Techdirt: Tennessee Senate Votes To Ban Chemtrails Because What Even The Fuck.

… Carl Sagan’s warnings echo in my ears over this. You’d think there’d be one legislator who’s a pilot, one who knows how to do a basic weight-and-balance on an aircraft and prove this ridiculous ‘chemtrails’ theory completely idiotic.

Check 10Tanker, our firefighting DC-10 out of Albuquerque. Full load of water lasts thirteen seconds … WITH NO PASSENGERS AND NO BAGGAGE.

As Bugs Bunny (Tennessee legislator childiotic IQ, though that’s an insult to ol’ Bugs) would say, “What a bunch of maroons.”

NPR: 'How to Win an Information War' details fighting with — and against — propaganda.

“It's about allowing people to do what they wanted to do in the first place, you know. It's not really about - you know, it's not about changing people's minds. It's about finding the thing that they really want to do - in this case, surrender - and give them an excuse to do it.

Important read, people!

Mocking Biden's stutter.

You’ve seen it. Many have commented upon it. Some are pointing to the young man Biden singled out of a crowd, once upon a time, to give support to. As a contrast.

As a stutterer in my youth, and an occasional sufferer as an adult, I can tell you that boy has more guts, more intelligence than 100 Trumps. As a child, every day was like standing in front of an audience, public speaking. That kind of pressure. Every time I was required to speak. Being in school, the unpredictable nature of being called upon by the instructor was terrifying. Every day. Every goddamned day. I, like other young stutterers, built a thesaurus in my head … dozens of words to rely on, in case my primary word choice froze my tongue to lead. But to be called upon … start to respond, have the tongue freeze, your body go stiff in anxiety … knowing the only way out is through, mind racing for salient alternative words as fast as neurons can fire … can you all understand the fortitude and intelligence these situations require of a stutterer? The snickers of classmates, the bullies taking notes for their taunts during lunchtime, the knowledge of the judgments taking place … all these thoughts, these terrible realities also standing between the blockage and any shred of fluency?

And then to have a Presidential candidate mock someone with this malady, as if they are unintelligent or unworthy!

Dead to me. Already was, but hundredfold. Cue John Dutton of “Yellowstone” about cowards.

Want a job done, and done well? Hire a stutterer. Need a good friend? Find a stutterer. We’re different. We know the value of empathy. We thrive in difficult circumstances because we’ve had to self-calm, self-soothe since early childhood. We tend to be ‘cool’ under stress. Probably why I thrived in live broadcast productions.

Many will not understand our ways, but be assured … if you need us, we’ll be there. If you let us. All we require is a smidgen of patience sometimes.

If you know of a child who stutters, give them a hug. Listen to them without interruption. Do not correct or give them 'helpful advice'. Let them know they are as worthy as any other child, without judgment.

It is not in correction that fluency lies. It is in safety, security.

Fifteen minutes of linkfinding.

ReadWriteWeb: Apple iMac could be set to try out touchscreen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. After I use my iPad, it drives me crazy when I try poking my laptop or desktop’s screen.

Paris Review: Backyard Bird Diary. Always wanted to create one of these kinds of diaries. Been a long time since I’ve sketched. I should buy some colored pencils.

Capital+Main: Power of the Pulpit: How Conservative Congregations Scale the Church-State Wall to Political Victory. Listen to what Bible scholar Dan McLellan says about this.

AppleInsider: Neil Young tries excusing his return to Spotify by saying Apple Music is now as bad. Water-drop torture is the same, no matter the brand.

PVC: Podcast playback: immersive reading + italics on website-desktop & mobile. I know there are rules for use of italics; I use them when they make the most sense for emphasis. Keeping their ‘power’ is paramount.

Vox: Biden is not “waging war” on American energy. He’s boosting it. Yet OPEC still has its heavy hand on prices. Seen that recent $0.30/gallon price increase?

DP Review: Nikon Z9 gets firmware v5.0 with portrait processing options and feature refinements. A Z8 or Z9 is on my dream wishlist.

SciAm: How the Solar Eclipse will impact electricity supplies. Paywall keeps me out. If you’ve got a subscription, enjoy.

CNet: Do You Need a Screen for a Projector? As an A/V professional, I can tell you that you’ll be blown away by the quality of a good projection screen. The materials have advanced so very far. Contrast and color are exponentially better than they were just a decade ago.

Zeldman: Open-source moderation.

If America today is equivalent to Germany in 1933 ...

Can we just cut to 1945 and avoid the twelve years of horrific death and terrifying destruction? Just get on with making our lives better?

Perhaps this is a childish request. I feel someone has to express it. I’ll drop my ego to save lives.

“The successful psychopath pleases the crowds and wins elections.”
— James Hillman.

TechDirt: When Viral Advocacy Fails: TikTok’s Call Flood To Congress Backfires.

Whoops. “It appears that TikTok may have taken the wrong lesson from all that and assumed that simply flooding Congress with calls is an effective strategy. It can be, but you have to equip callers with a basic understanding of what it is that they’re calling for and why. And maybe it doesn’t make sense to do it on a bill built off the (mostly false) belief that your app is controlling the minds of gullible American voters.”

Nuance about Biden and the SOTU.

The most important aspect of Biden’s run is the refutation of neoliberalism. No President has worked harder to return us to good sense since the 70’s. Even 60’s.

If you look at the impact of Reaganism, 1980 to today, you can see how we are firmly entrenched in a Gilded Age oligarchy. The middle class has been stagnant for decades, while the uber-rich enjoy godlike benefits. Media outlets are largely owned by six megacorporations … you won’t hear the most important issues, because they don’t want you to. Having Orange Jesus meet with Elon Musk to try to negotiate a loan to pay his legal issues, shows how dangerous oligarchic rule is. Money should not insulate one from accountability, nor should our democracy be prey to the whims of a vanishingly small percentage of citizens. And supply-side voodoo economics has never paid for itself. Ever.

So, reeducate yourself on the true effects of neoliberalism. It’s the unspoken battle behind this election.