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Inside William Barr’s Breakup With Trump
Jonathan D. Karl, writing for The Atlantic, has an article about William Barr and his refusal to go along with the big lie — that Donald Trump won the election.
Barr also looked into allegations that voting machines across the country were rigged to switch Trump votes to Biden votes. He received two briefings from cybersecurity experts at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. “We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit,” Barr told me, noting that even if the machines somehow changed the count, it would show up when they were recounted by hand. “It’s a counting machine, and they save everything that was counted. So you just reconcile the two. There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I’m still not aware of any discrepancy.”
I don’t have an ounce of sympathy for Barr. He made his bed.
The Alston Case
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that the NCAA’s restrictions on paid educational benefits violate antitrust law.
Directly, this ruling will have only moderate impact as it only affects payments tied to an educational benefit (say, the school providing athletes with a laptop, or paid internships.) The bigger impact came from the decisions, where even the conservative wing of the Court took the NCAA to task — Gorsuch outright called the amateurism rules “horizontal price fixing in a market where the defendants exercise monopoly control”, while Kavanaugh noted that the NCAA’s model would be clearly illegal in any other industry in the US.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. My simple guess is the “Olympic” sports like swimming, diving, gymnastics, wrestling, and the like will gone. Hope I’m wrong.
How Roku used the Netflix playbook to beat bigger players and rule streaming video
Alex Sherman, writing for CNBC, has a great story regarding Anthony Wood, the founder and CEO of Roku and how he had his finger pressed firmly on the pulse of television viewers and the future of TV. The best line is right here:
Wood also noted that Roku’s relatively unchanging user interface and simple remote control have appealed to customers because users want simplicity.
“Many companies just don’t really understand the attitude people have when they’re watching TV,” said Wood. “People want to sit there, drink their beer, and watch TV.”
Incredibly inciteful and, in my opinion, super obvious.
Will Leitch’s Annual Father’s Day Story
Will Leitch has been posting this piece every Father’s Day since 2003. It isn’t the best thing he’s written, but it is one of the ones that I identify with most. Here’s a taste.
Until the age of 18, all I ever did was play baseball, and this time of year fills me with both wonder and deep regret. Save for occasional wiffleball games in the park, my ball-playing days are over. I think back to Little League often. More than I should.
There was one coach, in particular, who current overbearing kids’ league coaches would be wise to emulate. I played for many, many teams and even more coaches, even people being paid simply to coach, and no one ever came close to the guy who coached our V.F.W. team in the Jaycee League, ages 8–10.
Go read the rest.
No Lockdowns Anymore
As COVID-19 statistics improve thanks to vaccination efforts, Ariana Grande, Marissa Jaret Winokur and James Corden celebrate the end of mass lockdowns in this “Good Morning Baltimore” parody from “Hairspray.”
I don’t watch his show unless it’s a video like this. I do think James Corden is brilliantly talented and I love these little musical segments when he does them.
This is good.
Mondays
Nicholas Bate is trying to get me to like Mondays.
Are merely a date, a bolder punctuation point, a shift, an association.
Mondays no longer affect your mood; you are bigger, bolder and more Zen than that.
In fact you love Mondays.
It isn’t working.
KISS in Battery Park
At the A&E KISSTORY World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival KISS performed a short set.
It wasn’t perfect. It was rock and roll. Paul’s voice live just isn’t what it used to be but watch that recent awful Vince Neil performance and you’ll appreciate what’s happening here.
The Fundamental Question of the Pandemic is Shifting
Ed Yong, writing in The Atlantic, does not have good things to say about “rugged individualism” and deadly viruses.
From its founding, the United States has cultivated a national mythos around the capacity of individuals to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, ostensibly by their own merits. This particular strain of individualism, which valorizes independence and prizes personal freedom, transcends administrations. It has also repeatedly hamstrung America’s pandemic response. It explains why the U.S. focused so intensely on preserving its hospital capacity instead of on measures that would have saved people from even needing a hospital. It explains why so many Americans refused to act for the collective good, whether by masking up or isolating themselves. And it explains why the CDC, despite being the nation’s top public-health agency, issued guidelines that focused on the freedoms that vaccinated people might enjoy. The move signaled to people with the newfound privilege of immunity that they were liberated from the pandemic’s collective problem. It also hinted to those who were still vulnerable that their challenges are now theirs alone and, worse still, that their lingering risk was somehow their fault. (“If you’re not vaccinated, that, again, is taking your responsibility for your own health into your own hands,” Walensky said.)
These people never learn the lesson. They will never value others over themselves. COVID doesn’t care. I would love to help these people, but I’m sure they are beyond reason.
Homemade Disneyland Star Tours Attraction
Dad Of The Year recreates Disneyland Star Tours attraction in the garage for daughter’s birthday. The finished outcome is mind-blowing.
Classic Music Mashup
Musician Grant Woolard composed a brilliant classical music mashup in 2016 that featured 57 Popular Songs by 33 Composers, followed by part II in 2017 which featured 52 Popular Songs by 31 Different Composers and again with part III in 2019 featuring 70 different songs by a variety of composers.
