TGIF 3/22/2019

Clash of ages/Trash in my cache

Now that Joe Biden had his first gaff of the yet to be announced 2020 Presidential run, rumors are flying all over. Was it an honest slip of the tongue, was it planned, why did news break he might have offered the V.P. spot to Stacie Abrams?

Now, once again, the question of age has come to the surface asking if Joe is too old and if so will he promise to serve only one term? This makes the V.P. choice even more important and opens up even more questions about the unprecedented timing of this not normal choice.

Probably by now you’ve lost interest in this topic because the media can’t stop obsessing over the Mueller report.

Returning to the topic of age, the New York Times has an editorial about the most famous freshmen members of Congress all who happen to be women. It’s a good read because it dispels some widely held beliefs about the relevance of the sex and age of the members of Congress and the presumed effectiveness of women getting things done men can’t seem to finish. It made me drop my personal opinion on the latter point but I still hope for the first woman President and more in Congress.

Since I quit Facebook I’ve been reading articles by folks who have also dropped it. NYT tech writer Brian Chen broke free last year and posted a new piece where he shares his experiences including the fact he didn’t lose any “friends” because he was still in contact with them and didn’t really miss the other “friends” who existed only on Facebook who only seemed to share links to quizzes, political news stories or their opinions on them (the last two I am terminally guilty of doing).

In the end the FOMO (fear of missing out) turned out to be nothing to worry about. His life is moving along nicely, he’s saving a lot of money and the extra time recaptured is being used to do things which are actually productive .

The biggest change he noticed, and most important to me, was being able to escape most of the targeted ads that followed him around the internet on every device he uses. What changed was a big decline in impulse buying.

You might say ads don’t bother you or you might even like them, but they drove me nuts the way they seemed to immediately show up everywhere after you had done a search or clicked a link. Over time the little annoyances do build up and become stressful no matter how much I tell myself they don’t. In his piece he posted a link to one he’d written on what can be done to stop the madness.

Speaking of madness, let’s get back to our Mueller obsessions.

39 thoughts on “TGIF 3/22/2019”


  1. Conservatives: Think before you defend the electoral college

    Altname

    Continued endorsement of this system by conservatives and the Republican Party will, over time, convince a crucial segment of Americans, especially the young coming of age during this debate, that conservatives do not favor democracy. Forget the slanderous cries of “racist” and “fascist” frequently hurled by the left; if conservatives come to be seen as opposed to democracy itself, Americans will reject their cause.

    Read more (pdf)

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  2. 55 Years Later, Lawyer Will Again Argue Over Redistricting Before Supreme Court


    Altname

    Emmet Jopling Bondurant II knew about the civil rights movement when he was a student at the University of Georgia in the 1950s, but he didn’t join it.

    “I was trying to get through college,” the burly, white-haired 82-year-old said in an interview. “And I’m embarrassed to say I was not involved. I should have been involved much sooner.”

    But, as a 26-year-old lawyer, he soon took part in one of the most important voting rights cases before the Supreme Court in the 1960s — one that ultimately required states to put equal numbers of people in congressional districts.

    55 years later, in a case that bookends his legal career, Bondurant is returning to argue before the high court in a case that asks whether politicians can draw political boundaries to benefit their own political party at the expense of the other party.

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  3. Finally for this Sunday morning of posting stuff….
    From the shoot your party in the foot department
    Altname

    It’s moves like this that make me believe the Democratic Party must suffer the same type of disastrous shakes that has befallen the GOP.

    The DCCC does it again

    It was bad enough the DNC said FoxNews was network non grata for debates but now the DCCC is going full soviet on it’s own party’s potential candidates.
    The Democrats have enough problems with their flooded field of candidates who keep drifting from policies and positions that really matter to blaming the electoral college and apologizing for every fucking thing under the sun.

    Are Democrats conspiring to re-elect Trump?

    Now at this early stage (much too early imho) we’re seeing the constant struggle/battle/disagreement/whatever between those who write about politics and those who make predictions.

    We don’t need either one

    What we do need is a media that simply reports who is saying what and what is the meaning of what they are saying.

    Finally, Democrats need to wake up and grow up and realize 2020 is not going to be Obama 2008 2.0. While some aspects of what propelled Obama to the White House are relevant, these are not the same times and we need a different person with different skills.

    These Are (not the) Days

    There, I said it.


  4. Kamala Harris makes a point in Houston: It’s not just O’Rourke and Sanders who can draw crowds

    Altname

    HOUSTON — Sen. Kamala D. Harris made the first major policy announcement of her campaign Saturday, promising to use federal dollars to boost teachers’ salaries as she spoke to a boisterous crowd at Texas Southern University.

