Cranky Old Man #90
a frothy mix of leftovers and links

I don't understand all of what's happening between Russia and Ukraine, or what the smart response should be. The only things clear to me are ① You can't trust U.S. foreign policy experts, and ② You can't trust U.S. foreign policy pundits.

The mainstream, widely-read and widely-watched experts and pundits are the same fools and puppets who talked America into war in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and they're (sometimes literally) the descendants of the fools and puppets who talked America into war in Vietnam.

None of those wars were necessary, wise, or the right thing to do, but now we should listen to the same experts and pundits offering the same advice again? Yes, we should listen — and then we should do the opposite.

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Amid wall-to-wall coverage of "organized" shoplifting, an unprecedented rise in deaths inside America’s prisons brought upon by reckless COVID policy is met with a collective yawn.

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History intrigues me, but not so much the history I was taught in school. That's a history all about leaders — what year was Roosevelt born, what were Taft's major accomplishments, who signed the Declaration of This That and The Other, etc. Same as I thought in junior high school — who the hell cares? Not me, not much.

The history that holds my attention is about the lives and events of people who weren't rich or powerful, which is 99% of us, then as now. This article, on the history of Black History Month, got me thinking some thoughts I'd never thunk before…

Black History Month has been part of my world for not quite but almost as long as I can remember. It's hard to overstate its impact on black people, whose entire history used to be presented as not much more than captured, enslaved, Abe Lincoln, maybe Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, and then the bell for Algebra class.

Black History Month has had a huge impact on white folks too — for me, it was the beginning of history that didn't feel like a whitewash. Almost everything I've learned about black history came from the same place as the article I've linked to — a mainstream publication wading into black history because Black History Month exists. Major salute, then, to Carter G Woodson (1875-1950), who invented the concept in 1926 as Negro History Week. It's increased my awareness from almost Absolute Zero to something that's not enough but is no longer nothing.

Next step: Critical Race Theory, absolutely. It's a simple but brilliant concept with a stupid, triggering name. Call it history instead, because that's all it is — the much-needed concept of teaching history as it was, not as white folks pretend it was.

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Republicans don't like history, education, literature...

We’re seeing dozens of [Republican] proposals to bar whole concepts from classrooms outright. The Republican governor of Virginia has debuted a mechanism for parents to rat out teachers. Bills threatening punishment of them are proliferating. Book-banning efforts are outpacing anything in recent memory.

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Florida Republicans advance wave of draconian bills

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What if we knew that we would face the same situation that occurred on January 6 again, but with Trump and his supporters better prepared for it?

This is a blues-inducing and uncomfortable look at some realities about left and right, realities so 'taken for granted' they're often ignored, but shouldn't be.

The Democrats have fallen into the same error that Trump has lured them into time and again: they have been trying to investigate him. A year of small revelations about January 6, dribbling out one at a time, has served to kill the story by overexposure. Over the past four years, Trump has survived countless such revelations about his conduct. There’s no delegitimizing him with his base — the worse he is, the better, as far as they are concerned.

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It's odd, almost unnerving to have no bedtime. Being unemployed, there's suddenly no place to be tomorrow morning, no alarm to set, which means I can stay up as late as I want... but at my age, that means maybe 9:00 PM. More likely 8:00.

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The New York Times buys Wordle

It's a word game. Wildly popular. Haven't played it myself, and probably never will. Sorry, just, no interest. Everything I (think I) know about Wordle is only that it's free, it's fun, and it has no ads. Now it's going to change under new management, and it won't be a change for the better.

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The golden age of crappy little plastic toys in cereal packets

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A few sites that have covered last Saturday's Saturday Night Live as if it's newsworthy: The Atlantic, Gothamist, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, etc.

Knock it off. Journalism should be the presentation of newsworthy news. Saturday Night Live is almost never newsworthy, and the existence and content of a new episode of SNL is absolutely never newsworthy. It's shallow clickbait, of no more news value than paparazzi shots of Taylor Swift or someone being rude on The Real Housewives of Altoona, PA.

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Eight red states are suing to keep migrants and their kids apart

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Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
—Dreams, by Langston Hughes

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One-word newscast:

• cops • cops • cops

• elections • elections

• Trump • Trump

Dead:

• Peter Haberfeld

• Howard Hesseman

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Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

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Sing along with Doug:
♫♬ "Going Down"
The Monkees ♫
2/1/2022
Tip 'o the hat:
All Hat No Cattle • Linden Arden
BoingBoing • Captain Hampockets
Follow Me Here • John the Basket
LiarTownUSA • Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero • Ran Prieur
Vintage Everyday • Voenix Rising
Extra special thanks:
Becky Jo • Name Withheld • Dave S.
and always, Stephanie
Cranky Old Man