 |
| Abstract art on the potato farm. |
Buy a drone with a GoPro camera, and you can do photos too. It looks neat, but what's it costing rural communities?
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
One potato, two potato, mechanized many, with consequences concerninfg water resources.
Buy a drone with a GoPro camera, and you can do photos too. It looks neat, but what's it costing rural communities?
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
A holiday thought. We as a nation deserve better than a huge pile of it. Anyone misled to believe senior people in the Democratic Party's inner party want Citizens United overturned is a lost soul.
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| Pompous platitudes presented at Davos, per paired teleprompters, link below. |
Links here, here, and here, and then a giant Davos pile, here.
Woo-woo, look at this. Inner Party; as inner as it gets. Unopposed it is worse, opposed it remains. An example of how English as a Second Language education effort can reach beyond grammar and vocabulary. You can watch that Davos stuff, the not absent but only occasional misreading of the teleprompter, with English as your first or second language; and you can enjoy what you hear - if it brings you joy more than loathing. Steve Bullock and Tulsi Gabbard admittedly are imperfect, but are quantum leaps above what the final 2020 two-party money-driven pairing will be for you to hold your nose and vote, exactly as was 2016.
 |
| quantum leaps are feasible, given the ground state |
At least we don't have Doug Wardlow to kick around anymore. Or not? Happy holidays.
_________UPDATE__________
George Orwell wrote a 1946 essay not greatly distant from his fiction. Think, Twitter and those who Tweet, in terms of the direction our language takes us.
It is interesting Orwell, cutting cleanly:
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.
Then later at length:
In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is surrender to them. When you think of a concrete object, you
think wordlessly, and then, if you want to describe the thing you have been visualizing you probably hunt about until you find the exact words that seem to fit it. When you think of something abstract you are more inclined to use words from the start, and unless you make a conscious effort to prevent it, the existing dialect will come rushing in and do the job for you, at the expense of blurring or even changing your meaning. Probably it is better to put off using words as long as possible and get one’s meaning as clear as one can through pictures and sensations. Afterward one can choose – not simply accept – the phrases that will best cover the meaning, and then switch round and decide what impressions one’s words are likely to make on another person. This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally. But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Sometimes a barbarous common usage can best convey feeling lost if a move toward better manners overrules an instinct. Barbarous things need to be discussed in fit terms to where delicate words can misstate or tone down a belief. Yet understatement sometimes is best to expose an insincerity. Often it is so, but effective understatement is difficult to master and easy to be lost with scan readers. The essay is short and worth more than scan reading. It carries a laugh or two for those liking irony.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Trump's quick eviction of Mattis to install an acting DoD civilian technocrat head was a good move, as is curbintg troop deployments.
A nation's military by necessity for having stable government should be civilian controlled, as with a police force clearly subordinate to a mayor and council; or a sheriff being subordinate to a county board.
The status of the F 35 SNAFU and cost overruns begs better leadership. Strib carrying an AP feed:
The man has run public company divisions on a tighter budget than the Pentagon enjoys, and had technology over manpower aims while in the private sector. Traditional conservatives should love Shanahan's chops.
Rotary aircraft would include the Osprey, a technological innovation that works, even having had birthing pains, and having gotten 787 bottlenecks straight after the decision to build in South Carolina as a "right to work" state vs. Washington where experience was greatest but where unions were strong made things work despite the nastiness of Boeing top management in making that anti-worker decision.
The Pentagon needs a flush, and a civilian top dog offers that possibility. The military after going voluntary has been brass-heavy for decades and needs a flush. That the Kurds suffer is not new; they've been sold out and screwed over for most of a century or more, and this is just one more step in that direction. The Afghan situation, without direct confrontation of Palkistan was a loser and downsizing the loss makes sense.
When a sensible change is made it should be acknowledged, despite it coming from Mr. HushMoney.
Can you imagine the situation had it been Pence making the choice? A crusadeer like Boykin would not be a good idea, but it would most likely be the idea Pence would cherish. Trump deserves credit for not marching that dangerous and stupid road. So far . . .
_____________UPDATE______________
It is not an unmindful praise at issue. Naming one of the death vendors to head the war and death part of the federal government who has been reported as wanting to streamline purchasing from the vendors is a naming recognized as greasing the skids for the vendors.
But the alternative is running the show by the death deliverers, whose bias is as was said by one during Vietnam days, "It's not much of a war but it's the only one we've got."
Don't seek attribution, it was published, but pinning it to one specific member of the officer corps is not worth the research time.
Getting the "war ticket" punched, combat command experience is a part of the "up" dimension of "up or out." It leads to mindsets which are counterproductive to pacifist ideals.
Selling technocratic "deterrence" is a better background, and money spent buying high-tech death tools gets recycled into the general consumer economy with that old multiplier effect of money in circulation that Econ 101 praises.
Cutting out the slack of bureau inertia has appeal as an argument, since the waste is great already, and minimization of it is hence easily envisioned.
What is most dangerous is the belief set of generals such as Boykin that a holy crusade is good for national character. It is not.
Civilian leadership at the Pentagon can be better in planning and research of weapon possibilities, with spin-off capable to consumer products, GPS being an example, with the alternative being how to most effectively deliver death and demoralization to "the enemy" using the equipment now in the arsenal and the training techniques that have long insensitized persons in killing "the enemy" while under one of several civil commandments to not kill our own, that being crime.
Downsizing the entire circus is likely easier among vendor technocrats who have more transferable skill sets than generals possess. Generals know how to climb a ladder and how to boss things once atop. They get into Pentagon consultancies, the schmoozing side of things, less than the technocrat side of let's make its radar cross section lower by doing this or that with carbon fiber composites.
The fact that an obscene majority of an obscene federal spending budget goes to the killing machinery, euphemistically called "defense," is at the heart of what a long term end should be the aim, and a start would be downsizing the military academies; as well as closing off a big part of the pentagon making it a war history museum or such. The fewer having a stake in the money flows to the death industries, the better; but long term attrition is needed because of the moods of those with vested interests, and how they might react to citizen effort to downsize their toys and games and meal tables.
Again, happy holidays.
May the next year be more sane than the last, and may that trend continue.
The status of the F 35 SNAFU and cost overruns begs better leadership. Strib carrying an AP feed:
A fracture developed last week over Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and worsened after Mattis' public disagreement with Trump, aired in his resignation letter.
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary on Jan. 1, Trump announced in a tweet Sunday. He had worked for more than three decades at Boeing Co. and was a senior vice president when he became Pentagon deputy in July 2017.
In the new year Trump wants to focus on streamlining purchases at the Pentagon, an issue on which Shanahan has already been working, a White House official said. The official asked not to be identified publicly discussing personnel matters.
U.S. officials said they didn't know if Shanahan would be Trump's nominee to replace Mattis. During a lunch with conservative lawmakers Saturday at the White House, Trump discussed his options. They were "not all military," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was among those attending.
Shanahan's biography on the Pentagon's website does not list military experience for the longtime Boeing executive. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, then a master's degree in mechanical engineering as well as an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In addition to work in Boeing's commercial airplanes programs, Shanahan was vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems and of Boeing Rotorcraft Systems. In a March 2016 report, the Puget Sound Business Journal called Shanahan a Boeing "fix-it" man who was central to getting the 787 Dreamliner on track after production problems in the program's early years.
An acting defense secretary is highly unusual. Historically when a secretary has resigned, he has stayed on until a successor is confirmed. For example, when Chuck Hagel was told to resign in November 2014, he stayed in office until Ash Carter was confirmed the following February.
Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, had been expected to retain his position as Pentagon chief through February. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, not the president, notified Mattis of Trump's decision to put in place Shanahan, said a senior administration official who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel issues.
The sudden change stripped Mattis of any chance to further frame national security policy or smooth rattled relations with allies over the next two months. But U.S. officials said the reaction to Mattis' decision to leave — it sparked shock and dismay on Capitol Hill — annoyed Trump and likely led to pushing Mattis out.
The man has run public company divisions on a tighter budget than the Pentagon enjoys, and had technology over manpower aims while in the private sector. Traditional conservatives should love Shanahan's chops.
Rotary aircraft would include the Osprey, a technological innovation that works, even having had birthing pains, and having gotten 787 bottlenecks straight after the decision to build in South Carolina as a "right to work" state vs. Washington where experience was greatest but where unions were strong made things work despite the nastiness of Boeing top management in making that anti-worker decision.
The Pentagon needs a flush, and a civilian top dog offers that possibility. The military after going voluntary has been brass-heavy for decades and needs a flush. That the Kurds suffer is not new; they've been sold out and screwed over for most of a century or more, and this is just one more step in that direction. The Afghan situation, without direct confrontation of Palkistan was a loser and downsizing the loss makes sense.
When a sensible change is made it should be acknowledged, despite it coming from Mr. HushMoney.
Can you imagine the situation had it been Pence making the choice? A crusadeer like Boykin would not be a good idea, but it would most likely be the idea Pence would cherish. Trump deserves credit for not marching that dangerous and stupid road. So far . . .
_____________UPDATE______________
It is not an unmindful praise at issue. Naming one of the death vendors to head the war and death part of the federal government who has been reported as wanting to streamline purchasing from the vendors is a naming recognized as greasing the skids for the vendors.
But the alternative is running the show by the death deliverers, whose bias is as was said by one during Vietnam days, "It's not much of a war but it's the only one we've got."
Don't seek attribution, it was published, but pinning it to one specific member of the officer corps is not worth the research time.
Getting the "war ticket" punched, combat command experience is a part of the "up" dimension of "up or out." It leads to mindsets which are counterproductive to pacifist ideals.
Selling technocratic "deterrence" is a better background, and money spent buying high-tech death tools gets recycled into the general consumer economy with that old multiplier effect of money in circulation that Econ 101 praises.
Cutting out the slack of bureau inertia has appeal as an argument, since the waste is great already, and minimization of it is hence easily envisioned.
What is most dangerous is the belief set of generals such as Boykin that a holy crusade is good for national character. It is not.
Civilian leadership at the Pentagon can be better in planning and research of weapon possibilities, with spin-off capable to consumer products, GPS being an example, with the alternative being how to most effectively deliver death and demoralization to "the enemy" using the equipment now in the arsenal and the training techniques that have long insensitized persons in killing "the enemy" while under one of several civil commandments to not kill our own, that being crime.
Downsizing the entire circus is likely easier among vendor technocrats who have more transferable skill sets than generals possess. Generals know how to climb a ladder and how to boss things once atop. They get into Pentagon consultancies, the schmoozing side of things, less than the technocrat side of let's make its radar cross section lower by doing this or that with carbon fiber composites.
