On Tuesday night, the Republican Presidential Candidates tried to murder me. They did this by having a debate on TV again. Usually this isn't particularly life-threatening, in and of itself. It can be if you consider the part where one of the participants actually becomes President and inevitably makes decisions that end up killing all sorts of people. But leaving that aside, the debates don't usually hurt people. This one did, though.
The details of just what happened are a little hazy even now. Here's what I think I heard. I remember Ben Carson telling us that
before 1913, everyone used to live in pyramids which is why we don't need a minimum wage anymore. And I think Marco Rubio said he wanted to send philosophy majors to metal shop reeducation camps, or something. This
represents a significant pay cut but is probably necessary so that we'll have enough people to work on Donald Trump's wall which, now, will stretch all the way
from Laredo to Jerusalem. Jeb wants to "re-think" pretty much the entire US economy. Rand Paul said he can balance the budget using a take a penny, leave a penny jar. And Ted Cruz wants to do it by shutting down
both of the Departments of Commerce. Carly said, "we just don't know.." about
a bunch of stuff that is actually easily looked up. But she does know "what's in the secret
sauce."
All of that is pretty much par for the course for these guys. At least, a seasoned veteran of these events should be able to swallow it without much difficulty. So.. and again.. this is where it gets foggy.. I think it was when the FOX Biz moderators told us to follow along by typing a hashtag into Facebook that my involuntary guffaw caused a large unchewed piece of General Tso chicken to get lodged in my esophagus.
Obviously, it's embarrassing for any adult to cope with something as simple as not having properly chewed his food. So it was only after another hour and a half of unsuccessful gulping and gagging that Menckles finally forced us to the emergency room. The debate was still happening so this might have been about the same time the candidates were agreeing that
affordable health care was ruining America. Anyway, it had to be done.
When this happens to a person, there are two steps to the ER treatment. First they try to relax you into swallowing with Glucagon and Valium. When that doesn't work, they wheel you upstairs and dislodge the obstruction by knocking you out and shoving a big long selfie stick down your gullet. And this is the story of how, because I started the night laughing at some Republicans but ended up having medical care literally rammed down my throat. Must be a lesson in there somewhere.
Anyway, there were drugs involved so the next 24 hours are a bit blurry to me. I did continue to use the internet during this time so there were links bookmarked. They don't present a pretty picture of what the world was like while I was away, though.
For instance,
here's a NOLA.com report on the family responsible for running the Bourbon Street strip clubs recently shut down by the State Police.
As a result of "Operation Trick or Treat," Hebert temporarily
suspended alcohol permits of nine establishments, including Lipstixxx,
Centerfolds and Scores. Those three clubs were cited with a combined 14
counts of prostitution, eight drug-related violations, and 10 counts of
lewd and improper acts, ATC said.
Temptations, another Olano club, was cited with three counts of
prostitution, one drug violation and two lewd acts, ATC said. One of the
citations for prostitution concerned an incident on Nov. 6, about a
week and a half after the initial violations were announced.
At an administrative hearing Monday (Nov. 9), the Olanos' attorney,
Carolyn Gill-Jefferson, said the clubs fired every employee named in the
investigation and proposed additional measures that would allow the
clubs to remain open. Those proposals included hiring an independent
security firm for each of the cited clubs, and reporting to ATC any
illegal activity the firms find. She said Centerfolds closed permanently
the same day its license was suspended, though a manager for the clubs
said that was a business decision.
Upon having been "shocked" to learn of the drugs and hookers being sold through their establishments, the owners fired a bunch of people. Who knows what happens to the newly unemployed. The Family will be ok, though. It's not the first time and after this timeout is over they'll get to keep using everybody this way. It's really no different from the way
the Brennans do business. Only the product is different.. slightly.
Here is Chris Christie saying that the (relatively mild) campus unrest in the news lately is happening because of "lawlessness" perpetuated by President Obama.
Christie was asked about protests against perceived racism at the
University of Missouri and Yale University, and he blamed President
Barack Obama for encouraging students to undermine civic order.
“I think part of this is a product of the president’s own
unwillingness and inability to bring people together,” Christie said at a
campaign event in Iowa.
“When people think justice is not applied evenly and fairly, they
take matters into their own hands,” Christie said. “The lawlessness that
the president has allowed to exist in this country just absolutely
strips people of hope. Our administration would stand for the idea that
justice is not just a word, but it’s a way of life. Laws will be applied
evenly, fairly, and without bias to everyone.”
The GOP candidate earlier in the day blamed the Black Lives Matter
movement for what he and other conservatives say is a growing trend of
anti-police violence — although violence against police is at a 45-year low.
Whichever Republican becomes the nominee is going to run heavily on white resentment against the Black Lives Matter movement. Christie lays it on a little more heavily than some of the other candidates do. But regardless of the candidate, "law and order" is going to be a key message.
Here is
a Barbie doll that spies on your kids.
