Murder mystery where in a group of friends one of them is a murder, but they never discover which one of them did the deed. At the end of the story they've all come to peace with this. From the armchair analysis any one of them could have been the murder. In the end they're all complicit.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Linkee-poo, okay, who ordered the snow platter?
Hope you didn't blink, because that was Fall. And also I've seen the true signs of Xmas. The groceries are selling Hillshire Farms Summer Sausage and egg nog.
Just a general note. I do try to find links that don't have autoplay video, but that is becoming harder and harder to do (this is also why a lot of NPR links have been showing up, but also NPR was been doing very well lately). So I apologize for all the links that start blasting at you. For the record, these days I surf with the sound set to mute. I only un-mute when I want to play something directly and usually I'm surprised to find my computer already making noise from some buried tab deep in the stack.
Edited to add some links that went hiding and I finally found.
"Stephen Hawking warns about dangers of AI as motorized wheelchair drives toward lake." (Grokked from Dan)
"The appearance of a years-long supernova explosion challenges scientist's current understanding of star formation and death, and work is underway to explain the bizarre phenomenon."
"Las Vegas' self-driving shuttle service marked its return by getting into a minor collision… just an hour into its year-long trial… the shuttle was hit by a delivery truck that was backing up." So it was human error, but still not a good start (although it's initial test in January went well).
"The Boston researcher who examined the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez says it showed the most damage (Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy) her team had seen in an athlete so young… and that they had never seen such severe damage in a brain younger than 46 years old." He was 27 when he hanged himself in prison for the murder of a friend.
China's coal industry is dealing with the same issues the US coal industry has been dealing with. And they're having a similar reaction. Waiting for coal to "come back."
"A cloud of radioactive pollution over Europe in recent weeks indicates that an accident happened in a nuclear facility in Russia or Kazakhstan in the last week of September, the French nuclear safety institute IRSN has said." Ah, it's just a cloud. Nothing to worry about (severe side eye here). Just nobody knows where it came from (most likely Russia or Kazakhstan). The isotope detected is only produced during nuclear fission, but could be from reprocessing fuel rods or generated for medical use. Um, yeah, Bob. No reason to be concerned here?!
"Republican leaders seeking to overhaul the federal tax code faced new challenges Wednesday, including a new $74 billion hole in the House’s plan and a drubbing in Tuesday’s state and local elections that will be on members’ minds as they prepare for difficult tax votes." The only reason why Tuesday's elections should change the tax bill is if Republicans never thought you'd go out to vote or be able to vote. And an election shouldn't change the economics (which is their main selling point). You know, unless their reasoning is complete bullshit. Right now they're trying figure our which Peters are going to get robbed to pay which Pauls.
"Senate Republicans released their own version of a tax plan Thursday, and it varies just enough from the House's bill to set the two chambers up for a dramatic showdown over tax policy in upcoming weeks." This is my shocked face. It'll come to showdown of whom is going to screw over whom the mostest.
"The United States and Russia are nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, officials said Thursday." Ah, nothing like two parties who don't actually own or govern the land coming to an agreement about how best to settle a conflict there. Not like the Middle-East doesn't have a long history of that.
"Republican officials in Alabama and across the country have had mixed responses to a Washington Post report alleging that Roy Moore, the Republican candidate in Alabama's special U.S. Senate race, initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old when he was 32 and pursued relationships with three other teenagers while he was in his 30s… Some politicians are casting doubt on the women's stories, while others are expressing dismay — and, in some cases, Republican officials are defending Moore's alleged actions as not problematic at all." The party of family values, everyone.
"A federal judge has issued a gag order in the federal government's case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, preventing them and their legal teams from speaking to the press."
"Federal investigators are examining whether former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn met with senior Turkish officials just weeks before President Donald Trump's inauguration about a potential quid pro quo in which Flynn would be paid to carry out directives from Ankara secretly while in the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation." If proved true, that's in the "Holy Fuck" category. IANAL but I believe that's also hard time in Federal Prison. Rumors are that Mueller's team already has enough evidence to bring charges and now they're keeping their cards close to their chest to work their way through all contacts to see who else falls into that net (like Flynn Jr.).
"After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to 'send five women' to Donald Trump's hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview… Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, 'We don't do that type of stuff.'" And then, of course, the Trump lawyers decried the leak (probably not the best choice of words here) and said that what was leaked was false and a partisan hack. So, uh, are we then supposed to believe the opposite happened? Or is the "the cat is on the roof" part of the plan?
"A year later, the shock of Trump's win hasn't totally worn off in either party." Oh honey, that's not shock, that's PTSD. While the Democrats dither over whether Bernie would have won (hint, he wouldn't have, and I'm suspecting part of this fervent flogging is being driven by our friends in that other place, the Republicans are coming to grips with their new found popularity and the ramifications of exactly why they're popular (hint, it's not about the fiscal conservatism). One can be mended and build a stronger bond, the other is pulling the wheels off the bus. In the article there's a little confusion between rhetoric and action. "In a shake up that took even the Republican establishment by surprise, Trump has challenged the image of the Republican Party as the party of corporate America, into a party that fights for working America." But you know what, he isn't governing that way.
Hey, remember that Carrier plant that Trump saved all those jobs because he was winning for America. Yeah. More layoffs. How's those tax abatements working out for ya? (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
Just a general note. I do try to find links that don't have autoplay video, but that is becoming harder and harder to do (this is also why a lot of NPR links have been showing up, but also NPR was been doing very well lately). So I apologize for all the links that start blasting at you. For the record, these days I surf with the sound set to mute. I only un-mute when I want to play something directly and usually I'm surprised to find my computer already making noise from some buried tab deep in the stack.
Edited to add some links that went hiding and I finally found.
"Stephen Hawking warns about dangers of AI as motorized wheelchair drives toward lake." (Grokked from Dan)
"The appearance of a years-long supernova explosion challenges scientist's current understanding of star formation and death, and work is underway to explain the bizarre phenomenon."
"Las Vegas' self-driving shuttle service marked its return by getting into a minor collision… just an hour into its year-long trial… the shuttle was hit by a delivery truck that was backing up." So it was human error, but still not a good start (although it's initial test in January went well).
"The Boston researcher who examined the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez says it showed the most damage (Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy) her team had seen in an athlete so young… and that they had never seen such severe damage in a brain younger than 46 years old." He was 27 when he hanged himself in prison for the murder of a friend.
China's coal industry is dealing with the same issues the US coal industry has been dealing with. And they're having a similar reaction. Waiting for coal to "come back."
"A cloud of radioactive pollution over Europe in recent weeks indicates that an accident happened in a nuclear facility in Russia or Kazakhstan in the last week of September, the French nuclear safety institute IRSN has said." Ah, it's just a cloud. Nothing to worry about (severe side eye here). Just nobody knows where it came from (most likely Russia or Kazakhstan). The isotope detected is only produced during nuclear fission, but could be from reprocessing fuel rods or generated for medical use. Um, yeah, Bob. No reason to be concerned here?!
"Republican leaders seeking to overhaul the federal tax code faced new challenges Wednesday, including a new $74 billion hole in the House’s plan and a drubbing in Tuesday’s state and local elections that will be on members’ minds as they prepare for difficult tax votes." The only reason why Tuesday's elections should change the tax bill is if Republicans never thought you'd go out to vote or be able to vote. And an election shouldn't change the economics (which is their main selling point). You know, unless their reasoning is complete bullshit. Right now they're trying figure our which Peters are going to get robbed to pay which Pauls.
"Senate Republicans released their own version of a tax plan Thursday, and it varies just enough from the House's bill to set the two chambers up for a dramatic showdown over tax policy in upcoming weeks." This is my shocked face. It'll come to showdown of whom is going to screw over whom the mostest.
"The United States and Russia are nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, officials said Thursday." Ah, nothing like two parties who don't actually own or govern the land coming to an agreement about how best to settle a conflict there. Not like the Middle-East doesn't have a long history of that.
"Republican officials in Alabama and across the country have had mixed responses to a Washington Post report alleging that Roy Moore, the Republican candidate in Alabama's special U.S. Senate race, initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old when he was 32 and pursued relationships with three other teenagers while he was in his 30s… Some politicians are casting doubt on the women's stories, while others are expressing dismay — and, in some cases, Republican officials are defending Moore's alleged actions as not problematic at all." The party of family values, everyone.
"A federal judge has issued a gag order in the federal government's case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, preventing them and their legal teams from speaking to the press."
"Federal investigators are examining whether former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn met with senior Turkish officials just weeks before President Donald Trump's inauguration about a potential quid pro quo in which Flynn would be paid to carry out directives from Ankara secretly while in the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation." If proved true, that's in the "Holy Fuck" category. IANAL but I believe that's also hard time in Federal Prison. Rumors are that Mueller's team already has enough evidence to bring charges and now they're keeping their cards close to their chest to work their way through all contacts to see who else falls into that net (like Flynn Jr.).
"After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to 'send five women' to Donald Trump's hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview… Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, 'We don't do that type of stuff.'" And then, of course, the Trump lawyers decried the leak (probably not the best choice of words here) and said that what was leaked was false and a partisan hack. So, uh, are we then supposed to believe the opposite happened? Or is the "the cat is on the roof" part of the plan?
"A year later, the shock of Trump's win hasn't totally worn off in either party." Oh honey, that's not shock, that's PTSD. While the Democrats dither over whether Bernie would have won (hint, he wouldn't have, and I'm suspecting part of this fervent flogging is being driven by our friends in that other place, the Republicans are coming to grips with their new found popularity and the ramifications of exactly why they're popular (hint, it's not about the fiscal conservatism). One can be mended and build a stronger bond, the other is pulling the wheels off the bus. In the article there's a little confusion between rhetoric and action. "In a shake up that took even the Republican establishment by surprise, Trump has challenged the image of the Republican Party as the party of corporate America, into a party that fights for working America." But you know what, he isn't governing that way.
