Wednesday

Road Side America

John Margolies’ Photographs of Roadside America

Labor Day

From StoneKettle Station: Labor day 2019

"The simple truth of the matter is nowadays we Americans live a pretty damned good life.  And we live that good life because since 1919 we’ve put systems and laws and regulations in place to improve life for all of us.  Programs like Social Security and Medicare have a direct and measurable effect on how long we live, and how well. Regulations governing working conditions and workplace safety have a direct and measurable effect on the probability that we’ll survive to retirement.  Laws that prevent the rich from owning a whole town, or abusing workers, or turning them into indentured servants, or hiring children at pauper’s wages to maintain the machines in their bare feet, have directly benefitted all but the most greedy few. 

And those systems were put in place because Labor fought for them, sometimes, often, at the cost of their very lives."

Data Visualization

Interpreting uncertainty through data visualizations

Media - Fox

From the WP "We don’t work for you’: Fox News’s Neil Cavuto rebukes Trump for slamming network" - Yep, Trump doesn't realize,..  he works for Fox. Fox and far right media have been spreading their brand of conservative crazy for years. Trump just went along for the ride and became the temporary leader. They don't really need him, there are other cult leaders waiting in the wings.


Media - Fox #2

Lots in world news today, a hurricane heading our way, another big shooting, American allies the Saudis and UAE bombing prison in Yemen, Israel setting fire to Lebanese territory, US Bombing Syria, Brexit, Hong Kong, but only the hurricane is Fox-worthy

Libertarian - AIE Crap

Libertarians are the very best at pushing out articles/thoughts that pick one small slice of a policy or argument and hammer it to fit the entire world. These two are good examples.


The Myth of American Middle-Class Stagnation - This is picture perfect libertarian crap. Yep, what the article claims may be correct though he may have cherry picked a few items, we don't really know. Even if it is a good representative sample, it ignores a hell of a lot of pretty important stuff the affect the working class.

More workers today on on their own for medical, retirement and education costs which have all have all exploded in cost since 1973. State, local, sales and other hidden taxes that hit the lower and middle class more have increased since we've cut taxes on the wealthy at the Federal level. How has full / part time work changed? What about temporary workers? Energy costs? Fuel and vehicle costs? How have public services changed? There's a lot of stuff out the that affect the working class and one smug post from a libertarian about Sears catalog crap is not meaningful in any way.


The Anatomy of a Moral Panic - This is more projection. I agree it exists but they get "Liberal" in the first line so you know which group to hammer on. Still, I think the top few groups this would apply to are Fox News, Conservative Media, Rs in Congress, and White Christian Muricans.

"These include but are not limited to the following: reporting rumor, anecdote, hearsay, and accusation as though they are facts; making quantitative claims without specific figures to support them or with figures that turn out to be false or misleading; media reporting that what other outlets are saying is the entire story; a particular kind of rhetoric and use of certain tropes (such as medical metaphors or apocalyptic imagery and language); having the same incident or story recycled; claims of the existence of a conspiracy without any actual people being named; moralistic language aimed at an unpopular or identifiable minority group. Conversely, if you find calm, serious argument and figures that can actually be supported, then you should take the argument seriously even if it turns out to be wrong."