    Harris didn’t reveal details of the plan, which her campaign says will come within days. But the crowd of 2,400 that gathered at the historically black school showed her ability to attract a diverse gathering, including older white voters from the Houston area, Latino students who drove from the University of Texas at Austin and a large contingent of African American voters.

    Beto O’Rourke is a walking, talking Generation X cliche

    In a bit of political theater, Harris (D-Calif.) held the rally in the home state of former congressman Beto O’Rourke, a little more than a week after O’Rourke launched his own presidential campaign, and in a county that bears her name. Texas is also the home state of former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro, another hopeful seeking the Democratic nomination.

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  5. Pete Buttigieg for president? Long-shot stands out in crowded field
    The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is just 37 and gay but he has made a strong start in the race to 2020
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    The little-known mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has drawn attention after a widely-praised performance during a CNN town hall and a string of media interviews – a sign of how fluid and unpredictable the Democratic presidential primary is nearly a year before voting begins.

    “He’ll be a little less of a long shot tomorrow,” David Axelrod, the prominent Democratic strategist and former adviser to Barack Obama, said after the town hall.

    Sign up for the US morning briefing
    Days later, after an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski said they were “overwhelmed” by the positive reaction to Buttigieg.

    “The only other time in 12 years that we heard from as many people about a guest was after Barack Obama appeared on Morning Joe,” Scarborough said.

    The traction should not be overstated: Buttigieg has just barely started to register in public polls. But the early buzz has helped propel his yet undeclared campaign.

    Last week he surpassed the donor threshold to qualify for the Democratic primary debates, earning support from more than 65,000 individual contributors. His exploratory committee announced it was hiring nearly 20 more staffers – enough to almost double the size of his team now. And a meet-and-greet in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Saturday, was moved from a room in the college library to its gymnasium thanks to a spike in interest.

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  6. The B-Team: are Beto, Biden and Bernie the best Democrats can offer?
    The media’s lopsided coverage has skewed the field towards straight white guys. It’s early, lots can happen.
    Altname

    The field of Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential nomination is the most diverse ever, filled with women, candidates from minority backgrounds and one openly gay man. The party’s base is diverse too, with four of 10 Democratic voters anticipated to be non-white. In 2008 and 2016, the party put forward a black nominee and a woman.

    But three of the top-polling candidates for 2020 so far are white men: Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, O’Rourke and former vice-president Joe Biden, who has not even declared his candidacy. Does that present a problem?

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  7. How Powerful Is Vladimir Putin Really?

    Russia today doesn’t seem like “a properly run dictatorship.”
    Altname

    The gulf between what Mr. Putin says and what happens in Russia raises a fundamental question about the nature of his rule after more than 18 years at the pinnacle of an authoritarian system: Is Mr. Putin really the omnipotent leader whom his critics attack and his own propagandists promote? Or does he sit atop a state that is, in fact, shockingly ramshackle, a system driven more by the capricious and often venal calculations of competing bureaucracies and interest groups than by Kremlin diktats?

    Read more (pdf)

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  8. From the lady I love to hate and hate to love, Maureen Dowd delivers on the baby that was the Mueller report

    Now Comes Washington’s Garbo, Robert MuellerSomeone needs to explain the title to me

    Altname

    After word spread that Robert Mueller was going to deliver his report to the Justice Department at noon on Friday, a fog of anxiety crept in on little cat feet. (Sorry, Carl Sandburg.) After the president flew off to Mar-a-Lago, the skies darkened and rain pelted down.

    We drank coffee and waited.

    We ate burgers and waited.

    We watched basketball and waited for Mueller’s March Madness.

    Read more (pdf)

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  10. The Atlantic’s Attack On New Speechwriter For Bernie Sanders Completely Unravels

    Infighting on the left is killing the left imho

    The harsh response may have been warranted if Sirota had engaged in the deception that was reportedly exposed. However, hours after publication, the central claim in the story unraveled.

    Altname

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  11. Opinion
    What Rural America Has to Teach Us
    Civic service as a way of life.
    Altname

    …they do have to work hard to make sure national viciousness doesn’t tear local bonds. At one dinner, a Latina woman looked at her Anglo friends with tears in her eyes and told them why she had dropped off Facebook: “There’s a lot of people who make me feel at home here, and I’d never had a home. I know you because I know how you make me feel. I don’t want to change my mind about you because you liked one comment on social media.”

    Many people try not to use Amazon so they can support local businesses. They don’t use the self-checkout lanes in the drugstore so they can support local workers. They’re almost fanatical in their support of local arts programs.

