Scripting News: Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Highly recommend this week's New Yorker Radio Hour interview with Stephen Kotkin of Stanford. He's an expert on Russian history, biographer of Stalin, he talks about what Trump is doing, and as I listened I realized we have not filled in how crazy or challenged the leaders of the other huge powers are. Trump apparently is not an outlier. Putin can't keep the war going in Europe indefinitely, their banking system is running on fumes and the people are tired of war (unlike in the US they feel their wars). There's tremendous corruption in the Chinese military, so Xi isn't rushing to try to take over Taiwan. It's easier and safer to just keep threatening. In the US we're shocked by what we've become, so quickly, we're failing to see the context. Kotkin also offers a perspective on the new media, relative to when TV and radio were new, and all the chaos the US has survived. He said something I believe is true, it'll be hard to turn America into a totalitarian state because every freaking American today was raised in a country where we had all the amendments. It'll be hard to get us to STFU. They have a plan in TrumpLand, but that doesn't mean it will work. #Linkblog items for the day.
Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR. talkingpointsmemo.com
Is Trump Taking a 'Liquidationist' Approach to the Economy? wsj.com
Democrats to hold town halls in GOP districts amid controversy. thehill.com
COVID keeps evolving and will find new ways to evade immune systems. npr.org
"Mail Pages" were a feature of my blog in 1997 and 1998. People could send email in response to a post, I read them all and published the most interesting ones, by my subjective criteria, to the current mail page. I think something like this could work in 2025 and beyond. scripting.com
The Lives of Others (2006), a drama and political thriller set in East Berlin before the wall came down. How secret police kept watch on the people. It foretells what's sure to come in the US, and it's also a fantastic movie. metacritic.com
FTC asks to delay Amazon Prime deceptive practices case, citing staffing shortfalls. Quid pro quo? cnbc.com
"Social media" is almost 100% bullshit and the rest of it is a con. Discuss. bsky.app
I am heavily invested in the stock market, and I totally don't mind if it crashes. I also own a Tesla, and ditto. substack.com
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