“Joining a Twitter mob seizing on a hapless middle manager or an out-of-touch English professor may feel like justice, but it’s just a cheap drip of dopamine lost in an ocean of social media profits.”
— Scott Galloway
Trucks Across…Manhattan?
Just checked the live feed from the George Washington Bridge, thinking to catch New York in the Ida-aftermath.
Seriously – there are more trucks heading across upper Manhattan and southern New England this morning than heading into the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, and that’s saying something.
One wonders: how much of this is to resupply New York, and how much of it is just plain catch-up or pre-weekend supplies?
One shudders to think of the carbon footprint of this bridge at this moment.
Texas Reconnaissance is on for October.
Planning on driving up I-20 with my windows open singing Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Yes, even through cattle country: I have never been fazed by the aroma of a stockyard.
PSA: I am not commenting on Afghanistan because I am insufficiently informed to do so. I’m also an historian by disposition, so I am certain that at this moment, most of the relevant facts remain unknown to those of us likely to comment publicly.
Give it time, folks. The truth will out.
Meantime, let’s not all jump into the National Blame Game Pro-Am Tournament just yet.
A New Day
Returning to this blog after over a year of neglect, I return to a very different world and a nation where the political spectrum has transformed.
Never has it been more important for the center to regain control of the American polity, and for our focus to turn toward bettering ourselves and providing for our own. Our job is not to remake the world in our image – it is to become once again that “shining city on the hill,” the standard by which others measure themselves.
You may note a change in tone and direction in this forum. I do not deny it. The past year has forced me (and, I am sure, others) through a political self-examination unlike any other I have experienced. I have come through that fire more convinced than ever of some of my core beliefs, and more cognizant than ever that some of my previously-held positions were informed more by ideology and opinion than the principles on which this nation was founded and by which I seek to live.
There are, for this reason, posts in the forum of which I am no longer proud, or which no longer jibe with my politics. I will leave them up, though, occasionally referring back to them when I feel an update is topical. Change is a natural part of growth, I think, and it is both intellectually and morally dishonest to eschew a readiness to learn, to reconsider, and, occasionally to modify or change one’s thinking.
If this nation is to have a future, we must all approach the future – and each other – with open minds and thoughtful dialogue.
So we have some work to do. Let us turn to it.
Boeing Stock Rises As $60 BIllion Aerospace Industry Bailout Still Eyed | Investor’s Business Daily
Boeing is seeking all $60 billion it requested for the aerospace industry despite saying the company didn’t need a bailout to survive. Boeing stock rose.
Source: Boeing Stock Rises As $60 BIllion Aerospace Industry Bailout Still Eyed | Investor’s Business Daily
It is difficult to overstate the key role Boeing plays in the economy and in the national defense, so I find it hard to begrudge the company its share of the Great COVID Corporate Welfare package. I will, at some point, sharpen my horns deliver some tough love to Boeing leadership for the criminal mismanagement that has plagued the company, but for now, a nod and a high-five.
And a thought.
Coming out of this pandemic, a wide swath of the population will now be accustomed to using virtual presence. People who might never have tried services like Microsoft Teams or Zoom before are now using them on a daily basis. Once you turn a tool into a habit, the habit brings an accompanying change of behavior. It is hard not to foresee companies cutting back on business travel, using the rising quality and falling cost of virtual presence as partial justification.
And let’s be honest – how many of us who engage in regular business travel will mourn? The prospect of spending long hours sealed in a pressurized aluminum tube filled with uncomfortable seats and untold germs, manned by indifferent crews and flown through increasingly turbulent skies (thank you, climate change), all dappled with the overhanging fears of terrorism cannot but fill one with unalloyed dread.
I could be wrong: air travel may not be the industrial equivalent of a 737-MAX on autopilot (sorry, I know, low blow.) But Boeing’s biggest customers must be staying awake nights wondering if they are going to run out of sky, or if they need to start changing the way they fly.
INSTEX: European Appeasement of Iran Threatens West | National Review
With respect to the threats posed by Iran, it is Trump who has shown surprising vision and Macron and the rest of the Europeans who seem to lack the brainpower to understand that their efforts are strengthening an enemy of the West.
- Jonathan Tobin
Source: INSTEX: European Appeasement of Iran Threatens West | National Review
Our Jonathan misses the point: Europe’s appeasement of Iran is wrong, but it does not justify Trump turning his back on NATO. Indeed, the President’s actions eliminate the prospect of the US having any significant influence on that issue for a long time to come.
My favorite Intersectional Term of the Day
Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists—or “Terfs,” as they style themselves—are right now sounding the alarms about transwomen (that is, women who used to be men and who in many cases still have male, um, attributes) claiming all sorts of traditionally feminist prerogatives. Unless you were born and raised as a female, the Terfs (reasonably, in my view) assert, you can’t really speak to the feminist experience.
Source: What Drag and Blackface Have in Common – Commentary
Identity politics may be divisive and may undermine democracy, but hey, they’re starting to be a lot more fun to watch!
I think Donald Trump would look outstanding in an orange jumpsuit.
Just sayin’…
Should a Black Woman or a White Billionaire be President?
The true test of the democratic (note the small “d”) process rests primarily on whether the candidates put forward are qualified for the offices they seek.
Any attempt to qualify or disqualify someone on grounds of identity or net worth undermines that process and is antithetical to democracy.
The Pacific Bull Moose 