Eve of Distraction

Actual Memorial Day is tomorrow; today is Designated Memorial Day.  Remember those who died in wars; work toward eliminating the wars, especially the stupid ones.  Remember that 20% Off sales are not the reason for the holiday.

• George Takei smacks down "trolls" who don't like the new Star Trek series' diversity (Star Trek Discovery stars (ooooops) Michelle Yeoh as the Captain.  The "trolls" should maybe take their complaint to Gene Roddenberry's ghost).  (David, Crooks and Liars)
• No, Twitter isn't really "reeling," nor was the remark particularly "scathing," but John Cleese did get off a good one.   The tweet, background, and responses, at AlterNet from Raw Story. 
• The headline of the AlterNet article (repeating the headline at BillMoyers.com) says "Donald Trump to Hungry Seniors:  Drop Dead."  (Trudy Lieberman, BillMoyers.com at AlterNet)
• Headline:

  On Fox News, Gutting Social Safety Nets Is ‘Restoring The Dignity Of Work’

  On this planet, gutting the safety net is called "Sticking it to the poor."  It apparently needs to be said that when "conservatives" and that ilk talk about the "dignity of work," they're not talking about jobs that pay a living or better wage.  They're talking about labors that may or may not make their lives easier but that they don't want to have to do or think about.  I don't see too many "conservatives" bragging about starving themselves.  A diet of "pride" doesn't go very well with working.  Food is better.  (NewsHound Brian, AlterNet [from News Hounds])
• Net neutrality threatened again:

  Under its Trump-annointed chairman, Ajit Pai, the Federal Communications Commission decided last Thursday to revisit its net neutrality ruling. The agency has reopened a docket for public comments on Pai’s proposal to undermine the safeguards needed to protect people from having their internet service providers block, throttle or de-prioritize the online content they want to see.
  
  The last time the agency did this, in 2014 and 2015, it unleashed a torrent of public comments in support of the idea that the open internet should have basic protections under the law. Four million people voiced their concerns via the agency’s beleaguered website. The vast majority of these comments supported meaningful net neutrality protections.
  
  That’s just what the FCC put in place: It responded to the public outcry and reclassified ISPs like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.
  
  [...]
  
  As the Trump FCC moves forward with this misinformation campaign, it’s worth highlighting the six things its chairman doesn’t want you to know:
  
  1. The American public overwhelmingly supports net neutrality protections

  Extra emphasis added. Read the rest.  And then make your views known.
  
• Why The Handmaid's Tale should frighten you.
• Why the Democrats don't win more often, as summarized by the Orgtheory.net blog and reposted to Sociological Images.
• Remembering history and why that's important.  (Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch) (Also "There...are...four...lights!" [video])
• More on White Evangelical Christians and the Civil Rights Movement.  (Colorblind Christians)

  This is a good example of the white evangelical self-critique because the writer is insisting that racial justice was not only a complicated political question—as the moderates would have it—but actually cut so close to the heart of the Gospel that it affected one’s final and eternal judgment (in which any good evangelical believed). This was hard-hitting.
  
  Ok, so there was diversity of thought. The harder question to begin to answer is this: if this self-critique was so widespread, why was it so impotent? (Or was it?)