So many people out there at 5:45. The cloud cover was 0%, so it looked a way that I've seen many times. Type #3 I'll call it. The completely clear sky. Type #1 is a completely clouded sky, Type #2 is fully clouded but with some texture. The only other type I've identified is Type #5, which is distinctive, with a golden zigzag. I'll get to 10 types once I've seen the full annual cycle, which will be on September 8th.
Anyway, this is the open thread to get you through the night and onto the next sunrise. Keep watch.
Posts
170 comments:
General trend of death counts in the US is going down, as are new cases. Plenty of beds and ventilators for everyone. We avoided the medical supply crisis.
Flynn exonerated.
Schiff on the hot seat.
It's not all good news though. My governor continues to plumb deeper depths of petulant stupidity.
But overall, I'd say today was a good day.
"The sunrise this morning was well-attended."
Did you applaud?
I left a bye-ku for Biden in the other cafe.
https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/article242527331.html
1996. Traumatic.
The Supreme Court issued a second unanimous opinion, this time slapping down the notorious Ninth Circuit.
Its fascinating what you find if you're interested in looking isnt it.
Two Of Us In the sun
is tomorrow "Apologize to a 'Conspiracy Theorist' Day" ??
"Flynnocent"
...Flynndicated !
David ignatius hasnt given up looking for the pony,
Szechuan beef short ribs tonight. After a frustrating 10 mile run through the beautiful woods, with Muggles! And Muggle Kids! And Muggle Dogs! People who normally wouldn't set foot in the woods, clogging up the trails. /rant. Still beautiful and how wonderful to be able to run.
Type #4?
Set your Freedom Flag a Fly-nn.
I look forward to Chuck stopping by and explaining why truthseeker Adam Schiff held these transcripts secret for, what?, two years?
Lyin' James Clapper in public, June 2017: "Watergate pales in comparison to Russia Probe"
Lyin' James Clapper under oath in House hearing, July 2017: I saw no empirical evidence of collusion or coordination between Trump campaign and Russia
The Entire Left%LLR-left: Trump is a traitor
Where is Crack? New age stuff and Trumpists falling for it.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/plandemic-the-viral-coronavirus-documentary-stars-a-discredited-doctor-and-sham-science
Millions of Americans have been exposed to “Plandemic,” a 22-minute conspiracy theory documentary about the coronavirus that racked up millions of views on Facebook and YouTube before it was banned from both sites.
In the video, controversial scientist Dr. Judy Mikovits, a close associate of anti-vaccine activists, weaves an elaborate tale alleging a government conspiracy to create the coronavirus, with Anthony Fauci as a kind of murderous puppetmaster behind it all. Along the way, she claims that masks “activate” the virus, and that she was imprisoned as part of a cover-up.
“Plandemic” has already become a major success for its creator, New-Age producer Mikki Willis.
“She’s basically latched onto the anti-Fauci stuff, and came up with this story that sounds really dubious,” said Dr. David Gorski, a surgical oncologist who blogs about medical disinformation and has dubbed Mikovits a “COVID-19” grifter.”
Usually I agree with the caution that one should never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. In this case, however, I think the malignancy is blindingly obvious.
"The cloud cover was 0%, so it looked a way that I've seen many times. Type #3 I'll call it."
We astronomers love Type #3 with further constraints; no moon (Type #3a?) and no light pollution (Type # 3b?).
Well, the moon IS light pollution, so no need to subdivide further.
I made a fairly simple calculation in deciding to completely ignore the Russia collusion story: even if the allegations were 100% true, I still wouldn't care.
The activist left (as opposed to DNC corporatists), were pretty dismissive of the story. When the media was making hay over Flynn's "contact with the Russians," a figure no less than Noam Chomsky said it was an absurd charge and that such contact with Russia is perfect acceptable and to be expected. His interlocutor was trying his best to keep Chomsky on the totally anti-Trump line, but Chomsky nonetheless stated that one of the positives of Trump was that potential for reduced tensions with Russia. It's a crazy world we live in.
@Anne:
Usually I agree with the caution that one should never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
I agree with that general approach. But as you say, sometimes a cigar really is a cigar.
"even if the allegations were 100% true, I still wouldn't care."
You're cool with coups?
the last full supermoon of 2020, a 'flower moon,' on May 7
We were riffing on luttvak last night, one of the first examples of his work was a thought piece he had done for harpers under the alias miles ignotus a modest proposal as it were.
Both Flynn and the Central Park Five fitted up by the cops. Small world.
I wondered about the moon last night--driving home from our run. It looked not quite full--and HUGE.
Except the Central Park 5 were probably guilty. What was a frame-up was the so-called exoneration.
Yes robert morgenthau threw linda faurstein under the bus.
The proposal was a punitive expedition to seize the saudi oil fields such a notion must have been in the air around the time of three days of the condor, (the book had a whole different motivation for the slayings of condors unit) covering up a drug smuggling operation
Drago said...
Lyin' James Clapper in public, June 2017: "Watergate pales in comparison to Russia Probe"
----------=============
your mistake
facial take would be that Clapper was saying "We are greater crook than Nixon"
or "our cover up is better structured"
Now heres the shymalan twist clapper worked with chertoff who worked for russian oligarchs
“Both Flynn and the Central Park Five fitted up by the cops. Small world.”
And Trump still thinks they’re guilty because “they admitted their guilt”. Hmmm, didn’t Flynn admit guilt too?
"You have people on both sides of that," Trump said of the case on Tuesday. "They admitted their guilt. If you look at Fairstein, and if you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city should never have settled that case, so we'll leave it at that."
After the five, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise, were arrested, Trump took out a full-page ad in the local papers calling for the state to bring back capital punishment. “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” the ad blared.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-digs-central-park-5-they-admitted-their-guilt-n1019156
So the wizard of sacramento has lost his mojo.
From superpower collusion to a central park assault. My how your world has contracted.
