Righteous Kvetching About an Algorithm

 

Every once in a while, one must simply allow oneself to gripe. As a dedicated curmudgeon, ‘once-in-a-while’ happens frequently.

Case in point is a current gripe with FaceBook or rather the ’bots at FB. I’ve been given (given? Ha! ) another 30-day suspension.

Another one, mind you. 

The more recent one about which this writer is kvetching, resulted from a three-word post in response to a post about a current bill awaiting a vote in the Senate, namely, HR1, the ‘For the People Act’, to expand and further secure the voting rights of Americans. There are many more bits of Biden’s agenda headed to the Senate floor, including one on gun control which will face lock-step republican recalcitrance.

The responding post in question read ‘Kill the filibuster!’; quick, simple, to the point and on we go to the next one. After about 5 minutes (time is elastic and relative when streaming down the black hole of one’s FaceBook wall), the proviso from the ‘bot announced that my account was suspended for 7 days because of a violation of community standards. What followed moments later, was a more detailed pronouncement asking if I disputed the finding. The confirmation of the ‘bot’s ruling came quick on the heels of my ephemeral protest. (funny, that...)

‘Kill the filibuster’ promoted violence, it was ruled by the algorithm.

Huh? WTF!? Over...

Did the algorithm assume that ‘filibuster’ was a person?

‘Kill the lights'. 'Kill the music'. 'Kill the engine'. Those all promote violence?

Right...

And to add injury to insult, the ‘bot ruled that since I had been a bad boy before this, the suspension would be for 30 days not 7.

The previous offense had resulted from using the word ‘pussy’. A Trumpian simpleton had whinged about something or other and I had advised him not to be such a pussy. It was advice. Snarky, sure but...

In my defense, I had tried to edit the post, replacing ‘pussy’ with ‘snowflake’ but was interrupted by the ‘bot’s ruling that such language was considered ‘bullying’.

‘Bot says; ‘30-day suspension’!  
Talk about ‘snowflakes’. Scurry to your safe place...

There are plenty of better things to pass the pandemic time then doom scrolling the FB wall, of course. Re-arranging my sock drawer (again) come to mind. However, to be stymied by a ‘bot and stifled by an algorithm which red-flags words out of context is something to righteously kvetch about, thus wasting more time.

 Thus, endeth the gripe.

Now, how about that drink?

 

 

 

Kill the Filibuster

 

Kill the filibuster.

It’s not a law. It’s not in the Constitution. It’s only a Senate rule and can be changed by a simple majority. VP Harris can make the scale-tipping vote as president of the Senate. 

We must keep at the fore-front of our minds that any legislation which might lean towards ‘progressive’ action (i.e. climate change, voter rights, minimum wage, etc) will be stymied by Mitch ‘the Bitch’ McConnell and the obstructionist GOP. The Dems must remove the filibuster as it is Mitch ‘the Grim Reaper’ McConnell’s most powerful tool as the Senate minority leader. It is his and the GOP’s veto power.

Kill the filibuster.

Should the GOP obstruct Biden’s agenda and the agenda of the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party, the GOP could then run in 2022 on the seeming failure of Dems to enact the change that Biden promised in his election.

Diabolical and inevitable

According to a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll, 76% of Americans are in favor of the COVID relief bill passed in the House. 61% of Americans polled say they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 would benefit more than 32 million Americans.

There are 253 bills in 43 states to restrict voting at this writing.

Robert Reich has stated that, “The filibuster was popularized in the Jim Crow era by Southerners who wanted to prevent the Northern majority from passing legislation in favor of civil rights for Black citizens.”

The ‘For the People Act’ (HR-1) would end gerrymandering, set up public financing of elections, expand early voting, enact automatic voter registration (AVR) and counter Citizens United. This must pass. 

Unless the filibuster is eliminated and HR-1 passed, the Democrats will continue to be legislated out of power by the GOP.

 

The Meghan Harry Kerfuffle

 

Here’s the thing. 

All the nugatory comments citing disinterest or exasperation, and taut expressions of aloof worldliness such as ‘The British royals are racist? Who knew? (insert eye-roll emoji) are beside the point.

What Meghan and Harry have revealed in their interview with Oprah is not just more social media celebrity news. It’s more than that.

(Full disclaimer: I don’t give a whit nor a shit nor a toss. After centuries of brutal colonialism expanding and retaining the British Empire, after the calamity of the UK leaving the European Union in ethnocentric fear of foreigners, to suddenly realize the Royals may be racist and chauvinistic is a bit disingenuous if not bone-headedly ignorant.)

