Political Neighbors!

 

This is really interesting! I wonder what the data makeup is and how accurate?

Communications Silos - It Isn't Just Liberal and Conservative

 
This is interesting analysis. Basically a word heat map of the tickers of MSNBC, Fox, and CNN with axes for the frequency.

I expected Fox to be different, but CNN and MSNBC? That's quite a spread.

I wonder if anyone is researching gathering information for all channels for all communication-- written, spoken, non-verbal-- to come up with automatic fact checking or political spectrum identification or emotional leaning or ? Taking this to the absurd, can you tell if the editor or camera operator are having a bad day based on the product? 

It isn't hard to imagine building intermediate software then edit requested info from multiple sources in to derivative product as requested by the consumer. The days of, "Hey Siri, I want to listen to the political news for today, make sure it thoughtfully shares multiple perspectives and that there are some optimistic stories included." don't seem that far off. 

Could this would help make people aware when they are living in a single perspective echo chamber?

Future for those called the Sedition Caucus? The language is extreme...

...but so is support for undermining our democracy:

Fifteen Wisconsin legislators signed a Jan. 5 letter calling on Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the 2020 presidential election results. The letter amplified the lies and conspiracy theories that were advanced by Trump and the rioters he incited as they sought to block the certification of Electoral College votes from states such as Wisconsin that had backed Joe Biden for president.

The Wisconsin legislators who signed the letter were state Reps. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls; Rob Brooks, R-Saukville; Rick Gundrum, R-Slinger, Cody Horlacher, R-Mukwonago; Dan Knodl, R-Germantown; Gae Magnafici, R-Dresser; Dave Murphy, R-Greenville; Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz; Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport; Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin; Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh; Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers; Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac; Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego. State Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, also signed on to the letter, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.

Personally, I don't doubt these folks believe there were irregularities but where we seem to disagree in that the they were big enough to make any difference in the outcome. When someone wants to believe something so badly, it becomes a distortion field. Everyone has experienced this.

Contrast this behavior with the prior election where foreign interference with the information flowing to and through the body politic seems to be unquestioned by those in the know. Once the votes were counted, were there dozens of lawsuits and political maneuverings? (By the way, can we please think about some proportional responses to anything provable the Russian government and/or oligarchs may have done in the past four years now?)

It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. This president values cooperation among elected but also party building and, therefore, partisan organizing. He's going to reach out where he can to cooperate. Will the old guard Republicans engage or will it be more decisiveness? There are more liberals in our country than republicans, they just don't vote every election. Beware waking up the presidential cycle majority to the fact that there are other elections with consequences.

On the Deplatforming of American Contingency

Listening to Mike Glover on Andy Stumpf's Cleared Hot podcast this morning, I was concerned to hear an organization Mike works with (founded?) has been deplatformed. He didn't mention which platform but he said there was no warning and the account was just gone.

I wanted to see if I could surmise why. The latest blog entry is a bit old but defines a list of "thread forces" being "monitored". It starts with an international lists of competitor countries and enemy groups. Maybe not the same list but others would put up but passes the smell test for me, fair enough.

But then it goes on to list the "national threat forces". I googled a few and some I recognized and I gotta tell you, I don't see ANYTHING from the right wing extreme on the list. It's all left wing stuff from what I saw including at least one legal, actual political party. No nationalist, fascist, or supremacist/separationist threats at all? Really?

I have heard Mr. Glover on podcasts a few times now and he claims that this organization is non-political. Some of the national threats may be actual threats, I don't know. Now you and I may not agree with the political views espoused by the communist party but many people served and died defending this country so that everyone, including communists, can share and advocate for their ideas. The website doesn't list why the communist party is a national threat. Nevermind there is an e-day countdown clock on the bottom of the page. Not so non-political, really.

So I stopped looking. I don't know how deplatforming works or why it happens. Based on a cursory look at the website, I can see it could have been caught up in filters looking for violent or misinformation spreading nationalist agitators. I don't agree with it, but I understand it and acting surprised feels disingenuous to me based on what I read.