*Screencap*
I distinctly recall seeing Chomsky interviewed about Russian collusion and opining that of course, Putin helped elect Trump "by undetectable means." That took me aback.
Maybe Farmer and I remember two different incidents . . . I want to say what I saw was about a year ago but couldn't swear to it.
Narr
Undetectable means--is there nothing they can't do?
TB, Or Not TB, That is the question
Nearly 1.5 Million More Tuberculosis Deaths Expected Due To Coronavirus Lockdowns
Original Mike,
And a Central Park assault that almost certainly happened. The boys confessed. They were covered in blood, hair and semen. One of them had a scratch that he admitted--in front of his father--came from the victim. Prior to attacking the woman, they had beaten a man senseless with a pipe.
But by all means, let us make them into heroes and martyrs.
Obviously baba yaga or oordolak do i have ti explain everything
Yes, there is every reason to believe the CP5 participated in the assault on the jogger. The police overstepped their bounds, yes. But "innocent" they were not.
what if tolstoy got it wrong
On the matter of the "God of the Old Testament" and the "God of the New Testament":
The idea that there are two different Gods, that the God of the New is not the God of the Old, is a very ancient idea called Marcionism, which the early Christian Church rejected as a false belief or teaching.
For one thing, we have the testimony of Jesus Himself that (a) the God of Abraham, that is, the God of the Covenant, and (b) the divine Father of Jesus are the same.
And, as I mentioned last night, er, very early this morning, there is only One God. Thus, from the Christian perspective, any apparent differences are not in God, but in our erroneous perception of Him. It is a matter of exegesis as well, that is, scriptural interpretation.
One rule of interpretation and understanding of God is that, although scripture does indeed speak to us today in the modern time, still it was written thousands of years ago. And although He does speak to us now, He first spoke to the people of that particular time. He deals with people on their personal level -- and in the case of the people of the Old Testament, He dealt with humanity in the state that they were in thousands of years ago. That is, savage and superstitious. And it was necessary to "civilize" humanity in progressive steps over time. It was also a time when almost everywhere people expected the gods to be mean and capricious. So their perspective colored their understanding. And, yet, upon a closer proper reading, we can see that the "God of the Old Testament" was NOT harsh and capricious, but loving and giving and merciful.
A proper Christian reading of the Bible requires that we read it as a single whole. Thus, the Old Testament is to be read in light of the New, and the Old shows its full meaning and is fulfilled in the New. That is, “The New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old is made manifest in the New”, as Saint Augustine noted.
By this reading, understanding that Jesus Himself is "the Word," that He is the full revelation of God in Himself, we should read all of scripture - Old Testament and New -- through that one interpretive lens of Jesus Christ. Further understanding that Jesus, who is God Himself, is the living incarnation of Love and Truth, we should likewise view and understand the "God of the Old Testament" as that same Love and Truth. If one applies this Christ-centric rule of interpretation, even if it requires some initial objections, then we can begin to see how this seemingly different God in the Old is, in fact, the same loving God of the New.
(to be continued)
@Original Mike:
You're cool with coups?
How does the language of "coup" of have anything to do with what was alleged?
Further, on the matter of the "God of the Old Testament" and the "God of the New Testament":
This is what Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had to say on the subject:
The God of the Jewish Bible (which, together with the New Testament, is also the Christian Bible)--a God at times infinitely tender, and at times so severe as to inspire fear--is also the God of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles. The Church of the second century had to resist the denial of this God by the Gnostics and, above all, by Marcion, who created a dichotomy between the New Testament God and the "inferior" Creator God who was the source of the Old Testament. The Church, however, has always maintained its faith in a single God, the Creator of the world, and the author of both Testaments. The awareness of God contained in the New Testament, which finds its summit in the Johannine definition that "God is love" (1 John 4:16), does not contradict the past, but rather serves as a summary of all of salvation history, which initially had Israel as its central figure.
For this reason, the voices of Moses and the prophets have rung out in the Church's liturgy from its very beginnings until today; Israel's psalter is also the great book of the Church's prayer. As a result, the primitive Church did not pit itself against Israel, but in all simplicity believed itself to be the legitimate continuation of Israel. The splendid image of chapter 12 of the book of Revelation of a woman clothed with the sun, crowned with twelve stars, pregnant and suffering in the pangs of giving birth is Israel, which was "to rule over all nations with an iron scepter" (Psalm 2:9). Nonetheless, this woman is transformed into the new Israel, the mother of new peoples, and she is personified in Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The bringing-together of these three meanings-- Israel, Mary, the Church--shows how Israel and the Church were, and are, inseparable for the Christian faith.
-- L'Osservatore Romano - 29 December, 2000
Yes they are contiguous from genesis when sin enters the world to revelation where it is finally vanquished jesus comes in to pintroduce a new covenant not as hidebound as the first.
@Narr:
Maybe Farmer and I remember two different incidents . . . I want to say what I saw was about a year ago but couldn't swear to it.
From the handful I've seen, his tack has been to say that it's conceivable Russia wanted to influence the election but that any effort it made was not significant, and there's been no evidence that it was anything like decisive. He points out, quite correctly I think, that the House and Senate vote went the same way and that Trump's actions towards Russia don't show any kind of quid pro quo.
"How does the language of "coup" of have anything to do with what was alleged?"
An opposing party committed crimes in pursuit of the removal of a duly elected President. Coup.
I wasnt quibbling last night, the church is the believers gathering not the structure.
@Original Mike:
An opposing party committed crimes in pursuit of the removal of a duly elected President. Coup.
I was speaking of the Russia collusion allegation. That is, the allegation made against Trump.
The one thing that scene desperately needs is a Karen, preferably with a megaphone and a cop.
So was I.
the Law demanded Justice
But Love cried "Mercy!"
the Old Testament/Law is the framework, like bones-- rigid, hard (see Ez. 37)
the New Testament/Jesus is the flesh--soft, relatable ("fleshed out") (Phil 2:6-8)
The Word became flesh
Jesus' bones were not broken (Scripture cannot be broken)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
"Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed". psalms 85
The resolution of the tension between Justice and Mercy was accomplish at the cross
"But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins." --Heb. 10
Jesus is the perfect sacrifice
"It is finished" --Jn 19:30
"By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"."
