Author: Mark Alexander

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“Don’t Tell Trump”

Eric Schmitt, David E. Sanger, and Maggie Haberman writing for the NY Times:

Ms. Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House. Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm elections—ranging from its search for new techniques to divide Americans using social media, to experiments by hackers, to rerouting internet traffic and infiltrating power grids.

But in a meeting this year, Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, made it clear that Mr. Trump still equated any public discussion of malign Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his victory. According to one senior administration official, Mr. Mulvaney said it “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level.”

Unsurprising, but jaw-dropping nonetheless. On the one side: hostile actions from our most dangerous foreign adversary and the integrity of our nation’s elections. On the other side: a sociopathic, malignantly narcissistic ego.

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Saturday Getaway

Ben and I both needed a break and to get outside our own heads for a while, so yesterday we headed south to Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson.




































The Air and Space Museum has always been a favorite destination of mine for photography; the stark desert light, the contrast between sea and sand, and of course the brilliant colors of the aircraft themselves set against those backgrounds.

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Shower Thoughts

The fact that billionaires have pledged over 600 million dollars in under 24 hours to help fix the Norte Dame landmark really puts into perspective how easily the insanely rich could help solve world problems if they cared to.

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Quote of the Day

Notre Dame is on fire and the stupidest fucking asshole on the entire planet just can’t help but offer idiotic useless advice because this drooling moron imagines himself a fucking expert on everything. He’s the loudmouth drunk at the end of the bar, but with nuclear weapons.” ~ Jeff Tiedrich

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Shower Thoughts

If a stranger asks you what time it is, it’s kind of annoying. If a stranger asks you what year it is, it’s mildly concerning. If a stranger asks you what century it is, it’s extremely exciting.

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Something to Remember

Yesterday, from jonphaedrus on Tumblr:

Notre Dame is burning.

This is ok.

It has happened before. It will happen again. It has been lost before. It will be lost again. And again. And again. And again. Art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at Saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that’s still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.

Yes, this is terrible. As someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. I’m mourning. I’m gutted. I’m horrified and upset and miserable. But.

It’s not over.

Victor Hugo wrote Hunchback because Notre Dame du Paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world’s focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. It led to it being renovated.

The roof has fallen in. The scars of fires are on its buttresses. The rose window has fallen out. The beams and piers have collapsed. The spire has toppled. The stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.

Renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. It’s not a terrorist attack, it’s renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.

It’s not the end.

Obviously everyone is shocked but here’s a few important key facts:

•      The roof is completely gone. Part of it dated back from the 13th century but the rest was from the 19th. The stone arch roof under the top roof is fine.

•     One of the three main stained glass rose windows has fallen out. Most of the other stained glass windows are okay.

•     The spire has fallen down and that’s the saddest part. BUT! It was in the process of being restored and the 16 statues that were there were removed just four days ago! So they’re fine.

•     The main structure is still here and nothing has “burned down” unlike what some people have been saying.

•     The “treasures” (the sacred objects) are safe.

•     Notre Dame is still there. It’s just damaged. Almost nothing was lost today, and nobody was wounded either. It’s scary, but it’s gonna be okay.

Notre Dame is still there. It’s just damaged. Almost nothing was lost today, and nobody was hurt, either. It’s scary, but it’s gonna be okay.

Remember that a good deal of the cathedral is stone, so it isn’t going to burn to the ground. Part of the genius of medieval architecture before steel was the invention of the buttress, the arch that allows weight to be taken off walls so you could use more glass. Unfortunately the glass will melt but it’s easy to replace. It unquestionably will be massively damaged but not destroyed.

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Pruning

I stopped following 300+ Twitter accounts tonight, basically anything or anyone political. I’d reached the point that I had to do something, and short of canceling my account altogether (believe me, I thought about it), I figured this might be a good stopgap measure to keep the relentless flood of negativity from consuming me.

I read this afternoon that Instagram has become the latest hotbed of activity for Nazis and right-wing supremacists, which is sad because I still genuinely like the Insta, but I may be faced with saying goodbye to that sooner rather than later since the company seems uninterested in or incapable of policing their service to keep that sort of garbage from posting. Nazi propaganda is fine, but put up an exposed penis and they’re on you within minutes. Go figger.

 

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The Exaltation of Anger

…More and more lately I’m finding social media to be complete garbage.

It’s not the trolls, bots, religious nuts, right-wing nuts, and fanatical Stormtrumpers who spew hate and insanity in my face every day. I expect that and it doesn’t bother me. Much.

Or rather it’s not JUST that.

No, it’s the other side. The Tone Police, the Purity Patrol, the Social Justice suicide bombers willing to die on every goddamned hill, the self-appointed Editors who want to argue over every single word, the tedious pedants, and the guy who screams “BOT!” in response to every comment.

More than anything it’s the smug self-righteous left-wing gatekeepers who show up to every post with “do better.”

I hate that fucking phrase.

Do better. No. Fuck you. No one should have to put up with that condescending bullshit. As soon as I see “do better” or any variation, out the airlock you go.

It’s not about disagreement. Or even about reasonable criticism. All of us should be able to handle that.

It’s about ENTITLEMENT.

It’s about those who see the rest of us as objects to be OWNED, improved, edited, managed, controlled, silenced and redirected. It’s about dancing monkeys. More and more I get why people leave this place. I totally get why celebrities like Wil Wheaton left Twitter completely, just dumped 4 million followers and walked away. He couldn’t take it, it was literally destroying his mental health. I totally get that, because lately my various timelines are becoming for me an increasing source of irritation and frustration. Rage. It’s affecting me in the real world. It’s making me angry all of the time.

…I’m not going to leave, not here, not Twitter, not Instagram, or Counter.Social, not yet anyway. But I AM going to start cleaning house a LOT more vigorously and without warning. I have to, to maintain my sanity.

If you don’t want to get blown out of the airlock, then maybe give some thought to how your comments might be affecting others.

Thanks.”

Read the entire piece here. It’s well worth your time.

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