reporters https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/world/asia/chinese-journalist-du-bin-detained.html muslims https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037 billionaires

We don’t talk about homelessness as a society for the same reasons we don’t talk about child abuse. It’s a generic reason: simply makes us uncomfortable. You can’t even really write about child abuse. And so I won’t here. Let’s talk about homelessness, or more specifically, let’s talk about panhandling…

A year and a day ago today, George Floyd went to buy a pack of cigarettes and was dead inside a half hour. And for the conservatives in the back, yes, he was arguably high when he did it. Same time, the pandemic, mass-unemployment, the stimulus checks and near perfect weather conditions, prompted mass protests across the country. Black Lives Matter was the chant. What has changed? Joe Biden is successful as a juxtaposition to Trump. Which simply means not tweeting obscenities at 3am.

Now that the nine-and-a-half-minute-neck-kneeler Derek Chauvin is tucked away in isolation, on 23-hour-lock down, in anticipation of an appeal that will ultimately fail. And, with his accomplices, who stood by and watched, about to go on trial: Let us recognize Darnella Fraizer and the people who raised her. A seventeen…

— Amiri Baraka

This past year, my neighbor lost his daughter, a police officer, during a heinous act of domestic gun violence. My other neighbor, who was actively becoming my closest friend, lost his own life in a way that his immediate circle still doesn’t fully understand. One of the chief personalities inspiring…

It is respectable to be addicted to money. Tobacco kills six million people around the world each year. It is understandable to be addicted to power. Trump being delusional about the Democrats stealing the election. Drug addicts should go to jail. Reluctant we are to visualize and accept being addicted to substances. Which, by design, is intentionally addictive. These people are somehow not worthy of our empathy and service.

I am fully here for a good Trumper fail video but I would not be clapping too gleefully at the mass censorship of Trump-land actors or the nationwide dragnet of anyone caught on video inside the capital.

The Soviet Union failed where China is succeeding. If the Russians had the technology of today: specifically the data and surveillance toolset, they may have been more successful. Meanwhile, American style democracy around the world is looking more and more dysfunctional.