DL Open Thread: Sunday, July 21, 2024

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on July 21, 2024

THE Single Worst Idea For Replacing Biden.  Not only does it suck.  It wouldn’t work:

The writing staff would tell me I was about to jump the shark, that this is a “West Wing” fantasy that would never, ever happen. But as Bradley Whitford used to say, “Isn’t the biggest fantasy on television a mafia boss in therapy?” The Democrats need to break the glass and this is a break-glass plan, but it’s more than that. It’s a grand gesture. A sacrifice. It would put a lump in our throats.

But mostly, it would be the end of Donald Trump in presidential politics.

Read it. Be repulsed.

Democratic Socialists Of America Dump AOC–Because she’s not sufficiently antagonistic towards Israel:

For any sane organization, the 34-year-old lawmaker would be a treasured asset. She is principled, politically talented, and able to make national headlines on a regular basis. Her victory in 2018 led to the most significant single-day membership increase in DSA’s history. She has a grassroots background and knows how to talk to ordinary people, but she is also an agile political operator. In the space of a few short years, she rose to the vice ranking position of the House Oversight Committee and made herself a unique place in the Democratic Party.

But Ocasio-Cortez has one important failing in the eyes of DSA’s leaders: She is not sufficiently anti-Israel. As the organization declared its non-endorsement of her, the only rationale it cited was disapproval of her position on Israel.

No other issue comes anywhere close to drawing this much irrational passion on the left. Of all the contentious matters involving the congresswoman—including her 2022 vote on a rail strike and her endorsement of President Joe Biden—only Israel led to this drastic action, which is telling. And hers isn’t the only case. Sanders is almost single-handedly responsible for the resurgence of democratic socialism in America, and he is by far the most pro-Palestinian member of the Senate—yet many leftists, including those in DSA, attack him constantly for his opposition to Hamas’s terrorism.

In Delaware, this irrational passion leads some to endorse an incompetent like Dennis E. Williams for public office.  Now I understand why.

Why Not Cool Roofs?   A seemingly simple way to cool temps in heat islands:

So scientists and urban designers are now scrambling to research and deploy countermeasures, especially in the Southwest—not more energy-chugging air conditioning, but more passive, simple cooling techniques. “Cool roofs,” for instance, bounce the sun’s energy back into space using special coatings or reflective shingles. And urban green spaces full of plants cool the surrounding air.

It’s Been Scientifically-Proven: Sexism and misogyny rampant on Facebook and Instagram:

How do the algorithms of Facebook and Instagram affect what you see in your news feed? To find out, Guardian Australia unleashed them on a completely blank smartphone linked to a new, unused email address.

Three months later, without any input, they were riddled with sexist and misogynistic content.

Facebook had little to rely upon in the absence of any likes, comments or accounts added as friends. Meanwhile, Instagram makes users follow at least five accounts to start, so we chose the popular recommended accounts, including the prime minister and Bec Judd.

Meta says its algorithms rank content according to what people are interested in, but we wanted to find out where it would take us in the absence of such inputs. We scrolled through the feed every couple of weeks to check what was being served up.

Initially Facebook served up jokes from The Office and other sitcom-related memes alongside posts from 7 News, Daily Mail and Ladbible. A day later it began showing Star Wars memes and gym or “dudebro”-style content.

By day three, “trad Catholic”-type memes began appearing and the feed veered into more sexist content.

Three months later, The Office, Star Wars, and now The Boys memes continue to punctuate the feed, now interspersed with highly sexist and misogynistic images that have have appeared in the feed without any input from the user.

The quality of what is served on Facebook to every user in Australia had declined in the past few years, Carah says, coinciding with Meta’s decision to deprioritise news as it gears up to fight against paying media companies under Australia’s news media bargaining code.

“Australians are now immersed in this river of complete garbage on Facebook. I’m kind of curious, does this mean we’ll all just keep scrolling through this crap? Or is Facebook actually undermining their own product here?”

If BHL’s Specialty Is Health Care, Why Does Delaware’s Suck So Bad?  This is not a gratuitous question.  And it does suck:

Delaware, where estimates show those 60 and older will make up nearly 30% of the state’s population in the next six years, received a failing grade for senior health care cost, access and quality in a recent report. 