Using Hello Barbie involves recording voice data (see the privacy policy here)
and requires parental consent. However, Mattel states that "parents and
guardians are in control of their child's data and can manage this data
through the ToyTalk account." The company also states that the
recordings are protected under the "Children's Online Privacy Protection
Act," and recordings containing personal information will be deleted
once they "become aware of it."
Still, the potential for misuse of
this private data is a legitimate concern. "Obviously it is a security
and privacy nightmare," said Roman Yampolskiy, director of the
Cybersecurity Lab at the University of Louisville. "[The] company [is]
collecting data from kids—hackers [could be] getting access to private
info."
However, like Turkle, Yampolskiy is "more concerned about social development of the children interacting with it."
"We
are basically running an experiment on our kids and have no idea if it
will make them socially awkward, incapable of understanding body
language, tone of voice and properly empathize with others," he said.
Meanwhile
we're also running a similar experiment on everybody.
Everybody knows
Facebook is creepy. Nonetheless, all this time it never occurred to me
to delete my account until it began doing this: Trying to act like a
person. Pretending we are on a first-name basis.
We
often imagine the inevitable future tech dystopia will be cold,
populations marching under the eye of sterile robot overlords, our
speech monitored and scrubbed of sentiment and intonation.
Increasingly,
though, it seems like we’re hurtling toward the opposite: A singularity
of
smarm, where performative — maybe even excessive — intimacy is the order of the day.
It's not just that "smarm" and affected intimacy is everywhere and annoying, it's becoming something of a professional prerequisite.
Pretending at
closeness is really the only way forward for anyone who wants to make
money on the internet. As such, watch as organizations pretend, with
increasing intensity, that they are individuals. Start counting how many
times platforms, services and websites entreat you in human voices,
with awkward humor, for money. Watch as the things we expect to be
invisible, utilitarian, start oozing emojis and winky-smileys. Even
Silicon Valley, global epicenter of whitewashed empathy voids and
1-percenter sci-fi wank fantasies, is going to pretend it cares about
you. Especially Silicon Valley. Ugh.
Your inbox is going to fill up with requests for professional favors from strangers who tell you they love
you. They are not remotely your peers, but they’ll expect you to work
for them anyway for exposure, for credit, for kudos, for ‘the
community’. They add emojis for effect, too. Your feelings are now
professional currency.
Remember that mass freak-out last week when Twitter changed "stars" to "hearts"? That's just another expression of this brand of language pollution. It's a result of our allowing the
relentless "positivity" of corporate branding to infiltrate both our personal space to a frightening degree, but also to corrupt our civic spaces which, on the internet,
are becoming fewer and more isolated.
As well as providing an online space for socialising and discussion,
Twitter plays an important role in the working lives of many –
particularly journalists. Its ubiquity makes it a valuable space to find
sources, get story ideas and break news. In fact, many news
publications regularly publish stories consisting entirely of Tweets.
Activists and campaigners have used Twitter to bring important issues
into the public sphere and force them to be taken seriously by both the
media and politicians. #BlackLivesMatter is a powerful example of a
Twitter hashtag that transformed into a movement for civil rights and
racial justice.
Trying to revert this apparatus into a “regular” social media
network, with all the gimmicks and shovelware that comes with that,
fails to acknowledge that Twitter just can’t make money from its core
purpose. That should be proof enough that casual social interaction and
its ability to shape news and current affairs are anathema to the desire
for profit.
The internet is a powerful communications tool. But as it becomes tailored more and more finely to serve commerce, it becomes less and less useful to the preservation of democracy. Somebody should do something about that. No one will.
Let's see.. what else happened...
Oh yes well we're still trying to make a Governor.
It's gonna cost a lot of money to do that.
Contributions are pouring into Democrat John Bel Edwards campaign for governor.
Edwards reported raising more than $750,000 between Sunday and Monday.
The contributions are detailed in a 31-page “special report” filed with state campaign finance offices.
You can see Edwards's dramatic boost in fundraising post-primary
represented graphically here. Still,
Vitter did get the LABI endorsement. (Surprising, only in that LABI officially made one at all.) He's also still pulling in
that sweet, sweet, sinkhole money.
On the day of the Oct. 24 primary, five companies that share an
address with Houston-based Texas Brine gave $25,000 to Republican David
Vitter’s campaign for governor.
None of the donations came directly from Texas Brine, the company
widely blamed for the 31-acre Bayou Corne sinkhole, but all are
affiliated with the company that has been fighting a class action
lawsuit in Assumption Parish.
According to this UNO Poll,
Edwards looks like he's in pretty good shape over all. But that result is probably overstated. There's a week left to play and we're still not sure who the "likely voters" really are in this one. Meanwhile, you can still early vote until Saturday.
Here's a look at how the early voting had been going as of yesterday.
And I think that brings us more or less up to date. How is your week going so far?