    Constantly they are thinking: Does this help my town or hurt it?

    Read more (pdf)

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  12. Opinion
    America Deserves a Leader as Good as Jacinda Ardern
    New Zealand’s prime minister moved swiftly to ban weapons of mass killing after a gunman attacked two mosques.
    Altname

    The new gun proposal will require considerable fine-tuning and defining before it becomes law. New Zealand’s existing laws are relatively lenient, and a large percentage of the estimated 1.2 million to 1.5 million firearms owned by about 250,000 people are not registered. It is not known how many of these will become illegal under the new laws.

    But the display of what one deranged man can do with weapons designed for combat seemed to persuade a majority of New Zealanders, and a strong majority in Parliament, of the need to ban rapid-firing weapons.

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  13. Opinion – Kara Swisher

    Owning a Car Will Soon Be as Quaint as Owning a Horse

    The shift away from private vehicles will happen faster than we think.
    Altname

    I will die before I buy another car.

    I don’t say that because I am particularly old or sick, but because I am at the front end of one of the next major secular trends in tech. Owning a car will soon be like owning a horse — a quaint hobby, an interesting rarity and a cool thing to take out for a spin on the weekend.

    Before you object, let me be clear: I will drive in cars until I die. But the concept of actually purchasing, maintaining, insuring and garaging an automobile in the next few decades?

    Finished.

    Read more (pdf)

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  14. And in the end…..
    Mueller Delivers Report on Trump-Russia Investigation to Attorney General


    The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has conducted an extensive investigation into Russian efforts to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Here is the story of how it all started.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

    Altname

    The report will prove our worst fears to be true that Republicans won’t believe the truth that indicted 37 people and Democrats will continue to believe crimes were committed that weren’t.

    The only rational conclusion at this point is to wait out all the nasty shit that we do know happened and what the consequences will be for it.

    Read more (pdf)

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  15. Entertainment
    ‘She destroyed my life’: Roseanne Barr blames co-star Sara Gilbert for sitcom’s demise

    When her show Roseanne was axed last year after she posted a racist tweet, the actor blamed the influence of a sedative. Now, she has found a new scapegoat
    Altname

    “I admit it,” Barr told the Post. “I’m a troll. I’m the queen of the f—ing trolls.”

    Read more

  16. The latest Trump Fuckup
    Trump’s Federal Reserve pick linked to indicted boyfriend of Russian agent

    Stephen Moore created a controversial political group with Paul Erickson, who is charged with fraud and whose girlfriend, Maria Butina, pleaded guilty to infiltrating the conservative movement
    Altname

    Moore once denounced soccer as socialist, was blacklisted by the Kansas City Star for making too many errors in an article, and was accused by the Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman of not being able to count.

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    1. I didn’t know there was a vacancy
    2. I don’t know why I bothered to post this article has I detest this asshole who gives conservatives a bad name.


  17. ‘The Brexodus is under way’: meet the Brits leaving the UK
    In the year after the Brexit vote, 17,000 British people sought citizenship of another EU country – and many have since upped and left. Five ‘Brexiles’ explain why they’re starting a new life overseas
    Altname

    The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that net migration from the EU to Britain has slumped to a six-year low. Numerous sectors of the economy, from science and academia to the NHS, have been hit hard. And it’s not just that EU nationals are turning their backs on the UK – in the year after the referendum, 17,000 Brits sought citizenship of another EU country, according to figures collated from embassies. The Brexodus is fully under way.

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  18. @chris: Regarding advertisements and Facebook, I have never registered with Facebook yet advertisements chase behind my every internet search for anything whatsoever.

    I guess it’s Google. It can’t be Facebook in my circumstances.

    1. I wouldn’t be too sure, you don’t have to use Facebook to get caught in their web. If you use any of their other products your data could be used. They may even get it from other sources, I need to look it up.

      Good to see you here. Did you get out early or what?


  19. Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Unite to Mock Jared Kushner’s Email Hypocrisy

    House Democrats revealed that the president’s son-in-law uses WhatsApp to conduct government business.
    Altname

    The revelation on Thursday that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, uses the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp to conduct official government business was met with instant charges of hypocrisy, with many recalling Donald Trump’s frequent attacks against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server.

    Others wasted no time sarcastically questioning whether Kushner would be “locked up” as Trump supporters demanded of Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

    Joining the mockery of Kushner was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who took to social media Thursday night to invoke a common meme that’s been used against various Trump officials that have either been indicted or the subject of criminal investigation.

    None other than Clinton herself noticed Ocasio-Cortez’s message. Her reply, and the subsequent “!!!” exchange, quickly ignited Twitter:

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