January 25, 2017

"You said it all in those Womens March signs"

Joan Wickersham's column in the Boston Globe today:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/01/25/you-said-all-those-women-march-signs/8LkyVPCzwtfoa17s9fea9O/story.html

This is a good reference if you're stumped for a poster idea for the next march!

January 24, 2017

Trump's employment application revealed!

January 19, 2017

This choked me up more than anything else this week, for some reason.

Check out the transcript of the last official White House event of Barack Obama's presidency, Remarks by the President Honoring the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs this past Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.

As a life-long baseball fan (though not a Cubs fan particularly), I found this a deeply satisfying read. I especially appreciate Obama's remarks about what sports can mean to society, beyond the games themselves. "Sports has changed attitudes and culture in ways that seem subtle but that ultimately made us think differently about ourselves and who we were. It is a game and it is celebration, but there's a direct line between Jackie Robinson and me standing here. There's a direct line between people loving Ernie Banks, and then the city being able to come together and work together in one spirit."


Read the whole thing, though -- trust me, it's worth it. Theo Epstein did a pretty decent job, too, I might add.

Better read it quick, because soon all traces of decency, good sportsmanship, kindness, humor, grace, compassion, generosity, and equanimity will be scrubbed from the White House and presumably from the whitehouse.gov site.

January 6, 2017

FYI - "Protecting Yourself on Social Networks"

https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/protecting-yourself-social-networks

Also -- have you tried the steps described on Twitter's "Deactivating your account" page? I know next to nothing about Twitter, but this looks like it should work. I hope that's helpful.

I don't use my real identity online, although I am not a celebrity or even slightly well known -- so I have a luxury that government officials and public figures don't have.

Despite taking precautions, though, it would be all too easy for anyone to be -- for example -- tagged in a Facebook photo and then for their face to be linked to, say, a photo from a protest march, or a pic from a work-related or charity event, etc. And once a malefactor can determine your identity, they can find out all kinds of stuff about you via easily accessed public records. For example, if you're a home owner, your home address is a matter of public record in most places, and it's not hard to determine or at least deduce a lot about your financial status from property tax records, etc.

Even though it's not possible to achieve 100% privacy, I'm as careful about it as I can be, despite the low risk that I could piss off anybody who'd want to come after me (YET!).

The modern world can be a dangerous place, and in this neofascist moment we all have to be a lot more careful than we're accustomed to. At the same time, this moment demands that we take a stand and oppose the new regime where feasible, so it's a balancing act. We all have to think hard about juggling what's best for society and for the personal safety of ourselves and our families.

January 4, 2017

"This rule also applies to Independents who align themselves with Democrats"

&quot eg: Bernie Sanders)"

THANK YOU!

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