The outcome of Impeachapalooza 2 is old news by now, I know, but in light of the spectacle of Donald Trump headlining CPAC - which is packed with his minions parroting his election fraud conspiracy theories - I thought I might as well post some thoughts.

1. In regards to Trump’s acquittal, I mean, sure - we knew more or less how this would end. The ( Read more... )

I do keep up with current events. I just can’t blog about them in real time. Blame it on deadlines, moving house and kidney stones.

Anyway:

1. Trump is now the only POTUS to be impeached twice. Which is braggable.

Is it too little too late? Well, we had that discussion during Impeachapalooza 1, where the argument was (1) there was no point ( Read more... )

Previously on Senseless Acts of Bloggery:

As for what happens next, that’s a whole other post and it’s going to take me a little time to get that written - and it seems that particular story is fast-moving. So I’m gonna need a little time on that.

So yeah, about that:

1. We already knew what Mitch McConnell was going to say about whether the Senate ( Read more... )

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is gone. I have thoughts:

1. I’ve always been amazed and impressed at how RBG became an icon for so many people in the sense that I can’t think of any other Supreme in my lifetime that had a fanbase like hers. Granted, that’s largely to do with the fact that she built up her rep as a champion of gender equality and human rights ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to the PRC under the One Country Two Systems arrangement.

Alternatively, it’s Year 0 of the second handover to China in which One Country Two Systems has been changed to One Country Two Nearly Identical Systems.

Which means I might go to jail for posting this. Or not. Let’s ( Read more... )

I’m late with this, I know. But in case you hadn't heard, the Hong Kong police banned this year’s candlelight vigil to observe the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

We held one anyway.

BACKSTORY: Hong Kong has held a rally every June 4 since 1990 to remember the massacre and demand the Chinese govt admit the truth of what happened ( Read more... )

ITEM: Wesley Lowery of 60 Minutes posted a Twitter thread in which he notes that the “police targeting journalists” narrative in the media is problematic in that it infers that the press has (or should have) more First Amendment protection than the protesters who are also being targeted.

The basic thrust is that both the press and protests have ( Read more... )

It seems like we’ve crossed some sort of event horizon or cultural Rubicon when I scroll past protest  photos and videos on Twitter and I have to look closely to see if they’re from Hong Kong or Minneapolis.

The parallels are striking, from the excessive and indiscriminate use of tear gas and gratuitously pepper-spraying and arresting reporters to ( Read more... )

The reception to Beijing’s plan to slap a National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong in the name of “urgency” - and the HK police’s reaction to that reception - has been about what you’d expect.

Of course, not everyone is freaking out about the NSL. Quite a lot of people welcome it, and have been going around making very conspicuously public ( Read more... )