The fact that an obscene majority of an obscene federal spending budget goes to the killing machinery, euphemistically called "defense," is at the heart of what a long term end should be the aim, and a start would be downsizing the military academies; as well as closing off a big part of the pentagon making it a war history museum or such. The fewer having a stake in the money flows to the death industries, the better; but long term attrition is needed because of the moods of those with vested interests, and how they might react to citizen effort to downsize their toys and games and meal tables.
Again, happy holidays.
May the next year be more sane than the last, and may that trend continue.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Consumer fraud public interest litigation - Minnesota's AG and the DC AG file and we wait to see.
Lori Swanson, current Minnesota AG, sues Comcast.
District of Columbia sues Facebook, bless their hearts.
Cost them money, get their attention, curb abuse somewhat or at least try, and hope for some increment of better behavior.
In general -- Private enterprise has no respect for you, but there can be a learning curve. If they can sell you down the river without consequences, bon voyage. Good citizenship may come but only after consequences. If sleaze pays, expect it in double doses.
District of Columbia sues Facebook, bless their hearts.
Cost them money, get their attention, curb abuse somewhat or at least try, and hope for some increment of better behavior.
In general -- Private enterprise has no respect for you, but there can be a learning curve. If they can sell you down the river without consequences, bon voyage. Good citizenship may come but only after consequences. If sleaze pays, expect it in double doses.
What about Mexico? Can their citizens contribute to gofundme?
Link. Coverage. Screen Capture:
Laura Ingraham would not tout a fraud, would she? Under the FOX imprimatur?
Pete Hegseth donated twenty bucks, so you should too.
(really just guessing about Pete, another guess, meet his speaking fee price and he'll show up and tout it)
____________UPDATE_____________
If you're one of the 63 million people who voted for Trump and you will not pony up your eighty bucks like the item says, you're a freeloading cheap bastard and deserve the scorn of a nation. The scorn of a Whitehoused Trump. Of Jarad and Ivanka. Don Jr.
_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Always remember, the true and honest Republicans are the ones favoring private initiative. Others may favor collectives, so go for the best of both worlds, collective private initiative; fund that dream of an American heritage, kick in extra even for flags on top. China makes flags, less expensive and of a hardy enough fabric to stand up to wind lashing against the razor wire.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Will not fade in the most intense of border sunlight. Colors will not run even in pouring rain. Buy now; get a free flag lapel pin with each order, supplies limited so don't delay. Duty free at present - there is no better deal.
 |
| ----- snip ----- |
Laura Ingraham would not tout a fraud, would she? Under the FOX imprimatur?
Pete Hegseth donated twenty bucks, so you should too.
(really just guessing about Pete, another guess, meet his speaking fee price and he'll show up and tout it)
____________UPDATE_____________
If you're one of the 63 million people who voted for Trump and you will not pony up your eighty bucks like the item says, you're a freeloading cheap bastard and deserve the scorn of a nation. The scorn of a Whitehoused Trump. Of Jarad and Ivanka. Don Jr.
_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Always remember, the true and honest Republicans are the ones favoring private initiative. Others may favor collectives, so go for the best of both worlds, collective private initiative; fund that dream of an American heritage, kick in extra even for flags on top. China makes flags, less expensive and of a hardy enough fabric to stand up to wind lashing against the razor wire.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Will not fade in the most intense of border sunlight. Colors will not run even in pouring rain. Buy now; get a free flag lapel pin with each order, supplies limited so don't delay. Duty free at present - there is no better deal.
Make America MEANER STILL: The man is just a mean bastard. And it is probably Pence behind it.
Wanting to starve people just to be the son of a bitch he is. He and his pack of equal savants.
And add in Paul Ryan as an equivalent awful person, the bunch are an embarrassment to a nation.
Make America MEAN again. It's been mean enough already, don't pile on. OCCUPY was handled meanly, but that was the other guy. Meanness is bipartisan, so we need more or better parties. We sure as hell need more OCCUPY.
___________UPDAATE___________
We don't need any greater militarized cop forces, but we are quietly getting them. Figure that out.
_________FURTHER UPDATE________
Trump is just a sqint-eyed mean bastard. Pence does not squint. Beyond squinting, cloned individuals. Vote the bastards out. Those in both parties. Big-time broom time, 2020 cannot come soon enough. Stamp out evil. Stamp out Hegseth. We do not want apartheid walls. We are better people than those having them.
__________FURTHER UPDATE___________
The problem is and has been the rich fucking the rest of us, and dumping on Spanish speakers is a nastily-intended diversion. Bless Jarad and Ivanka and their hardships, if any. Fred Trump schooled his one child to be no different than Fred but with pretenses. Pretended genteel is far off the mark. Real genteel does not pay hush money, having no cause to. Stir in a little Roy Cohn, and you have what exactly?
Gov.-elect Tim Walz said he is "hugely disappointed" by the proposal.
"There's a reason that the farm bill took a year to pass — because they insisted on these ridiculous rules that are more reporting requirements. They don't do anything. And it's to set up a narrative that people who need food assistance are somehow not worthy of getting it."
As a member of Congress, Walz said, he worked on the language in the farm bill, and "we thought we put this to rest. But, again, I just want to stress: Five days before Christmas and all they have to do is come after people who need food assistance? The state of Minnesota has more compassion than that."
