Just how connected is Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, anyway? Yesterday, I wrote a bit about speculation that Donald Trump has significant ties to the Russian government–that the praise he heaps upon Russian President Vladimir Putin is more than distant admiration, but a signal that he is the Russian government’s puppet. John Marshall of Talking Points Memo had an interesting piece about these connections, which then got a fact-checking rebuttal.

Wherein I discuss some odds and ends regarding the two party conventions and the election in general. Last week’s Republican National Convention was not the disaster it could have been. Delegates who didn’t want to Trump to be the nominee attempted to stage a revolt through a procedural vote, but failed. There were some isolated reports of threats against delegates who weren’t supporting Trump but, as far as I can tell, no actual violence.

Another Sunday meta post. First of all, it’s too damn hot. Go away, summer. I don’t need you. I’ve been making progress on recategorizing. Most of the way through determining what categories I need. Should be done with that sometime next week and then I can go about actually recategorizing everything. That part will probably be even more tedious, unless I can find a straightforward way to do it programmatically.

Much links. Very info. Police Violence * [Atlanta police shooting of unarmed black man leads to rare murder charge](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/22/atlanta-police-shooting-deravis-rogers-james-burns-murder-charge) -- The "rare" part is what should change. * [The near certainty of anti-police violence](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/the-near-certainty-of-anti-police-violence/490541/) -- Ta-Nehisi Coats explains why events like the recent targeted killing of police officers is an unfortunate but expected result of police abuses. Politics * [Fact check: Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention](http://www.

What can we learn about life and work from a bunch of little white and red beads mixed together? Quite a bit, actually. If you’ve never heard of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, you’re hardly alone. He’s been dead for over 20 years, and had already passed away before I’d first heard of him. What he will likely be most remembered for is being instrumental in Japan’s economic revitalization following World War II.

Social media service Twitter took the rare step this week of permanently banning Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos, after years of abhorrent behavior. If you’re just catching up, the short version is this: Yiannopoulos has been the tech editor for right-wing outlet Brietbart News since late last year. His online infamy has its provenance in his support for GamerGate, which saw him pitching in to attack and encourage attacks on various women involved with video games and video game journalism.

Don’t believe the hype: the tech industry isn’t suffering a “pipeline problem.” It’s a culture problem. Facebook released theirannual diversity report last week. In it are some positive changes over last year, but they aren’t much to write home about: women are now 27% of leadership positions (23% last year), and 5% of non-tech employees are now black (vs. 3% last year). Is this good news? Yes, in the sense that it represents forward progress.

This is one of those rare occasions where I’ll get personal in order to make a broader point. Growing up, I gravitated toward things that pigeonholed me as a nerd. It didn’t help that I wasn’t particularly athletic, despite several extended attempts at it. I was into computers, video games, comic books–pretty much a walking stereotype. I was part of a group of misfits, all boys who felt similarly ostracized and separate from their peers.

Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s recently announced running mate, was my Congressman when I lived in Indiana. I have a special loathing for the man. Currently the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence achieved infamy relatively recently when he signed a bill into law that legalized discrimination against LGBT people. That he soon passed a revised version in response to public outcry got less press–the damage had been done. But this is hardly the worst entry in Pence’s resume.

Change is coming, just not in a hurry. I’m currently working my way through all of my posts, determining what categories should exist for them. Each post will get exactly one category. First, I will determine for each post a category name that is both specific enough to be useful and broad enough to hold at least a handful of articles. I am adding new categories as I see a need for them, and tallying how many posts would fit under each.