Just in case anyone thinks things are just “going to be OK” in the U.S.: 21 million Americans believe the Biden presidency is illegitimate and that force is justified to restore Trump to power. 15 million come from non-rural areas of America and believe in the “Great Replacement”. 10 million are QAnon-believers or QAnon-adjacent and… Continue reading
Three Years After January 6th: The Insurrection’s Impact on U.S. Democracy
Three years ago, on January 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a mob intent on overturning the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. This event — the January 6th insurrection — was a direct attack on the democratic process and the peaceful transition of power, a cornerstone of American democracy. As we mark… Continue reading
Democracy 2024: Stakes vs. Horses
The 2024 U.S. Presidential election isn’t just another tick on the political timeline. It’s a crucial juncture for — quite literally — the future of American democracy. We’re not just deciding who gets to sit in the Oval Office for the next four years. We’re determining the trajectory of our nation, the resilience of our… Continue reading
Welcome To 2024
Hey folks, This is likely our last shot at preserving liberal democracy in the U.S., or at least avoiding 20–40 years of abject horribleness by wannabe bigoted and sociopathic demigods. The year 2024 is also set to be a significant year for global politics, with a large number of critical elections taking place around the… Continue reading
Democracy 2024: Pro-Hunger ≠ “Pro-Life”
Ref AP News: https://apnews.com/article/iowa-summer-ebt-food-assistance-0e878c5c0fc9dd0dd55622cb22a82561. Iowa has decided not to participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) program, which provides $40 per month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education… Continue reading
Something For The Fediverse Readers
If you’re on Fosstodon, please pop a note to the admins there to ban this blog as well (it’s using the WordPress federation features). We would not want their sensitive sensibilities to be offended by equally “offensive” stuff I have and will post here, as I seem to have done via @hrbrmstr (which they’ve banned… Continue reading
Ligatures In RStudio Dailies
I had thought most folks likely knew this already, but if you are a user of RStudio dailies (this may apply to regular RStudio, but I only use the dailies) and are missing ligatures in the editor (for some fonts), the “fix” is pretty simple (some misguided folks think ligatures are daft). RStudio, like VS… Continue reading
Avoid libwebp Electron Woes On macOS With positron
If you’ve got 👀 on this blog (directly, or via syndication) you’d have to have been living under a rock to not know about the libwebp supply chain disaster. An unfortunate casualty of inept programming just happened to be any app in the Electron ecosystem that doesn’t undergo bleeding-edge updates. Former cow-orker Tom Sellers (one… Continue reading