I have a love-hate relationship with the place. On the one hand it's over-developed, dirty, crowded and a monument to all the things wrong with tourism and the complicated issues surrounding the spoiling of Hawaii's natural beauty, culture and self-rule.
On the other hand, it's familiar and the beach is nice and I enjoy the amenities when it's not too crowded. But it's a weird place on the strip after dark, for sure.
Our hosts and friends and all were lovely and very nice and I enjoyed being videographer.
When I used to teach an online course for a local SF college I was treated to significant disrespect in comments posted by my students online, many posted publicly. I think none of them would have said those types of things to me in person. It is one reason I stopped teaching in that forum.
Which is why I found this blog post, from one of my fav tech-bloggers, all the more meaningful.
They Have To Be Monsters
There is deep truth in the old idea that people are able to say these things because they are looking at a screen full of words, not directly at the face of the person they're about to say a terrible thing to. That one level of abstraction the Internet allows, typing, which is so immensely powerful in so many other contexts …As an exercise in empathy, try to imagine saying some of the terrible things people typed to each other online to a real person sitting directly in front of you. Or don't imagine, and just watch this video.
The weight of seeing through the fear and beyond the monster to simply discover yourself is often too terrible for many people to bear. In a world of hard things, it's the hardest there is.
That's the end of my comments this week. the Rest are some - hopefully - interesting reads.
Take care and Happy Mom's Day.
What the media will never understand about Trump supporters
Donald Trump is successfully running a “He’s with me” campaign. All of the other candidates are running an “I’m with her” campaign. The difference between these two campaigns is what will make the 2016 election. The vague promises to make America great again … I will make you feel good … I express your anger … I am your vehicle .. are all Donald-isms for “He’s with me”. “He’s with me” will beat “I’m with her” every time.
Will Clinton Attempt to Bring Sanders Supporters into the Democratic Fold?
Something to keep your eye on in the lead-up to post-East Coast voting, and something that could well affect the voting after that. Will Clinton move toward Sanders’ positions, as an appeal for his supporters, or will she, as I’ve said elsewhere, insist the mountain (of his voters) come to Mohammad?
Seems the latter.
This from Josh Abramson, in a Huff Post piece called “5 Things We’ve Learned About Hillary Clinton Since She Won the New York Primary“. here’s the fifth point (my occasional emphasis):
5. There will be no attempt whatsoever to bring Sanders supporters back into the Democratic fold.Sanders supporters knew Clinton was angry at them for voting for Bernie — they could tell by her comment saying that she “feels sorry for” young voters too misinformed to vote for her; or by Bill Clinton saying that Sanders voters are so unsophisticated that they just want to “shoot every third banker on Wall Street”; or by David Plouffe (a Clinton ally) saying that every person who donates money to Sanders is being taken in by an obvious “fraud”; or by the unnamed Clinton staffer so certain she or he was speaking in a tone and manner consistent with the view of the Clinton campaign that she or he told Politico that the Clinton campaign “kicked Bernie’s ass” in New York and that Sanders can “go fuck himself.”
Senator Pat Roberts Thinks Chicken Welfare is “Absolutely Ridiculous”
Here is a quote from Pat Roberts (R-KS) speaking to the North American Agricultural Journalists on Tuesday, who is, again, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee:
“What is chicken enrichment anyway? It could be yoga, that might be difficult. Video games? They do that for various animals. Sports? A gourmet meal? I think probably music is the best thing we can do to entice the chickens to come out and be happier, you know free range, roaming around. I think probably Ray Price would be the best person. Certainly not Prince. At any rate, something soothing.”
Roberts, over the past five years, has taken more than $850,000 in donations from agribusiness.
The Mirage of a Return to Manufacturing Greatness
In America’s factories, jobs are inevitably disappearing, too. But despite the political rhetoric, the problem is not mainly globalization. Manufacturing jobs are on the decline in factories around the world.“The likelihood that we will get a manufacturing recovery is close to nil,” Professor Stiglitz said. “We are more likely to have a smaller share of a shrinking pie.”
Bad drivers are a good indicator of a corrupt government
The one factor that unarguably connects corruption and driving is income. Rates of motor vehicle deaths have an inverted-U relationship with income. Poor countries have few fatalities. As they become wealthier, fatalities increase until income reaches some critical level, after which fatalities begin to decline again. One study puts that turnaround point between $10,000 and $11,000 per capita (paywall). As a result of this common connection to income, traffic deaths and corruption will always be somewhat correlated.
The authors identify several ways that corruption might influence the risk of accidents, such as by undermining infrastructure development, limiting opportunities for economic advancement, or discouraging legal enforcement. It is the last that O’Malley identifies. There are countries where police are powerless or unwilling to enforce the laws, and as a result drivers tend to ignore them.
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