The Minnesota Department of Human Services, which administers the SNAP program along with the counties, said it was still analyzing the impact of the proposal and did not have an estimate of how many SNAP recipients would be affected.
"Right now we anticipate that this rule is likely to increase hunger and destitution in Minnesota for some of the poorest people in our state," said Roberta Downing, assistant commissioner for external relations.
And add in Paul Ryan as an equivalent awful person, the bunch are an embarrassment to a nation.
Make America MEAN again. It's been mean enough already, don't pile on. OCCUPY was handled meanly, but that was the other guy. Meanness is bipartisan, so we need more or better parties. We sure as hell need more OCCUPY.
___________UPDAATE___________
We don't need any greater militarized cop forces, but we are quietly getting them. Figure that out.
_________FURTHER UPDATE________
Trump is just a sqint-eyed mean bastard. Pence does not squint. Beyond squinting, cloned individuals. Vote the bastards out. Those in both parties. Big-time broom time, 2020 cannot come soon enough. Stamp out evil. Stamp out Hegseth. We do not want apartheid walls. We are better people than those having them.
__________FURTHER UPDATE___________
The problem is and has been the rich fucking the rest of us, and dumping on Spanish speakers is a nastily-intended diversion. Bless Jarad and Ivanka and their hardships, if any. Fred Trump schooled his one child to be no different than Fred but with pretenses. Pretended genteel is far off the mark. Real genteel does not pay hush money, having no cause to. Stir in a little Roy Cohn, and you have what exactly?
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
At it again. Matt Look rides his hobby-horse. His County Board seat must be up for a 2020 vote. Dust off and polish the cliche.
As predictable as Michele Bachmann was, and not that different aside from gender.
Strib, here:
Carping about a county tax increase when all the other commissioners voted affirmativey. And why do that, besides he can? With him it's a want to be that way, not a need.
Tiring to a fault. Decimal point challenged; 4.9% tax hike. "Double digit?"
Sure Matt. If you say so; gotta be so.
To a fault.
Strib, here:
On Friday, Anoka County commissioners approved a 4.9 percent tax levy increase, [...] “It’s about cutting the fat out and not cutting the muscle out,” Commissioner Scott Schulte said at Friday’s meeting.
But Look said the county needs to look at the services it provides and to remember its core mission.
“Arguably when every agency has an increase — whether it’s city, county, school, state, federal — cumulatively … you’re seeing double-digit increases. That’s harmful, I think,” he said.
Carping about a county tax increase when all the other commissioners voted affirmativey. And why do that, besides he can? With him it's a want to be that way, not a need.
Tiring to a fault. Decimal point challenged; 4.9% tax hike. "Double digit?"
Sure Matt. If you say so; gotta be so.
To a fault.
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
As of time of screen capture, 4 views. You could make it five.
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| Go ahead! Link. Make it five. |
See it, figure if it is anything but what you'd expect; boring and flaccid. Joe sees himself as Presidential. "Past pull date" comes to mind. Ditto Pelosi. In celebration of Lantos, no more, no less.
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Not turning out crowds like George Burns and Gracie Allen did on the vaudeville circuit; but instead, a turn to Groupon as a marketing stragem. A/k/a just deserts. May it be as rewarding for them as a patrol ticket for putting an inflatable party doll in the passenger seat and using the high-occupancy lane. "Them" being the Clintons.
For those not remembering the hoopla intro from months ago to the notion of touring for cash by penultimate cash-mongers, this:
It was tenuous logic at best that a pair of poseurs past their pull date would generate high priced ticket buying to watch tortured posing and whining by the pair; but somebody must have thought it a good idea. With Groupon as a fall-back.
Hat tip to Jimmy Dore on YouTube as the first seen link leading to a websearch. Going to links to the Clintons' staunchest fan base, here and here, FOX and Breitbart respectively, the story unfolds. In a separate Dec. 3, 2018 FOX report:
So, FOX is more gentle toward the pair's plight than Jimmy Dore, but web content on occasion drifts beyond mainstream coverage, being gracious in calling FOX mainstream. It surely is nobody's insurgency. It is possible that Dore's critique was using National Review reporting in its slide quoting. That NatRev item is subheadlined, "He grins and charms, she blames and mocks. But not as many fans are cheering."
DailyWire, Dec. 10, 2018:
RT and DailyHeadlines also post unfavorable commentary.
That pair of arrogant sociopathic anti-progressive neoliberal bastards deserve all the hardship they get. Someone once explained to me the key to partisanship in two-party politics is "Our assholes are better than their assholes;" but that never rang sound to me as a principle of civil governance. Another version, "He votes with us on organizing."
It can be understood, but must it be liked?
One should not leave a post on the Clintons without a told-you-so mention of 2016. Gender based politics sucks, whether it be Trump's "grab 'em by the pussy" style or Madeline Albright's " special place in hell" variety. As to gender politics, I love and support Elizabeth Warren as much as Bernie, so figure that out in a told-you-so context. Tulsi Gabbard being as supportable a politician as Steve Bullock. Per contra, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden in the same gender-neutral neoliberal boat.
 |
| please click the image to enlarge and read |
It was tenuous logic at best that a pair of poseurs past their pull date would generate high priced ticket buying to watch tortured posing and whining by the pair; but somebody must have thought it a good idea. With Groupon as a fall-back.
