August 3, 2023

A new threat to democracy has emerged in Georgia

https://twitter.com/typo_cat/status/1686793700180144128?s=20

July 28, 2023

Jerseygirl sums up how I feel about Trump

https://twitter.com/gggirl924/status/1684881632891990017?s=20

July 14, 2023

Next up to have her family receive death threats: Fani Willis

https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1679897381670727690?s=20

June 22, 2023

Why They Fear Adam Schiff

Liberal Librarian:

By the time Mr. Schiff was done with Special Counsel John Durham, he had him admitting that the whole basis of his sham investigation was, well, a sham.

Mr. Schiff was the most lethal Democrat bringing forth Donald Trump's first impeachment. He fileted his "defense", such as it was. This exchange between Messrs. Schiff and Durham show him severing Mr. Durham's head from his neck without him ever noticing it.

Read the rest here: https://establishmentbar.blogspot.com/2023/06/thursday-open-thread-why-they-fear-adam.html

June 10, 2023

Trump: "I'll never leave"

https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1667657499820937217?s=20

May 10, 2023

SCROTUS wants to legalize AR15s in all 50 states

https://twitter.com/fred_guttenberg/status/1656119230155091968?s=20

The Supreme Court could hand down a decision any day now in National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville, a case that could legalize assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in all 50 states.

The case challenges a Naperville, Illinois, ordinance and a similar Illinois state law, both of which ban assault weapons, which the state law defines to include certain semiautomatic rifles such as AR-15s and AK-47s. Additionally, the state law prohibits the sale of a “large capacity ammunition feeding device,” which the statute defines as long gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, or handgun magazines that hold more than 15 bullets.

The plaintiffs, which include a gun shop owner and a gun rights group, claim the two statutes violate the Second Amendment.

Should the Supreme Court accept that argument and overturn these laws, it would have sweeping implications for the entire country. That decision would need to be followed throughout the entire nation — which would most likely mean that neither any state nor the US Congress could ban assault rifles or high-capacity magazines.

And there is good reason to fear that this Court could, at the very least, decide to make semiautomatic assault rifles legal throughout the United States. In 2011, a federal appeals court upheld the District of Columbia’s ban on assault weapons — over the dissent of an up-and-coming right-wing judge named Brett Kavanaugh.

May 10, 2023

The Corruption of Lindsey Graham

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1655917790765645825?s=20

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1655918624182288384?s=20

April 17, 2023

GOP states targeting diversity, equity efforts in higher ed

https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1647965636973166599?s=20

Frustrated by college diversity initiatives he says are “fomenting radical and toxic divisions,” Texas state Rep. Carl Tepper set out to put an end to diversity, equity and inclusion offices in higher education.

The freshman Republican lawmaker filed a bill to ban such offices. Three months later, he filed a new version of the legislation doing the same thing. The difference? Tepper switched the wording to align with a new model bill developed by the Manhattan Institute and Goldwater Institute, a pair of conservative think tanks based in New York and Arizona, respectively.

Republican lawmakers in at least a dozen states have proposed more than 30 bills this year targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, an Associated Press analysis found using the bill-tracking software Plural. The measures have become the latest flashpoint in a cultural battle involving race, ethnicity and gender that has been amplified by prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, potential rivals for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

March 25, 2023

I loss my sense of taste on Thursday

Has anyone else experienced this? On Wednesday, I went out to lunch at a restaurant with my cousin. The next morning, I couldn't taste anything. I still can't taste anything. I can smell, but I can't taste. I took a home covid test. It was negative.

I just don't know what it could be.

February 17, 2023

Liberal Librarian: The Rush Towards an Unknown Future

It seems like for some time now, the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from the purview of science fiction novels and magazines to imminent reality. For years attempts at creating functioning AI systems always seemed to come up short. But with the creation of ChatGPT, the floodgates have opened. Both Google and Microsoft are fully into the AI sweepstakes.

Needless to say, among some, this is the harbinger of the Singularity, where humans and machines will become some new, wonderful species. Now, while you all know I'm a technophile, I also read deeply. Our greatest science fiction writers have warned of the perils of relying on technology in place of human agency, from Frank Herbert in Dune—the historical event which generated the universe depicted in the novel was the Butlerian Jihad, a bloody galactic war against machines which had enslaved humanity—to films like Wargames and The Terminator. Fascination with technology's promise has resided uneasily with fear of its perils.

Read more here: https://establishmentbar.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-mad-rush-into-unknown-future.html