Electric Word, Life

• The trouble with All-'80s radio is that at least once a day I have to hear "Come On Eileen," and I was not a fan of that song in the actual '80s.  
• Why voting is important and necessary.  Via twistedchick on dreamwidth.  Fannie Lou Hamer.  You can look her up.  And then explain why, if impersonation voter fraud is 0.5% of 0.000004%(total voter fraud, 2000-2012, was less than 2,100.  Average turnout, 2000-2012, was around 122,000,000), the concentration is on voters being impersonated, rather than dishonest election or campaign officials.
  
  Yeah, I thought not.
• Batocchio (Vagabond Scholar) presents a guide to when it's worthwhile engaging in political discussion:

  In my experience, some people simply aren't persuadable; some have little substance to their views even if you politely hear them out. Trying to identify points of agreement and contention can be a useful exercise (and sometimes can de-escalate an argument), but ultimately it's impossible to find common ground with someone on another planet. (Plus, trying to do so can be draining.)
  
  In the interests of preserving sanity and lowering blood pressure, I've been playing with some categories to assess these dynamics and where someone falls. Maybe this piece isn't necessary for most people, who have worked out their own rules or handle such matters with instinctual grace. There's also a danger of condescension or ego preservation with these classifications. To guard against that, I think it's essential to practice curiosity, listening, compassion and a willingness to consider one's own potential blind spots. (I'm certainly not claiming that I personally achieve all that, but we gotta aspire to something, right?)

  Don't look at me; I address all issues with snark.
  
• Someone has not quite left the playground.

  "Bigotry, if you look at the definition, it's about someone who's small-minded and sits there and directs hate towards a certain group," she explained. "Hillary Clinton's speech [attacking alt-right conservatives] was all about hate towards a group that, while my fellow counterpart might consider them to be very racist, it's the exact opposite."
  
  "These are God-fearing, baby-loving, gun-toting, military-supporting, school choice-advocating Americans!" Hughes added. "And just because maybe there might be some, a part of a very small fringe group [of white supremacists] that read Breitbart -- by sitting there and saying the entire website is white supremacy is kind of ridiculous as saying just because you have people that are anarchists and communists that read the Huffington Post, calling that newspaper establishment, [is like] saying that they're pro-anarchy and they're against the United States government."

  Try "work at," Ms. Hughes. "Alt-right conservatives" don't just read Breitbart, they set its tone.  (Although she might not actually read Breitbart.  Many people don't.  I get my fantasies from Fantasy, if you know what I mean.)
  
  The MTV reporter riposted:

  [Jamil] Smith clarified Breitbart's role in promoting white supremacy.
  
  "What they present is the view of the white supremacist mentality through their coverage," he observed. "It's not necessarily saying, 'Well, everyone who works there is a white supremacist.' I don't know that."
  
  "The point is to say, what kind of viewpoint did they reflect? And it's undeniable that they reflect a white supremacist view if you looked over their coverage over the last several years."

• Of course tonight is clear and not too cold. When I wanted to watch the Perseids last week, it was overcast every night. There was someone screaming in the park at regular intervals when I took out the garbage. Sometimes several someones. I was sufficiently far enough away that I couldn't see through the trees.