Hat tip to Jimmy Dore on YouTube as the first seen link leading to a websearch. Going to links to the Clintons' staunchest fan base, here and here, FOX and Breitbart respectively, the story unfolds. In a separate Dec. 3, 2018 FOX report:
A representative from Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land, Texas, told Fox News on Monday that “An Evening with President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton” -- which had been slated for Tuesday at the venue -- has been postponed.
Hillary Clinton tweeted Monday afternoon that "Bill and I will be traveling to Washington to pay our respects to President George H.W. Bush and his family at the funeral this week. We were greatly looking forward to being in Houston for our event this week, and are excited to come back next year as soon as we find a date."
The next scheduled event on the Clintons' speaking tour is not until April 11 in New York City.
The Texas stop's postponement comes after the Clintons' premiere performance in Toronto last week, which drew critical coverage over its sparse attendance as well as comparisons with the sold-out events on former first lady Michelle Obama's book tour.
“I can’t fathom why the Clintons would make like aging rock stars and go on a tour of Canada and the U.S. at a moment when Democrats are hoping to break the stranglehold of their cloistered, superannuated leadership and exult in a mosaic of exciting new faces,” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in a weekend op-ed, after attending the kick-off. “What’s the point? It’s not inspirational. It’s not for charity. They’re not raising awareness about a cause, like Al Gore with global warming. They’re only raising awareness about the Clintons.”
Dowd wrote that she paid $177 for her ticket in Toronto, where she said she felt “sorry” for the Clintons, who would have to look out at “large swaths of empty seats.”
The scheduled April 2019 appearance would come almost four years to the day since Hillary Clinton announced her second presidential bid, which she ultimately lost to President Trump. The upset continues to feature prominently in her public remarks, amid speculation over whether she might try one more time for the White House.
Ticket prices, though, have seemed to reflect slumping interest in the Clinton tour.
So, FOX is more gentle toward the pair's plight than Jimmy Dore, but web content on occasion drifts beyond mainstream coverage, being gracious in calling FOX mainstream. It surely is nobody's insurgency. It is possible that Dore's critique was using National Review reporting in its slide quoting. That NatRev item is subheadlined, "He grins and charms, she blames and mocks. But not as many fans are cheering."
DailyWire, Dec. 10, 2018:
OVER? Hillary Clinton Bails On Speaking Tour, Heads Overseas For Wedding
Getty Images -- ByEmily Zanotti
[...] Before Bill and Hillary canceled their event in Sugar Land, tickets there were going for less than $10. Parking passes for the arena cost more than middle-of-the-road tickets to see the post-Presidential pair "open up" about their lives in public service.
"Despite the site telling customers that ‘tickets are selling fast!’ with ‘limited time remaining,’ it appears that less than 450 discounted tickets have actually been sold," the Daily Mail reported over the weekend. "A Groupon deal for the Clinton’s talk is for the liberal stronghold of Los Angeles where one would imagine the political power couple should be able to pull in the numbers."
The Clintons probably won't go quietly into that dark night — after all, the pair have made the majority of their wealth in the interim since Bill Clinton was president — by charging outrageous sums of money to speak and appear at corporate events, but this may be the end of the line for this tour, at least.
RT and DailyHeadlines also post unfavorable commentary.
That pair of arrogant sociopathic anti-progressive neoliberal bastards deserve all the hardship they get. Someone once explained to me the key to partisanship in two-party politics is "Our assholes are better than their assholes;" but that never rang sound to me as a principle of civil governance. Another version, "He votes with us on organizing."
It can be understood, but must it be liked?
One should not leave a post on the Clintons without a told-you-so mention of 2016. Gender based politics sucks, whether it be Trump's "grab 'em by the pussy" style or Madeline Albright's " special place in hell" variety. As to gender politics, I love and support Elizabeth Warren as much as Bernie, so figure that out in a told-you-so context. Tulsi Gabbard being as supportable a politician as Steve Bullock. Per contra, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden in the same gender-neutral neoliberal boat.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
In tune with his inner humility and the mood of the electorate in his district, Emmer suggests . . .
Where I live, where Emmer could be thought an upgrade - the seat previously securely held by Michele Bachmann - proves "upgrade" to be a relative term. Having noted that, as head Honcho of NRCC Emmer may, relatively, be a throwback, as would be the case almost anywhere besides Minnesota's CD6, where Emmer skates.
Republicans normally are lemmings despite their counterclaims, but the story is caucusing "innovation" be it local or national.
Dan Burns highlighted the Emmer - NRCC situation per KOS, and captures the nutshell version. Rotor over there for detail.
In watching the inside-Minnesota hiving and the outside-Minnesota hiving, it appears that overcrowding of the initial hive is not the cause of movement, but rather disturbances in each hive arising from election trauma or the perception of a snub happening, deservedly or otherwise.
Emmer was fit for the NRCC leadership position because of know-how in winning an election where Michele Bachmann was perpetually reelected, with the perspective there being "If only more districts were of the type that would reelect the likes of Bachmann we'd do okay," as a way Trump republicans can be observed to "reason."
Picking Tom Emmer as your Moses and expecting a promised land makes as much sense as "helping" one of the blind by buying them an automobile while noting the new navigation screen systems make it easier to get around. Foreseeable results should be anticipated, but the NRCC leadership is not my people in bondage in Egypt, where I might want to choose a better Moses for them than they'd pick on their own.
May Emmer do as expected, begetting loss of seats, chaos and discord, other than meeting an expectation of his being reelected in 2020, CD6 Minnesota-wise. A change that way WOULD be the promised land. Pass the milk and honey, we who are alien to the political majority there are hungry for change.