Woolard has now released part IV of his mashup series which also features 70 classical songs in a marvelous musical opus that equals and even exceeds his previous work. Included in part IV is music by Haydn, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Sousa, Schubert, Gershwin, Bach, and many more.
You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre
Tom Hanks, writing for The New York Times, thinks everyone should know more about the Tusla Race Massacre.
Until recently, the Tulsa Race Massacre was not seen in movies and TV shows. Thanks to several projects currently streaming, like “Watchmen” and “Lovecraft Country,” this is no longer the case.
I am almost ashamed to admit that I had not heard of this event until I saw it on the Watchmen TV series.
Have you ever changed your mind?
I like to think I have an open mind. I also like to think if I read something that fundamentally challenged my point of view on a topic, I would seriously consider it. Honestly, I’m not so sure.
My belief system and understanding of the world is from a place of privilege. I get that. I have a distinct POV that is not other people’s experience. Presented with an essay, a manifesto, or a persuasive argument against my core beliefs, I’m pretty sure I’d dismiss it.
I could be wrong. I could be right. However, I would love to experience something like that though. Something so profound and mind-blowing that I would switch my position or a core belief.
The best example I have is how I felt after watching several videos from Emmanuel Acho. His Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man series did open my eyes to a plethora of blindspots I had and some I’m sure I continually unintentionally express.
Have you ever read anything online or watched a video that made you change your mind about something?
Welcome to the Internet
Bo Burnam has a Netflix special out. This song is unreal
“Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime” This is fantastic.
Delusional Thinking
Recently, Maggie Haberman, reporting for The New York Times, said Donald Trump believes he will be reinstated as President of the United States in August. This sounds utterly ridiculous, and I attributed it to right-wing news sources and others trying to keep “the big lie” in the news cycle.
Apparently, it’s true.
The story by Haberman has been confirmed by Charles Cooke of The National Review.
I can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be “reinstated” to office this summer after “audits” of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed. I can attest, too, that Trump is trying hard to recruit journalists, politicians, and other influential figures to promulgate this belief — not as a fundraising tool or an infantile bit of trolling or a trial balloon, but as a fact.
Let me be clear: this is not fact and not going to happen. This is delusional thinking.
First, there is no do-over. It’s done. Trump is not coming in to take over sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Biden will remain President until his term is ended, he resigns, or, heaven forbid, he dies in office. Even then, Trump doesn’t get to be President again. Kamala Harris assumes the office. Also, Biden isn’t resigning from the Presidency any time soon, and Harris would be the benefactor again anyway, not Trump.
That is not how America works, how America has ever worked, or how America can ever work. American politicians do not lose their reelection races only to be reinstalled later on, as might the second-place horse in a race whose winner was disqualified. The idea is otherworldly and obscene.
Can someone please take the orange man yelling at the clouds to his bed? He obviously needs his meds.
Helpful Reminders
Nicholas Bate with a couple of helpful reminders
Remembering the past need not dictate the future. Your genes are just one factor in your health. Educational qualifications are not good indicators of earnings. Love is a verb. You manage your destiny, not your corporate personal development plan.
U.F.O.’s Don’t Impress Me
Adam Frank, who is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, writes a few thoughts on the uptick in UFOs in The New York Times.
There are also common-sense objections. If we are being frequently visited by aliens, why don’t they just land on the White House lawn and announce themselves? There is a recurring narrative, perhaps best exemplified by the TV show The X-Files, that these creatures have some mysterious reason to remain hidden from us. But if the mission of these aliens calls for stealth, they seem surprisingly incompetent. You would think that creatures technologically capable of traversing the mind-boggling distances between the stars would also know how to turn off their high beams at night and to elude our primitive infrared cameras.
The line “turn off their high beams” is genius. It’s just common sense and the fact that there are so many people willing to think these things are aliens is mind-blowing. Then again, common sense isn’t so common.
Kintsugi
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.
There are many days I see myself as a broken piece of pottery. Cracked dreams. Things are broken. It hurts. It should.
However, sometimes the broken things do come back stronger. The world was broken for a while. I think it might be coming back a little stronger and a little wiser. I don’t know. I hope so.
The broken things can be repaired. Perhaps, the world will find a better, more unshakable foundation.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
When It’s Critical to Have a Plan
Adam Chitwood, writing for Collider, has an article that has Star Wars fans in an uproar. Chitwood simply asked if the last Star Wars trilogy would have benefitted from having a plan from the very beginning?
“I’ve been involved in a number of projects that have been — in most cases, series — that have ideas that begin the thing where you feel like you know where it’s gonna go, and sometimes it’s an actor who comes in, other times it’s a relationship that as-written doesn’t quite work, and things that you think are gonna just be so well-received just crash and burn and other things that you think like, ‘Oh that’s a small moment’ or ‘That’s a one-episode character’ suddenly become a hugely important part of the story. I feel like what I’ve learned as a lesson a few times now, and it’s something that especially in this pandemic year working with writers [has become clear], the lesson is that you have to plan things as best you can, and you always need to be able to respond to the unexpected. And the unexpected can come in all sorts of forms, and I do think that there’s nothing more important than knowing where you’re going.”You just never really know, but having a plan I have learned — in some cases the hard way — is the most critical thing, because otherwise you don’t know what you’re setting up. You don’t know what to emphasize. Because if you don’t know the inevitable of the story, you’re just as good as your last sequence or effect or joke or whatever, but you want to be leading to something inevitable.”
