Every time I have a bad news day I look for something to balance. Total life appreciation. Today, according to the Guardian, it was about how roads will soon be used to generate solar electicity. #TLA
Trump is escalating a new arms race with Putin, as far as I can see. Far from being one to calm tensions (as with China re: Taiwan). I always thought the hypothesis of "Clinton more likely to lead down nuclear war path" was flawed. Faced with typically aggressive Russion utterances, Trump must amplify what was hinted at (aiming for increased forward facing nuclear capacities) to have the last word.
I was reminded by Nils that Trump's post election view was this: "countries should spend more on their own defence budgets, and forgo US protection, because "we can't afford to do it anymore" Japan and South Korea should develop nuclear weapons "because it's going to happen anyway." If this was his laizzez-faire attitude to proliferation in theory, you know that he is a knee jerk when put to the test. Typically behavior that makes many people skittish and wonder, are we human or are we dancers.
What seemed idle talk is replaced by a football.
Oh wait, I forgot, it's only Twitter. #TweetWars
"Maybe intellectuals have always been persecuted and shoved in lockers, but something in my gut tells me we’re at a low point — where social media interaction has replaced genuine debate and political discourse, where politicians are judged by whether we’d want to have a beer with them, where scientific consensus is rejected, where scientific research is underfunded, where journalism is drowning in celebrity gossip."
Sylvia Klimaki noted on FB "The irony (is)....if it hadnt been for the social media the chances of me reading this article would have been really low."
Meanwhile, Galen Bepler pointed me to this provocative piece The Four Stages of Life that begins "Life is a bitch. Then you die. So while staring at my navel the other day, I decided that that bitch happens in four stages. Here they are." Despite the comedic schtik, which caused me to comment "This sounds pessimistic," I came around the fact that it described people I know in uncomfortably close ways. Must be good writing.