"When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. 51At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." -- Mt: 27: 50
One of the remarkable aspects of all this is our accessibility to God. We ourselves can now go boldly to the throne of grace:
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Heb 4: 11-13
"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience".
I'm getting my antibody blood test tomorrow.
I had that strange persistent "something" back in January and February, so who knows what the results will be? I'll not be surprised either way.
He was foretold in isiah, so he had to be gcaptured tortured and killed.
Whaddya know?
I just learned who Tara Reade's lawyer is -- a guy I went to law school with.
A 1996 court document states that Reade told her then-husband about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office” and that she “eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position.”
https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/05/07/court-docs-from-1996-confirm-tara-reade-told-her-husband-about-the-sexual-harassment-in-bidens-office-n389088
Mark - I also am getting a serology test tomorrow. I may have been expposed in early April, and had a nealry total loss of sense of smell for two days about a week later - nothing else thankfully. I will aslo not be surprised with either positive or negative result.
We really need the random community testing to get into full swing to find out the actual extent of the ChinaFlu - I suspect much greater than thought by the 'smart' people - and htat should guide the re-openining.
Was a gorgeous day here and will be even nicer tomorrow.
Mark,
Isn't it weird when you intersect with the news of the day? The Volokh Conspiracy had a post by Eugene about a sex discrimination case at UCLA. Because it involved the hematology department, I read the transcript. I felt weird when I recognized the people--and when one of them is a really good friend of mine!
And the fact that I went to HS with the dude who was the so-called Ebola Czar--and Algore's and Biden's Chief of Staff. In fact, he pestered me to date him so much that I finally said yes. He took me to see "Boys from Brazil." Weird, because he is Jewish. Now, he is married to a shiksa--and she credits me with the breakthrough.
It does give one a peek behind the curtain--and leads to an even healthier contempt for the clerisy.
How did you guys manage to get an antibody test?
That was an obvious product placement for Country Crock on Magnum just now.
Meanwhile, T.C. wins two bare-knuckled fights in a row. No, make that seven fights. Seems suspicious . . . sounds fixed.
Quest Diagnostics.
https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/products/covid-19-immune-response/b580e541-78a5-48a6-b17b-7bad949dcb57
That was steve guttenbergs debut as a read shirt kind of. From what ive read it made mengele a much more significant figure then he turned to be, dying in some remote village in brazil in 1979
Any other old software developers on here might be interested in the following link.
I'm not interested in the website per se, more the technical commentary of the writer - with which I very much agree.
Talk about the blind leading the blind, but here we are:
https://lockdownsceptics.org/code-review-of-fergusons-model/
I was speaking of the Russia collusion allegation. That is, the allegation made against Trump.
The Russia collusion allegation was part of a conspiracy to remove a duly-elected President through extra-legal means. Does that meet the Constitutional definition of treason?
Saw a tweet from Steve Krakauer where he isolated the Northeast states (NY, NJ, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. as it's own country. He calculated a per capita death rate 1008 per 1 million residents.
The rest of the country combined? 104 deaths per 1 million residents.
Is it supposed to an attribute of God that God is unchanging? If not, maybe any perceived difference between OT God and NT God is because the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus changed God (along with everything else).
Is it supposed to an attribute of God that God is unchanging?
Christianity? Yes, God is unchanging.
Judaism? Yes, God is unchanging.
Islam? No, Allah is "so all powerful" that he can change and utterly contradict himself. But somehow Allah is unable to comprehend how God can be a Trinity or how Jesus could rise from the dead.
Beijing Boy: "Both Flynn and the Central Park Five fitted up by the cops. Small world."
And all by the democrats.
So Magnum finally gets to a game at Tiger Stadium, but he misses Gibby hitting one and has to leave early.
Original Mike: "I look forward to Chuck stopping by and explaining why truthseeker Adam Schiff held these transcripts secret for, what?, two years?"
And now we know, from Sally Yates very own testimony, that in early January li'l Baracky was fully up to speed on the spying and wiretapping of Flynn and the Trump campaign.
The very accusation that got LLR-lefty C**** (the worlds biggest defender of dems) so irate that he was physically threatening people.
Only mohammed got the revelation not christ (issa) not mua(moses) not abraham , go figure
Central Park 5 case:
Mayor: Democrat
NY County DA: Democrat
Sex Crimes Prosecutor: Democrat
I discovered the name of moses when the idiots behind the exodus movie came up witg a marketing campaign that angered all three religions (heck of a job)
That Mohammad got a lot of bennies.
@somewhy, I followed the link you provided. Wow. Looks as though Neil Ferguson’s model belongs in The Journal of Irreproducible Results.
The only way to properly abort it is to chop it up limb by limb.
Or do you know better?
There were times though that Allah commanded and forced Mohammad to do things he didn't want to do -- like have sex with little girls.
And this just in:
The moronic "Womens March" (I seem to recall some posters here lauding this lefty crew) has decided to go Full #BelieveAllBidens and toss #MeToo into the garbage heap.
Because of course they did.
Of course.
This just in:
Slow Joe the groper of small girls Biden has doubled down on scrapping due process for male students accused of sexual assault on college campuses.
And that was literally just today.
Just today.
This just in: Slow Joe the groper of small girls Biden, based on testimony of Sally Yates herself, puts Slow Joe in the room in early January 2017 when li'l baracky goes full Spy On Our Enemies mode.
So, what did Slow Joe know and when did he "forget" it?
Let me guess, we aren't allowed to search any of his public records because people might use those records against him.
"And now we know, from Sally Yates very own testimony, that in early January li'l Baracky was fully up to speed on the spying and wiretapping of Flynn and the Trump campaign."
I waas mistaken. It wasn't them convicting Trump of Obama's crimes that drove me batshit, it was that other people wouldn't acknowledge it.