Um, no shit?
I know exactly who to blame for this, and I’m flabbergasted this person is still in the employ of Lucasfilm/Disney. Abrams did his level best, but the lack of overall direction for the three films showcases why not having a proper vision and visionary at the helm hurts the films creatively. There is a lot of good stuff going on in the films, and they are cast really, really well. However, they could have been so much better.
I believe Disney has recognized the error and corrected it with who they’ve named as the new Executive Creative Director.
Write it Down
Have you ever had a good idea, and you say to yourself, “That’s good. I’ll remember it.”
What happens next? You forget it, right. The solution is simple. Write. It. Down.
Find a scrap of paper and a pen or open your notes app on your phone and write it down. Whatever the kernel of an idea you have… write it down without thinking any more about it. Now is not the time to try and figure out what to do with it. Now is the time to get it out of your head and into a place where you can then figure out what to do with it.
Get it out of your head and write it down. Use a pen and your hand. Use the proverbial napkin. I don’t recommend using one’s own blood, but to each their own. Then put it in an idea folder.
In Notion, I have a page that is a list of my ideas. It’s where they live. I go back and look at it occasionally. It is vitally important to review and see if something else is sparked by the act of looking at old ideas. It happens all the time.
The more often you do, the better something will spark. Something will catch your eye, and you won’t be able to let go of the idea.
What should you do? Write. It. Down.
Faith vs. Facts vs. Fear
[Patrick Rhone](a href=“https://www.patrickrhone.net/faith-vs-facts-vs-fear/) wrote something on facts, faith, and fear that I fundamentally think is pure and utter bullshit. It is agreeable bullshit. It is well-written bullshit. However, it is absolute and total bullshit nonetheless.
I will refute it thusly.
You can’t fight faith with facts. Faith will always win. Despite your evidence. Regardless of your proof. Faith will beat facts every time.
You can’t argue with the faithful by using facts. However, in the end, facts and evidence do win. Reality always wins.
Facts are impersonal. We can’t control them. They don’t easily change. When they do change it makes us question them further.
When facts change, it is because more knowledge has been found. You don’t like change, so when facts change, you get scared.
Faith is personal. Faith can grow and evolve. Faith can roll with the changes. We rarely question our faith.
Faith can evolve and roll with the changes but is rarely questioned? That makes no sense, and you know it. Faith never changes… that’s why it’s called faith.
It’s hard-wired into us; this need to believe. Why? Because faith is better at fighting fear. And, far too often the facts are frightening. The facts are the very thing that is the source of the fear. Therefore, faith is used to to fight that fear.
I follow the logic, but it’s stupid. Do you know what stops fear? More knowledge, experience, and diversity. Yes, facts are frightening. Reality isn’t perfect.
Example: The fact is that we are all going to die. All available facts say that’s it. The end. There is nothing more. That’s frightening.
Yes. The unknown is frightening but making up stories to make one feel better is a waste of time and energy.
Faith tells us it can’t be true. There is everlasting life or reincarnation or a spirit world or… Something more. That gives us solace and peace. That soothes our fear. No amount of facts will fight that fear the way faith does.
Why does this soothe your fear? Do you now want to die? No? Because children’s stories about life after death don’t change a damn thing. You say it gives you peace, but you are in no hurry to die, so it really doesn’t. It’s just something you say.
There is only one way that facts can win over faith: One must have faith in the facts without fear.
“Faith in facts?” Facts are facts. They are true whether you believe them or not. Reality is reality. You can try to live in a bubble and ignore reality and you might even succeed for a while, but reality doesn’t give a shit about your unreality. I don’t need to gaslight myself. Why should anyone else?
One must be convinced that the truth is worth having faith in, no matter how frightening. That believing in the truth will best equip them to navigate the world as it is — not as one wishes it to be. That facts are the only thing one can solidly hang their hat on. And that some faith is OK too, if it’s not hurting anyone. If it helps one sleep better at night or approach the unknown with courage. But, faith is not fact and isn’t intended to be. That there is, and needs to be, a place for both.
I like where you are going here, but the faith part is a middle manager that needs to be fired. Just get rid of it. Truth is the best way to navigate the world. You don’t need to have faith in it. Just understand that it is true. Faith is ok if it’s not hurting anyone… but faith hurts people every day. There are millions of people fighting and arguing over which imaginary supreme being is the “bestest one evahh.” Facts and truth are the only way to live. Faith is an imaginary construct to “help one sleep better” like a baby. I’m not a baby.
The world would be immediately better if all faith were washed away and replaced with facts, the truth, and reality. We might actually get some real progress made on a whole host of things.
By the by, I think Patrick is smart, funny, a wonderful husband and father, and someone I wish I knew personally. I just think he’s off here.