Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - January 7


In 2020, you had the insurrection led by the orange menace. By definition it was a coup d'etat, a violent uprising against government. 

Some people thought it was all a part of the game (I would refer to those as the stupid people), some slept on it. But some of us saw it for what it was. 

I have studied coups in history and had a notion that this was just the beginning. And back in 2020, I caught a video from a guy who lived in a central Asian country who provided a perspective. 

He had lived through coups in his country and saw this as no different. He explained why he thought that in some detail (which I won't get into here, but it ticked the boxes). 

And he finished with a few thoughts: that the person behind the coup must be held accountable, and dealt with. That the person (or more broadly the people) responsible for the coup will never stop coming. And that he wanted to tell us what he's told his family during coups … "good luck"

The orange man was not deal with. The wheels of justice were/are excruciatingly slow, he managed to run out the clock, and he got some help from people in other high places. 

He never did stop coming. And now has all the power and intends to act like a dictator. 

So I guess, sadly, the coup did happen. And now it's down to "good luck"

The adults in the room failed at their jobs and we all will pay a price. 


The tragedy in New Orleans


On New Year's Eve, there was an attack on revelers who were simply out and enjoying the evening on Bourbon Street. A car made its way into the crowd and killed a number of people.

But once again, we saw some terrible reporting.  Every outlet wanted to get the scoop, and report on it from any angle that might generate interest in content on that outlet.  There were few facts, and a lot of speculation.  Maybe it was a terrorist attack? Maybe it was a more coordinated effort?

It is an absolute tragedy - no doubt about that.  

But I wanted to call out two items that I saw in the reporting.  First, I saw a quote from a contemptible Senator from Louisiana talking about this as a wakeup call, as it being one of the worst things ever, and we need to be ready for attacks like this.  The subtext wasn't lost on me.  The person had a "foreign name" so it feeds into the hysteria.  But he was a US Citizen by birth and his motives (at the time of this writing) are unknown.  And anyway, this is the same Senator who thinks that gun related deaths are a fact of life.  The fact that this incident is different in his mind is really something. 

The other thing that caught my attention was that there were barricades in place to prevent cars from going into pedestrian areas.  But these barricades were undergoing some upgrades specifically to prepare for the superbowl in a few months.  That would mean that the goal was to protect a huge moneymaker in the future at the potential expense of the present.  That gave me pause.


"We are living a lie"


So says astronaut Ronald Garan. 

From within the ISS he reached an epiphany:

"From space, it becomes painfully clear how our human-made systems treat Earth's vital systems as mere subsidiaries of the global economy," 

In short, we can be better to our planet and do things to help the earth more, rather than always trying to extract its resources.

As I've heard it stated colloquially "there is no planet B"





Disney in a wage theft case

Beginning a few years ago, Disney underpaid its cast members in Disneyland by a wide margin. 

Somewhere between the union contracts, California law, and Disney's policies, many thousands of people were underpaid for their work at the theme park. 

The settlement covered back pay and came to $233 million. 

As the author notes, it's interesting that the company was quibbling about a dollar or two an hour - all the while the CEO made $31 million last year. 



Watch "Biomedical Scientist Answers Pseudoscience Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED" on YouTube


This is worth 20 minutes of your day.

My take: think rationally about things, and pay attention to the reality that some "famous person on the internet" is telling you something for their own reasons, usually money or fame.  And that is not science or anything meaningful.  

Be a skeptic!



Best aurora photos


Photographer Tom Rae was honored recently, as having taken one of the most amazing aurora photos ever. 






Artemis moon mission delayed until 2027


The heat shield damage was concerning and everything is once again pushed back. 




Bitchin' Dave's newsletter is published weekly.  Please feel free to forward it around. If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe, send an email to geezergamer92@gmail.com
  

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