I've really learned a lot, really learned a lot.
Guild: "I waas mistaken. It wasn't them convicting Trump of Obama's crimes that drove me batshit, it was that other people wouldn't acknowledge it."
Understandable.
Why, just today, Inga pulled the ultimate Inga and seamlessly moved to another (!) conspiracy theory against Flynn without missing a beat.
BTW, she still thinks Carter Page is a russian spy too.
Is that thing still on sponsored by cair and splc.
Crowdstrike, the firm behind the accusation that Russia hacked & stole DNC emails, admitted to Congress that it has no direct evidence Russia actually stole/exfiltrated the emails.
More from Crowdstrike's Shaun Henry: "There are times when we can see data exfiltrated, and we can say conclusively. But in this case it appears it was set up to be exfiltrated, but we just don’t have the evidence that says it actually left."
per @aaronjmate
They went to get a pierogi and forgot, the boys from brazil (in part inspired by faragos aftermath) wasnt as crazy as the latest theory floated in 2017, hitler escaled the bunker and made it colonbia
Things to watch for in the coming days:
Growing rift between obama/biden DOJ hacks vs obama/biden FBI hacks vs obama/biden intel community hacks.
We already see Yates and McCord tossing McCabe under the bus, McCabe being none too subtle about Rosenstein's participation, McCabe and Priestap trying to shove all decision making responsibility down to lover boy Strzok and his paramour Page....and on and on.
Can't wait until we see more about the Ukraine fake "whistleblower" Eric Ciaramella and his pal Vindman and the possible role they had in leaking info to the media in late 2016 and early 2017 to weaponize the obama/biden lies.
On the subject of masks: Yesterday I mentioned a blog post by Scott Alexander that reviewed studies on the efficacy of masks. Scott Alexander is very good reader and reviewer of scientific studies. Here is a link to that March 23rd post for anyone who is interested: Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know.
I've really learned a lot, really learned a lot; love is like a flame, it burns you when it's hot....
And yet the fraudulency of neil ferguson doesnt break the spell of this vekakte model anditzpolicy implications
Why would they do this
https://youtu.be/lG-gzfOaoDk
"Graceless slave, you know who I am."
That lyric has been erased for a decade plus.
Now the unreal lyric sung is "graceless lady, you know who I am."
Kid Rock had a hit where he said "radio edit" to great effect, but he did it by choice.
Not like the racist mysoginist Rolling Assholes who talk about slavery after they made Gram their slave by allowing him the release of the all-time best version.
link text
I've really learned a lot, really learned a lot; love is like a flame, it burns you when it's hot....
I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
And the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
bagoh20,
My doctor is associated with the Everett Clinic here in the Puget Sound area, and they are linked with the serlogy testing being done by the University of Washignton to gather community data relating to the Covid-19 outbreak. So I asked him about getting a test and he prescribed one for me. Not sure about Mark.
I am in Nashville, TN presently. Long story that involves running, my recent thyroidectomy, the fact that I am from TN and do have a TN law license, and about four other factors. But what I am commenting about is that the sunrise seems to be about the same time here as in Madison. I looked at the time zones and it makes sense. In McKinney, TX, where I have my main home, sunrise and sunset are about 45ish minutes different.
So glad to see Van Grack get jammed. I misjudged Sally Yates, though. I thought she was the one who cooked up the Logan Act angle. It turns out it was some goof in the FBI--maybe even Comey himself.
After watching private citizen John Kerry jetting around and meeting with foreign officials to try to save Obama's Iran deal, I have concluded that he didn't get the memo.
Guildofcannonballs said... [hush][hide comment]
"Graceless slave, you know who I am."
That lyric has been erased for a decade plus.
Now the unreal lyric sung is "graceless lady, you know who I am."
An edit for radio, same band..
Let's spend (some time) together...
Can't wait until we see more about the Ukraine fake "whistleblower" Eric Ciaramella and his pal Vindman and the possible role they had in leaking info to the media in late 2016 and early 2017 to weaponize the obama/biden lies.
...dont forget M. Atkinson
Nazareth's song is a classic.
Guido's line made me think of the same song, though on a more subconscious level.
I didnt catch in his hay day but 20 years later
https://youtu.be/lG-gzfOaoDk
Thanks guys! I used Mark's link and ordered the test for Tuesday. Really easy. I'm psyched. If I'm immune that is going to make a lot of people very happy and really make life easier for me.
I didn't see anything about how long it takes for the results.
sorry wrong link
The LabCorp site says it takes 1-2 days for the ordering physician to be informed of results.
Got my hair cut for the first time in 7 weeks. Glad of it, too. Was getting tired of looking so raggedy.
Quest should take a couple of days. They will send you an e-mail with a link to the results.
Getting a hair cut tomorrow. The whole house is getting them. Fist time since this all started mid-March.
I've used them for blood counts and cholesterol checks.
‘Murder Hornet’ Fear: Insect Experts Call It Media Hype
Big Mike: Rest easy my friend.
Nazareth's song is a classic.
Oh hell no! That's a country song.
Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - Love Hurts
@Big Mike:
The Russia collusion allegation was part of a conspiracy to remove a duly-elected President through extra-legal means. Does that meet the Constitutional definition of treason?
I doubt any significant consequences will come from this. If they can make a case and get a conviction or two, great. But frankly, I wouldn't care one way or the other. For whatever amount of righteous anger I possess, so much is directed towards the things our government does to its citizens openly and admittedly, I have little to none left to give over some political corruption bullshit.
We should probably all fasten our seat belts, because it's likely only going to get worse. This is what happens when a society start tearing itself apart. There is hyper-polarization, and a lot of it is along identity lines. The two sides are becoming increasingly irreconcilable. Derangement syndromes of one variety or another are a regular feature. The two sides don't just disagree. One side is good and the other evil. It is not enough simply to win. The other side must be destroyed.