The point that should be internalized is that, Harry, the son of Lady Di, sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, has expressed the painful truth in public, at long last: the Royal Family is a business, an extremely profitable business which has racism, ethnocentricity and class prejudice as the tenets of its business model.

Harry; Henry Charles Albert David. The Prince. The Duke of Sussex, has dissed the Royal Fam as hateful racists. (Nota bene; he gave a pass to the Royal Gram and Grandpa – just barely.)

This accusation of rank racism was not leveled by some left-wingnut anti-royal republican. (Ironic, that, eh, what?) This indictment came from within the House of Windsor, itself, or at least from the front portico. Sure, Harry and Meghan are building on the foundation set by his mother, Lady Di, but it has been a foundation largely ignored. 

Until now.

Is it any wonder that they waited until after they left ‘Old Blighty’ before dropping the bombshell?

 

 

Really? Potatohead? Earth calling GOP...

 

Potatohead?  Really?

This is the number one issue for Republicans during a pandemic, at the beginning stages of a new executive administration as crucial legislation regarding pandemic relief and voter suppression awaits House and Senate votes and following an armed, murderous insurrection?

Not the neo-fascist deification of Supremo Orange-o at the QPAC Conspiracy Seminar at the Orlando, Hyatt?

Nor the raging vaccination disaster master-minded by Governor Ron ‘Doofus’ DiSantis in the host state of Florida ?

Not the Golden Calf, Mexican-made effigy of the Former Guy at said White Nationalist convention?

Not the celebrity status of QAnon adepts, Marjorie Taylor-Greene and her pistol-packing side-kick, Lauren Opal Boebert? 

Not the gross and hideous display of poor taste and poor delivery exhibited by Cancun Ted? 

Not the vainglorious clamor of the attendees for the outright, specious and oft-repeated lies pronounced by the Chosen Orange One? Nor, indeed, the lies themselves which serve to undermine our Republic, the Constitution and the very concept of the Rule of Law?

Really?

Got nothing for any of that but the re-gendering of a plastic toy everyone had forgotten about until a feature-length cartoon series resurrected it gets your goat, does it?

It is good to know that the opposition party has its eye on the prize.

Who said irony is dead?

 

Stand Back & Stand By

 

According to testimony given by Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the order for the National Guard ‘to stand back and stand by’ on January 6^th, was from the Secretary of the Army, himself, the highest echelons of the maladministration of Pumpkin Boy.

The likelihood that one of his ignoramus underlings would dare to do anything but serve the wishes of the Orange Blob is preposterous. The thought that then-Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy would unilaterally jump unless told to jump is fantasy.

We know who gave the order for the National guard to be on hold for three hours while, Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, the brother of the disgraced Michael Flynn hemmed and hawed, citing ‘bad optics’ at the behest of a certain smug, spray-tanned arsehole.

If John LaCarre had ever been so desperate for plot line, (he was not.) to entertain such a tawdry, almost lewd story twist, he would have had to be main-lining Tide pods, drowning in alcohol and inhaling spray-paint in a writer’s block wasteland.

No one ever accused the Former Guy of being original.

Or crafty... But, he is predictable. He put the fix in and watched the swirl of chaos he’d unleashed – the nation be damned, the devil take the hind-most.

To the point, it would not take more than a bow-legged baby-step to get from (1.) the Secretary of the Army flubbing a call-up order for three hours to (2) the same or similar orders being ‘implied’ before the day and on the day with the Capitol Police and the DC Metro Cops.

Now, why weren’t the other federal law-enforcement agencies out in force?

Car 54, where are you?

 

On Windmills and Wind Turbines

 

Let’s get this straight; a wind turbine is NOT a windmill.

Never was.

Never will be. 

It’s like calling a donkey a zebra.

It’s like calling Chewbacca a human. 

It’s like calling ‘Ted’ Cruz... well, no one would ever call ‘Ted’ Cruz...

Never mind.

Let’s start with the basics. A windmill is a ‘mill’. A mill is a machine which grinds grain. Grinding grain is a process called ‘milling’. The machine which grinds grain (oats, wheat, rice, barley, etc) is a mill.

Many coffee drinkers use a mill on a daily basis to grind their coffee. These aficionados of freshly brewed java may call their machine a ‘coffee grinder’ but it is, in fact, a mill. It grinds the coffee beans to a smaller size that suits the needs of the coffee drinker the preferred method of brewing coffee to suit taste.

 Terms to consider is here are ‘granule’ and ‘granular’ which stem from the Latin word ‘granum’ from which the English word ‘grain’ is derived. How ‘bout that?

