A public record of some of my thoughts. Feel free to comment, but don't expect me to respond.
Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty On 5 Out Of 6 Charges
There are all kinds of weird ways to think about this case. The simplest is that Maxwell and Epstein were the bad guys, and their connections to other people aren’t that serious.
But, as I said, there are lots of other ways to spin it.
See Rogan Drops Major Jan 6th Truth Bomb. (It’s Joe Rogan, so language alert.)
Why hasn’t Ray Epps been arrested?
This is the kind of story that makes people wonder if they’re being played.
I haven’t looked into this myself, except at a very superficial level.
As much as we like to decry conspiracy theories, there are often weird, unexplained, under-reported details about stories, and those become the gateway to believing in conspiracies.
There has been reporting on Ray Epps. It’s still not clear to me why he hasn’t been called to testify, or held, or whatever. He was clearly one of the agitators.
I’m not endorsing any view here, but some things seem beyond question.
This story is almost too dumb to believe.
The most common type of case federal prosecutors bring is against illegal immigrants who try to reenter the country after having been ousted — and almost all of those charged are Hispanic.
Now federal courts are grappling with whether that imbalance means the law itself is racist.
Most of our illegal immigrants are Hispanic. It’s therefore likely that most of the illegal immigrants who try to reenter the country are also Hispanic. That’s not racism, that’s just the way the numbers work.
I recently heard a British historian make that claim, but it seems to me the French are doing better than a lot of the western world in opposing Wokeism. Not that it’s all rosy, of course. But there are some signs of hope.
See Where Wokism Is a Oui Bit Different, which includes this great quote.
A black actress is supposed to be anti-colonialist. But just as I’m not obliged as a black actress to play a cleaning lady or a prostitute, I’m also not obliged as a black person to be ‘anti-colonial.’
How dare she have her own opinions! Get back in your place!
I never thought I would say this, but maybe there’s a glimmer of hope coming from France, where their “most prominent public intellectuals have taken positions against” wokeism.
It’s still bad. There’s still a lot of idiot ideology in the schools. A lot of people are still more concerned about things that happened centuries ago (colonialism) and not about what’s happening right now. But it sounds as if the French might be fighting back better than we are.
On my Android phone, if I swipe to the left I get my news feed, which I must like because I read it almost every day. Generally speaking, it shows articles I’m interested in, but the ability to curate the list of stories isn’t as good as I’d like it to be.
For example, I never want to see another “I’m a ____, and this is what your ____ says about you.” (E.g., Bartender / drink, Barista / coffee order, Flight Attendant / carry on ….) I don’t know why Google ever got the idea that I care, but I can’t find the right switch to turn it off. It wants me to say I’m not interested in some broad topic (drinks, coffee, flying), or it wants me to block a website, and neither fit the need.
Also, while I am interested in Robert Plant, The Lord of the Rings, fitness, bourbon, etc., I don’t need a story on those topics every single day. There’s no “less of this” option, or “no, Google, I just happened to search on Myers Briggs the other day because I was curious, you don’t have to flood me with it.”
It’s hard to come up with a set of options that are right for everybody. They’re often too simple, or too complex, or require you to know “inside baseball” terms and concepts. But it seems like “less of this” should be pretty easy.