Trump pledged relatively moderate changes to the neoliberal establishment, and it has responded with total ferocity. And it has largely succeeded in stymieing him. Even if Trump had been able to achieve everything he wanted, that would've just been the start of reorganizing our society.
Occupy Wall Street, for all its leftist pretensions, was pretty spot on in their target. A financial elite do exert a tremendous amount of power in our system. But they overshot the mark by blaming the 1%. The kind of money it takes to get into the 1% doesn't buy you that much political and cultural influence. Even the 0.1% might overdue it a hair. It's really the 0.001%. The class of people you might call the super rich. These are the real winners of neoliberalism. They want immigration and free trade and interventionism. And they're woke. That's what you're up against.
Do you think these people give a fuck if there's a shakeup a the Justice Department? Or housecleaning at the FBI? You can't solve the problem through the executive. You need a legislative agenda. And most of the GOP is already bought off.
Almost cut my hair
Happened just the other day
It's gettin' kind of long
I could've said it was in my way
But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it, to someone, yeah
Must be because I had the flu this Christmas
And I'm not feeling up to par
And increases my paranoia
Like looking in my mirror and seeing a police car
But I'm not, I'm not giving in an inch to fear
'Cause I've promised myself this year
I feel oh, like I owe it,to someone
When I get myself together
I'm gonna get down in that sunny southern weather, yeah
I'm goin' find a space inside a laugh, yes
Separate the wheat from some chaff
I feel
Like I owe it, yeah, to someone
So, they have us all locked down as if you go walk out to the mailbox you will be instantly infected and dead before the day is out.
But what if someone was looking to go be exposed? Where would one go? I'm guessing that if someone were intentionally trying to get it, he would have a hard time doing so.
Where do you think occupy comes from, from the workers seriously they come from college students who have been indoctrinated through foundations set uo by who, you figure, who has major influence in education specially social science education for 30 years. Where does the 1619 project come from
Well according to lord andrew of albany, the newest cases arose during the flatline.
I was out and about today. It was a fine day, and the pretty girls were in their spring dresses. I notice that some are making fashion statements with their masks. Some of the masks have sculpted edges or designer patterns. Some of the girls wore the masks daringly low, so you could almost see the flare of their delicate nostrils. Well, that's what happens on a fine spring day.
More good news:
Mrs. Pianoman and I went down to the Balboa Peninsula tonight (Newport Beach, CA). Runs right along the stretch of beach that got Governor Newsom so hot and bothered.
The city closed some of the parking lots, but they didn't close the beach. I would estimate there were between 300-500 people on the beach tonight, watching the sunset. There were cops, but they were just sitting in their cars doing nothing. There were also cones and police tape on the walkway, but people were just walking around them.
Looks like the OC Sheriff isn't enforcing Governor Twelve-Year Old's idiotic decrees either. The Newport Beach PD clearly understands that they have real crime to guard against -- not people surfing.
Also, there was almost nobody wearing masks. I saw maybe a dozen people wearing them this evening.
Why, it's almost like the Governor is losing the Consent Of The Governed.
Karens Beware -- Newport Beach ain't your kind of beach town.
For those who hath understanding
http://invisibleserfscollar.com/stealthily-weaving-cybernetic-citizenship-at-the-requisite-neural-level-in-the-name-of-universal-well-being/
JF,
Sadly, I agree with you. It leads me to fantasies of extra-legal remedies involving snipers and assassins.
One more piece of good news: The golf course I play at regularly is reopening Saturday.
No flagsticks, because obviously anyone who touches a flagstick that's been in the sun for 5 minutes will immediately dissolve into a pile of smoldering ashes. But there's tee boxes, fairways, traps, and greens. So there's golf.
The piano-playing stuff has pretty much come to a crashing halt, so I'll be taking up golf again next week. My local driving range is open too. Better hit a couple buckets before I get out to the course.
Who has prevailed in the flatline a small group of concerns with largely foreign sourced supply chains who has withered on the vine everyone else
The firewall for Dems to erase/negate all this investigation of Obama malfeasance is to get Hillary in charge ASAP. If that be getting her the VP slot, so be it. Let the chips of Bidem fall where they may. This is your last warning.
Who are the masters of the universe gates bezos zuckerberg the brain trust behind walmart, everyone else.
Cqn go hang, what is the end game. Of neil fergusons scanty model.
Pianoman,
There seems to be a bifurcation though. As the promised apocalypse fails to materialize, some people are getting ever more panicked and paranoid. These are the people--outside and in the heat and sunshine--who not only wear their masks when no one is within 20 feet of them, but when one does fleetingly pass by, turn their bodies, grasp their masks (doesn't this completely negate any supposed benefit), hunch over and cower. Others, in touch with reality and the nature of risk, enjoy the beautiful weather and the natural beauty surrounding them.
I got really annoyed today while running down a steep hill, with a lady who was too concerned with hiding herself from me to deal with her two young boys (4 and 6?), 30 feet ahead of her. She had them well-trained. Instead of getting out of the way, they remained smack dab in the middle of the narrow path--and held their masks tightly to their little faces. Which led to me having to touch both of them and guide them out of my path, in lieu of mowing them down and having all three of us suffer bloodshed.
The problem with this unseemly panic is not only that it is useless and overwrought. It is that the behavior stimulates neural pathways that reinforce and exacerbate the fear and anxiety--the way an agoraphobic goes from avoiding the mall to avoiding all stores to avoiding going out at all.
I saw the report on Flynn on the network ABC News show. That's the most highly rated network news show. It was done with more subtlety than CNN or MSNBC, but if you watched the report, you definitely got the impression that Barr had put his finger on the scales and that Flynn had done something wrong and got away with it.....People here are deep into this case, but I'm not sure if that's true of the country at large. Maybe the news media will be able to sell their narrative on this story.....It's a sure bet that SNL won't make fun of the gang that couldn't shoot straight and there will be no movies about this tragic FBI lovers and their doomed romance. Well, maybe not. Robert Redford played Dan Rather in a bullshit version of Rather's career ending scandal.
