https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/alex-jones-denounces-verdict.html?smid=url-share

Alex Jones is… the word escapes me. Outrageous. Indecent. Shameless. But also: venal, avaricious, mercenary, and crass (I really wish that word came from Crassus, the wealthy Roman general who wound up getting molten gold poured down his throat, but it comes from the Latin “crassus,” meaning “fat, coarse, insensitive”).

BUT: the people who listen to and believe him are just as bad. They don’t get a pass for being poor dupes, benighted fools.

BUT ALSO: this sort of thing isn’t helping:

«The laypeople were not as accurate in their predictions as the scientists in the Nature study, but the fact they were still able to predict many failed replications suggests that many of them have flaws that even a layperson can notice.»

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21504366/science-replication-crisis-peer-review-statistics

Are we entering a post-Enlightenment age, where the intelligent inquiry into the nature of things just doesn’t count for as much as it used to? Hopefully not, but c’mon, Science.

Top story on 538 right now.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/videos/voting-rights-in-north-carolina-could-hinge-on-its-supreme-court-election/

This is why judicial elections are so important:

How can this still be happening? How can all the nice wishy-washy white people in the middle still be allowing this to happen? “Oh, I don’t know, John, do you really want to give away our jobs?” “Oh, I don’t know, John, those people really are kind of angry and violent and they just want to tear everything down.” SERIOUSLY??

Making jambalaya. My mother, daughter of a rocket scientist, spent at least one summer picking okra in Texas, and I HEARD about it. Thank you, farm workers @ufwupdates.

I’m simply astonished that NC could elect Joe Biden in 2020 and let Republicans sweep the Supreme Court elections.

«The math is simple but the stakes are high in North Carolina. Democratic justices hold four of seven Supreme Court seats but they must defend two this year. If a Republican flips just one of them, they would gain control of the court.

Given the state’s recent history, a partisan flip would affect the outcome of major civil rights cases. In recent years, the Democratic-majority court has voted on party lines to struck down GOP gerrymanders expanded the scope of racial discrimination appeals in the criminal legal system. It is now considering the constitutionality of the state’s felony disenfranchisement statutes in a case that may restore voting rights to tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

Depending on the outcome, Democrats may rue the 2020 cycle, when Democratic Chief Justice Cheri Beasley lost her re-election race by just 401 votes.»

https://boltsmag.org/your-state-by-state-guide-to-the-2022-supreme-court-elections/

Actually, I wonder how much of this is driving the whole “local” thing at restaurants. (e.g., “We get our pork from <next county over>!”)

This whole thread is good; chefs and independent-restaurant owners supporting the Teamsters b/c Sysco is Just That Bad:

There’s a kid in my neighborhood who loves Ayn Rand.

Well… Let’s see how it turns out: