1/25/17 linkspam

[snickfic]

Check the comments for more links!

Activism / resources
* CA ppl: @SenFeinstein may vote "yes" on Sessions. A staffer said they'd only received 5,000 calls (compared 2 30,000 to impeach B. Clinton) (Twitter). !!!!!!! Link includes phone numbers for all her offices. California folks, YOUR TIME IS NOW.

* 5 Calls - an easy-to-use website that provides numbers for your reps and scripts for you to call on a variety of issues

* Keep Delaware Blue [$$] (flippable). Call for donations to save the Delaware trifecta via a hotly contested state senate seat. Election is FEBRUARY 25.

*Action Checklist for Americans of Conscience - what appears to be a week-by-week activism to-do list, if you're still casting about for that sort of thing

* It’s happening: Major LGBT march on Washington set for D.C. Pride weekend (Queerty)

* Save Pages to the Wayback as you surf in Chrome with the new release of our extension: (Twitter - Internet Archive)

Good news
* Anti-science advocates are freaking out about Google truth rankings (Salon)

* Government Employees Get to Have Opinions, Too (ACLU).

* Democrats launch scorched-earth strategy against Trump (Politico). I can't say this article really describes my impression of what's gone on so far, but it sounds positive, at any rate.

* Nebraska State Senator Resigns After Offensive Women’s March Tweet (The Cut). And nothing of value was lost. Read the last paragraph for the real kicker.

* Why the Election of 9 Black Female Judges in Alabama Matters (The Cut). This is actually just a series of brief interviews and doesn't say ANYTHING about WHY this is good news, but it is in fact good news! So.

* After they marched, 500 women learned how to run – for office (McClatchy DC)

* She wanted to make a difference. Now this millennial is the mayor of her new town. (WaPo)

* What happens when ppl find out that an amendment [in MN] would allow these services excluded? The phones lit up & it got pulled an hour ago. (Twitter)

Bad news
* Trump Just Ordered Cops To Become Immigration Officers (Buzzfeed)

* Official: Border Patrol chief tells agents he was forced out (AP)

* The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned (WaPo)

* Bill would end Virginia’s ‘winner take all’ electoral vote system (WTKR). Soooo, VA GOP pretty pissed Hillary won that state, eh?

* As the Republican-led state legislature [in TX] has slashed funding to reproductive healthcare clinics, the maternal mortality rate doubled over just a two-year period (Guardian)

* These states are opening the door to bathroom wars (WaPo). Their GOP lawmakers don't all sound super excited about it, though.

Analysis/other
* Harper's Weekly Review for 2017, week 2 (Harper's). All the surreality in one convenient place. Holy mackerel.

* 5 challenges Trump may face building a border wall (WaPo)

* I'm hearing a lot these days about facts, falsehoods, and alternative facts. Guys, it's time for some speech act theory. (Twitter)

* Frustrated Republicans press McConnell to kill the filibuster (Politico). tl;dr It sounds unlikely the senate GOP is going to get rid of the filibuster.

Comments

[augustbird]

I feel a personal obligation to push the Scientific Agenda coming from a science background so I wanted to draw attention to the March for Science which has a pretty official looking Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/marchforscience/

I know there's satellite marches also being planned similar to the Women's March -- hope to see some of you at the Boston one!

[stardreamer]

Google's truth rankings could be an early step toward the society outlined in Asimov's "The Evitable Conflict". We're a long way from that yet, because the story depends heavily on the development of true AI, but still.

[feuervogel]

The linguistics thread (the "speech act theory" one) was excellent and reaffirmed my life choices (ie to study linguistics).