ethics

Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Gives Country a Black Eye

Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Gives Country a Black Eye:

“Try That in a Small Town” was risible enough as a single, but in case anything about its lunkheaded songwriting felt like it was left as subtext and not made explicit, Aldean has released a music video for the rising hit. It, too, is in the business of handing out black eyes… to country music, that is, much more than any imagined invaders.

The setting, outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, has proven upsetting for some who know or learn the history of the building. It’s where, in 1927, a white lynch mob dragged a young man named Henry Choate through the streets behind a car before finally hanging him from a second-story courthouse window. Let’s give Aldean and video director Shaun Silva the benefit of the doubt and assume they had not indulged in a history lesson when they decided the same frontage where a Black man was murdered in front of a crowd would be a good place to alternate projected footage of protesters being put down with a draped American flag. (Hard to blame anyone for thinking that this history did show up in Aldean’s or the filmmakers’ web search on the location, but imagining that they knew that and proceeded anyway, as a known dog whistle, is… just tough to contemplate.)

[I think Dave said it better here…

They want to go back to when they could kill anyone with impunity. And btw, it doesn’t matter if he “really” believes it or if it’s a business model. It makes absolutely no difference. Someone should teach these pitiful spineless so-called reporters how and why to be angry. BTW, I live in a small town so fuck you Jason Aldean.

]

Don’t Look Away | NextDraft

Don’t Look Away | NextDraft:

The recent acts of public antisemitism and antidemocratic leanings are examples of how this stuff spreads and movements go from the edges to the mainstream. For a great review, watch Ken Burns latest series, America and the Holocaust. Parts of it will feel remarkably familiar. And here’s a take from Michelle Goldberg in the NYT (Gift Article): Antisemitism’s March Into the Mainstream. “For most of my adult life, antisemites — with exceptions like Pat Buchanan and Mel Gibson — have lacked status in America. The most virulent antisemites tended to hate Jews from below, blaming them for their own failures and disappointments. Now, however, anti-Jewish bigotry, or at least tacit approval of anti-Jewish bigotry, is coming from people with serious power: the leader of a major political party, a famous pop star, and the world’s richest man.”

[Thee are not simple times. More than don’t look away. Be an advocate for love, tolerance, and peace.]

How Antisemitism Gained a Foothold in the GOP

How Antisemitism Gained a Foothold in the GOP:

If antisemites were too marginal to pose any danger, it would be easy enough for the party to cut them off. (If you want to know what it looks like when Republicans decide to really throw somebody out of their party, look at their treatment of Liz Cheney.) Instead, they vacillate. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy declined to comment on Gosar’s attendance at white nationalist Nick Fuentes’s conference. McCarthy has likewise promised to restore Greene’s committee privileges if Republicans regain the majority.

[It is infuriating that “win at all cost” is the only abiding theme for the GOP. They really do not care about anything else. Certainly not my life. Pffft.]

Michael Tsai – Blog – FogBugz Auto-Upgrades Free and Dormant Plans to Paid

Michael Tsai – Blog – FogBugz Auto-Upgrades Free and Dormant Plans to Paid:

Anil Dash:

I don’t recommend anyone do business with them, whether as a customer or anything else; I was CEO of Fog Creek when we decided to sell FogBugz, and if I knew the difference between what we were told ahead of the deal and what happened after, I never would have approved it. I didn’t see that they’d done this latest shitty thing until now but I really lament that they’ve sunk to an even lower new level.

I’ll add this as well… from Marco Arment who called them… “I was concerned about possibly getting sent to collections and affecting credit.

The phone guy, over a VERY laggy, scratchy overseas connection, basically said my data was already deleted and the billing failure would auto-delete the account without any more action.”

[Well, that’s quite a thing. Shame on them.]

NEXTDRAFT: The Mother Load

The Mother Load:

Just remember that Trump stole our documents after leading a violent attempt to overthrow our election. There were no redactions in that much bigger crime. We all saw it with our own eyes. Speaking of what we already know, the Feds wanted the redactions in part because “if witnesses’ identities are exposed, they could be subjected to harms including retaliation, intimidation, or harassment, and even threats to their physical safety.” We’ve seen this happen already, too.

[I want to know what the plan was for all these documents. Why was Trump hanging on to them?]