Hey, remember that Carrier plant that Trump saved all those jobs because he was winning for America. Yeah. More layoffs. How's those tax abatements working out for ya? (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Linkee-poo, Mister Sandman, someone to hold would be so peachy before we're too old
Type nerdery ahead. Two apps to help you identify a font in the wild. Okay, so this is fantastic and a horror. One, okay, this is really damn helpful (especially if they're accurate) for my day to day work. If I had been paid for all the time I've spend searching for the exact font used on a design that I now need to recreate because the client "lost the original" (or more likely didn't know who did it or didn't want to pay them any more money)… well, okay, I did get paid for (most) of that time. But still, OMG where have you been my entire life. And two, it's a fucking nightmare because I'm really good at identifying fonts and now if any asshole with Paint can figure out the fonts that's going to cut into my special skills (it's a handy skill of designers and most can do it to a rudimentary level, but only a few are as good - I mean there's still thousands of us, but we're not everywhere). Anyway. My saving grace here is that designers like to get tricky with type and sometimes it means knowing that the font maybe your standard Helvetica cut, but it's set to a 92% horizontal scaling (instead of a compressed, condensed, or narrow face) with a different slant set to the italic that isn't the regular oblique. Plus I'm near the end of my career in design so I'm not entirely worried about this amount of automation. (Grokked from John)
The Hidden Brain podcast on going without sleep. Mostly focusing on Randy Gardner who holds the world's record for 11 days without sleeping. Guinness World Records has deemed any attempt to break that record as too dangerous so they won't certify any new attempt to break it. Sleep deprivation, I don't recommend it, but even after gaining all this insight into the effects, our society still rewards those people who go without. And if you suffer from chronic insomnia, please seek medical attention. Full disclosure, as a young man I once worked 72 hours straight, took an hour nap, and worked another 12 hours. I often would work 24-36 hours at a time. Fortunately I was also paid for my overtime for most of that. I do not recommend doing this (at any age). This is also why when people offer the writing advice of "just get up an hour early to writer" (or exercise) I advise against it (unless you can go to sleep earlier as well). As they state in the article, there is some evidence that you can store up some sleep to stay awake later, but you can never do the reverse. Any damage done by staying awake doesn't go away by sleeping more. Of course I'm also now at the age where I look at younger people and think, "How can you not want to go to sleep?"
"A Merlin rocket engine exploded Sunday at SpaceX's test facilities in Central Texas. According to the company, no one was injured during the mishap, which damaged two bays in a Merlin engine test stand at the MacGregor facility." And that's why they test them out first. (Grokked from John)
"'This year may be (an) especially difficult (flu season) because, in addition to this egg adaptive mutation which was present last year, there's indication that the H3N2 viruses are actually evolving,' he said." Fuck. Me. Okay, well that's just about one of the strains in this year's flu vaccine, the other two look good. And it's hoped that even if it may not stop you from getting sick, it might prevent the worst effects of the flu (like death, and yes, people do die from the flu).
"Pixium Vision, a French company, has received the approval to begin in-human trials of a miniature wireless sub-retinal implant. Named PRIMA, the device may help those with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration get improvements in their eyesight. The company is in talks to also conduct trials in the United States." No word if you can telescope in with it or if it makes that neato sound effect from the Six-Million Dollar Man. (Grokked from Dan)
Genetically modified skin. Living in the future.
"Getting rid of the requirement that everyone in the country have health insurance coverage would save the government $338 billion over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday." But it would make health insurance (for everybody) more expensive. Also it could lead to unexpected economic costs (increase in bankruptcies or hospital debt for charity care).
"The statement also says (Notre Dame) 'will not interfere' with the insurance company’s coverage (of still providing ND employees with birth-control at not cost to to ND), although it’s unclear whether there’s any way they could. So it’s possible that—depending on your insurer—the executive order (allowing all employers to waive the birth-control mandate) doesn’t give religious employers the power they thought it did." Because 1) birth control pills aren't always prescribed for just birth control (there are several medical reasons) and 2) it's a hellalotta cheaper than an actual normal (ie. no complications) birth. So unless they're self-insured (which, IIRC, already takes them out of the Obamacare mandate) they're going to get birth-control coverage whether they want it or not. My guess is they're not interfering with the decision because Aetna gave them a cost for cutting it out (and it's higher than what they pay now - see reasons above). Dumbasses. (Grokked from Dan)
"A report that President Trump asked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to meet with a former NSA employee who denies Russian interference in the U.S. election has drawn fire from two ex-intelligence chiefs." Apparently this person believe that an insider leaked the emails, which was an early theory that was quickly disproven.
The Hidden Brain podcast on going without sleep. Mostly focusing on Randy Gardner who holds the world's record for 11 days without sleeping. Guinness World Records has deemed any attempt to break that record as too dangerous so they won't certify any new attempt to break it. Sleep deprivation, I don't recommend it, but even after gaining all this insight into the effects, our society still rewards those people who go without. And if you suffer from chronic insomnia, please seek medical attention. Full disclosure, as a young man I once worked 72 hours straight, took an hour nap, and worked another 12 hours. I often would work 24-36 hours at a time. Fortunately I was also paid for my overtime for most of that. I do not recommend doing this (at any age). This is also why when people offer the writing advice of "just get up an hour early to writer" (or exercise) I advise against it (unless you can go to sleep earlier as well). As they state in the article, there is some evidence that you can store up some sleep to stay awake later, but you can never do the reverse. Any damage done by staying awake doesn't go away by sleeping more. Of course I'm also now at the age where I look at younger people and think, "How can you not want to go to sleep?"
"A Merlin rocket engine exploded Sunday at SpaceX's test facilities in Central Texas. According to the company, no one was injured during the mishap, which damaged two bays in a Merlin engine test stand at the MacGregor facility." And that's why they test them out first. (Grokked from John)
"'This year may be (an) especially difficult (flu season) because, in addition to this egg adaptive mutation which was present last year, there's indication that the H3N2 viruses are actually evolving,' he said." Fuck. Me. Okay, well that's just about one of the strains in this year's flu vaccine, the other two look good. And it's hoped that even if it may not stop you from getting sick, it might prevent the worst effects of the flu (like death, and yes, people do die from the flu).
"Pixium Vision, a French company, has received the approval to begin in-human trials of a miniature wireless sub-retinal implant. Named PRIMA, the device may help those with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration get improvements in their eyesight. The company is in talks to also conduct trials in the United States." No word if you can telescope in with it or if it makes that neato sound effect from the Six-Million Dollar Man. (Grokked from Dan)
Genetically modified skin. Living in the future.
"Getting rid of the requirement that everyone in the country have health insurance coverage would save the government $338 billion over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday." But it would make health insurance (for everybody) more expensive. Also it could lead to unexpected economic costs (increase in bankruptcies or hospital debt for charity care).
"The statement also says (Notre Dame) 'will not interfere' with the insurance company’s coverage (of still providing ND employees with birth-control at not cost to to ND), although it’s unclear whether there’s any way they could. So it’s possible that—depending on your insurer—the executive order (allowing all employers to waive the birth-control mandate) doesn’t give religious employers the power they thought it did." Because 1) birth control pills aren't always prescribed for just birth control (there are several medical reasons) and 2) it's a hellalotta cheaper than an actual normal (ie. no complications) birth. So unless they're self-insured (which, IIRC, already takes them out of the Obamacare mandate) they're going to get birth-control coverage whether they want it or not. My guess is they're not interfering with the decision because Aetna gave them a cost for cutting it out (and it's higher than what they pay now - see reasons above). Dumbasses. (Grokked from Dan)
"A report that President Trump asked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to meet with a former NSA employee who denies Russian interference in the U.S. election has drawn fire from two ex-intelligence chiefs." Apparently this person believe that an insider leaked the emails, which was an early theory that was quickly disproven.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Linkee-poo needs to laugh, and when the sun is out I've got something I can laugh about
"Researchers at NASA have discovered a huge upwelling of hot rock under Marie Byrd Land, which lies between the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, is creating vast lakes and rivers under the ice sheet." And now we'll hear from the climate change denialists that the Earth is warming because of a mantle bloom under the whole Earth.
The new tax gimmick of letting provision expire (to get a better CBO score). And here I'll just say that while all those other "temporary" reductions sometimes were extended, the one example they gave of a tax cut that wasn't directly impacted "middle-class" people. All the ones that did get extended have an active and vocal lobbing system. There's not a lot of money lobbying for the middle-class.
"Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) got points for honesty Tuesday while advocating for Republicans’ tax bill to slash the corporate tax rate and eliminate the estate tax, among other things… 'My donors are basically saying, "Get it done or don’t ever call me again,"' Collins said." Dear Rep. Collins, you're not supposed to say that out loud in front of reporters.
"The Democratic sweep in the off-year elections Tuesday arguably dials up the urgency for the GOP to deliver a major legislative win after nearly a year of coming up short. Yet the knotty work of solving the math problem at the heart of the exercise remains." You know, if the GOP had actually done it's homework over the last 8 years, it wouldn't be in this predicament. Instead, it was easier to mouth platitudes, lie, and promise the Moon instead of doing the work. There's a lot of talk about the Tortoise and the Hare, but there's also the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. It's a long, long way to Tipperary.
"Health care spending in the United States increased by about $933.5 billion between 1996 and 2013, according to an analysis published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA. More than half of this surge was a result of generally higher prices for health care services." This is my shocked face.
"Whereas in the past states had to prove that proposed changes (to Medicaid) would 'increase and strengthen' health coverage of their low-income population, that requirement is gone, replaced with language that welcomes proposals for work requirements, drug tests and other hurdles that experts predict would reduce the Medicaid rolls by hundreds of thousands of people." Remember when candidate Trump said he wouldn't touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?
"Even though medical marijuana is legal in more than half of US states, it remains illegal under federal law. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate derivatives of the plant, including (cannabidiol) extracts."
"… Trump said(,) 'And I can only say this, if he didn’t have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. So that’s the way I feel about it.'… The gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, on Sunday opened fire in a Texas church, killing 26 and wounding about 20 others. After leaving the church, Kelley was confronted by a nearby resident with a gun, police said. He was found dead with three gunshot wounds, including at least one self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said." Note the gunman was finished firing in the church and leaving the scene before being confronted, and that it is most likely the bullet that killed him came from his own gun.
The automation of the legal profession. The robots are coming for your job.
"The House Intelligence Committee on Monday released the full transcript of the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page's testimony before the panel last week, portions of which support details in an explosive collection of memos outlining alleged collusion between the campaign and Moscow before the 2016 US election." Well, there's a little fire in that smoke after all (not that I doubted it, given that I actually paid fucking attention at the time). (Grokked from a number of people)
"So began the mystery of Wilbur Ross' missing $2 billion. And after one month of digging, Forbes is confident it has found the answer: That money never existed. It seems clear that Ross lied to us, the latest in an apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications and whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004." Big hand for our Secretary of Commerce, everybody. So basically a braggart nominating another braggart, who'd a thunk it? So, besides the imbroglio of the money laundering going on at the Cyprus bank he worked at, apparently he is merely a hundred-millionaire, not the billionaire he made himself out to be. (Grokked from Dan)
Ah the Democrats, exceptionally adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. But last night was pretty damn sweet.
"Residents in (Maine) grappling with a heroin epidemic and an aging population voted Tuesday to deliver a rebuke to Republican Gov. Paul LePage and join 31 other states that have expanded Medicaid under former President Barack Obama’s health care law." Odd, people actually want government to work for them and help improve their lives. "'Voters have made it clear they want more health care, not less.'" (said David Farmer, spokesman for pro-expansion Mainers For Health Care).
But, "In a statement Wednesday morning, LePage said he would not allow expansion to go into effect until the program 'has been fully funded by the Legislature at the levels DHHS has calculated.'" Because why wouldn't he block it as much as he could.
The new tax gimmick of letting provision expire (to get a better CBO score). And here I'll just say that while all those other "temporary" reductions sometimes were extended, the one example they gave of a tax cut that wasn't directly impacted "middle-class" people. All the ones that did get extended have an active and vocal lobbing system. There's not a lot of money lobbying for the middle-class.
"Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) got points for honesty Tuesday while advocating for Republicans’ tax bill to slash the corporate tax rate and eliminate the estate tax, among other things… 'My donors are basically saying, "Get it done or don’t ever call me again,"' Collins said." Dear Rep. Collins, you're not supposed to say that out loud in front of reporters.
"The Democratic sweep in the off-year elections Tuesday arguably dials up the urgency for the GOP to deliver a major legislative win after nearly a year of coming up short. Yet the knotty work of solving the math problem at the heart of the exercise remains." You know, if the GOP had actually done it's homework over the last 8 years, it wouldn't be in this predicament. Instead, it was easier to mouth platitudes, lie, and promise the Moon instead of doing the work. There's a lot of talk about the Tortoise and the Hare, but there's also the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. It's a long, long way to Tipperary.
"Health care spending in the United States increased by about $933.5 billion between 1996 and 2013, according to an analysis published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA. More than half of this surge was a result of generally higher prices for health care services." This is my shocked face.
"Whereas in the past states had to prove that proposed changes (to Medicaid) would 'increase and strengthen' health coverage of their low-income population, that requirement is gone, replaced with language that welcomes proposals for work requirements, drug tests and other hurdles that experts predict would reduce the Medicaid rolls by hundreds of thousands of people." Remember when candidate Trump said he wouldn't touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?
"Even though medical marijuana is legal in more than half of US states, it remains illegal under federal law. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate derivatives of the plant, including (cannabidiol) extracts."
"… Trump said(,) 'And I can only say this, if he didn’t have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. So that’s the way I feel about it.'… The gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, on Sunday opened fire in a Texas church, killing 26 and wounding about 20 others. After leaving the church, Kelley was confronted by a nearby resident with a gun, police said. He was found dead with three gunshot wounds, including at least one self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said." Note the gunman was finished firing in the church and leaving the scene before being confronted, and that it is most likely the bullet that killed him came from his own gun.
The automation of the legal profession. The robots are coming for your job.
"The House Intelligence Committee on Monday released the full transcript of the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page's testimony before the panel last week, portions of which support details in an explosive collection of memos outlining alleged collusion between the campaign and Moscow before the 2016 US election." Well, there's a little fire in that smoke after all (not that I doubted it, given that I actually paid fucking attention at the time). (Grokked from a number of people)
"So began the mystery of Wilbur Ross' missing $2 billion. And after one month of digging, Forbes is confident it has found the answer: That money never existed. It seems clear that Ross lied to us, the latest in an apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications and whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004." Big hand for our Secretary of Commerce, everybody. So basically a braggart nominating another braggart, who'd a thunk it? So, besides the imbroglio of the money laundering going on at the Cyprus bank he worked at, apparently he is merely a hundred-millionaire, not the billionaire he made himself out to be. (Grokked from Dan)
Ah the Democrats, exceptionally adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. But last night was pretty damn sweet.
"Residents in (Maine) grappling with a heroin epidemic and an aging population voted Tuesday to deliver a rebuke to Republican Gov. Paul LePage and join 31 other states that have expanded Medicaid under former President Barack Obama’s health care law." Odd, people actually want government to work for them and help improve their lives. "'Voters have made it clear they want more health care, not less.'" (said David Farmer, spokesman for pro-expansion Mainers For Health Care).
But, "In a statement Wednesday morning, LePage said he would not allow expansion to go into effect until the program 'has been fully funded by the Legislature at the levels DHHS has calculated.'" Because why wouldn't he block it as much as he could.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Linkee-poo is not Tuesday's child
"A photo of Juli Briskman flipping off President Trump's motorcade while riding her bike went viral, and now, her employer has fired her for it… On Halloween, in an attempt to get ahead of her employer finding out that she was the woman in the picture, Briskman told her bosses at the government contracting firm Akima LLC and was promptly fired." But she'll never pay for a drink again.
"The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration put the number of dead in the center Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy at over 2,600 through Nov. 1." People are dying to get to Europe, like they're dying to enter the US.
"According to Kamin’s calculations, the initial tax cut for the family making $59,000 becomes a $500 tax increase by 2024 compared to the status quo." But the tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses are permanent. So guess who's going to get stuck with the $1.5t extra debt? Also I'll note here that most of the tax "benefit" comes from having children, like the "middle-class tax break" in the Bush tax cuts. If you don't have children (as we don't), you get doubly screwed.
As in, "By 2027, after many of the middle class tax cuts in the GOP plan expire, the difference would be even more stark. The report found that people earning less than $55,000 a year would see an average increase in their taxes, of nearly $2,000, while those in the top 1 percent would get an average tax break of nearly $53,000. For the richest of the rich, the top 0.1 percent of Americans, the windfall is even greater: an average of nearly $300,000 a year." (Although note that the Tax Policy Center forgot to add one of the child deductions to these calculations and are redoing the report, however that deduction would also expire by 2027). This will play into some social economics in that people will want to get a dollar now even though they may need to pay two dollars in the future (it's not rational, but then that's why Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics).
"It does seem that in America today, it is something of a golden age of grievance." Trump, one year from election.
"The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration put the number of dead in the center Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy at over 2,600 through Nov. 1." People are dying to get to Europe, like they're dying to enter the US.
"According to Kamin’s calculations, the initial tax cut for the family making $59,000 becomes a $500 tax increase by 2024 compared to the status quo." But the tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses are permanent. So guess who's going to get stuck with the $1.5t extra debt? Also I'll note here that most of the tax "benefit" comes from having children, like the "middle-class tax break" in the Bush tax cuts. If you don't have children (as we don't), you get doubly screwed.
As in, "By 2027, after many of the middle class tax cuts in the GOP plan expire, the difference would be even more stark. The report found that people earning less than $55,000 a year would see an average increase in their taxes, of nearly $2,000, while those in the top 1 percent would get an average tax break of nearly $53,000. For the richest of the rich, the top 0.1 percent of Americans, the windfall is even greater: an average of nearly $300,000 a year." (Although note that the Tax Policy Center forgot to add one of the child deductions to these calculations and are redoing the report, however that deduction would also expire by 2027). This will play into some social economics in that people will want to get a dollar now even though they may need to pay two dollars in the future (it's not rational, but then that's why Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics).
"It does seem that in America today, it is something of a golden age of grievance." Trump, one year from election.
Monday, November 6, 2017
Election
Tomorrow in the US is another election. Remember what happened last year when you didn't show up?
Linkee-poo has a bird you can watch
So is it just me or it seems with all of the Trump Administration if you scratch hard enough you find Putin?
"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is doing business with a close relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin and failed to disclose their relationship while being confirmed for his Cabinet spot, documents showed Sunday." And it's true that the arrangement, while dodgy, isn't illegal. However, lying on federal forms is a felony.
"When President Donald Trump’s eldest son met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 after being promised 'information that would incriminate' Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. suggested that a U.S. law the lawyer was lobbying against could be reconsidered if Trump became president, according to the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya." People are starting to throw each other under the bus.
"In the fall of 2010, the Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner took the stage for a Q. and A. at a technology conference in San Francisco. Mr. Milner, whose holdings have included major stakes in Facebook and Twitter, is known for expounding on everything from the future of social media to the frontiers of space travel. But when someone asked… Who were his investors? — he did not answer, turning repeatedly to the moderator with a look of incomprehension… Now, leaked documents examined by The New York Times offer a partial answer: Behind Mr. Milner’s investments in Facebook and Twitter were hundreds of millions of dollars from the Kremlin… His companies sold those holdings several years ago… Among Mr. Milner’s current investments is a real estate venture founded and partly owned by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser.
"NPR CEO Jarl Mohn apologized to angered staffers in a contentious meeting Friday afternoon even as additional women accused the network's former top news executive of sexually harassing them."
