we’ve had heavy rain. But none of that makes it any more tolerable.

There are two problems I have with this. First, is it’s boring and tiring having grey, dreary days one after the other. But the bigger problem is that it’s interfering with work I have to do.

The ground is so saturated that, as I said in the caption, “Walking on the lawn sounds like walking on a sponge”. That—and the near constant rain—makes it unpleasant and also difficult to clean up the yard, which mainly means removing the weeds. But I also have some stuff from the garage to move out to the garden shed, and the path is really mucky. The near constant rain means that I have very little rain-free time to move things without them getting wet.

Still, this will pass. It always does. And in a few months I’ll be complaining about how hard, dry, and cracked the summer ground is. I may even complain—though this seems unlikely—that it’s too hot. And that will pass, too.

“Whether it rains, or whether it snows, we shall have weather, whether or no.” My mother learned that in school to teach them the “wh” sound that’s not even used anymore. But it’s true, isn’t it?

Still, I’d really like a nice, sunny day right about now. Eventually, I’ll even get one.

Internet Wading: August 2018 edition

This month’s Internet Wading collection of links is mostly serious topics. It happens.

Let’s get the politics out of the way first, shall we? Okay, let’s! First, Catherine Price tells us “How to Break Up with Donald Trump”, which isn’t necessary for most people, of course, but it’s actually for people who oppose the current regime. Short version: Walk away from the screen.

Cheap, often silly, shots sully political debate, and David Shariatmadari took on one: “'Virtue-signalling' – the putdown that has passed its sell-by date”. Apparently it passed that date in 2016, when The Guardian published the piece, but it’s still true. And one of the most annoying of the slurs the rightwing loves so dearly. Yawn.

Meanwhile, a truly important Internet Rage, “'Elitist': angry book pirates hit back after author campaign sinks website”, which is about as dumb a reason for “outrage” as it sounds. I laughed at the Internet Outrager who fumed, “writers are the most pretentious pieces of shit I’ve ever seen. I’ll find another way to pirate your books assholes.” So, people expecting to be paid for their work makes them “pretentious pieces of shit” and "assholes", but refusing to pay someone for the work they’ve done does not. Okay, then.

Get away from the keyboard! Because “Good Things Happen in Book Stores”. Well, duh! But don’t stay too long or you may buy too much and have a new problem: “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them”. I actually heard about that quite some time ago. And, no, I do NOT have that problem, no siree!! [quietly hides piles of unread books…]

There are REAL problems in this world, of course, including one that people are ridiculed over constantly. But, it turns out that gluten intolerance is “Not just a fad: the surprising, gut-wrenching truth about gluten”. This was actually a fascinating new (to me) look at a problem that people in my life have been affected by.

Combining tech issues and culture, “Japan's Emperor Is Stepping Down Soon, Which Could Cause Major Headaches for Computer Calendars”. This isn’t a problem in the West, but it did remind me of the “Y2K bug” that wasn’t, but this apparently really is a problem.

History! “How One Woman Brought the 'Mother's Curse' to Canada” talks about the filles du roi in 17th Century French Canada, and so, one of humans’ best understood genetic mutations.

“Sulphur, Sicilians, and the Exodus to the USA” tells us about sulphur mining in Sicily, men who eventually migrated to the USA. I never knew that sulphur mining was done naked. Actually, I never knew anything about sulphur mining. Or that any mining was done naked. So, it was a new information gold—sorry, sulphur—mine.

Going back even farther, “Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans?” In this article on The Atlantic, Adam Frank takes “A look at the available evidence”. The article tells us about how speculation can help us understand the cycles of civilisation.

And, there has to be at least one non-serious thing: “5 Stupid Things You Won't Believe Have Been Around Forever”. This is actually more interesting than the click-baity title would suggest.

And finally, Roger Green wrote recently about old posts that keep getting read long after they’re published, and he said of the post: “It’s sort of like drunk tweeting, only in a longer form. And without the alcohol, but WITH sleep deprivation.” That could probably explain most blogging, to be honest. In that post, Roger also talks about how he keeps track of ideas for blog posts, something I talked about at the end of my July Internet Wading post. And, as it happens, this is my 31st post for August, so my goal for this month has now been met. Yay, me!

And that’s another month done. Happy Wading!