75 thoughts on “Coping with ASMR”

  1. Opinion (On the endless loop of “To impeach or not to impeach”
    Impeaching Trump Is Risky. So Is Refusing To.
    Altname
    Nancy Pelosi’s case against impeachment is growing incoherent.

    Yet even as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are calling for an impeachment inquiry, Pelosi insists that the time has not yet come for such a serious step. The “House Democratic caucus is not on a path to impeachment,” she told reporters on Thursday.

    This position is increasingly incoherent. If Trump’s outrageous misdeeds are visible for all to see — and they are — you don’t need further investigation to justify beginning an inquiry into whether impeachment is justified. Pelosi has suggested that impeachment will distract from the affirmative Democratic agenda, but the Republican-controlled Senate is no more going to pass progressive legislation than it will vote to remove Trump. And now the president has ruled out action on bipartisan initiatives like infrastructure investment, essentially refusing to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities whether he’s impeached or not.

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    Permalink (behind paywall)

  2. @Anonymous: @CatChew – I was surprised and a bit dismayed Al’s podcast didn’t get wider mention. Leave it to internet sleuth JP to keep us up to date.

    I just found John Nichol’s new podcast, NextLeft from The Nation and put it in my regular rotation as I have Preet Bharara’s “Stay Tuned“. Preet’s podcast was so good I subscribed to his pay-for podcast Cafe Insider where he really deep dives with Anne Milgram and who is addictive in her own right.


  5. The new case for impeachment
    Altname

    Some House Democrats are convinced that they’d have better luck getting testimony and documents if they launch an impeachment inquiry against President Trump — which is why they’ve been pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so hard.

    Reality check: It’s not like the Trump administration would suddenly drop its fight against Congress and dump a bunch of documents in Pelosi’s arms. The big difference between an impeachment inquiry and a regular investigation, legal experts say, is that Congress might have a stronger hand in the courts to get some of the information it wants.

    Read the rest of the argument to impeach…


  6. Amazon workers demand Bezos act on climate crisis
    Altname
    At a shareholder meeting Wednesday, the CEO refused to address workers urging the company to overhaul its climate policy

    Amazon’s chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, refused to address employees demanding the company take action on the climate crisis at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

    About 50 members of the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice attended the event, representing 7,700 staffers who signed a letter publicly urging Amazon to overhaul its climate policy. Employees put forth a proposal at the meeting requesting a public report on climate change from Amazon’s board of directors. The board suggested shareholders vote against it, and it was not passed.

    After the proposal failed to pass, employees attempted to confront Bezos, who declined to meet with them.

    From books to bullets: inside Amazon’s push to ‘defend’ America
    Read more

    “Jeff remained off-stage, ignored the employees and would not speak to them,” the group said in a statement after the event. “Jeff’s inaction and lack of meaningful response underscore his dismissal of the climate crisis and spoke volumes about how Amazon’s board continues to de-prioritize addressing Amazon’s role in the climate emergency.”

    Read whole article

  7. Opinion
    Trump’s Bridges to Nowhere
    Altname
    Just don’t mention the “I-word” around the White House.

    By now, we’re used to being weirded out by Donald Trump. But the latest meltdown was something special. And it started with … infrastructure. Who knew?

    Stage 1: Trump and the congressional Democratic leaders come to a remarkably easy agreement on a plan to repair roads and bridges, extend broadband service to rural communities and do other basic stuff almost everybody likes.

    Stage 2: Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are at the White House Wednesday, waiting for the president to arrive and discuss a plan to raise the money.

    Stage 3: Kaboom.

    Read whole article (pdf)

    Permalink (behind paywall)


  9. 1 big thing: Democrats’ 100-year flood
    Altname
    2020 voter turnout could be the highest in a century, based on Democrats’ enthusiasm in the midterms and the big, early 2020 field,

    Forget conventional wisdom when it comes to the 2020 election. The strongest voting block will not be young voters or even women. No, it will be older voters (which of course includes more women than men) who are the most reliable to show up to vote and are at their maximum turnout.

    Click the link to read the whole story in the Axios AM newsletter.

    Read whole article


  10. Facial recognition will soon be everywhere. Are we prepared?
    Altname
    Some companies are already testing this new technology, but it raises questions about how surveillance can be abused

    Imagine this: you walk into work and the camera above the doors scans your face, opening them seamlessly without you lifting a finger. You sit down at your computer and it instantly unlocks. Oh, but you need to run to the pharmacist at lunch. You walk up to a camera, and your prescription is deposited in front of you. You go home from work, a camera blinks, and your door unlocks as your hand touches the handle. You look at your face in the mirror, and it tells you to moisturize. It’s going to be a hot day tomorrow, so it recommends you wear sun-cream. It’ll even order it for you (next-day delivery from Amazon of course). Sounds pretty good right?

    Office worker launches UK’s first police facial recognition legal action
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    Now imagine this: you walk down the street and a pair of policemen stare at you. Their body cameras flash red and they instantly pull their guns and tell you to drop to the ground, you’re under arrest. You comply and after several days in jail, they let you know you were misidentified as a violent criminal on the loose due to the 1.3% margin of error. Regardless of your innocence, you’re in the system. Now wherever you go, cameras that capture you will automatically increase the “danger score” of the area and alert police to watch out for you. Even worse, as you enter stores, the facial recognition system lets the staff know a recently arrested individual has entered the building. They stare suspiciously at you now. Doesn’t sound so good? Facial recognition already has these problems with people of color.

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  11. @Jmach1P: Thanks for the first good news I’ve heard in a long while! I’ ve been hoping he’d start podcasting, his voice is needed more than ever. The times are ripe for him to inject his reasoned voice into the body politic. Al has always been a center leaning liberal and that is exactly what these times call for. I hope he has many of the same guests he used to have on AAR. Wonder if he’ll have his former sidekick on with him, Katherine Lanpher.

    Gonna be feeling nostalgic all day.

    Thanks JP!

  13. Another failure of a conservative national government to prevent starving the working/middle class to satisfy its crony corporate capitalist overlords
    In modern Britain, hunger has become normal. That is an outrage
    Altname
    The UK is a rich country, but food poverty is now a daily reality for many families. This is not inevitable

    That the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty, along with researchers from a global human rights organisation, had to come to my home city, one of the most affluent in the world, is a source of profound shame. Now the UK government has been accused of breaching its international duty to keep people from hunger by pursuing “cruel and harmful policies” with no regard for the impact on children living in poverty.

    Human Rights Watch’s researchers have been examining food poverty in Hull, Cambridge and Oxford, where I’m a councillor in a ward where hunger is affecting increasing numbers of children and families, as it is across the country.

    The report is a damming indictment of the state of Britain, this government and its cruel and devastating austerity programme. That hunger is a daily lived reality for increasing numbers of children and adults, in one of the richest countries in the world should be a badge of shame and a call to take urgent action. Horrifyingly though, it feels as if hunger and poverty, like homelessness, are becoming daily more normalised as the welfare state is decimated by the government.

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