The alliance created passive settlers and feral predatory reavers,
Yikes so they are going full purge or us. Complete with their creepy paraphernalia
Seems abc was the weakest link
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2020/05/07/nets-celebrated-flynns-plea-deal-decry-case-getting-dropped
This Sort of 'Dumb Mask' Is
...getting to me
Cbs and nbc were much stupider,
@Anne-I-Am: Believe me, I get what you're talking about -- I have a couple of close relatives that are total Karens. One of them said with all seriousness that she was willing to do ANYTHING if she believed that it would stop the spread of Covid.
The question is the chicken-and-egg problem: Does the Fear Of Everything come first, followed by action? Or does a virus like Covid CAUSE the Fear Of Everything to manifest?
Hard to say, although I lean towards the former. I think certain people are just programmed to be terrified of everything.
By the way, this close relative I'm talking about is also smothering her 21-year old son, and not letting him have a driver's license, a job, or a girlfriend. Coincidentally enough, she's completely freaked out that he'll get COVID. At 21. With no history of health problems. No, I am Not Making That Up.
Honestly you want to go sam peckinpah on the whole lot
Either all confessions are true, or they’re all false, right Igna? I’m asking because what do I know? I’m just a science-denying Deplorable who doesn’t believe in the so-far nonexistent Wuhan vaccine.
Aren’t you glad that social media, despite seeming early on to be a way for alternative voices to be heard, will likely soon quash all dissent, and make the First Amendment irrelevant? How Progressive! What a wonderful time to be an Igna!
Maybe you should huff disinfectant, unless you’d rather use healing crystals and praise Gaia. What would Crack do? After all, Lysol has chemicals that have been proven to kill viruses, chemicals made by SCIENCE!
The meme was planted years ago, like a hypnotic suggestions it just needed the right trigger.
@narciso:
Where does the 1619 project come from
What did you think I meant when I said, "And they're woke"?
The establishment generally does not care that much who wins a presidency or who controls the House or the Senate, because they've already set parameters. What they want will continue, what they don't want won't happen, and what they don't care about is left up to the two parties to fight about. They're happy to let people play the game, because they've set the ground rules.
What is the logical consequence of thw 1619 project internalized, it means the constitution is fundamentally illegitimate because slavery inequality et al.
The observatories on Mauna Kea are going to start up again next week.
It seems the goal is to eliminate normal human contact if one is masked if one cant congregate in markets camt go to work cant worship with other brethren, meanwhile the most vulnerable die either of assorted comorbidities and/or undiagnosed health conditions
@Anne:
Sadly, I agree with you. It leads me to fantasies of extra-legal remedies involving snipers and assassins.
"Fantasies" is likely all they'd be. You need a popular movement. Some pockets of armed resistance can be too easily neutralized. Even without direct violent confrontation, the state can you wait you out indefinitely. Cut off your power and water, keep you isolated, and wait for you to run out of resources. As far as radical solutions, I think secession is probably the more likely.
So whose side are you on, farmer, are you a number or you a human being do you belong to the collective. Is there anything that would make you rethink this passivity
@narciso:
What is the logical consequence of thw 1619 project internalized, it means the constitution is fundamentally illegitimate because slavery inequality et al.
That issue was already addressed with the Civil War. After the war, the constitution was fundamentally changed. No American in the last 150 years has lived under the arrangement the founders established.
Pianoman,
This does reveal an interesting chasm in human personality and behavior, doesn't it? I don't consider myself particularly risk-taking: I won't jump out of an airplane, bungee-jump, or learn to ski at my advanced age. I am even uncomfortable riding my bike around here, because I don't enjoy speeding downhill at 35-40 mph. I wouldn't visit Egypt or Turkey. Still, the Chinese virus holds no fear for me. Maybe I can judge risk better than some. There are the people who fall into this bucket--like I.
Then there are those paralyzed or nearly so by fear. They would be happy to stay where we are now until someone could guarantee them that they will never get the virus. They wear masks that do nothing. They wear gloves that are worse than bare hands. They are on fb haranguing people. They grasp every possible negative facet of this disease (Kawasaki disease! Stroke! Weird toes!) and magnify it and deem it Truth.
I know there are people in the middle, giving lip service to reasonable precautions, etc. But push them a little, about what to do, and they tend to fall over into the FEAR bucket.
This is all facile generalization of course. But sometimes that sort of hermeneutic is useful.
And forget those piddling Giant Murder Hornets. I saw Giant Murder Poison Oak today--a leaf of the horrible stuff as big as my hand.
I swear its like we walked into a whole season of sliders
I saw murder hornets open for blondie in 1984, and with that i bow out forcthe nighr.
Does Joe Biden know what “cold blood” means? Did he just say it for effect? Does he believe in due process, or does he think it’s okay for a presidential candidate to taint a jury pool?
Blogger J. Farmer said...
. . .
That issue was already addressed with the Civil War. After the war, the constitution was fundamentally changed. No American in the last 150 years has lived under the arrangement the founders established.
Yes, in ways both good and bad.
Conservatives rail against FDR, but the real villain is Lincoln. Weird guy, he believed that the Union was something more than what is defined as in the Constitution.
Narciso,
Me too. Dormez bien, mon ami.
@narciso:
So whose side are you on, farmer, are you a number or you a human being do you belong to the collective. Is there anything that would make you rethink this passivity
The side I'm always on. Mine. I'm not sure what "passivity" you're referring to. I participate pretty fully in civic life, and I advocate for the position I think is the best, and I support like minded people and groups. Nonetheless, I'm aware enough to see what the effect of this has been. It's not zero, but it's not much more either. I've been pretty engaged for 20 years, and in that period all the issues I care most about have gotten worse.
@Lewis Wetzel:
Conservatives rail against FDR, but the real villain is Lincoln. Weird guy, he believed that the Union was something more than what is defined as in the Constitution.
That's why a lot of libertarian types hate him. There's whole subset of literature where the Civil War is recast as having little to nothing to do with slavery and really being all about the federal government increasing its power.