"In an update, Paul's senior adviser Doug Stafford sent a statement to the Bowling Green Daily News that Paul, 54, 'has five rib fractures including three displaced fractures.'" Good thing Sen. Paul has excellent health insurance. Also, the neighbor arrested for tackling Rand Paul is also a doctor, and lives next door.
"But this is completely unfair to Trump. A look at this fuller remarks makes clear he did know that Japanese cars are built in the United States. He even talked about it at-length and praised the manufacturers for the amount of jobs they've created here." So apparently the president made some comment about getting the Japanese to build cars in the US, yes they already do and yes he knows it. That's not my issue with this. How will this fare with all the "buy American" supporters he has?
"Broadcom made an unsolicited, $103 billion offer for rival chipmaker Qualcomm, the tech industry’s largest attempted takeover that is destined to come under intense regulatory scrutiny." Broadcom is also moving its headquarters from Singapore to the US which will help it avoid going through CFIUS reviews. You might remember CFIUS from the Clinton-Uranium-Russia brouhaha.
"In his first stop of an extended trip in Asia, Trump stood with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a news conference and suggested the United States will arm Japan, much as the United States has done with allies in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia. He did not deny reports that he has expressed frustration that Japan did not shoot down a ballistic missile North Korea recently fired over its territory." Well, we'll be selling them the capability to possibly do that, they don't currently have it (and there's the bit about the Japanese Constitution that we forced them to sign at the end of WWII). Not to mention the geo-political issues of basing an anti-missile system in Japan.
"President Donald Trump says the mass shooting at a Texas church 'isn’t a guns situation,' but is a 'mental health problem at the highest level.'" I think the gun problem helped. Note how president Trump is rolling out the narrative that we'll discover, a long history of mental problems… blah blah blah… bang bang bang (also note the ongoing search in Las Vegas to develop that narrative). But, okay, it's a mental health problem. WTF are you going to do about it Mr. President? Maybe, say, national insurance that covers everybody that includes mental health?
"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is doing business with a close relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin and failed to disclose their relationship while being confirmed for his Cabinet spot, documents showed Sunday." And it's true that the arrangement, while dodgy, isn't illegal. However, lying on federal forms is a felony.
"When President Donald Trump’s eldest son met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 after being promised 'information that would incriminate' Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. suggested that a U.S. law the lawyer was lobbying against could be reconsidered if Trump became president, according to the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya." People are starting to throw each other under the bus.
"In the fall of 2010, the Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner took the stage for a Q. and A. at a technology conference in San Francisco. Mr. Milner, whose holdings have included major stakes in Facebook and Twitter, is known for expounding on everything from the future of social media to the frontiers of space travel. But when someone asked… Who were his investors? — he did not answer, turning repeatedly to the moderator with a look of incomprehension… Now, leaked documents examined by The New York Times offer a partial answer: Behind Mr. Milner’s investments in Facebook and Twitter were hundreds of millions of dollars from the Kremlin… His companies sold those holdings several years ago… Among Mr. Milner’s current investments is a real estate venture founded and partly owned by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser.
"NPR CEO Jarl Mohn apologized to angered staffers in a contentious meeting Friday afternoon even as additional women accused the network's former top news executive of sexually harassing them."
"In an update, Paul's senior adviser Doug Stafford sent a statement to the Bowling Green Daily News that Paul, 54, 'has five rib fractures including three displaced fractures.'" Good thing Sen. Paul has excellent health insurance. Also, the neighbor arrested for tackling Rand Paul is also a doctor, and lives next door.
"But this is completely unfair to Trump. A look at this fuller remarks makes clear he did know that Japanese cars are built in the United States. He even talked about it at-length and praised the manufacturers for the amount of jobs they've created here." So apparently the president made some comment about getting the Japanese to build cars in the US, yes they already do and yes he knows it. That's not my issue with this. How will this fare with all the "buy American" supporters he has?
"Broadcom made an unsolicited, $103 billion offer for rival chipmaker Qualcomm, the tech industry’s largest attempted takeover that is destined to come under intense regulatory scrutiny." Broadcom is also moving its headquarters from Singapore to the US which will help it avoid going through CFIUS reviews. You might remember CFIUS from the Clinton-Uranium-Russia brouhaha.
"In his first stop of an extended trip in Asia, Trump stood with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a news conference and suggested the United States will arm Japan, much as the United States has done with allies in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia. He did not deny reports that he has expressed frustration that Japan did not shoot down a ballistic missile North Korea recently fired over its territory." Well, we'll be selling them the capability to possibly do that, they don't currently have it (and there's the bit about the Japanese Constitution that we forced them to sign at the end of WWII). Not to mention the geo-political issues of basing an anti-missile system in Japan.
"President Donald Trump says the mass shooting at a Texas church 'isn’t a guns situation,' but is a 'mental health problem at the highest level.'" I think the gun problem helped. Note how president Trump is rolling out the narrative that we'll discover, a long history of mental problems… blah blah blah… bang bang bang (also note the ongoing search in Las Vegas to develop that narrative). But, okay, it's a mental health problem. WTF are you going to do about it Mr. President? Maybe, say, national insurance that covers everybody that includes mental health?
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Linkee-poo late weekend edition
Well, there was a heck of a lot this weekend. Unfortunately I was very busy and couldn't keep up with it all.
"In a press conference Sunday night, an official from the Texas Department of Public Safety described the scene: Around 11:20 am, the suspect, dressed in black, approached the church and began firing an assault rifle. He then entered the church and continued firing." So, why is this whole "city vs rural" concept of the Trump voter bullshit? "'I never thought it would happen here. This is something that happens in a big city. I would never have thought this would have taken place here. It's just too tight a community. It doesn't make sense.'"
"During a hearing Friday in Fort Bragg, N.C., Bergdahl was sentenced to dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of $1,000 in pay per month and a reduction in rank from sergeant to private, according to a statement from the Army." What you're not hearing in the media is that Bergdahl was tortured during his 5 year stay with the "Taliban." And after he was released, he's been in debriefings where he's given vital intelligence on the Haqqani network (who were actually holding him). People don't understand what "desert" means in this context. He walked off the base without permission, he didn't defect to the other side.
"Three House Republicans on Friday moved to pressure special counsel Robert Mueller to resign over what they contend are 'obvious conflicts of interest,' the latest instance of rising GOP resistance to his Russia probe." Of course my first thought is, "Wow, how deep is the GOP collusion with Putin?" Cause they wouldn't be worried if there wasn't something to be worried about.
A little primer on "natural" vs "artificial" flavor.
A breakdown of the tax proposal. Also, most of the taxes expire in 5 years. Except for the corporate take rate, elimination of the alternative minimum tax, and the elimination of the estate tax. I wonder why?
"The Democratic National Committee struck a deal with Hillary Clinton in 2015 that gave her campaign input on some party hiring and spending decisions, but required they be related only to preparations for the general election, according to a memo obtained by NBC News. It also left the door open for other candidates to make similar arrangements." The committee struck similar deals with all the candidates, including Sanders. Gee, I wonder if Donna Brazile is trying to sell books so the publicists are making a big thing out of nothing? I mean, that couldn't be it.
"Senator Rand Paul suffered a minor injury after a man assaulted him on Friday at the lawmaker’s home in Bowling Green, Ky., the police said." Don't worry, it's someone he knew.
Also, WTF is happening in Saudi Arabia? "Yemeni rebels on Saturday targeted an airport in Saudi Arabia's capital with a ballistic missile, according to Yemen's Houthi-controlled Defense Ministry." And in the same day… "The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel also reported late Saturday that dozens of princes and former ministers were detained in a new anti-corruption probe headed by the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Salman. No further details were immediately given."
"In a press conference Sunday night, an official from the Texas Department of Public Safety described the scene: Around 11:20 am, the suspect, dressed in black, approached the church and began firing an assault rifle. He then entered the church and continued firing." So, why is this whole "city vs rural" concept of the Trump voter bullshit? "'I never thought it would happen here. This is something that happens in a big city. I would never have thought this would have taken place here. It's just too tight a community. It doesn't make sense.'"
"During a hearing Friday in Fort Bragg, N.C., Bergdahl was sentenced to dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of $1,000 in pay per month and a reduction in rank from sergeant to private, according to a statement from the Army." What you're not hearing in the media is that Bergdahl was tortured during his 5 year stay with the "Taliban." And after he was released, he's been in debriefings where he's given vital intelligence on the Haqqani network (who were actually holding him). People don't understand what "desert" means in this context. He walked off the base without permission, he didn't defect to the other side.
"Three House Republicans on Friday moved to pressure special counsel Robert Mueller to resign over what they contend are 'obvious conflicts of interest,' the latest instance of rising GOP resistance to his Russia probe." Of course my first thought is, "Wow, how deep is the GOP collusion with Putin?" Cause they wouldn't be worried if there wasn't something to be worried about.
A little primer on "natural" vs "artificial" flavor.
A breakdown of the tax proposal. Also, most of the taxes expire in 5 years. Except for the corporate take rate, elimination of the alternative minimum tax, and the elimination of the estate tax. I wonder why?
"The Democratic National Committee struck a deal with Hillary Clinton in 2015 that gave her campaign input on some party hiring and spending decisions, but required they be related only to preparations for the general election, according to a memo obtained by NBC News. It also left the door open for other candidates to make similar arrangements." The committee struck similar deals with all the candidates, including Sanders. Gee, I wonder if Donna Brazile is trying to sell books so the publicists are making a big thing out of nothing? I mean, that couldn't be it.
"Senator Rand Paul suffered a minor injury after a man assaulted him on Friday at the lawmaker’s home in Bowling Green, Ky., the police said." Don't worry, it's someone he knew.
Also, WTF is happening in Saudi Arabia? "Yemeni rebels on Saturday targeted an airport in Saudi Arabia's capital with a ballistic missile, according to Yemen's Houthi-controlled Defense Ministry." And in the same day… "The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel also reported late Saturday that dozens of princes and former ministers were detained in a new anti-corruption probe headed by the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Salman. No further details were immediately given."
