Eric Scigliano

Trying to write about what matters, what could be, and what's being lost. Books: Love, War & Circuses; Michelangelo's Mountain; Flotsametrics; The Big Thaw.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

What's the world's most uncommunicative, IT-incompetent airline? In my experience, #DELTA. What's your pick?

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

So he blusters about blockading Mexico, torpedoing NATO, and seizing Canada, the Panama Canal (which Panama just spent $5 billion upgrading),and Greenland--from Denmark, the U.S.'s steadiest ally* since the Barbary Wars. https://t.co/MoywfaOUQY
* Elon: Explain this word to him?

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Bullies are cowards, the saying goes, and #DonaldTrump is proof. He's too chickenshit to face up to real threats: climate change, the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea alliance (CRINK, per the Strategic News Service). https://t.co/XPYOLFeyoV....

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Plutocrat-in-chief #Elon_Musk, the tail that wags the dog, bought the GOP, stumbled trying to shut down the govnt, but is still trying to extend his domain to Congress & the country. Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain & Terry Southern together cdn't make this up. https://t.co/CbGIxfKT2h

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Maybe the employee who kept that feature working was among the ones he fired. Anyway, it's tedious, and one more reason to x out X.
Does anyone else keep getting that black screen?

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Did #ElonMusk 's mom make "Paint It Black" his lullaby when he was a babe, & now he wants to paint the whole world black as his T-shirts? Every time I open Twit-X, the screen reverts to illegible black. I reset it to "default" white, knowing it will just black out again.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

In 2017 Pam Bondi was piped for a post in Trump 1, then dropped 'cause she stank too much of influence-peddling (to Trump, of course).https://t.co/sROmqO7ymo Now, replacing Gaetz as AG nominee, she's the savior of the republic.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

So Trump the Retribution Tour notches its first loss with Gaetz's withdrawal--or does it? What if #Gaetz, Hegseth & #Gabbard are decoys, set out to get shot down and make whoever's appointed in their place look good?

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

#MattGaetz for attorney general? So will #MarjorieTaylorGreene get the next Supreme Court opening?

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

My latest for The Atlantic. It's a fun one (and serious): "Years ago, I called the local electric and streetlight utility, Seattle City Light, to ask why the block around the corner was lit up like a sleep-deprivation torture cell...."

https://t.co/HSUPxmlAVp

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

And one more reason to ditch X/Twitter (and become an Xitter?): Each time I open it, the background comes up black and I switch it again to more readable, supposedly "default" white--until the next time. Is that just Elon enforcing his aesthetic? He does favor black T-shirts....

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

One more reason to ditch Google: https://t.co/vIhdnZSvzF Israel hasn't just placed anti-UN attack ads, it's bought page-top placement. On DuckDuckGo, search for "UNRWA" and you get, well UNRWA.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Result: The Times cedes the mass of voters (especially young ones) to the other local medium still making endorsements, #TheStranger. Its avowed mission: to support "the most progressive politicians possible." One reason Seattle politics are as they are.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

If the #SeattleTimes wants to support civic life, attract new readers, and avoid irrelevance, why doesn't it let non-subscribers read its election endorsements? It allows them occasional free articles, but click "endorsements" and up pops the paywall. https://t.co/E5zNdSnWyC

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

A revealing slip? Lady Trump condemns the shooter as "a monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine." Is that like "fans who recognized Brady as a uniquely gifted quarterback"?
"Monster" is a very Trumpian term for a young man who may be a very sick puppy.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Maybe my last book, like its author, is a late bloomer. Four years on it gets another good review, this one from the American Library Assoc: "A gorgeous and engaging book, and a great introduction to a not always well understood aspect of climate science" https://t.co/edd7eG4gvv

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

"8. If Biden pulls out, qualms about age and decrepitude immediately turn, like Elmer Fudd’s shotgun, back onto Trump. He’s not aging well either." My 10 takes on the debate from hell. https://t.co/ItxIXnPWV2

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

@xenobriotic Maybe because lizards, like butterflies (which are also relatively scarce here) like sun? They need to warm up to get active, and can do that on sunny rocks even in colder places.

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Do veggies make rats smarter? They've eluded live and spring traps. I'd hate to use poison but.....

[Eric Scigliano @SeattleFlotsam]

Vegan rats? My squirrel-proof bird feeder (since removed) definitely isn't rat-proof, and the rogue rodents finished with a garden salad, razing arugula and mizuma and stripping pepper and tomato leaves. (No, they're not toxic.)