Obsidian Wings archive

by liberal japonicus A piece from Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall that is behind their paywall, but this paragraph gives a taste As the QAnon phenomenon becomes more central to critical political and public safety questions, I realize we need a new vocabulary to describe this and similar phenomena. Q is not a “conspiracy … Read more

by liberal japonicus Before I had some health problems that made travel difficult, I was in Myanmar doing some teacher workshops. I also had a very dear colleague, an economics professor from Myanmar, who also put me in touch with people. He passed away in January, and I believe it was from COVID as the … Read more

by liberal japonicus Not a lot of love for my link dump, but I’m sure this will produce some interesting observations Box seat: scientists solve the mystery of why wombats have cube-shaped poo Alternate titles to replace Box Seat: No cutting corners Are we square? Shit squared A square deal Feel free to add your … Read more

by liberal japonicus Sorry the links are just grabbing stuff, but the things I am thinking about now are -What does Gamestock mean? -how did we know about Greene’s FB videos before she got elected? And wtf does this say? –AstraZeneca and the EU –forced monkey labor -too many links to list, but conspiracy, conspiracy, … Read more

by russell finance is not my usual beat.  as I mentioned to friends recently, I am at best two steps ahead of the old-time geezers who fill jelly jars with cash and bury them out in the backyard.   But some co-worker brought this to my attention and it seemed interesting.  The tl;dr here is: Gamestop … Read more

by liberal japonicus Since it seems that the Carter Page foolishness has been banished, at least for a short period of time, we might want a new post and perhaps this link with all the executive orders signed by Biden might do the trick. The CNN list explains if the order is a reversal or … Read more

by wj Open Thread. Because we all want to turn the page.

by russell In memory of the great Martin Luther King, Jr, who countered hate with love, lies with truth, and madness with deep sanity.  a semi-jazz-free joint, dig it if you dig it. share your own if you like. Lucky Peterson Nina Simone Donny Hathaway Gregory Porter Sam Cooke Aretha Ain't gonna get better than … Read more

by liberal japonicus A slender reed on which to balance an OP, but I’ve been seeing articles like this popping up. It seems logical, but I’m wondering if impeachment isn’t going to keep minds and anger focussed. I don’t know about you, but any task dealt with after Biden is inaugurated would be super charged … Read more

by liberal japonicus Given the median age around these parts, I post this article as a public service. Since Twitter and Facebook banned Donald Trump and began “purging” QAnon conspiracists, a segment of the chattering class has been making all sorts of wild proclamations about this “precedent-setting” event. As such, I thought I’d set the … Read more

by liberal japonicus Seems like a good time to toss out a fresh sheet of paper, even if it is the same topic. We’ve been running thru the questions in the category ‘Terrorism or not’, I know that labels can obstruct and enhance understanding and the reason those labels can do that is that they … Read more

by wj Mine, and yours as well, I suspect. We can devote the comments on Tuesday to speculation (in my case, mostly uninformed speculation) on the outcome of the Senate races. And on Wednesday, or maybe later, we can focus on what actually happened. Once we know. For inspiration: the man himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DFhuE_XeT8

by liberal japonicus Man, I thought that year was never going to leave! Locking the door so it doesn’t come back in. ‘oh, I forgot my phone’. Yeah, right… In Japan, the dream you have on the first night of the new year, if it has Mt. Fuji, a hawk and an eggplant, means you … Read more

by russell A couple of things I've stumbled across recently online. Kevin Drum on the (D)'s problems with working class voters. Betty Rivard, social worker in WV, on the (D)'s problems with working class voters. [ed.link corrected (I think), thx Charles WT lj] IMO the critical challenge for (D)'s over the next four years is going … Read more

by wj I see that the U.K. and the E.U. have finally reached a deal on Brexit.* From this side of the pond, it looks like Brexit ends up being all about image and minimally about substance. Consider. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says: “We’ve taken back control of our laws and our destiny. We’ve … Read more

by wj Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating it. A belated Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating that. And a Happy New Year to all. (I’d say 2020 would be an easy act to follow, but I’m afraid that might be tempting fate.)