Friday, November 3, 2017
Linkee-poo greets another Friday
It seems my US audience is growing. Thanks, everyone. Although there seems to be strange blips in the timing, unless you all are a bunch of late-night owls. So to everyone new, welcome. For those long time readers you know I don't really care about my stats, and previous have gone months without looking at them. But since last Summer, I've been seeing some strange things in the blog traffic. I just find it amusing (although I wonder what my dossier/profile reads like).
"House Republicans unveiled a draft tax bill on Thursday, calling for deep cuts in both individual and corporate tax rates." I haven't seen the brackets yet, but I have a feeling my taxes are about to go up.
And "Do me a favor and remind us what the Republican tax myth is." An interview with Bruce Bartlett, "… economic policy adviser for presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And during the 1980s, he championed the idea that tax cuts would equal growth in the economy." Yeah, he doesn't believe that anymore. It's kinda hard to after seeing the actual effects of tax cuts, especially in Kansas.
"And while it's impossible to do a flat-out true-or-false fact check on an estimate, this figure is likely to be repeated as the White House pushes tax overhaul, and there is reason to doubt that your household will get $4,000 — or even anything close to it."
"The House Republican tax bill released Thursday would allow churches to endorse political candidates, rolling back a 1950s-era law that bars such activities." The Johnson Amendment. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
So they say most people will be able to use a postcard sized form to file their taxes. How well do you think that will go over with the HR Blocks and TurboTaxes of the country? And right now we're entering the stage of people waking up the next morning with champaign hang-overs and the sudden thought, "Hey, they're taking the tax break I enjoy/use/need. They were just supposed to take all those useless ones out." Suckers.
"Where and how the tradition is celebrated has changed over time, but that's part of culture, Fierro says. The theme and spirit of Día de los Muertos has remained throughout those transitions."
"To try to reverse this trend, a Washington state agency that advocates for medical aid-in-dying has created guidelines for dementia patients who don't want to be spoon-fed at the end of life." Because spoon-feeding is considered essential care, not heroic measures.
"Six weeks later (after either placing a stent on a heart artery or doing a placebo surgery), they all got on a treadmill and ran for a while to see if the chest pain they were used to experiencing during exercise had decreased. It turned out that there was no statistical difference between the exercise-related chest pain of those who got the stents and those who did not." Um, stents aren't a pain relief (although they can help). Stents increase blood flow in arteries that have been blocked (or, in the case of aortic stents, to reinforce vessel walls). The pain relief is secondary (and usually seen as proof of blood flow). But the reason to get a stent in a heart artery is to stop necrosis of heart tissue (the cause or result of most heart attacks).
Ah Texas, where lax regulations brings in the chemical plants. Because who needs regulations or the EPA? "A week later, Wheeler mowed his lawn for the first time since the fires. 'I wear a respirator, for grass allergies, so I didn't notice anything while I was mowing,' he says. After he was done, he picked up the grass clippings. 'I was wearing gloves, and back behind the gauntlet of the glove, up on my wrist and everything, it was starting to sting a little bit, like I was in ants,' he says." Wheeler live 3 mile from the Arkema plant. You may remember trailers exploding following the flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
"As white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, the high priest of a pagan religion looked on with horror from Reykjavik, Iceland. It wasn’t just their racist message that bothered him. It was that their banners bore the symbols of his religion: Ásatrú, also known as heathenry." Attempting to avoid the loss of identity and symbolism in the face of those appropriating them for racist ideology. I had that thought a few months ago that the pagans (or heathens as they call themselves in this article) might lose the icon of Thor's Hammer just like many religions lost the swastika after the Nazis.(Grokked form Matt Staggs)
"Dave Chapman and dozens of other longtime organic farmers packed a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board in Jacksonville, Fla., this week. It was their last-ditch effort to strip the organic label from a tide of fluid-fed, 'hydroponic' greenhouse-grown vegetables that they think represent a betrayal of true organic principles." When a marketing term gets regulated, and people are confused about what the term really means, and the rising industrialization of our food supply.
Because when it's about abortion, it's never over with these people. "The Trump administration on Friday accused lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of misleading the administration in the case of a pregnant immigrant teen who sought and obtained an abortion following a lawsuit."
"Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault." Because God and Jesus or something like that. Seriously, this administration seems hell bent on making satire impossible. (Grokked from Christopher Moore)
"If you buy insurance on your own and have been paying attention to the Affordable Care Act, you've probably heard that open enrollment for 2018 plans has just started and the government is spending a lot less money this year to get the word out."
"It is 'extremely likely' that human activities are the 'dominant cause' of global warming, according to the the most comprehensive study ever of climate science by U.S. government researchers." We're boned. Those two categorization phrases will, no doubt, be all the rage in conservative media as they spin it to mean, "they aren't completely sure" and "humans aren't the only cause." Again, I speak academian so allow me to translate these phrases, "extremely likely" means "you have to be brain dead to not see the connection, and "dominate cause" means "everything else is barely a blip on the radar." Of course, "(t)he report has been submitted to the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. Trump has yet to choose anyone to run that office; it remains one of the last unfilled senior positions in the White House staff." As they said in Indiana Jones, "We have top men working on it right now."
"President Trump promised to 'hire the best people.'" So far a talk-show host, a member of Mar-A-Lago, a muffler-shop manager, a bartender, a cabin attendant, a scented candle "developer", wedding planner… "Many don’t appear to meet the educational qualifications for their positions. But they did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." (Grokked from John)
"Trump had picked Clovis for the (Department of Agriculture's chief scientist) despite him not having a background in science, and that lack of experience, alongside a history of racially charged and homophobic comments, made his nomination particularly controversial… But sources told CNN earlier Thursday that Clovis' nomination was imperiled over his connections to the ongoing Russia probe… Clovis' decision to step aside followed weeks of reports about incendiary comments he had previously made that had not disqualified him from the administration post." Sure he's a racist and a homophobe, but it was his potential connections to the Russia investigation that sank him. Don't worry, he's still employed as a USDA senior advisor.
A breakdown of some of the ads the Russians placed on Facebook. Again, note that they're still isolating social media platforms. Many people share across platforms (in fact there is a service that I use to post to twitter when I make a post here on the blog, I find articles for this post on my own newsfeeds, twitter, and facebook).
"President Trump pushed back Thursday on concerns about a lack of nominees for key positions at the State Department, arguing it wouldn't affect his agenda… "Let me tell you, the one that matters is me, I'm the only one that matters because when it comes to it that's what the policy is going to be,' Trump said on Fox News when pressed about vacancies by Laura Ingraham." There it is folk, Trump is responsible. Because he's the only one that matters. Way to not be narcissistic there, Mr. Presdient.
Remember the "one of the great memories of all time" quote from Trump? "President Donald Trump says he doesn’t 'remember much' about a March 2016 meeting with his campaign foreign policy adviser that is now front-and-center in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe." I believe this is called, "Pulling a Reagan."
"House Republicans unveiled a draft tax bill on Thursday, calling for deep cuts in both individual and corporate tax rates." I haven't seen the brackets yet, but I have a feeling my taxes are about to go up.
And "Do me a favor and remind us what the Republican tax myth is." An interview with Bruce Bartlett, "… economic policy adviser for presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And during the 1980s, he championed the idea that tax cuts would equal growth in the economy." Yeah, he doesn't believe that anymore. It's kinda hard to after seeing the actual effects of tax cuts, especially in Kansas.
"And while it's impossible to do a flat-out true-or-false fact check on an estimate, this figure is likely to be repeated as the White House pushes tax overhaul, and there is reason to doubt that your household will get $4,000 — or even anything close to it."
"The House Republican tax bill released Thursday would allow churches to endorse political candidates, rolling back a 1950s-era law that bars such activities." The Johnson Amendment. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
So they say most people will be able to use a postcard sized form to file their taxes. How well do you think that will go over with the HR Blocks and TurboTaxes of the country? And right now we're entering the stage of people waking up the next morning with champaign hang-overs and the sudden thought, "Hey, they're taking the tax break I enjoy/use/need. They were just supposed to take all those useless ones out." Suckers.
"Where and how the tradition is celebrated has changed over time, but that's part of culture, Fierro says. The theme and spirit of Día de los Muertos has remained throughout those transitions."
"To try to reverse this trend, a Washington state agency that advocates for medical aid-in-dying has created guidelines for dementia patients who don't want to be spoon-fed at the end of life." Because spoon-feeding is considered essential care, not heroic measures.
"Six weeks later (after either placing a stent on a heart artery or doing a placebo surgery), they all got on a treadmill and ran for a while to see if the chest pain they were used to experiencing during exercise had decreased. It turned out that there was no statistical difference between the exercise-related chest pain of those who got the stents and those who did not." Um, stents aren't a pain relief (although they can help). Stents increase blood flow in arteries that have been blocked (or, in the case of aortic stents, to reinforce vessel walls). The pain relief is secondary (and usually seen as proof of blood flow). But the reason to get a stent in a heart artery is to stop necrosis of heart tissue (the cause or result of most heart attacks).
Ah Texas, where lax regulations brings in the chemical plants. Because who needs regulations or the EPA? "A week later, Wheeler mowed his lawn for the first time since the fires. 'I wear a respirator, for grass allergies, so I didn't notice anything while I was mowing,' he says. After he was done, he picked up the grass clippings. 'I was wearing gloves, and back behind the gauntlet of the glove, up on my wrist and everything, it was starting to sting a little bit, like I was in ants,' he says." Wheeler live 3 mile from the Arkema plant. You may remember trailers exploding following the flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
"As white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, the high priest of a pagan religion looked on with horror from Reykjavik, Iceland. It wasn’t just their racist message that bothered him. It was that their banners bore the symbols of his religion: Ásatrú, also known as heathenry." Attempting to avoid the loss of identity and symbolism in the face of those appropriating them for racist ideology. I had that thought a few months ago that the pagans (or heathens as they call themselves in this article) might lose the icon of Thor's Hammer just like many religions lost the swastika after the Nazis.(Grokked form Matt Staggs)
"Dave Chapman and dozens of other longtime organic farmers packed a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board in Jacksonville, Fla., this week. It was their last-ditch effort to strip the organic label from a tide of fluid-fed, 'hydroponic' greenhouse-grown vegetables that they think represent a betrayal of true organic principles." When a marketing term gets regulated, and people are confused about what the term really means, and the rising industrialization of our food supply.