The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice

The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice:

Quote Investigator: Theodore Parker was a Unitarian minister and prominent American Transcendentalist born in 1810 who called for the abolition of slavery. In 1853 a collection of “Ten Sermons of Religion” by Parker was published and the third sermon titled “Of Justice and the Conscience” included figurative language about the arc of the moral universe:

Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

Things refuse to be mismanaged long. Jefferson trembled when he thought of slavery and remembered that God is just. Ere long all America will tremble.

The words of Parker’s sermon above foreshadowed the Civil War fought in the 1860s. The passage was reprinted in later collections of Parker’s works. A similar statement using the same metaphor was printed in a book called “Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry” with a copyright date of 1871 and publication date of 1905. The author was not identified:

We cannot understand the moral Universe. The arc is a long one, and our eyes reach but a little way; we cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; but we can divine it by conscience, and we surely know that it bends toward justice. Justice will not fail, though wickedness appears strong, and has on its side the armies and thrones of power, the riches and the glory of the world, and though poor men crouch down in despair. Justice will not fail and perish out from the world of men, nor will what is really wrong and contrary to God’s real law of justice continually endure.

[Buoying my spirits…]

Source: Daring Fireball

Daring Fireball: The Dissent

Daring Fireball: The Dissent:

And its poignant conclusion (p. 60):

One of us once said that “[i]t is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much.” For all of us, in our time on this Court, that has never been more true than today. In overruling Roe and Casey, this Court betrays its guiding principles.

With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent.

Keep the faith.

[That the highest judges in the land can decide based on their religious beliefs rather than the law is beyond despicable. They mislead congress in order to attain their seats that should be reason to have them removed. This will take a long, long time to fix.]

The Slap Trap Crap | NextDraft

The Slap Trap Crap | NextDraft:

Because this is an example of the same kind of asinine false equivalence that we’ve seen soil the media for the past several years. There were not two sides to Trump’s habitual lying. There are not two sides to the vaccine debate. There are not two sides to the potential upside of using disinfectant on the inside of your body. There are not two sides to the climate change debate. There are not two sides to the Jan 6 insurrection story. There are not two sides to the 2020 election results. Yesterday, Donald Trump requested that Vladimir Putin dig up and share dirt on Joe Biden’s family. At a time of war, that’s straight up treachery, the kind of anti-American garbage this criminal has been spewing for years. End of story.

Being unbiased does not mean giving lies the same weight as the truth.

[All the yes!]

Joe Manchin Has Wrecked the Biden Presidency—Perhaps He’ll Also Liberate It | The New Yorker

Joe Manchin Has Wrecked the Biden Presidency—Perhaps He’ll Also Liberate It | The New Yorker:

If you’re the President, there’s no need to prove to Manchin that you’re going to be “tough on spending,” so why not call off your plan to start collecting student debts again? Why not use every power still at your disposal to do what you can for the country while you’ve got some power? Acting boldly carries risks. With the Senate split fifty-fifty, if you give Manchin reason to switch parties you lose your ability to appoint more judges, for instance; the power that comes with even a tenuous majority is very real. But using executive authority—and boldly—may be the only way that Biden will get anything done, as long as Manchin (and, perhaps, Kyrsten Sinema) block effective legislative action, alongside a solid phalanx of fifty Republicans. Points to Biden for trying, but, at some point, even in Washington, no really does mean no, and you need to move on as best you can.

[What a mess. 🤦‍♂️]

‘Bad Company’ by the Group Bad Company, from the Album ‘Bad Company’ – Lost Art Press

‘Bad Company’ by the Group Bad Company, from the Album ‘Bad Company’ – Lost Art Press:

Two lessons: Big business will try to bully you. They will try to decide when to pay you. They will decide how your pricing should work. They will ask for special treatment compared to your smaller customers.

Don’t give in. Once you start treating your customers differently, you are in for a world of drama and deceit. Whenever we get asked for special treatment, I simply remember what Jennie Alexander always said: “’No’ is a complete sentence.”

The second lesson: Pay your vendors on the day you get their invoice. When someone drops off work they did for us, they leave with a check. When an invoice arrives, John pays it the same day.

Vendors remember this. And if you’ve wondered how we kept so many of our products in stock during the pandemic shortages, you now have your answer.

These folks are such a pleasure to deal with, and they produce (and write) some of the best works in the field. The books themselves are a joy, beautifully designed, printed and bound. I must repeat this line… it’s so important! “Jennie Alexander always said: “’No’ is a complete sentence.”