Well, it's over but the shouting, and there's lots of that: Brett Kavanaugh has become an Associate Justice on SCOTUS, after one of the sorriest episodes in American government since Watergate. (And there are many to choose from...) Conservatives have high hopes for him on the Court, which is why the opposition was so vociferous. …
Amazon.com, the Company that Could Use a Trade Union
Some of my readers are aware that I was involved in our long-term family business for about half of my working career, and still do work in that field. One thing I left behind, however, is industrial relations, or dealing with a trade union. Our company had one for many years in Chicago and again …
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Kicking the Can of History Down the Road
Francis Fukuyama, who predicted the "end of history" at the end of the Cold War, backtracks: Twenty-nine years later, it seems that the realists haven’t gone anywhere, and that history has a few more tricks up its sleeve. It turns out that liberal democracy and free trade may actually be rather fragile achievements. (Consumerism appears …
The Difference Between Donald Trump and UK Labour
This video recently appeared on UK Labour's Twitter feed: This is how we re-build Britain: through businesses, jobs and communities. Watch this 👇 pic.twitter.com/4GQXBJdgQa — The Labour Party (@UKLabour) August 25, 2018 If we look at this objectively, the major difference between this and what Donald Trump is trying to do is that Trump is …
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The Solution Jesus Offered for the Wealthy Wasn’t Philanthropy
Elizabeth Kolbert at the New Yorker has written an interesting article about philanthropy, "then and now." "Then" was during the Gilded Age at the end of the Nineteenth century and the beginning of the Twentieth. "Now" is the age of the Silicon Valley magnates. In both cases, the recipients of the wealth are a) burdened …
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Sometimes Our Goals and Those of the Chinese are the Same
In this excellent article about eventual Chinese rule of the Internet, the first goal of China is this one: Cyberpower sits at the intersection of four Chinese national priorities. First, Chinese leaders want to ensure a harmonious Internet. That means one that guides public opinion, supports good governance, and fosters economic growth but also is …
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Banning Infowars is Easier Said Than Done
The efforts so far by most of social media haven't quite panned out as expected: Silicon Valley's coordinated purge of all things Infowars from social media has had an unexpected result; website traffic to Infowars.com has soared in the past week, according to Amazon's website ranking service Alexa. Well, that didn't work, not yet at least. …
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“Survival of our Democracy” Depends Upon Who We Are
One can feel the panic come through the screen: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is calling on other tech companies to ban more sites like InfoWars, and says the survival of American democracy depends on it. “Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to …
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My Last Facebook Post
I know this sounds a little dramatic, so an explanation is in order. I started on social media nine years ago, all the while continuing this and (later) the other blogs and websites. I've used several techniques to automatically disseminate these blog posts. I've always had a problem with doing every post manually. Keeping the …
The Valuable Lesson Silicon Valley Needs to Learn from the Thai Rescue
Sometimes patience is required to solve a problem: Instead of venting, Mr. Musk — indeed, Silicon Valley as a whole — can perhaps see the Thai operation as a lesson. This was a most improbable rescue against the longest odds. Safely navigating 12 kids and one adult, many of whom were not swimmers, through a …
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Positive Infinity 