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Rep. Tulsi Gabbard eviscerates Trump as ‘Saudi Arabia’s bitch’ [NBC News]

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard called the Draft Dodger in Chief “Saudi Arabia’s Bitch” in a tweet.

Saudi Arabia’s bitch, Russia’s bitch, North Korea’s bitch….

Gabbard is an Iraqi war vet. Trump got five draft deferments when it was his time to serve; he doesn’t remember what medical condition he had that qualified him to sit out the war.

I’m loving Rep. Gabbard right now.

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Seems legit

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Dave Winer: Less Facebook is OK

Dave Winer: Less Facebook is OK

Dave is my blogging spirit animal. I like blogging, and I like sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Medium. Of those platforms, I get the most return from Facebook. But blogging AND sharing to Facebook and Google+ are just too much work. So I’m going to start focusing mainly on the blog, and just automatically share links to Google+ and Facebook, until those platforms become easier to deal with in conjunction with a blog.

I’m working on figuring out a way I can share short updates directly to those services and to the blog simultaneously. This will involve automated email and plenty of duck tape.

You’re welcome to leave comments here, or on Facebook or Google+. Or just stop reading, even if you’re a close friend or member of my immediate family. I do not require other people to participate in my peculiar hobby.

I will revisit this decision when it doesn’t seem to be working for me, or when the tools for sharing blog content to social media get easier to work with.

I’ll keep mirroring my posts to Tumblr and Medium because that’s easy.

And I’m still trying to figure out what to do about Twitter.

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Vox: Wall Street’s unrealistic expectations created a crisis for Twitter

No sympathy for Twitter here. Twitter chose whether and when to go public. If Wall Street is being mean to Twitter, tough nuts. It should have been no surprise; this is how Wall Street works.

With Disney and Google supposedly bowing out of the negotiations, Apple uninterested and Salesforce tepid at best, perhaps the best option would be for Twitter to go private with owners that are happy with the company as it is now — a middle-sized Internet global media platform, rather than a Facebook-killer. But could such buyers be found? Or would any buyer expect meteoric growth?

(Timothy B. Lee, Vox)

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Kathy Sierra says she lost nothing by quitting social media after receiving numerous death threats

Kathy Sierra says she lost nothing by quitting social media after receiving numerous death threats

Sierra was the target of a flood of graphic death threats over her blog about web design. Yes, that’s right — web design.

Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything podcast:

In 2007 writer, programmer, and horse trainer Kathy Sierra quit the internet because of misogynist hate trolling. She stayed off the social web for 7 years but last year she came back to see what Twitter was like. She tells us why she only lasted a few weeks and her theory about why so many women are targets online. Plus Danielle Keats Citron explains how we could use the law to drain the cesspool.

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How to unplug when you should

Do you obsessively fiddle with your phone all the time? Win back some mental space with these tips – Michael Duran, Wired

I see many articles like this. They all recommend similar steps. Don’t put your phone in your pocket, keep it in your desk where you have to make some effort to get it. Go a couple of days without connectivity.

These tips are not helpful. Keeping my phone out of reach would create more problems than it’s worth, because it’s a legitimate inconvenience when my phone is out of reach. The problem is that I fiddle with the phone at times when I should be doing something else. THAT’S what I’m looking to control.

Going a few days without connectivity is like going without electricity. It’s doable. People call that “camping.” And it’s good for you. But it’s kind of a big deal. Not to be entered into casually.

One tip that is helpful: Turn off nearly all your notifications. You do NOT want to be notified when you get new email, a mention or comment on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. You just don’t.

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Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds briefly suspended from Twitter, claims censorship

Reynolds reacted to reports that protesters in Charlotte are swarming the highways and surrounding cars. “Run them down,” Reynolds said. That was the tweet that got him suspended.

Reynolds explains:

I’ve always been a supporter of free speech and peaceful protest. I fully support people protesting police actions, and I’ve been writing in support of greater accountability for police for years.

But riots aren’t peaceful protest. And blocking interstates and trapping people in their cars is not peaceful protest — it’s threatening and dangerous, especially against the background of people rioting, cops being injured, civilian-on-civilian shootings, and so on. I wouldn’t actually aim for people blocking the road, but I wouldn’t stop because I’d fear for my safety, as I think any reasonable person would.

Twitter is quicker on the trigger to censor people on one side of the political chasm than the other, Reynolds says.

Later, he responds to a suggestion that “Keep driving” would have been a better tweet: “It would have been, and in only two words instead of three. But I’ve had over 580,000 tweets, and they can’t all be perfect.”

OPENED UP TWITTER TO SEE THIS: – Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit

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Today’s creative writing: Revised beginning of “The Reluctant Magician.” Total 5,130 words

I have changed my vision for both the main female character and the villain, and I wanted to go back and make what I’ve written so far fit that vision.

The alternative is writing notes to myself and going back to the beginning and revising when I get to the second draft. I’ve done that before on previous novels. It’s a slog. This way seems more fresh and lively.

What I’m doing is dangerous. I could end up revising and revising and never adding new material. But I’m making up my writing technique as I go (as well as making up the writing itself, of course).

Someone on Twitter asked me today about my creative writing technique, whether I write major scenes first or write in order. I said this time around I did a 3,000-word outline and from that I’m writing scenes in order.

On previous novels I wrote without an outline. I just wrote scenes in order. But that was like pulling teeth.

I’m trying to get to the point where creative writing is just something I do every day, with no drama. Like BRUSHING teeth, rather than pulling them.