Because when it's about abortion, it's never over with these people. "The Trump administration on Friday accused lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of misleading the administration in the case of a pregnant immigrant teen who sought and obtained an abortion following a lawsuit."
"Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault." Because God and Jesus or something like that. Seriously, this administration seems hell bent on making satire impossible. (Grokked from Christopher Moore)
"If you buy insurance on your own and have been paying attention to the Affordable Care Act, you've probably heard that open enrollment for 2018 plans has just started and the government is spending a lot less money this year to get the word out."
"It is 'extremely likely' that human activities are the 'dominant cause' of global warming, according to the the most comprehensive study ever of climate science by U.S. government researchers." We're boned. Those two categorization phrases will, no doubt, be all the rage in conservative media as they spin it to mean, "they aren't completely sure" and "humans aren't the only cause." Again, I speak academian so allow me to translate these phrases, "extremely likely" means "you have to be brain dead to not see the connection, and "dominate cause" means "everything else is barely a blip on the radar." Of course, "(t)he report has been submitted to the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. Trump has yet to choose anyone to run that office; it remains one of the last unfilled senior positions in the White House staff." As they said in Indiana Jones, "We have top men working on it right now."
"President Trump promised to 'hire the best people.'" So far a talk-show host, a member of Mar-A-Lago, a muffler-shop manager, a bartender, a cabin attendant, a scented candle "developer", wedding planner… "Many don’t appear to meet the educational qualifications for their positions. But they did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." (Grokked from John)
"Trump had picked Clovis for the (Department of Agriculture's chief scientist) despite him not having a background in science, and that lack of experience, alongside a history of racially charged and homophobic comments, made his nomination particularly controversial… But sources told CNN earlier Thursday that Clovis' nomination was imperiled over his connections to the ongoing Russia probe… Clovis' decision to step aside followed weeks of reports about incendiary comments he had previously made that had not disqualified him from the administration post." Sure he's a racist and a homophobe, but it was his potential connections to the Russia investigation that sank him. Don't worry, he's still employed as a USDA senior advisor.
A breakdown of some of the ads the Russians placed on Facebook. Again, note that they're still isolating social media platforms. Many people share across platforms (in fact there is a service that I use to post to twitter when I make a post here on the blog, I find articles for this post on my own newsfeeds, twitter, and facebook).
"President Trump pushed back Thursday on concerns about a lack of nominees for key positions at the State Department, arguing it wouldn't affect his agenda… "Let me tell you, the one that matters is me, I'm the only one that matters because when it comes to it that's what the policy is going to be,' Trump said on Fox News when pressed about vacancies by Laura Ingraham." There it is folk, Trump is responsible. Because he's the only one that matters. Way to not be narcissistic there, Mr. Presdient.
Remember the "one of the great memories of all time" quote from Trump? "President Donald Trump says he doesn’t 'remember much' about a March 2016 meeting with his campaign foreign policy adviser that is now front-and-center in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe." I believe this is called, "Pulling a Reagan."
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Linkee-poo just can't
The NaNoWriMo portable writing studio.
The mysteries of the pyramids have deepened with the discovery of what appears to be a giant void within the Khufu, or Cheops, monument in Egypt." Ah, something new has been added.
The Note to Self podcast on the Russian interference in our 2016 election. Recommended on what happened, how they did it, what they exploited to do it. "The goal is confusion." And "We have to impose rigor and discipline on our own thought. We have to question what we've received and not just stop at questioning… this a test… as a country of our maturity." We're failing at Toys.
"Sen. Richard Burr wasted no time on Wednesday connecting the abstract and amorphous story that is Russian election interference to strife in the real world."
In case I'm not being clear about this, this ongoing Russian assault is as important to our political future as 9-11 was. I know I can be flippant, but this is serious shit. And our government isn't prepared to handle it, the leadership has been compromised, and (within government) nobody else can initiate the response.
"In a call Tuesday to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Trump put blame on Kushner for the part he took in choices to fire former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI director James Comey, Vanity Fair reported." Because it's never Trump's fault. And I thought Trump trusted the advice his son-in-law gave him, which is why Kushner was a "valued asset"? It's almost like Trump's loyalties (his strongest character trait) are fickle and he'll throw anyone under the bus. Plus, um, you know there's a "cooling down" period for people who worked in government (and the White House) before they can have direct contact with people in government (and the White House), right?
"Americans are getting our first glimpse of how we got played." "Of course, you didn’t have to click on these posts, or believe what they were pitching. But social media tech is particularly good at making messages irresistible. The Russian trolls didn’t have to spend much money on these marketing techniques to have an impact thanks to precision targeting—and free promotion for buzzy content."
The mysteries of the pyramids have deepened with the discovery of what appears to be a giant void within the Khufu, or Cheops, monument in Egypt." Ah, something new has been added.
The Note to Self podcast on the Russian interference in our 2016 election. Recommended on what happened, how they did it, what they exploited to do it. "The goal is confusion." And "We have to impose rigor and discipline on our own thought. We have to question what we've received and not just stop at questioning… this a test… as a country of our maturity." We're failing at Toys.
"Sen. Richard Burr wasted no time on Wednesday connecting the abstract and amorphous story that is Russian election interference to strife in the real world."
In case I'm not being clear about this, this ongoing Russian assault is as important to our political future as 9-11 was. I know I can be flippant, but this is serious shit. And our government isn't prepared to handle it, the leadership has been compromised, and (within government) nobody else can initiate the response.
"In a call Tuesday to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Trump put blame on Kushner for the part he took in choices to fire former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI director James Comey, Vanity Fair reported." Because it's never Trump's fault. And I thought Trump trusted the advice his son-in-law gave him, which is why Kushner was a "valued asset"? It's almost like Trump's loyalties (his strongest character trait) are fickle and he'll throw anyone under the bus. Plus, um, you know there's a "cooling down" period for people who worked in government (and the White House) before they can have direct contact with people in government (and the White House), right?
"Americans are getting our first glimpse of how we got played." "Of course, you didn’t have to click on these posts, or believe what they were pitching. But social media tech is particularly good at making messages irresistible. The Russian trolls didn’t have to spend much money on these marketing techniques to have an impact thanks to precision targeting—and free promotion for buzzy content."
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Linkee-poo when did it get so late
"Hundreds of out-of-state reinforcements bolstered utility crews struggling to restore power throughout New England on Tuesday, a day after a powerful storm blew down trees and postponed Halloween activities in many communities." It's like The Year Without a Santa Clause, only at Halloween.
"'The discovery of NGTS-1b was a complete surprise to us—such massive planets were not thought to exist around such small stars,' said lead study author Daniel Bayliss in a statement. 'This is the first exoplanet we have found with our new NGTS facility and we are already challenging the received wisdom of how planets form.'"
"Silk protein fabrication is still an evolving science." Making industrial quantities of spider silk to produce stronger fabrics. Which are great, but really hard to take off.
Why we can't have nice things and why lying to the public matters. People in Coal Country aren't taking advantage of retraining because 1) it's scary, 2) they keep being promised that the jobs are coming back. The jobs aren't coming back. More than likely you will have to move. You were lied to by the politicians you supported, and the bosses you forgot once ordered guards to fire on miners and their families. A political party is going to need to fess up to lying, but I doubt that will happen anytime. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"A new study shows that CEOs who invest in corporate social responsibility initiatives put themselves at significant risk of losing their jobs." There's a lot of wrong in that study (note they don't qualify or identify the social responsibility actions which could be overall charity to only sponsoring the little league team the boss' kid plays on). But it also exposes a harsh reality, in business a lot of people are sociopaths who only care about if they made 11 cents instead of 10 cents.
"The nurse who was roughly arrested at a Salt Lake City hospital has settled with the city and the university that owns the hospital for $500,000." She needs a better lawyer.
"NPR has placed its senior vice president for news, Michael Oreskes, on leave after fielding accusations that he sexually harassed two women seeking career opportunities nearly two decades ago, when he worked at The New York Times." Sexual assault is all about the power differential.
"A 29-year-old man plowed into a crowd of bicyclists and pedestrians just blocks away from the World Trade Center Tuesday afternoon. Mangled bicycles littered the street as medics rushed to the victims."
"SWAT officers on Tuesday evening swarmed a Riverside elementary school classroom and shot a parent who had taken a teacher hostage, ending an hours-long standoff."
"Alert librarian credited with spotting suspect in fatal shooting of University of Utah student." The other thing you didn't hear about yesterday. Also, Librarians FTW!
"The new ad, set to begin airing on cable stations nationwide on Tuesday, seizes on 'skyrocketing' insurance premiums 'all while Democrats in Washington, D.C., block a better plan to repeal and replace Obamacare once and for all — obstructing our president just to score political points with the radical left.'" Dear Mr President, fuck you. The Republicans own healthcare now. They have since January. "Despite the ad’s claims, however, the Republican Party’s health care problems are largely of its own making." Bet you won't hear that on Fox News.
"On Nov. 7, voters in Maine will decide whether to join 31 other states and expand Medicaid under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It is the first time since the law took effect nearly four years ago that the expansion question has been put to voters." This could be interesting. I still find it difficult to get my mind around people who have absolutely no compassion for their fellow humans.
