Yesterday, JL and Pam and I exchanged some emails with Mitch about his internet issues. His correspondence included “[I} believe that the situation is just that I did NOT do Mac updates for years, and my system is unable to adapt to changes elsewhere.” I can’t really argue with that …
Cartoon – 6 6Cartoon.jpg
Short Takes –
The 19th – Elizabeth Warren isn’t in the White House. But she knows how to use the tools she’s got.
Quote – It wasn’t big news outside of higher education and financial circles, but their departures could result in roughly 15 million borrowers having their loans transferred to other institutions. The thought is that at better-regulated lenders, borrowers will have a greater chance at paying down debt loads that disproportionately weigh down people of color. But, Warren said, the best solution would still be to cancel $50,000 in federal student debt per borrower.
Click through for more. One doesn’t have to be President to accomplish stuff. Thank God.
The New Yorker – Why Republicans Are Still Recounting Votes
Quote – A more subtle mind than Trump’s would see the futility of having a questionable firm undertake an unnecessary recount only to offer findings that are counter to his immediate interests. But the point of the exercise, and of others like it taking place across the country, is not so much to delegitimize the past election as it is to normalize specious reviews of future ones—including, perhaps, a 2024 race in which Trump’s name is on the ballot. We have seen too much of this form of mainstreaming of the absurd in recent years to note every example, but its origins likely lie in Trump’s fixation on Barack Obama’s birth certificate. In that case, once the birther myths were finally dispelled, Trump pivoted to congratulating himself for forcing people to get to the bottom of the issue. In effect, he recast a conspiracy theory as a legitimate inquiry resolved by legitimate means. The danger is the probability that some illegitimate future inquiry will be used to achieve illegitimate ends. The groundwork for this is more advanced than we care to contemplate.
Click through for more about why this is so important.
Los Angeles Times – Jan. 6 rioters exploited little-known Capitol weak spots: A handful of unreinforced windows
Quote – Those upgrades were part of a well-publicized, large-scale renovation to the exterior stone and ironwork of the Capitol and surrounding office buildings. But the security improvements were not widely disclosed at the time. Most of the Capitol was covered in scaffolding during the multiyear project, and much of the work took place at night. Funding to reinforce the windows came from a mix of classified and unclassified appropriations, which helped mask the scale and cost of the project.
Click through for story. It is possible to argue against it, but I personally feel, given all the other information we have, that this reinforces the idea that they had help from inside and that many inside had prior knowledge. The Times has a paywall, so if you want to be able to access it any time, “printing” it to a PDF or other file might be a good idea.
Food for Thought –
This is from the Wonkette newsletter from yesterday. The newsletter is put together by the CEO’s (Rebecca) husband who goes by “Shypixel”:
My best friend for many years was a quadriplegic man named Shane. One of the reasons we got along so well, according to Shane, was that I would call him on his shit, when nobody else would. Everyone was always so tender to him, even when he was being a raging asshole, because he was in a wheelchair. He hated it, hated the pity behind it. So let’s all honor Shane’s memory by calling Madison Cawthorn a raging asshole, loudly, to his stupid face.
– The Shypixel loves you all and wants you to be happy.
Lona – Pandora Papers: An unprecedented leak exposes the inner workings of a shadow economy (sequel to Panama Papers which was a sequel to Paradise Papers – it keeps getting more so.)