by wj There have been a number of analyses of the 2020 election which comment on the fact that pre-election analyses tended to treat Latino voters as a group. When, in fact, there are a large number of groups there, with quite different world-views, experiences, etc. You’ve got descendants of Cubans who fled Fidel Castro. … Read more

by wj We’re starting to see what some of the implementation challenges will be when we start to roll out the covid-19 vaccines. Some are pretty obvious. Others far less so, but no less important. First up: priorities – who gets the vaccine first? ICU doctors and nurses, obviously. But do other doctors and nurses … Read more

by liberal japonicus This article about the challenges that Biden will face in rebuilding in intelligence community makes me realize that the 4 years of sore orange loser baby has set up a conflict, which is rebuilding all this is going to probably be a battleground. If Biden draws too heavily on the infrastructure which … Read more

by liberal japonicus This popped up, be sure to check out the youtube video in the article Bloody Sunday massacre at Croke Park still resonates in Irish sport 100 years later

by liberal japonicus This is prompted by wj’s query about what kind of racism I’ve seen in Japan. A caveat, I was finishing this up and I went back thru the comments and found I had skipped over a section, in particular, Donald and Russell’s comments to the comment that started this out. I thought … Read more

by liberal japonicus This Guardian article caught my eye Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci: German ‘dream team’ behind vaccine Those accents didn’t get there by themselves…

by liberal japonicus Unfortunately, not good tidings of great joy, just some talk about the latest internecine struggle. Oh well… As promised, here’s a discussion of AOC’s interview, found here I should also note that this is an edited transcript and I wonder if any reordering took place. With that caveat in mind The interview … Read more

by liberal japonicus In Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the author (well, I think it is the author) muses on the fact that the structure of the printed text makes it so it is automatically an imperfect reflection of reality. You know that the story will end when you get to the end of the … Read more

by liberal japonicus Well, thru the magic of the timezone, I can tell you that the world didn’t end on Tuesday. That’s my Tuesday though. I imagine we need a clean thread to keep up with things. Have at it.

by JanieM Part I: Where are these places? Below is a list of scenes in the Lincoln Project ad. Anyone who feels like something lighthearted will help us get through the next 48 hours, and for that matter the next few weeks, is invited to try to identify the locations. I’ve filled in the ones … Read more

by liberal japonicus (to be sung to the last lines of the Beatles The End) Well, here’s something for you. (the original research is here if you want to check it out) The seeds for the Christian loss were sown in the early and middle Paleolithic, hundreds of thousands of years before the fateful battle … Read more

by JanieM This quotation, apparently from Clickbait’s favorite fixer Michael Cohen, highlights some interesting issues about the current state of our information culture. I tried from the time of the 2016 election to never type a certain name, for reasons related to the passage at the link. I have also spent minimal time listening to … Read more

by liberal japonicus This article from the Asia-Pacific Journal is a nice look at subject that might give folks interesting perspectives on their local food scene. My takeaway is that it is a lot more complicated and we are going to be dealing with the fallout for a long time afterward.

by liberal japonicus While not a break, I thought I’d open a thread for covid speculation, though I imagine a lot of you are sick of it. But two things that caught my eye recently. Here in Japan, while Covid is still a problem, statistically, we have fewer deaths than would have been predicted in … Read more

by liberal japonicus A thread for your thoughts about what was essentially a second debate, separate by distance. Savannah Guthrie put paid to my notion that a woman would get overwelmed, though as moderator rather than debate opponent, she had some protection from Trump going all crazy uncle on her. The Guardian live blog was … Read more

by russell Ayn Rand vs nature cage match.  Guess who wins. Don't let this happen in your town!! 🙂  

by russell Barry Harris is a jazz pianist who came up in bop era.  He was one of a cohort of brilliant players who came up in Detroit, and over the years he's played with everybody.  He's 90 now, and is kind of one of the last guys standing from that time and generation. Harris … Read more