____________UPDATE____________
Politico has a fair statement of the Emmer-RNCC situation where gender politics is at issue. Emmer stated that NRCC interference at the primary level might not be a good idea. Laura Moser encountered something of the sort from the DCCC last cycle and it stank. Emmer might have some sense behind his position. Moser was not attacked in her primary effort because of her gender, but because she was a progressive and the establishment wanted a middle-roader. It had separate facts, but the notion of the national party congressional committee playing favorites remains troublesome. In Minnesota CD2 Angie Craig had more money to invest in her candidacy than her primary opponent and the apparent effect was the DCCC going with the fat wallet. Primary interference by the DC poobahs IS problematic, and Emmer expressed a concern, one for which I hesitate to fault him. With that said, I'd never vote for him in a million years, that being a hypothetical hyperbole introduced to add emphasis. Also, as to gender, Emmer in past years did defer to Bachmann's incumbency, not primarying her despite being marginally better [who could be worse?]. He'd encouraged her to consider a run for Governor, while eyeing the ultra-secure Republican CD6 seat covetously. Talking instead of acting was the Emmer MO, and Republican women in a snit against him should weigh how Emmer deferred to one as disastrously bad as Bachmann, thereby showing gender fairness, to a fault. He could have but did not rock her boat.
______________FURTHER UPDATE______________
In search on the web for the report of the Emmer/Bachmann phone conversation being reported, perhaps it was at Dump Bachmann which went private over litigation threats, the nugget was lost. However, never forget, women of the Republican party, your preeminent standard bearer and skilled spokesperson, mother image, point guard, and the former Ms. Wasilla, endorsed Emmer for his job so how can you push against that? And to boost Emmer in the eyes of the world, Alpha News reports.
FURTHER: You want an Emmer quorte? I'll give you an Emmer quote:
________________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Emmer must feel smug in his district. Immune to overthrow, or seeing it that way. Achilles Heel goes beyond concept, and for Tom Emmer it takes two syllables, soybeans. Stan Hubbard likely schooled Emmer about kissing up to Cargill, and even likely provided a letter of introduction, but the trade war affects a balance between Cargill in Brazil and profits there, and Cargill in Emmer's district, profits being fungible to senior management. As fungible as the beans themselves to Chinese palates. In turn, Emmer has no Brazilian off-set dimension to his electorate, and with hope it may be his undoing. Suffering consequences of voting for Trump being due justice to the farmers who did that while relying on Mexican field labor.
____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Cargill, besides its global will and ability to hedge commodities to its bottom line benefit, can even hedge against Trump-induced shortages in the Mexican rural labor market. Case on point. A hedge that will not sue over prayer breaks, as with the other hedge against Trump-induced rural Mexican labor market swings. As a Merchant of Grain, Cargill knows hedge. Much akin to Bo knows football, baseball, and trophy hunting. For all I know Cargill may have a headquarters trophy room; filled with stuffed contract counterparties they've bagged. Cargill knows straw parties too, but sometimes justice prevails. However, too much Cargill in an Emmer post perhaps is too much a diversion, yet two dots, Emmer and Cargill are easy and fun to connect. Farmers do vote, and even sometimes in their own best interests; probability, however, being against it as a regular thing. E.g., Trump.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
As a passing thought with Emmer the subject, what is the gravitas to this? CryptoEmmer, the genius of finance? Or doing as he was told, where if that's the case, who was telling him what? If I had an answer to that I'd publish it. Think about it. Emmer putting bills in the hopper about finance is scary.
Republicans normally are lemmings despite their counterclaims, but the story is caucusing "innovation" be it local or national.
Dan Burns highlighted the Emmer - NRCC situation per KOS, and captures the nutshell version. Rotor over there for detail.
In watching the inside-Minnesota hiving and the outside-Minnesota hiving, it appears that overcrowding of the initial hive is not the cause of movement, but rather disturbances in each hive arising from election trauma or the perception of a snub happening, deservedly or otherwise.
Emmer was fit for the NRCC leadership position because of know-how in winning an election where Michele Bachmann was perpetually reelected, with the perspective there being "If only more districts were of the type that would reelect the likes of Bachmann we'd do okay," as a way Trump republicans can be observed to "reason."
Picking Tom Emmer as your Moses and expecting a promised land makes as much sense as "helping" one of the blind by buying them an automobile while noting the new navigation screen systems make it easier to get around. Foreseeable results should be anticipated, but the NRCC leadership is not my people in bondage in Egypt, where I might want to choose a better Moses for them than they'd pick on their own.
May Emmer do as expected, begetting loss of seats, chaos and discord, other than meeting an expectation of his being reelected in 2020, CD6 Minnesota-wise. A change that way WOULD be the promised land. Pass the milk and honey, we who are alien to the political majority there are hungry for change.
