Guest Post - NBA

Mo Cha writes: Lest you be tempted to think this isn't your problem:

On Friday, Mr Morey posted a tweet with an image captioned: "Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong." [...] In response to Mr Morey's tweet, state-run broadcaster CCTV and Tencent Holdings, which streams NBA games in China, said they would stop broadcasting Rockets matches.

To be explicit: Twitter is banned in China. This is attempted censorship of speech by a US citizen in the US.

Heebie's take: you guys, a cold, blustery cold front has arrived this morning, and it's very deeply wonderful.

Guest Post - The Lighter Side of...

Nattilo writes: Minneapolis, in 1907. The StarTribune put up a neat interactive panorama of downtown Minneapolis that was put together by a guy who collaborated with a friend of mine on a book of his photos from the early 1970s. Anyhow, I thought it was funny that the only brands still in operation from among the many advertisements that are visible, are Schlitz, Miller High Life, and Pillsbury flour. Lumber may have built Minneapolis, but grain defines it (of course, only one of those is a local brand, but much of the grain for those beers was either grown, milled, or traded here). Other neat things: the Metropolitan Bldg, of course, a store front that appears to be a wood facade concealing a canvas tent with wooden walls, lots of ads for stoves, and plenty of draymen and their wagons and horses.

Heebie's take: Neat! I swear I saw something vaguely similar for San Diego (but maybe the early 70s?) very recently.

Census 2020

The 2020 census will not have a citizenship question, which is good. But is there a (corrupt) pathway where Hispanic or Latino citizens might find their data turned over to ICE and feel a risk of being investigated?

What I'm specifically wondering is: is it ethical to work on a project about encouraging census participation, or is it possible that this is indirectly contributing to someone's detainment and/or deportation? How much faith should I place in the Census Bureau under the Trump administration to protect the information of individuals at a high risk of detainment?

Maybe it's no different than the risk people face when they enroll their kids in public school or engage with any local government agency already, and I'm overthinking this.

Updated to add: LB emphatically answers in the comments, "The census litigation about keeping the question off the census was spearheaded by immigrant rights groups who want universal participation in the census. Trust them." So nobody else go down this same rabbit hole, 'kay? Census good.

Tired.

I'm in a bit of an overworked-burnout semester, as my fall semesters tend to be. (But spring is better! I don't want to desensitize people to the value of my complaining!) This is to say that I feel like I keep getting the news a day or two late and thinking, "Well, that might have been a thing to post yesterday." (Like Trump's crazy Syria tweets, or the Amber Guyger witness murder that showed up in the comments.)

Let's all complain about how tired we are. Recently I saw a link about chronic shortstaffing, and if I could find it again, it would provide a veneer of newsworthiness, but we can still all piss and moan without it.

"It's legal if the President does it," isn't in the Constitution?

I'm too slammed at work to say anything coherent, but Charley suggested that we should be talking about Judge Marrero's ruling rejecting the President's claim of immunity from criminal process -- specifically, a subpoena requiring the production of his tax returns.

Authors and bias and heart attacks

Doug sent me this email, which he's graciously letting me convert to a guest post:

remember that Nathan Robinson thing from a while ago? he was doing hit pieces on Democratic candidates without revealing that he himself was a massive Bernie Bro?

he's going into total meltdown over Bernie's heart attack.

always click on the author. always.

(The original piece being this takedown of Buttigieg from last March.)