The Constitution of the mid-19th century had a lot of the same problems as the EU. It was trying to hold together states with conflicting socioeconomic interests. Partisanship was primarily driven by sectional interests between the states. The federal government ended up deploying tremendous violence and then engaging in a period of nation-building in the south. Incorporating the western frontier into the union, the huge growth of industrialization, and shared sacrifices in war and depression smoothed over a lot of those sectional interests.
In a way, the 1619 project is accurate. Once this country imported a huge number of sub-Saharan Africans, our fate was sealed. The current right/left arrangement was mostly put into force by the Civil Rights Act.
We are who we are and what we are and where we are because we are a modern Western society. We aren't going to have the kind of government we had in 1800 or 1850 because we aren't and can't be the kind of people we were in 1800 or 1850, and we can't have the kind of economy that we had back then. The Civil War marked a change. So did the move to democracy and the party system before that war. So did the move to bureaucracy and regulation in the Progressive and New Deal eras. So did the rise of various media over the last century. We don't live in George Washington's republic and for most of our history as a nation we didn't.
In the early 20th century there was much variety in the societies and polities of the world, and that made us think that there were a wide variety of ways of organizing our own society, economy and polity. Since then, developed countries have been converging on one general model, and I think we recognize that there are limits as to how different any advanced country could be today. We, Americans, are responsible for much of that convergence and we aren't going to be able to escape from it now.
Experts Reject Time’s Up’s Excuse For Refusing To Back Biden Accuser
You don’t get a free pass because you’re a politician
A prominent #MeToo legal defense fund said it can’t support Joe Biden accuser Tara Reade because it can’t spend money in relation to a political campaign.
AND...did a bunch of Obama admin Deep Staters go around for years on cable news promoting Russian collusion
... yet were saying under oath that they had no evidence of it?
Trump is having more intercourse than Biden ever will
Give Biden The Finger
*****TRUMP 2020*****
Full Moon... "Let's spend some time together"... Ed Sullivan required the edit for the live broadcast of their performance of the song on his TV show. Family Friendly.
“We already see Yates and McCord tossing McCabe under the bus, McCabe being none too subtle about Rosenstein's participation, McCabe and Priestap trying to shove all decision making responsibility down to lover boy Strzok and his paramour Page....and on and on.”
McCabe isn’t walking here. Much of the coup was setup around his $70k conference room table, with his personal attorney, Lisa Page at his elbow. And don’t forget that he was the one upset by CD AD Bill Priestap having last minute qualms about the morality of their perjury trap. He was the one who set up the interview with Flynn, told him an attorney wasn’t needed, sent Strzok and Pietra over to entrap Flynn, then had the FD 302s from the interview modified to belatedly remove exonerating evidence. Priestap though still looks, to me, like he could have been a dupe, with McCabe, Page, and Strzok constantly maneuvering around him in the Strzok/Page text messages released almost three years ago.
The interesting new twist is that very incriminating hand written note that apparently was written contemporaneously by Priestap. Because it was handwritten, it was not discoverable through computer searching. It pretty much had to have been stored in the back of his personal file cabinet, for just this sort of situation - getting him off the hook for the Flynn perjury trap interview and prosecution, by implicating Comey, McCabe, and Strzok. Very likely, his insurance card, played last week.
Pianoman said...
The golf course I play at regularly is reopening Saturday.
No flagsticks, because obviously anyone who touches a flagstick that's been in the sun for 5 minutes will immediately dissolve into a pile of smoldering ashes
THIS is what people NEED to realize!
of the 77,000 deaths blamed on Covid-19 in the US...
ALL OF THEM happened in the warm sun!
THIS is WHY they HAVE TO arrest you, if you are foolish enough to attempt to Lay on a Beach!
I mean, Right? It's warm weather and sunlight that makes Covid-19 deadly; RIGHT?
That's why we tell people, that they have to stay Indoors, with their elderly family members; RIGHT?
I'm mean, there IS Science behind the draconian measures, isn't there??
they're Not just draconian for the sake of BEING draconian, are they?
i Mean, RIGHT?
"So many people out there at 5:45."
Word has gotten out about your photos and they wanted to see for themselves.
All the published Covid stats returned to their lower levels from the previous day's spike, and the downward trend is reestablished. Except for total daily tests, which went up hugely. I may be able to get a haircut next week, return to the endodontist to complete a root canal the week after.
Golf returns to MA, with all the new rules - no carts, no touching the flagstick, gotta pay on line, can't be on the first tee until 15 minutes before your time, must leave promptly when the round is finished. I've heard the cup will be filled with foam of some sort so the ball doesn't actually go in the hole - considered holed when it hits the foam. My handicap is going to improve significantly.
James Comey: co-conspirator or ignorant dupe - you make the call.
I've heard the cup will be filled with foam of some sort so the ball doesn't actually go in the hole - considered holed when it hits the foam
I had friends that were greenskeepers back in the '80's.
Every dusk, as when they made sure all the golfers were off, they'd play Big-Hole Golf
In Big-Hole Golf, you are Only Allowed a 3-iron, and the green is The Big-Hole.
They'd play a game nearly as fast as the cart would go; Jumping off, making their swing, and back on. It was kinda like polo. They loved it; AND got payed for it (have to sweep the course at the end of the day)
I went with a few times; it was FUN! Big-Hole golf is the way the game should be!
"Drive for Show! No Putting in Big-Hole!"
I really don’t know who Michael Flynn is. I guess it was smart of me to avoid this entire story from the beginning as it turned out to be a nothing burger.
There's a pool noodle slice in the hole. Makes it easier to take the ball out of the cup. I don't want it to go if we get back to normal.
Lurker21 said:
>" Since then, developed countries have been converging on one general model, and I think we recognize that there are limits as to how different any advanced country could be today. We, Americans, are responsible for much of that convergence and we aren't going to be able to escape from it now."
So, let's reword that slightly, shall we?
