The New York Times finds that our President "Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father." Yes, it's good to have it all laid out here -- particularly his utter dependence on his father's largesse, that's some self-made man there! -- but if you recall Tha Man Himself taking 9.11-related small business tax breaks for buildings of his that weren't even damaged on 9.11, we're not exactly in Whoda Thunk It territory here. (By the way, it's not a good look for our President's lawyer to say these allegations are all false and my client had nothing to do with any of these transactions in damn near the same breath.)
Are you of the mind that the robots will not, in fact, "take our jobs" except at corporations no one should work at anyway? Astra Taylor at Logic instructs us about "The Automation Charade," which threatens workers with obsolescence if they demand better pay and conditions -- and devalues the housework mainly done by women. Technology doesn't actually get rid of jobs very effectively -- at McDonald's, the order-taking kiosks change worker duties more than they "replace workers" -- and all too often technology merely creates more work. Also, I've been wrong to demand that social media corporations stop relying so much on "algorithms" to screen content -- I should have been saying social media corporations should stop paying content screeners in dung pellets. I mean, their CEOs are billionaires, so they can afford to pay real money.
So here's what to say when your Tea Party uncle repeats Judge Kavanaugh's contention that he's had all these FBI background checks already and none of them caught any of these allegations: Trevor Aaronson at The Intercept reveals that FBI background checks tend to be fairly limited in scope to begin with. You probably already suspected this, if you were scratching your head trying to figure out what enterprising FBI agent would ever have thought to ask Mr. Kavanaugh if he'd tried to rape someone in high school, but it's also good to be reminded that such background checks focus on a potential employee's professional behavior. Also, too, without subpoena power, FBI agents can compel approximately no testimony from witnesses even if they know what questions to ask.
From the "Ain't Nothing So Bad Our President Can't Make It Worse" file: our President, at a Mississippi rally, says "it's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of." Well, I will say that it is a very scary time for young men who are, for the first time, confronting the fact that they are assholes and that there may one day be a price to pay for being an asshole. That sound you're hearing is the world's tiniest violin.
Finally, Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell fame writes an article excoriating both the New Jersey Turnpike and attempts to glorify it as the epitome of a civilization building itself up. If you've ever smelled the Elizabeth oil refineries as you approached Exit 13, you might find such glorification bizarre, and after you read about the infamous "House of Butterflies" and the "botanical trench-war" of "invasive plants out-invading each other" going on behind a veil of "tranquil greenery," you'll find it more bizarre. But I must confess that I, too, have sentimentalized the Turnpike's world-churning persona (I claim youthful indiscretion), and I regret it now. And "the rut left by civilization marching onward, over and over" is a great line of prose.
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