SeniorLiving.org – which provides resources to older adults on housing, health, technology, safety and retirement planning, among others – gave the First State an F for senior health care services, ranking it 49th among the 50 states and District of Columbia.  

Delaware was among six states that received failing grades, including Alabama, West Virginia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Oklahoma. Montana and North Dakota were the only states to receive A+ grades in the SeniorLiving.org report.

The report found Delaware was the only state to rank 40th or worse in all three categories used in the grading system (with one being the best). Delaware ranked:

  • 44th in health care costs.
  • 40th in access.
  • 41st in outcomes.

SeniorLiving.org also noted that the First State’s drug costs are “exceptionally high” – 39% higher than the national average. Additionally, Delaware had the worst stroke death rate in the nation, the report said, as well as poor death rates from cancer.

I can’t explain why the reporter either didn’t ask the DHSS Secretary or self-aggrandized health specialist BHL for comment, or didn’t receive comment from them.    Is it possible that BHL will release her campaign finance ‘audit’ in order to distract attention from this?  Nevertheless, she’s a proven failure at what she claims to be her lone area of expertise.

What do you want to talk about?

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  1. All Seeing says:

    To back-up the Australian research on Facebook this story about discovery from Facebooks files will win all Attorney’s general that are suing their sorry asses evidence is in this story and it is worth listing or reading. It is as follows = https://revealnews.org/podcast/harpooned-by-facebook/
    Secondly, Today’s news journals not on line, page 3a Projects tucked into bond bill byline Karl Baker it is a real piss cutter of an article that really exposes the Prince of Corporate welfare to be worse than RuthAnn when it comes to shenanigans borderline criminal in my opinion.
    Thirdly, how can the democratic party endorse the insurance commissioner that has wasted millions of taxpayer’s dollars defending him on Trump-like behavior with his female employees? There’s change needed in the Democratic Party, they have lost their way, lost their humanity. Resign and get some people with ethics and feelings. You can’t insure the insurance commissioner’s extreme behavior can we?

    • The MoMo says:

      Are you unconcerned that they endorsed BHL or just very blind to certion people’s transgressions. Perhaps the party “all saw” that the jury unanimously sided with Navarro? I’m sure it was page 95a news given the state of our local media, but that is still a big deal. The fact that the case took several (seven, I think?) years to go to a jury is a problem of the legal system (and probably COVID) but not the fault of any party. And probably why the State has a history of settling cases instead, never giving voters the change to know who would have won. Yes, maybe that jury trial was money spent on ego instead of just settling, sure, but he WON the case, and the use of money is certainly incomparable to routing funds meant for the opioid crisis to organizations of political donors! Having ONLY heard this talking point in the last couple of weeks, I think we know where it’s coming from. And I won’t let it distract from the fact that there are bigger, more important unethical statewides to push to resign.

  2. puck says:

    “Three months later, The Office, Star Wars, and now The Boys memes continue to punctuate the feed, now interspersed with highly sexist and misogynistic images that have have appeared in the feed without any input from the user.”

    When I open my “web browser,” (quaint, I know) it shows me a pristine blank page, waiting for me to tell it what “web site” I want to see.

  3. puck says:

    ““Cool roofs,” for instance, bounce the sun’s energy back into space using special coatings or reflective shingles”

    Or solar panels.

    A house with a ground-loop heat pump powered by solar panels will be mostly energy self-sufficient for heating and cooling in most climate zones.

    The time is coming when most of us need A/C to survive heat waves. No doubt the oligarchs will gouge us for that electricity.

    But painting your roof white is cheap and is better than nothing.

    • Uh, you DID read the part of the article that read:

      “A study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters earlier this month modeled how much cooler London would have been on the two hottest days in the extra-hot summer of 2018 if the city widely adopted cool roofs compared to other interventions, like green roofs, rooftop solar panels, and groundlevel vegetation. Though simple from an engineering standpoint, cool roofs turned out to be the most effective at bringing down temperatures.”

      So, it’s BETTER than better than nothing.

      • puck says:

        One cool roof won’t help much; like most solutions you need a broad commitment. It’s not hot enough yet for that kind of consensus.