____________UPDATE____________
Politico has a fair statement of the Emmer-RNCC situation where gender politics is at issue. Emmer stated that NRCC interference at the primary level might not be a good idea. Laura Moser encountered something of the sort from the DCCC last cycle and it stank. Emmer might have some sense behind his position. Moser was not attacked in her primary effort because of her gender, but because she was a progressive and the establishment wanted a middle-roader. It had separate facts, but the notion of the national party congressional committee playing favorites remains troublesome. In Minnesota CD2 Angie Craig had more money to invest in her candidacy than her primary opponent and the apparent effect was the DCCC going with the fat wallet. Primary interference by the DC poobahs IS problematic, and Emmer expressed a concern, one for which I hesitate to fault him. With that said, I'd never vote for him in a million years, that being a hypothetical hyperbole introduced to add emphasis. Also, as to gender, Emmer in past years did defer to Bachmann's incumbency, not primarying her despite being marginally better [who could be worse?]. He'd encouraged her to consider a run for Governor, while eyeing the ultra-secure Republican CD6 seat covetously. Talking instead of acting was the Emmer MO, and Republican women in a snit against him should weigh how Emmer deferred to one as disastrously bad as Bachmann, thereby showing gender fairness, to a fault. He could have but did not rock her boat.
______________FURTHER UPDATE______________
In search on the web for the report of the Emmer/Bachmann phone conversation being reported, perhaps it was at Dump Bachmann which went private over litigation threats, the nugget was lost. However, never forget, women of the Republican party, your preeminent standard bearer and skilled spokesperson, mother image, point guard, and the former Ms. Wasilla, endorsed Emmer for his job so how can you push against that? And to boost Emmer in the eyes of the world, Alpha News reports.
FURTHER: You want an Emmer quorte? I'll give you an Emmer quote:
“When all your focus is on playing to win the game you don’t think about the pain,” said Emmer.
________________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Emmer must feel smug in his district. Immune to overthrow, or seeing it that way. Achilles Heel goes beyond concept, and for Tom Emmer it takes two syllables, soybeans. Stan Hubbard likely schooled Emmer about kissing up to Cargill, and even likely provided a letter of introduction, but the trade war affects a balance between Cargill in Brazil and profits there, and Cargill in Emmer's district, profits being fungible to senior management. As fungible as the beans themselves to Chinese palates. In turn, Emmer has no Brazilian off-set dimension to his electorate, and with hope it may be his undoing. Suffering consequences of voting for Trump being due justice to the farmers who did that while relying on Mexican field labor.
____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Cargill, besides its global will and ability to hedge commodities to its bottom line benefit, can even hedge against Trump-induced shortages in the Mexican rural labor market. Case on point. A hedge that will not sue over prayer breaks, as with the other hedge against Trump-induced rural Mexican labor market swings. As a Merchant of Grain, Cargill knows hedge. Much akin to Bo knows football, baseball, and trophy hunting. For all I know Cargill may have a headquarters trophy room; filled with stuffed contract counterparties they've bagged. Cargill knows straw parties too, but sometimes justice prevails. However, too much Cargill in an Emmer post perhaps is too much a diversion, yet two dots, Emmer and Cargill are easy and fun to connect. Farmers do vote, and even sometimes in their own best interests; probability, however, being against it as a regular thing. E.g., Trump.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
As a passing thought with Emmer the subject, what is the gravitas to this? CryptoEmmer, the genius of finance? Or doing as he was told, where if that's the case, who was telling him what? If I had an answer to that I'd publish it. Think about it. Emmer putting bills in the hopper about finance is scary.
Shabby is as shabby does: "In a pair of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump also maintained that even if the hush-money payments did count as campaign transactions, any failure to obey federal election regulations should be considered only a civil offense, not a criminal one. And he blamed his former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, who has admitted to helping arrange the payments. 'Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me,' Mr. Trump wrote."
Headline (omitting links) is text of the second paragraph of this NYT item. The item further states:
Adding the Giuliani judgment into the mix with the bare tweeting of course arguably lifts any pall of shabiness; Rudy being who he is. However, even with Rudy's theme being they do not have criminal grounds on Trump irrespective of any dimension of "shabby" this or "shabby" that, the amounts paid went into six figures and that arguably at least is not shabby pricing. A well trimmed Lexis would be cheaper.
Though it is rare to charge a politician with campaign-finance crimes over hush-money payments to mistresses, one clear precedent stands out: the Justice Department’s prosecution in 2012 of John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, over similar payments to hide a pregnant mistress while he was running for president in 2008.
A potential indictment of Mr. Trump for conspiring in the illegal campaign transactions to which Mr. Cohen has pleaded guilty would look a lot like the charges prosecutors brought against Mr. Edwards. [...]
But the meaning of the Edwards precedent for Mr. Trump’s fate is complicated, legal experts said. Because that case ended with a mistrial on five charges and an acquittal on one, it shows the risk of charging a politician with campaign-finance crimes over hush-money payments to mistresses, in which it is unclear whether the transactions were about trying to win an election or trying to protect the candidate’s personal life.
Indeed, after prosecutors made their filing in the Cohen case, one of Mr. Trump’s private lawyers, Rudolph W. Giuliani, pointed to the jury’s failure to convict Mr. Edwards in support of the notion that Mr. Trump does not face realistic legal jeopardy over the payments.
[...] For one thing, one of the payments to Mr. Edwards’s mistress took place as he was ending his candidacy, which further muddied how to interpret his motivation. By contrast, the payments to Ms. McDougal and Ms. Daniels came just ahead of the election.
For another, prosecutors in the Edwards case had little corroboration from other key figures in the transactions to explain their motivation.
Adding the Giuliani judgment into the mix with the bare tweeting of course arguably lifts any pall of shabiness; Rudy being who he is. However, even with Rudy's theme being they do not have criminal grounds on Trump irrespective of any dimension of "shabby" this or "shabby" that, the amounts paid went into six figures and that arguably at least is not shabby pricing. A well trimmed Lexis would be cheaper.