Hypothetical German writer, 1938:
>" Since then, countries in central and Eastern Europe have been converging on one general model, and I think we recognize that there are limits as to how different any advanced country could be today. We, Germans, are responsible for much of that convergence and we aren't going to be able to escape from it now."
True enough -- they were not able to escape it!
Just maybe you should consider the possibility that the present is neither the best of all possible worlds nor the only possible world.
Bruce Hayden wrote:
>"The interesting new twist is that very incriminating hand written note that apparently was written contemporaneously by Priestap. Because it was handwritten, it was not discoverable through computer searching. It pretty much had to have been stored in the back of his personal file cabinet, for just this sort of situation - getting him off the hook for the Flynn perjury trap interview and prosecution, by implicating Comey, McCabe, and Strzok. Very likely, his insurance card, played last week."
Plausible.
My great-uncle was a Special Agent with the Bureau back in the '60s. A great guy.
An interesting question: did Priestap do this solely out of self-preservation or, perhaps, because he is actually loyal to the United States of America rather then the "Deep State."
"A republic, if you can keep it" -- attributed to Ben Franklin
J. Farmer wrote:
>"We should probably all fasten our seat belts, because it's likely only going to get worse. This is what happens when a society start tearing itself apart. There is hyper-polarization, and a lot of it is along identity lines. The two sides are becoming increasingly irreconcilable."
Worse than that, I think. A large fraction of employed Americans are working at "jobs" that do not produce goods or services that anyone would shell out his own money for -- green consultants, diversity/inclusion/equity consultants, most administrators in both K-12 and universities, compliance officers in almost every organization, and all the rest. (See David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs: I don't agree with his proposed solutions, but his diagnosis is spot-on.)
More fundamentally, ordinary middle-class Americans are not making enough babies to replace themselves. And an awful lot of young people -- especially but not only males -- do not want to get married at all.
And, then there is the little fact that our brightest young women have the fewest babies (and intelligence is partly hereditary).
If this goes on... well, you do not have to be a professional economist, demographer, or geneticist to extrapolate out to the end.
To quote Lincoln, "This too will pass away."
PhysicistDave, it gets worse, as organizations squeeze the "real" worker to provide more slack to hire more bullshit artists. Think of universities replacing faculty with adjuncts, to save money that they can spend on more administrators. We hear about organizations having to cut back in this moment of high unemployment, but I'd bet there are some jobs that are sacrosanct. And they aren't jobs in which anyone produces anything of value.
It's also hard not to notice that so many people become so wealthy without ever having produced anything of value, or even having been attached to an organization that produces anything of value. Think Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.
“An interesting question: did Priestap do this solely out of self-preservation or, perhaps, because he is actually loyal to the United States of America rather then the "Deep State."”
Or both. I think that even now, there are a lot of squared away straight shooters in the FBI. But like a lot of other bureaucracies, those aren’t the people who rise to the top. There you have the expletive willing to sacrifice their first born to get ahead. People who end up on the 7th Floor. Comey has been bent for decades. And McCabe has also been dirty for awhile. In both cases much more ambition than morals.
I have long had a sense that CD AD Bill Priestap, of any of them, might have morals. Here he appears to have resisted the plan to entrap Flynn to the point that Comey and McCade were irked with him. It probably didn’t help matters that his subordinate, (ultimately) CD DAD Strzok routinely seemed to go around him, straight to DD McCabe, via his lover, Lisa Page, McCabe’s private attorney.
Comey needs ten years on a psychiatrist's couch. Religious mania+discomfort with giantism+God complex+hero complex+desire to play with feces=Comeyism.
Give Biden The Finger
*****TRUMP 2020*****
-----------------------
Finger Out Biden Before He Fingers You
"I have long had a sense that CD AD Bill Priestap, of any of them, might have morals. Here he appears to have resisted the plan to entrap Flynn to the point that Comey and McCade were irked with him."
How do we know they were irked with him?
We, Germans, are responsible for much of that convergence and we aren't going to be able to escape from it now
Going to Hitler so soon? I guess that means I win. But by restricting your parody to Central Europe, you undercut your argument. There were other possible ways of organizing a society then if you looked around the world, and Germany could easily have looked further out for a model to follow - to Sweden or the US, Britain, France, or the USSR. Most of the models in the 1930s involved more government, but Nazism was far from the only one possible alternative. Today, such convergence as there is, is global.
Just maybe you should consider the possibility that the present is neither the best of all possible worlds nor the only possible world.
I don't think it's either, but it's far from the worst. The French had a debate in the 90s about "la pensée unique," the idea that liberal capitalism or liberal democracy or democratic capitalism or the market society or neoliberalism was the only way to run a society today. It isn't, but the alternatives of bureaucratic dirigisme and post-Maoism weren't necessarily better.
The French debate had echoes in Britain over Thatcher's "There Is No Alternative" and in the US over the neo-utopianism of Russell Jacoby and others, as well as precursor in the "End of Ideology" debate in the 1960s.
Sure, we can conceive of ordering society in other ways, but not all of them are better. Social experimentation is going to come back - in some ways, it never went away - but the results may not be so pretty. Going back to an earlier French debate, I would have put my bet on Raymond Aron, rather than on Jean-Paul Sartre. But that's just me.
This is a argument between two temperaments that will never be resolved. My point though, was that we can't expect to have a country where landed gentlemen in powdered wigs and knee britches decide everything or where intrepid pioneers can move to unclaimed land and live off it.
What is possible in the 21s century is different from what was possible in the 18th century. I'm not saying that there is a living Constitution that judges can make mean whatever they want. What I'm saying is that what was possible 200 years ago isn't possible, or desirable, today.
hawkeyedjb wrote to me:
>"PhysicistDave, it gets worse, as organizations squeeze the "real" worker to provide more slack to hire more bullshit artists. Think of universities replacing faculty with adjuncts, to save money that they can spend on more administrators."
Yes, you have spelled out in detail the point I was getting at.
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