Remember people talking about how the GOP wants to tear government apart and destroy anything that helps you? Yeah, this is how they do it. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"House Republicans announced late Tuesday that they would delay by one day the release of their long-awaited tax cut bill that GOP leaders have promised will be the most extensive overhaul of the tax code in a generation, as members clashed over curtailing popular tax breaks to pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts for individuals and corporations." Just like with the Obamacare repeal, the questions revolve around who they're going to screw over and the extent to which they're going to screw them over. Note to anyone listening, if you're here, you're going to get screwed over (I doubt I have any of the 1% among my readers). They're arguing over how hard they're going to screw you over. They also have to limit the "costs" of the bill to $1.5 Trillion (note that is tacked directly on to the deficit). They're having a hard time getting the cost that low.
"Police arrested seven people after scuffles and at least one serious fight broke out between protesters and people attending a speech by conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos at a Southern California college Tuesday night." So, how's that free speech thing going? "'We really just felt left out of the conversations on campus as conservatives and bringing him has really started this conversation about free speech,' (Brooke Paz, a spokeswoman for the College Republicans who invited Yiannopoulos) said." Well, if your intent was to let people know that College Republicans are assholes and Nazis, job well done.
"Russian interference efforts in the 2016 presidential election were broader than anyone first knew, as representatives for Facebook, Twitter and Google told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday." Um, that's "broader than they would admit." Some of us knew (and yeah, they're still understating it because they're only counting those posts/accounts they can tie to Russian addresses). Also, right now people are siloing the information. When these people saw information on FB, they might also have tweeted it, sent it through email, or told people at work or home about it.
And here I will note that I'm hearing a lot of talk like the advice I gave before. To counter this we need to have an informed and savvy electorate. We need Fox News to stop. We need talk radio to stop. We need trust in our news sources (bring back the laws that protected us from shysters like Limbaugh, Jones and the rest). And we need to have the people carry enough background knowledge to be able to see through the attempts to make us gullible. Twenty years of conservative talking points have softened up the US for exactly this kind of disinformation (yes, there are some on the liberal side, but the overwhelming preponderance is from the right, as in about a 98 to 2 ratio). The routes of information can not be closed without a total censorship regime so that's out. What we need is to harden the target.
"'The discovery of NGTS-1b was a complete surprise to us—such massive planets were not thought to exist around such small stars,' said lead study author Daniel Bayliss in a statement. 'This is the first exoplanet we have found with our new NGTS facility and we are already challenging the received wisdom of how planets form.'"
"Silk protein fabrication is still an evolving science." Making industrial quantities of spider silk to produce stronger fabrics. Which are great, but really hard to take off.
Why we can't have nice things and why lying to the public matters. People in Coal Country aren't taking advantage of retraining because 1) it's scary, 2) they keep being promised that the jobs are coming back. The jobs aren't coming back. More than likely you will have to move. You were lied to by the politicians you supported, and the bosses you forgot once ordered guards to fire on miners and their families. A political party is going to need to fess up to lying, but I doubt that will happen anytime. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"A new study shows that CEOs who invest in corporate social responsibility initiatives put themselves at significant risk of losing their jobs." There's a lot of wrong in that study (note they don't qualify or identify the social responsibility actions which could be overall charity to only sponsoring the little league team the boss' kid plays on). But it also exposes a harsh reality, in business a lot of people are sociopaths who only care about if they made 11 cents instead of 10 cents.
"The nurse who was roughly arrested at a Salt Lake City hospital has settled with the city and the university that owns the hospital for $500,000." She needs a better lawyer.
"NPR has placed its senior vice president for news, Michael Oreskes, on leave after fielding accusations that he sexually harassed two women seeking career opportunities nearly two decades ago, when he worked at The New York Times." Sexual assault is all about the power differential.
"A 29-year-old man plowed into a crowd of bicyclists and pedestrians just blocks away from the World Trade Center Tuesday afternoon. Mangled bicycles littered the street as medics rushed to the victims."
"SWAT officers on Tuesday evening swarmed a Riverside elementary school classroom and shot a parent who had taken a teacher hostage, ending an hours-long standoff."
"Alert librarian credited with spotting suspect in fatal shooting of University of Utah student." The other thing you didn't hear about yesterday. Also, Librarians FTW!
"The new ad, set to begin airing on cable stations nationwide on Tuesday, seizes on 'skyrocketing' insurance premiums 'all while Democrats in Washington, D.C., block a better plan to repeal and replace Obamacare once and for all — obstructing our president just to score political points with the radical left.'" Dear Mr President, fuck you. The Republicans own healthcare now. They have since January. "Despite the ad’s claims, however, the Republican Party’s health care problems are largely of its own making." Bet you won't hear that on Fox News.
"On Nov. 7, voters in Maine will decide whether to join 31 other states and expand Medicaid under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It is the first time since the law took effect nearly four years ago that the expansion question has been put to voters." This could be interesting. I still find it difficult to get my mind around people who have absolutely no compassion for their fellow humans.
Remember people talking about how the GOP wants to tear government apart and destroy anything that helps you? Yeah, this is how they do it. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"House Republicans announced late Tuesday that they would delay by one day the release of their long-awaited tax cut bill that GOP leaders have promised will be the most extensive overhaul of the tax code in a generation, as members clashed over curtailing popular tax breaks to pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts for individuals and corporations." Just like with the Obamacare repeal, the questions revolve around who they're going to screw over and the extent to which they're going to screw them over. Note to anyone listening, if you're here, you're going to get screwed over (I doubt I have any of the 1% among my readers). They're arguing over how hard they're going to screw you over. They also have to limit the "costs" of the bill to $1.5 Trillion (note that is tacked directly on to the deficit). They're having a hard time getting the cost that low.
"Police arrested seven people after scuffles and at least one serious fight broke out between protesters and people attending a speech by conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos at a Southern California college Tuesday night." So, how's that free speech thing going? "'We really just felt left out of the conversations on campus as conservatives and bringing him has really started this conversation about free speech,' (Brooke Paz, a spokeswoman for the College Republicans who invited Yiannopoulos) said." Well, if your intent was to let people know that College Republicans are assholes and Nazis, job well done.
"Russian interference efforts in the 2016 presidential election were broader than anyone first knew, as representatives for Facebook, Twitter and Google told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday." Um, that's "broader than they would admit." Some of us knew (and yeah, they're still understating it because they're only counting those posts/accounts they can tie to Russian addresses). Also, right now people are siloing the information. When these people saw information on FB, they might also have tweeted it, sent it through email, or told people at work or home about it.
And here I will note that I'm hearing a lot of talk like the advice I gave before. To counter this we need to have an informed and savvy electorate. We need Fox News to stop. We need talk radio to stop. We need trust in our news sources (bring back the laws that protected us from shysters like Limbaugh, Jones and the rest). And we need to have the people carry enough background knowledge to be able to see through the attempts to make us gullible. Twenty years of conservative talking points have softened up the US for exactly this kind of disinformation (yes, there are some on the liberal side, but the overwhelming preponderance is from the right, as in about a 98 to 2 ratio). The routes of information can not be closed without a total censorship regime so that's out. What we need is to harden the target.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Linkee-poo those that the beast is looking for listen in awe and you'll hear him
Dear news media, yesterday's indictments were not "Shock and Awe." You don't understand that concept. Please stop using it. Shock and Awe would have been members of the cabinet and current staff. IMHO Mueller did go after "the low level" people to get their cooperation. That's how "bad" this is, a former campaign manager is "low fruit" in this investigation. Rumors are there are 6 other indictments still sealed.
Okay everybody, let's just settle down. An indictment is not a conviction. And even if Mueller is able to find the president's fingerprints on all this, he himself cannot impeach the president. And even if the president is implicated, and even charged with "high crimes and misdemeanors", it doesn't put a "null/void" stamp on any of his court appointments, any laws he's signed, any actions he's put into motion.
It would not halt the rise of the American Nazis/White Supremacists. It won't save Obamacare or stop the tax cuts that will ruin our economy. It won't mean Hillary is president.
It would, however, vindicate all of us who have fought him.
My foreign audience is exploding. Hi everyone so totally not in Russia. Although South Korea is also on the list, and I was pretty sure they had some tight security on their internet (not to mention cheap and very fast internet). So, who knows, maybe I'm very popular in France, Belgium, Italy, the Philippines, and Kuwait.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Dennis Banks has passed. And so it goes.
A NYT interview with Mark Hamill on the advent of "The Last Jedi". (Grokked from John)
"FDA experts say black licorice contains the compound glycyrrhizin, which is the sweetening compound derived from licorice root. Glycyrrhizin can cause potassium levels in the body to fall. When that happens, some people experience abnormal heart rhythms, as well as high blood pressure, edema (swelling), lethargy, and congestive heart failure." Wait, I thought things that weren't drugs didn't have an effect on you (citing previous century of discounting anecdotal evidence of people feeling "better" or "worse" depending on the quality of their diet and/or nutritional supplements)? "No matter what your age, don’t eat large amounts of black licorice at one time." Well, yeah.
2009 Chevy Malibu vs 1959 Bel Air crash test… "The first inclination is, 'Oh, those old cars were built like tanks!' but its quickly apparent that the myriad safety features found on newer cars are literally lifesaving." Just a general note, the auto industry fought every single one of those safety features. (Grokked from Dan)
"The truly rare find could redefine paleontologists' understanding of how the creatures spread throughout ancient oceans, as the skeleton is the first from the Jurassic era to be found in India."
Remember the link about the mountain North Korea was using for its nuclear tests was "exhausted"? "About 200 people are feared dead in North Korea after underground tunnels at a nuclear test site that was feared to be unstable reportedly collapsed, crushing 100 people in the initial cave-in and 100 others when the tunnels again gave way on top of rescuers."
"Study: Climate Change Is Damaging the Health of Millions of People." Wait, you're saying it just doesn't mean that Ohio gets Florida's weather? Well fuck. "Perhaps most troubling, what we’re experiencing today is just the beginning." We're boned. "It’s a dire diagnosis, but the good news is that we know the cure. We simply must stop burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, transitioning to clean, renewable energy resources." Wow, that's optimistic. Look, we can stop, 100% stop, burning fossil fuels this very minute, and atmospheric CO2 levels (and methane) will continue to rise for another decade. So no, that last statement is Pure Pollyanna at this point. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but at this point the best we can do is avoid the most severe consequences of climate change.