Following up on trending news, Google needs to explain how the nation's president's name added in a websearch appears to yield little difference.
First, a caveat, Google search algorithms can be tailored to a user's profile, as stored by Google, so that your search on the identical terms I search might differ. That said, credible outlets post online this morning: WaPo, BBC, and HuffPo.
Passing on the opportunity to editorialize in order to describe the experiment, a first Google:
"idiot" at the time of posting this item yields:
Next, modifying the search by adding our nation's president's name
"idiot" trump yields:
Differences exist in later listings in the return list for the two searches, but atop things, adding the name of our nation's chief executive yields about the same thing, i.e., Google algorithms appear to fail in distinguishing things (and the search is not limited to "news" but is a generic google). This leads to trying the president's name alone, along with a randomly chosen additional search term:
trump hush yielding returns you can test for yourself, but this video opening image was included when searched at the time of this posting
Days, weeks, months from now search returns may differ - time marches on. However, what is today is what was presented. Perhaps using a different random word along with "trump" might yield differing output, but a bit of editorializing sometimes is not all bad. Leader of a nation, a nation that arguably was great in the days of Washington and Jefferson and Madison, so, now, again?
_____________UPDATE____________
Nothing great shows up in a google = trump again
Postulating there could be some unique aspect to Google and "idiot," check out, google =: "dunce" trump
Clearly "idiot" has some unique aspect under Google algorithms, aspects "dunce" lacks.
Passing on the opportunity to editorialize in order to describe the experiment, a first Google:
"idiot" at the time of posting this item yields:
Next, modifying the search by adding our nation's president's name
"idiot" trump yields:
Differences exist in later listings in the return list for the two searches, but atop things, adding the name of our nation's chief executive yields about the same thing, i.e., Google algorithms appear to fail in distinguishing things (and the search is not limited to "news" but is a generic google). This leads to trying the president's name alone, along with a randomly chosen additional search term:
trump hush yielding returns you can test for yourself, but this video opening image was included when searched at the time of this posting
Days, weeks, months from now search returns may differ - time marches on. However, what is today is what was presented. Perhaps using a different random word along with "trump" might yield differing output, but a bit of editorializing sometimes is not all bad. Leader of a nation, a nation that arguably was great in the days of Washington and Jefferson and Madison, so, now, again?
_____________UPDATE____________
Nothing great shows up in a google = trump again
Postulating there could be some unique aspect to Google and "idiot," check out, google =: "dunce" trump
Clearly "idiot" has some unique aspect under Google algorithms, aspects "dunce" lacks.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Saturday, December 01, 2018
While not being a Breitbart fan, personally, there is a First Amendment to our Constitution after all.
First the Breitbart item which speaks for itself. For limited purposes, a short excerpt of part of an email within a Google internal email chain:
Eh? You say? This video preserves an item I saw in real time that made my jaw drop, even while holding a view that there was a form of "he who shall not be named." Given that, how does one define "legitimate" reporting outlets? All you can say is somebody doing the camera cuts to memorialize that interchange likely lost his/her job. If you trust MSNBC after that, bless you.
UPDATE: It is disappointing that this YouTube item has gotten only a handful of viewings. I expect Pelosi missed it. There was an attempt to channel things, but it came out okay.
“Thinking that Breitbart, Drudge, etc. are not ‘legitimate news sources’ is contrary to the beliefs of a major portion of our user base is partially what got us to this mess. MSNBC is not more legit than Drudge just because Rachel Maddow may be more educated / less deplorable / closer to our views, than, say Sean Hannity,” Dekel wrote.
Dekel further stated that despite being a Hillary supporter, the media went easy on the Democratic candidate which hurt her election chances in the end: “I follow a lot of right wing folks on social networks you could tell something was brewing. We laughed off Drudge’s Instant Polls and all that stuff, but in the end, people go to those sources because they believe that the media doesn’t do it’s job. I’m a Hillary supporter and let’s admit it, the media avoided dealing with the hard questions and issues, which didn’t pay off.
Eh? You say? This video preserves an item I saw in real time that made my jaw drop, even while holding a view that there was a form of "he who shall not be named." Given that, how does one define "legitimate" reporting outlets? All you can say is somebody doing the camera cuts to memorialize that interchange likely lost his/her job. If you trust MSNBC after that, bless you.
UPDATE: It is disappointing that this YouTube item has gotten only a handful of viewings. I expect Pelosi missed it. There was an attempt to channel things, but it came out okay.
Ray Rice redux?
Does it take unequivocal video to get an NFL woman-beating suspension/expulsion? Story. Video.
There is the Washington Redskins - Reuben Foster decision (e.g. coverage here); and Colin Kaepernick still is being blackballed. May his lawsuit lead to his vindication and yield him a ton of money damages. When abusing a woman is less offensive to NFL club owners than a player thinking and exercising First Amendment rights there is a sickness afoot amid scrambled priorities and rampant owner greed trumping principles.
There is the Washington Redskins - Reuben Foster decision (e.g. coverage here); and Colin Kaepernick still is being blackballed. May his lawsuit lead to his vindication and yield him a ton of money damages. When abusing a woman is less offensive to NFL club owners than a player thinking and exercising First Amendment rights there is a sickness afoot amid scrambled priorities and rampant owner greed trumping principles.