Did the internet somehow break while I was away? Did something change in the past 30 or so years since the internet went mainstream? Because there are a couple of weird undercurrents happening right now, in earnest, with great urgency, that seem to suggest that maybe something changed about the internet that really needs fixing. First, for some reason, laws requiring age identification are sweeping not just around the US, but globally. Why now? Well, at least in the US, the Supreme Court changed its mind and said it’s okay now. Sure, fine, whatever, they’ve been doing...
Continue reading...Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated
We’re not dead, I promise! Some of us just went on vacation and have spent the last week trying to catch up on what’s been happening on the internet. Wouldn’t want to be redundant or duplicative, you know? Luckily, it seems nothing of note has happened in the past few weeks. Certainly not Trump firing the stats person at Labor because Trump doesn’t like stats, or Trump moving around nukes because of something a nobody said, or, well, you get the picture. Nothing of note happened while we were gone because we were not around to note...
Continue reading...What even is the law now
You’re watching a soccer game: It’s USA versus Germany, World Cup knockout round. It’s early in the match, about 13 or so minutes in, and Germany are awarded a corner kick. Pretty normal stuff. Well, there’s some tussling and janking around in the box, a pretty normal big mess. But the referee blows his whistle—normal enough, and then the stadium announces that VAR is going to take a look. VAR, or Video Assistant Referee, is the name of a technology and procedure for looking at contested calls on the field. In a box, several referees look over...
Continue reading...RCV when
Well thank goodness DC may have ranked choice voting in 2026 because this is absurd. Expelled former DC council member Trayon White wins his seat back despite 70.55% of the albeit small electorate voting against him (probably on account of the crimes). You may think being a criminal would be a problem for people running for election, but that’s just not the case anymore, if it ever was. I mean at least he’s not an adjudicated sexual abuser who was found guilty of a ton of felonies and is no longer allowed to run a foundation in...
Continue reading...Trump take trophy
From the annals of You Can’t Make This Shit Up: President Trump has revealed that the champions of the Club World Cup won’t be getting the original trophy, because he’s keeping it. English club Chelsea easily dispatched France’s Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the tournament in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sunday, with Trump joining the players for the trophy lift—much to their confusion. It has since been revealed that the intricate prize hoisted aloft by the London club’s captain, Reece James, was a replica because the president of football’s governing body, FIFA, has let Trump use...
Continue reading...On the media (not the NPR show)
We all have our issues with the news media. There are just too many to name, count, or even describe generally. It’s a mess out there, whether it’s corporate power, two-siding every issue, hell, even just describing facts. So, I will limit this post to just one issue: I am simply begging the news media to stop covering voters and start covering elected officials. Barely a day goes by without some story popping around where either a Trump voter says why they voted for Trump (you know, to educate the libs), or somebody who is very hurt...
Continue reading...Making America More and Less American, for 249 years.
I’ve always felt lucky to be an American, and still very much do. It’s harder this July 4th though, to be proud when our rights and notion of equality are intentionally violated. So called “police,” acting at the direction of our government without warrants, just arresting people on vibes, including U.S. Citizens like Adrian Martinez, Andrea Velez, Jose Hermosillo, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, Jensy Machado. Doesn’t matter if you show ID, either due to their incompetence or arrogance, you can be put in jail with no lawyer. Last week a group of men in masks, street clothes, tactical...
Continue reading...It’s what they always wanted
The Big Beautiful Bankrupt Barbaric Baffling Bullshit Bill: What the hell else is there to say about it that hasn’t already been said millions of times all over the print and online media. Let’s recap: So why the hell are these people trying so hard to pass a bill that sucks ass and will basically mean their eviction from office? You’d probably answer with something like “fealty to Trump” or “afraid of losing the primary” and I guess there’s a certain way you would be correct. But, that’s not the primary reason. The primary reason is: Because...
Continue reading...Samuel Alito saw a picture book he didn’t like
Among a torrent of Supreme Court decisions today came one involving a picture book. Well, that’s a little reductive, but also not really. The case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, centered on if a school had to give parents an opportunity to protect their children from such dangerous things as picture books involving LGBT+ themes on the off chance it inhibited the parents’ rights to practice their religion. Without getting too far into the weeds with regards to the facts of the case, the case involved several families in Montgomery County, Maryland, who argued that the local schools adding...
Continue reading...Energy blogging
We’re currently living through two trends that are quickly converging with force. First, the electrification of the energy system: a long-running focus of environmentalists, who know that there is no way to combat climate change without changing things that run on fossil fuels to work off the electric grid. Sure, the electric grid currently is pretty dirty, but it’s long been far cleaner than burning straight fossil fuels, and the electric grid has the capability to get cleaner. So, we have things like cars, stoves, hot water heaters, furnaces, etc., joining the electric grid in massive numbers....
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