The argument over a new Authorization to Use Military Force.
"It’s sign-up season for the Affordable Care Act, but the Trump administration isn’t making it easy — cutting the enrollment period in half, slashing advertising and dialing back on counselors who help consumers get through the process… Many people already faced fewer choices and higher premiums. But President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a subsidy to insurers that lowers consumer costs compounded the turmoil, pushing premiums even higher."
"But these days, statements of all stripes are bombarding us via broadcast and social media. The trick is classifying them correctly before we swallow them ourselves, much less before we hit 'Like,' 'Share' or 'Retweet.'" Yep. Teaching college students how to spot fake news.
"Twitter may be the public square of our times, but some citizens say their elected officials don't want to hear from them. It has become increasingly common for politicians at all levels of government to block followers, whether for uncivil behavior or merely for expressing a different point of view." A somewhat light take on a serious matter. As a former elected official, I get it. But, just as I had to have a phone listed in my name, and be open to meeting anyone from the village (or who did business in the village, or who affected the residents of the village), you can't just block constituents (non-constituents are on their own). Twitter is a way to hear from the people you serve. And courtesy goes both ways. But, my elected officials look at twitter the same way Utah State Senator Weiler does, like it's a game.
"John Kelly calls Robert E. Lee an 'honorable man' and says 'lack of compromise' caused the Civil War." And this is the supposed "adult" or "smart guy" in the White House. Gen. Kelly is showing his ass. So not only does he not fully understand his own personal history and the world he has lived in (see earlier comments about "honoring women" etc), he has no clue as to actual history. How the hell did this guy make general? "While some contend that the Civil War was fought over states' rights, scholars generally agree that slavery was the primary driver of the conflict." Well, to be fully truthful, you don't learn about a lot of these things in public school (at least when I was growing up). But at this point, you need to be intentionally ignoring the world to hold these views.
Ta-Nehisi Coates on how ignorant you have to be to come up with John Kelly's statement. And some other historians weight in, "During the interview, he outlined a view of the history of the Civil War that historians described as 'strange,' 'highly provocative,' 'dangerous' and 'kind of depressing.'" Since I speak academian, allow me to translate. They're trying to say Gen. Kelly is fucked in the head. "'It’s the Jim Crow version of the causes of the Civil War. I mean, it tracks all of the major talking points of this pro-Confederate view of the Civil War.'"
"The intensity of Trump’s frenzy underscores the peril in which the president now finds himself… Trump does not know what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has uncovered; which witnesses are flippable; what financial documents have revealed about the Trump business empire… For someone who insists on holding all the cards and intimidating others, Trump finds himself in a uniquely powerless position." A Washington Post opinion piece about Trump's tweeting, and the brouhaha over the Clinton-Uranium-Russian non-scandal.
"Watch @JoyAnnReid produce, shred, & confetti the receipts when Ex GOP Spokeswoman Jen Kerns starts with the Hillary Uranium One conspiracy." This is exactly what journalists used to do. This is why it is important for at least journalists to be well informed and not just phone it in. (Grokked from a lot of people)
"A U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., decided on Monday that trans members of the military have a strong case that the president's ban would violate their Fifth Amendment rights. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted a preliminary injunction to keep the policy from going into effect while the court case moves forward." On one hand I'm happy about this injunction (although it doesn't go far enough to cover all medical services transgender service people might require). On the other hand, as Commander in Chief the president has some authority here (no matter how heinous we believe the current resident of the White House is). However it's actually Congress that should stipulate the regulation. So there's a lot of Constitutional toe smashing going on here.
Okay everybody, let's just settle down. An indictment is not a conviction. And even if Mueller is able to find the president's fingerprints on all this, he himself cannot impeach the president. And even if the president is implicated, and even charged with "high crimes and misdemeanors", it doesn't put a "null/void" stamp on any of his court appointments, any laws he's signed, any actions he's put into motion.
It would not halt the rise of the American Nazis/White Supremacists. It won't save Obamacare or stop the tax cuts that will ruin our economy. It won't mean Hillary is president.
It would, however, vindicate all of us who have fought him.
My foreign audience is exploding. Hi everyone so totally not in Russia. Although South Korea is also on the list, and I was pretty sure they had some tight security on their internet (not to mention cheap and very fast internet). So, who knows, maybe I'm very popular in France, Belgium, Italy, the Philippines, and Kuwait.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Dennis Banks has passed. And so it goes.
A NYT interview with Mark Hamill on the advent of "The Last Jedi". (Grokked from John)
"FDA experts say black licorice contains the compound glycyrrhizin, which is the sweetening compound derived from licorice root. Glycyrrhizin can cause potassium levels in the body to fall. When that happens, some people experience abnormal heart rhythms, as well as high blood pressure, edema (swelling), lethargy, and congestive heart failure." Wait, I thought things that weren't drugs didn't have an effect on you (citing previous century of discounting anecdotal evidence of people feeling "better" or "worse" depending on the quality of their diet and/or nutritional supplements)? "No matter what your age, don’t eat large amounts of black licorice at one time." Well, yeah.
2009 Chevy Malibu vs 1959 Bel Air crash test… "The first inclination is, 'Oh, those old cars were built like tanks!' but its quickly apparent that the myriad safety features found on newer cars are literally lifesaving." Just a general note, the auto industry fought every single one of those safety features. (Grokked from Dan)
"The truly rare find could redefine paleontologists' understanding of how the creatures spread throughout ancient oceans, as the skeleton is the first from the Jurassic era to be found in India."
Remember the link about the mountain North Korea was using for its nuclear tests was "exhausted"? "About 200 people are feared dead in North Korea after underground tunnels at a nuclear test site that was feared to be unstable reportedly collapsed, crushing 100 people in the initial cave-in and 100 others when the tunnels again gave way on top of rescuers."
"Study: Climate Change Is Damaging the Health of Millions of People." Wait, you're saying it just doesn't mean that Ohio gets Florida's weather? Well fuck. "Perhaps most troubling, what we’re experiencing today is just the beginning." We're boned. "It’s a dire diagnosis, but the good news is that we know the cure. We simply must stop burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, transitioning to clean, renewable energy resources." Wow, that's optimistic. Look, we can stop, 100% stop, burning fossil fuels this very minute, and atmospheric CO2 levels (and methane) will continue to rise for another decade. So no, that last statement is Pure Pollyanna at this point. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but at this point the best we can do is avoid the most severe consequences of climate change.
The argument over a new Authorization to Use Military Force.
"It’s sign-up season for the Affordable Care Act, but the Trump administration isn’t making it easy — cutting the enrollment period in half, slashing advertising and dialing back on counselors who help consumers get through the process… Many people already faced fewer choices and higher premiums. But President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a subsidy to insurers that lowers consumer costs compounded the turmoil, pushing premiums even higher."
"But these days, statements of all stripes are bombarding us via broadcast and social media. The trick is classifying them correctly before we swallow them ourselves, much less before we hit 'Like,' 'Share' or 'Retweet.'" Yep. Teaching college students how to spot fake news.
"Twitter may be the public square of our times, but some citizens say their elected officials don't want to hear from them. It has become increasingly common for politicians at all levels of government to block followers, whether for uncivil behavior or merely for expressing a different point of view." A somewhat light take on a serious matter. As a former elected official, I get it. But, just as I had to have a phone listed in my name, and be open to meeting anyone from the village (or who did business in the village, or who affected the residents of the village), you can't just block constituents (non-constituents are on their own). Twitter is a way to hear from the people you serve. And courtesy goes both ways. But, my elected officials look at twitter the same way Utah State Senator Weiler does, like it's a game.
"John Kelly calls Robert E. Lee an 'honorable man' and says 'lack of compromise' caused the Civil War." And this is the supposed "adult" or "smart guy" in the White House. Gen. Kelly is showing his ass. So not only does he not fully understand his own personal history and the world he has lived in (see earlier comments about "honoring women" etc), he has no clue as to actual history. How the hell did this guy make general? "While some contend that the Civil War was fought over states' rights, scholars generally agree that slavery was the primary driver of the conflict." Well, to be fully truthful, you don't learn about a lot of these things in public school (at least when I was growing up). But at this point, you need to be intentionally ignoring the world to hold these views.
Ta-Nehisi Coates on how ignorant you have to be to come up with John Kelly's statement. And some other historians weight in, "During the interview, he outlined a view of the history of the Civil War that historians described as 'strange,' 'highly provocative,' 'dangerous' and 'kind of depressing.'" Since I speak academian, allow me to translate. They're trying to say Gen. Kelly is fucked in the head. "'It’s the Jim Crow version of the causes of the Civil War. I mean, it tracks all of the major talking points of this pro-Confederate view of the Civil War.'"
"The intensity of Trump’s frenzy underscores the peril in which the president now finds himself… Trump does not know what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has uncovered; which witnesses are flippable; what financial documents have revealed about the Trump business empire… For someone who insists on holding all the cards and intimidating others, Trump finds himself in a uniquely powerless position." A Washington Post opinion piece about Trump's tweeting, and the brouhaha over the Clinton-Uranium-Russian non-scandal.
"Watch @JoyAnnReid produce, shred, & confetti the receipts when Ex GOP Spokeswoman Jen Kerns starts with the Hillary Uranium One conspiracy." This is exactly what journalists used to do. This is why it is important for at least journalists to be well informed and not just phone it in. (Grokked from a lot of people)
"A U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., decided on Monday that trans members of the military have a strong case that the president's ban would violate their Fifth Amendment rights. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted a preliminary injunction to keep the policy from going into effect while the court case moves forward." On one hand I'm happy about this injunction (although it doesn't go far enough to cover all medical services transgender service people might require). On the other hand, as Commander in Chief the president has some authority here (no matter how heinous we believe the current resident of the White House is). However it's actually Congress that should stipulate the regulation. So there's a lot of Constitutional toe smashing going on here.
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