Happy New Year!
As the headline says, our next meeting is coming up:
Date: Thursday, January 5
Time: 5:15 PM
Place: IBEW Hall, 813 W. 12th Street, Juneau
In the meantime, here are some thought-provoking reads from this week’s internet that I thought my fellow Southeast Democrats might find interesting, even if we don’t necessarily agree with them. And since life includes more than politics, I added a few oddball non-political items for fun as well.
Political
The Way to Fight Fake News is Real News – A long read, but one that left me with real hope. From Monika Bauerlein at Mother Jones:
“At the Institute for Nonprofit News, you can find more than 120 organizations, from national shops like the criminal-justice-focused Marshall Project to tiny local newsrooms like NJ Spotlight, dedicated to building accountable reader-supported journalism across the nation.
“If that movement grows, it will end up building something many people said was not possible: durable news organizations with a wide audience, supported by their users and dedicated to honest, fearless reporting on power and the powerful.”
From Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast comes New Year’s Resolution for the Left: Make Sure ‘Multiculturalism’ Includes White People. On communicating effectively across cultural boundaries:
“Liberalism needs people who can talk about [liberal policies] the right way and in the right places. It also needs, desperately, to spread facts and smother anti-facts. The triumph of anti-facts—a presidential candidate who lied as naturally as he drew breath, the rise of fake news, the plain refusal of 30 or 40 percent of the population to believe true things—is a major crisis for democracy.”
Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone sees some worrisome parallels between the Russia hacks and Bush II’s “WMDs” in his article Something about this Russia story stinks:
“I have no problem believing that Vladimir Putin tried to influence the American election. He’s gangster-spook-scum of the lowest order and capable of anything. And Donald Trump, too, was swine enough during the campaign to publicly hope the Russians would disclose Hillary Clinton’s emails. So a lot of this is very believable.
“But we’ve been burned before in stories like this, to disastrous effect.”
A short, bracing piece from someone who has seen this before. In the Washington Post, Miklos Haraszti, writes:
“Hungary, my country, has in the past half-decade morphed from an exemplary post-Cold War democracy into a populist autocracy.”
Did you catch that “half-decade”? A lot can change in five years, folks.
Weird and wonderful
Sick and tired of politics? Here are a few neat things on the internet for you to enjoy if you wish!
One of these days I’m going to stop sewing everything by hand and join the 21st 20th 19th century by using my sewing machine. Here’s someone making an ugly clearance rack T-shirt into a cute one.
Ever been curious about using DNA to pursue genealogy? Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. answers a question about DNA testing of locks of hair.
A blog post from the Frugalwoods, some self-described “frugal weirdos” in Vermont: How We Recreate in Winter: The Gear, The Mindset, and the Baby Sled. Kind of long, but I enjoyed it. On using a game sled to pull their toddler along on winter hikes:
“I put a bunch of blankets in there, cozy Babywoods on down, and she loves it. The best part is that, at $50, it was a fraction of the price of traditional children’s towing sleds and massively cheaper than my ski stroller fantasy. Hey, I have no problem using a dead deer sled for my child.”
Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to stop back by for Nancy’s new Chair’s Corner next week or, if you want instant updates, just hit the Follow button and get an email whenever a new post comes out.
Until Thursday, be safe and well,
– Mary McRae
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