The Petty Man

"The petty man ... is utterly disorderly but hates for people to criticize him. He us utterly unworthy but wishes for people to consider him worthy. His heart is like that of a tiger or wolf, and his conduct like that of beasts, but he ates for people to consider him a villain. To those who flatter and toady to him he shows favor, those those who would admonish him he keeps at a distance. Those who try to be correct he considers laughable, and those truly loyal to him he considers villains." Xunzi c. 310—c. 220 B.C.E. Quoted from Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Ivanhoe and Van Norden

Meritocracy or Aristocracy?

When the estate/death tax was being publicly debated some years ago, I had a politically active cousin ask me with wonder why I think it's a good thing. My answer at the time was because I don't believe in having an American aristocratic class. My cousin countered with asking why someone shouldn't be able to pass their hard earned assets on to their children. I responded with the that I'm not worried about their children being rich, I'm worried about their great grand children being rich through no virtue of their own, that I prefer we live in a meritocracy where people have a chance to get ahead. Neither of us saw a belief conversion that day.

My answers haven't changed and, while I don't agree with everything, this article lays out the argument better than I can. I think it makes much more sense to give everyone a their first three or four or five or six or times the poverty rate (or some other number that makes sense) dollars tax free and to tax all other income above at the same rate. And by all I mean everything. Interest, long and short term capital gains, income from all financial devices, salaries, inheritance-- any situation where someone ends up with money or assets counts as income to me.

Why? Without something more fair than what we have now, there will eventually be violent revolution in our future and I don't want anyone, especially my children or grandchildren, to live through that.

Sick Kids? - Green Bay Environmental Polution

I didn't look at the whole list but I don't see a single school within Green Bay or even the Green Bay Area School District that isn't in the top 20% of polluted schools. Many are in the top 1%. How depressing is that? The entire city is a high pollution, cancer causing area it seems.

Of course, the devil is in the details and the report methodology is a computer simulation based on pollution estimates. There are more details in the FAQ. It is possible that the reason we're on the top of the list is that our companies are honest in their reporting and everyone else underestimates. On the other hand, we do have a coal plant and some pretty serious industrial facilities right near down town so it seems very plausible.

We need to actually gather and test air quality samples to get the facts. I wonder what a test like that costs? I wonder if there are EPA, WI-DNR, or other grants the city, county or citizens could go after to get that done. I wonder a bunch of things...

But here's one thing I know. I know it's election season and that means it is a good time for everyone-- that's YOU-- to call your local candidates to press the issue and get commitments to act. Call your candidates and get them to commit to getting air quality tests done. If you don't know who your candidates are, call the Green Bay City Clerk at 920-448-3000, the Brown County Clerk at 920-448-4000, or your local municipal clerk.

Guy Hit

I saw this article in the Press Gannett today. Then another article on the same story came through my reader and it had an addition.

Yes, it is now common knowledge that Guy Zima fathered a kid who is now a teenager while being married to someone other than the kid's mother. Yes, Guy throws his cronies and stooges under the bus for no apparent reason other then to politically beat them up. Yes, if you ask around, you'll find people who say they have witnessed Guy treating his wife horribly in public. It's even easier to find people who have first hand experience with Guy's racism. Yes, Guy picks his nose and digs ear wax when sitting in council meetings. Yes, Guy seems to treat people good or bad based on what he needs from them. Yes, Guy stole bratwurst and Joe Heller won't let him forget it. This stuff is all fair game.

But this anonymous web page just seems way, way over the top. A few comments:

• Unless she's behind it this is very unfair to Eliane Zima. True or not, there are some very personal things in that rant. I think she is the true victim of this hit piece.
• Someone has gone very negative and on the attack. But who? Maybe someone wanting revenge. My guess was Wery might want revenge for the Weary of Wery stuff.
• Guy will once again get his constituents to believe that this is a conspiracy and he's the victim.