 Now back to our rant.

 A mill is a machine that grinds; a machine that makes granules. A mill granulates.

 A windmill is a large machine – usually pre-industrial – which harnesses the power of the wind to grind grain. Wind drives large blades or ‘vanes’ which cause the wheels and cogs of the machinery to turn. The purpose of the turning machinery is to grind grain.

The proprietors of such machines are called ‘millers’ as their enterprise is the milling of grain and the maintenance of the large machine which mills grain. 

To recap; a ‘windmill’ is a machine which utilizes the energy of wind to grind grain – i.e. to mill grain.

A wind turbine, to reiterate, is NOT a windmill. 

Admittedly, a wind turbine is also a machine which has large blades or vanes which are turned by the wind, however. This is undoubtedly the source of the unfortunate confusion. It is tantamount to confusing a cat for a dog or mistakenly identifying Mitch McConnell for a human. It’s understandable but dismaying. 

A wind turbine does NOT mill anything. Its purpose is to harness the power of the wind to turn a turbine which generates electricity. There is no ‘miller’. There is no grain. There is nothing granulated in a milling process.

A wind turbine is NOT a windmill. A windmill is NOT a wind turbine.

By now, dear reader, you’ve wondered why such a big meal is being made from this seemingly innocent misuse of a term. 

Malapropism, for one thing. Malapropism comes from the French phrase mal à propos, which means ‘ill-suited’. The word ‘malapropism’ was coined in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's ‘The Rival’s, 1775. A character in the play, Mrs.  Malaprop, continually misuses words. Sheridan’s intent was for a comic effect to ridicule the upper class as ignorant and unsophisticated.

The continuous misuse of the term ‘windmill’ when referencing a wind turbine is a show of ignorance.

Another reason for making such a meal out of this is ‘solecism’. Solecism is the misuse of a word or mistake in grammar. In the modern derogatory parlance of social media, a ‘grammar nazi’.

 The departed New York Times writer, William Safire, decried solecism as a form of insanity. The constant and consistent misuse of terms (so his argument went) leads to ‘solipsism’- the idea that the world is created by an individual’s mind.

 In this matter, the solecistic individual claims that grammar and terminology are irrelevant or inconsequential. The solecist is declaring a mastery over reality which is not real. Such a declaration announces not only ignorance but a mild psychosis.

 To consistently write ‘you’re’ for ‘your’ or ‘their’ for ‘they’re’ may seem harmless enough, but it is akin to mistaking the moon for the sun.

Or a donkey for a zebra.

Or a wind turbine for a windmill.

The ‘former guy’ (ugh) persisted in mislabeling wind turbines as windmills.“You know, I know windmills very much,” he erroneously speechified in 2019 when deriding wind turbines. That sort of ignorance must be combated. It must not be accepted into common usage. Yet, news readers, politicians and social commentators persist in this lexical error.

That is why such a meal is being made here of this solecism.

Wind turbines are NOT windmills.

(nota bene; when searching for images, Google search offered both windmills and wind turbines when asked for windmills. ugh...) 

Snake Oil from the Anti-Vaxxers

 

24% of recently Americans polled say the they will NOT take a vaccine for COVID-19.

According to a Monmouth University poll, one in four Americans “say they will avoid getting the vaccine at all if they can help it.”

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_020321/

WTF- over?

This preposterous posture of ignorance and disregard for their own health and the general health of the nation is the result of the enduring campaign by anti-vaxxers and anti-science proponents.

There are folks who have prospered with a cyber-based cottage industry of anti-science insanity. These people (Ty and Charlene Bollinger among them) are hawking flimflam. They are swindlers of the oldest sort; they are snake-oil salesmen and the huskers for snake-oil sales. They are kooks devoid of medical certificates, degrees, authority, warrant or authenticity.

Yet, they hold a substantial number of Americans in their sway.

One must ask; How is this possible? The answer to that innocent question will fill volumes in the years to come as historians and journalists attempt to decipher the madness of the Trump years. There is not space or time or inclination to explore this dispiriting phenomena here.

Make no mistake, though. This dismissal of science is madness. It is a stark departure from sanity and reality.

However, the Bollingers (mentioned earlier) should not be branded as insane or included in the number of the deluded. Not at all. They are clear-eyed cons working a grift. They are making money hand over fist by hawking their snake oil and proselytizing others to embrace their anti-vaxxer nonsense.

Perhaps that is the most disturbing aspect of this social-media induced madness; that it is a crass, crude grift which naïve, uninformed people are taking as sincere concern for matters of personal health.