What Larry Summers says.
From August but worth reading if you haven’t already: Why Twitter has such a problem with harassment and abuse, and has never figured out how to mitigate it.
Homer Simpson Is Now the Subject of a College Philosophy Course.
“Politicians do not deserve respect simply on the basis of the fact that they’re politicians. They do, however, deserve to be treated in accordance with their actions.”
How to encrypt your entire life in less than an hour.
“This is a problem that not even a blind trust can solve. Creating blanket conflict-of-interest laws would hamstring the presidency, but the current laws about emoluments are clearly inadequate.”
If you favor marijuana legalization, or even decriminalization, you shouldn’t have voted for Donald Trump.
“Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote over President-elect Donald Trump keeps growing and currently stands at 1.677 million votes.” Just, you know, FYI.
NFL teams should go for two a lot more often.
“We, as a culture, have to stop infantilizing and deifying rural and white working-class Americans. Their experience is not more of a real American experience than anyone else’s, but when we say that it is, we give people a pass from seeing and understanding more of their country.”
If this doesn’t make you ill, there’s something wrong with you.
“This is so obvious, so clear right in front of our faces, that it seems hard to see. These aren’t conflicts of interest. The construct doesn’t work for what we’re dealign with. There is no conflict. Everything is working as planned. He’s leveraging the office like one might leverage a business. When you have your hotel pitch foreign diplomatic delegations on bringing their business to your hotel, that’s not a conflict. That’s a revenue stream tied to owning the presidency.”
“If this is right, the key qualities of presidential politics over the next four years will be instability, frequent policy change, palace intrigues, and Trump looking to reign triumphant above it all, not particularly caring (a la Padgett and Ansell’s Cosimo) about attaining specific goals, but instead looking to preserve his position at the center of an ever shifting spider web of political relations, no matter what consequences this has for the integrity of the web.”
5 Fun Facts About A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, because we could all use that right about now.
Lawyers of the Left, for those who may be interested.
A timeline of fake news on Facebook.
“What makes protests work, and what makes them backfire and solidify opinion against the protesters? The answers to these questions, drawn from the research of scholars who have dedicated their careers to in-depth interviews with activists, protesters, and organizers, can both offer guidance to those spearheading the movement against Trump, and offer some interesting glimpses into the surprising political psychology of resistance.”
“Did 2016 represent the biggest gulf between the popular vote results and the electoral college verdict in history?”
“In stretching to paint Bannon as an old-fashioned racist, his critics overshot — and also missed the point. Bannon is more complicated, a whole new political beast. And because of that, he’s more dangerous than his adversaries in both the Democratic and Republican parties yet realize.”
RIP, Ralph Branca, former Dodgers pitcher who gave up Bobby Thomson’s famous home run.
“I love each and every one of you and I am so glad to have yet another holiday together. Come hungry and leave full. Hug one another because you can. Argue if you must, but then agree to disagree. Try something new or let go of something old. Give more. Take less. Oh hell. Listen to me rattle on like I am some sort of philosopher. Screw it. Come for the food and stay for the company. Everything else can be made better with gravy. I mean it. Really.”
RIP, Florence Henderson, most famous TV mom ever.
“What Lessig should have argued is that the Electors should plainly judge Trump a menacing incompetent and reject him with extreme prejudice.”
RIP, Ron Glass, actor best known for roles on Barney Miller and Firefly.