Rebecca Solnit on debate quoting Laurie Penny:

There are some stupid mistakes that only very smart people make, and one of them is the notion that a sensible argument seriously presented can compete with a really good piece of theatre.
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But academic research and investigative journalism are very different from formal public debate. Public debate — at least the way I was taught to do it at my posh school — is not about the free exchange of ideas at all. You only listen to the other guy so you can work out how to beat him, and ideally, humiliate him. I’m choosing my pronouns deliberately here. The format is fundamentally an intellectual dick-smacking contest dressed up in institutional lingerie, and while there are plenty of women out there who can unzip their enormous brains and thwack them on the table with the best of them, the formula is catastrophically macho.

Sitting outside at the general store across from the post office on Islesboro as people come and go and chat with each other, the Hallmark stories write themselves. The island of 600 residents is quiet and charming. With Jinx and Peg, we were visiting the Alice Pendleton Library, because that librarian and I are both pursuing Sustainable Libraries certifications and both starting LoTs ( Library of Things ). The ferry fills up fast and coming back we were the last car on, as the ferry loader person waved a truck aside and said send me the little red car, and carefully guided us into the last small space. Ok, the ferry thing is unfamiliar and next time we would make reservations although they say you don't have to. So now island libraries is a thing and Vinalhaven may be next.

This was the week many of us first got to see the "dark underbelly of the internet," where right wing podcasters make millions radicalizing young men. A follower of one group, Groypers, a group of alt-right, white nationalist, and Christian nationalist activists led by Nick Fuentes, assassinated Charlie Kirk, a leader of another group, Turning Point USA. Kirk, apparently was not right wing enough. The fact that it was a sniper shot from a distance suggested Day of the Jackal type stuff, but it was just a young man with a lot of gun experience. White on white, right on right violence. I shared part of a FB post by the Hungry Black Man and it pissed off a couple of conservative friends. If you haven't watched the Netflix series Adolescence, now might be a good time.

Charlie was not a figure of grace or empathy. History will not remember him as a voice of unity or a champion of justice. He will be remembered for the words he chose, words that often wounded and divided. As he lay bleeding out onstage, those words, once weapons, became dust.
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So what do we do with a legacy like this? First, we tell the truth. We acknowledge what he said, how he said it, and the hurt it caused. Second, we resist the temptation to let violence beget violence. For if this act tells us anything, it is that political violence has become a siren call to the unhinged, a spark they would gladly use to ignite the tinderbox of racial and class resentment. Today it was a conservative voice silenced. Tomorrow, it could just as easily be a progressive one. We must not let this become the currency of politics.

The first rural electrification movement in the US was in the 1920's. Now, a hundred years later, we are in a new movement to leave fossil fuels in the ground and go to renewable energy for running electric appliances and cars. So let's bring back Reddy Kilowatt. From the current owners of the cartoon character: "Reddy was created in 1926 by Ashton Collins Sr., a general commercial manager for Alabama Power Co. (APC) in Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, electricity was still a new technology, and APC wanted to increase demand for electrical power in their service area – especially in rural communities, which were still largely underserved. To grow the appeal of electricity, APC needed a friendly face to tout its benefits and to underline the need for safe practices. This was a world that needed a Reddy Kilowatt to lead the way."

Plot of a movie I watched this week: Two brothers return to hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932, buy a barn, start a juke joint, find a blues guitar prodigy and have opening night. The music is so powerful it summons old African shamans and 21st century rappers and hiphop guys into the dance. That's the best scene. Then vampires show up singing old English folk tunes. Epic battle ensues. The KKK shows up at the end and gets gunned down. Guitar guy survives, goes home to preacher dad who begs him to let the guitar go. Cut to modern day scene with guitar guy, now aged, played by the present day Buddy Guy.