Pragmatic politics focused on the public interest for those uncomfortable with America's two-party system and its way of doing politics. Considering the interface of politics with psychology, cognitive biology, social behavior, morality and history.
Etiquette
DP Etiquette
First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.
Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.
And, I think I've figured out how to embed my posts there.
Masha Gessen asserts that the election turned out like it did in part because liberal democracy offers moral constraints without problem-solving. But populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints. Trump promises you don’t have to think about others.
dispol.blogspot.com/2024/11/post...
All I can do now is watch and comment on the unfolding drama. Will it be a midnight trainwreck, delicately lit by many smelly dumpster fires? Or, will it be peace, prosperity and happiness upon the land (excluding Gaza and Ukraine of course)?
The human psychology of politics and the economy
Politico: Republicans suddenly think the economy’s great and the election wasn’t rigged -- Less than two weeks since Donald Trump’s victory, consumer sentiment in the Republican Party has skyrocketed. Democrats, meanwhile, are despondent. Elections? Suddenly Republicans are on board with the reality that they’re secure. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he saw no evidence of fraud in the 2024 campaign. And the media landscape? Viewership of Fox News has surged since Trump’s win despite his harsh criticism of the network in the run up to Nov. 5.
Well, he said he was gonna do it
Are the Dreamers hosed?
The Wash. Examiner: Trump confirms plans to declare national emergency to implement mass deportation program -- President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on Truth Social early Monday morning that his incoming administration will declare a national emergency and use military resources to implement a mass deportation of illegal immigrants. The confirmation was made in response to an earlier post by Tom Fitton, journalist and president of Judicial Watch. .... “President Trump’s been clear; public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority because they have to be. They pose the most danger to this country,” Homan said.
Well, he said he was gonna do it
Is that a smelly dumpster being rolled into position before being lit on fire?
The Guardian: Gaetz pick raises fears that Trump will seek ‘retribution’ on political foes -- With president-elect likely to use DoJ to crush enemies, only hope lies in staffers refusing to carry out illegal orders. Above all, the choice of Gaetz underscores the premium Trump places on selecting a loyalist who can help him expand his powers at the DoJ to further his revenge agenda, and avoid the conflicts Trump had at times with Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr when they were attorneys general in his first administration.
Project 2025
I'm not dead yet!
ars Technica: Trump’s likely FCC chair wrote Project 2025 chapter on how he’d run the agency -- Brendan Carr wants to preserve data caps, punish NBC, and give money to SpaceX. If Trump makes Carr the next FCC chairman after his inauguration, the FCC is likely to ditch consumer protection initiatives, like a recently announced inquiry into data caps, and attempt to regulate Big Tech companies while reducing regulation of Internet service providers. That could include forcing Big Tech companies to pay into a fund that subsidizes ISPs' broadband network construction. A Carr-led FCC could also try to punish news organizations that are perceived to be anti-Trump. Just before the election, Carr alleged that NBC putting Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live was "a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule," and that the FCC should consider issuing penalties. Despite Carr's claim, NBC did provide equal time to the Trump campaign. (Trump sure doesn't let facts get in the way)
I'm NOT a Nazi!
Salon: "Makes us look like Nazis": Trump allies asked to stop talking about mass deportation "camps" -- The president-elect's advisers worry about how the word "camp" plays as they plot mass deportation schemes. Donald Trump’s allies have been told to stop saying the quiet part out loud. Rolling Stone reports that MAGA associates have been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to house people rounded up in a massive deportation operation.
Over the past week, Bluesky’s growth has exploded, more than doubling to 15 million-plus users as people seek alternatives to X, Facebook and Threads. It has rocketed to the top of Apple’s and Google’s app stores as the most downloaded free app. Its ascent has been so rapid that the company has been forced to grow up practically overnight.
Bluesky’s 20 full-time employees have been working around the clock to deal with the issues that come with hyper-growth: site outages, glitches in the code and content moderation issues. Most importantly, they have been trying to keep early users happy as new members have flooded in.
From its beginning, Bluesky aimed to separate itself from other social media. The project grew out of an idea from Jack Dorsey, a founder of Twitter, who said he hoped to build a “decentralized” social network.
That meant building the app with an “open protocol,” which keeps the social network’s power and decision making out of the hands of any one company or group of people. Mr. Dorsey called the project “Bluesky,” and it eventually became a public benefit corporation, a type of for-profit company that aims to have a positive impact on society rather than focus on maximizing shareholder value.
Bluesky was initially financed with a grant from Twitter under Mr. Dorsey; Mr. Musk cut ties with the Bluesky team after he bought Twitter. Bluesky later raised more than $23 million in two rounds of venture funding from private investors.
With Bluesky, “you’re no longer tied to a dominant algorithm that promotes either the most polarizing posts and/or the biggest brands,” Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, said in a recent video explaining the site to new users. She added, “It’s built by the people, for the people.”
Rose Wang, COO
We'll see how this plays out. Bluesky is still a pipsqueak.
Welp, I made my 1st post of substance on Bluesky. I linked it to my post here on authoritarianism. I switched my name from Germaine2 to Rational Politics.
I tried to set up a feed called Rational Politics, but I'm unsure about how it works, or even if it works. That will turn out to be a work in progress, assuming I can ever figure it out. My son had to come over to help me get set up just to find the button to write a post. He intuitively understood immediately how to navigate Bluesky. But to me social media is strange and counterintuitive.
The 300 character post limit was not as bad as I originally assumed. I'll just post a couple of sentences there and add a link to posts here.
Now I need to figure out RegEx (regular expression) syntax to set up my feed parameters, whatever that means. RegEx is scary.
A RegEx cheat sheet.
I've still got a lot to learn. I think I need to figure out "or", "and/or" and "and" to get set up.
I have no idea about how this experiment will play out. I truly do not know what I am doing.
