When the history books come to talk about World War III, they’ll start the discussion with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022; possibly with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The full invasion was really just a follow-up to invading…
Hugo Voting 2: Election Interference Gets Real
So, now we have a real example of election administrators rigging an election. And it’s the 2023 Hugo Awards. I’ve mentioned the Hugo Awards voting system before, because there’s a lot to like in how they’re set up. As the…
Prosecuting Former Presidents: Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time
So, Trump thinks it’s not possible to be President without breaking the law? He may very well be correct. Bush took the country into a war under false pretenses, and Obama certainly broke the law forbidding assassinations. Trump broke that…
Getting Real: Artificial Intelligence Is Not The Problem
Let’s put aside for the moment whether the current crop of trainable software that’s causing all the furor is actually “Artificial Intelligence”, much less whether it even works reliably at all. (It isn’t, and it doesn’t.) It makes no sense…
You Should Read This: In These Times, Losing the Plot
In These Times is doing a feature issue on “The Right-Wing”, and the essay about former leftists moving rightward (Losing the Plot: The “Leftists” Who Turn Right) is getting a lot of traction. Fair enough; it’s quite good and you…
Freedom & Consent: There Are No Legitimate States
Countries like to claim that they are constituted “with the consent of” their populations. This is generally nonsense. While many countries today have constitutions that were adopted by referendum within living memory, few of them were adopted recently enough that…
America Is Not Palestine: Josh Barro Is Wrong About A Thing
I don’t think I’ve heard of Josh Barro before, though I probably have. But he made it into Wonkette’s tabs post this morning, so here we are. His post-to-which-they-linked is not entirely wrong, as most things aren’t, but it does…
That’s Entertainment: Things To Do At Home When You’re On Strike
WGA and SAG-AFTRA are on strike together now, which cuts off two of the most important parts of the entertainment industry’s supply chain. When a big strike happened 20-some years ago we ended up with reality TV. So, that’s not…
You Should Read This: Your Stuff Is Actually Worse Now
From a few months ago by Vox’ Izzie Ramirez, you should read Your stuff is actually worse now. If you’ve been wondering why the same make/model of thing you’ve been buying for years keeps not being quite the same each…
That’s Me In The Corner: Privileging My Religion
Well, not me; I don’t have a religion. But a lot of people do. And a lot of them think that means they should get special consideration from the law. They shouldn’t. Today’s example: California bill would allow Sikh motorcyclists…