Thursday ONT - Quick, Put Up Some Videos Edition! [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

Tonight's ONT was supposed to have been done by NDH. Of course, none of us counted on her being hit by a hurricane. We all pray that she continues to stay safe, but that leaves us rather scrambling for ONT content. What to do? Why, YouTube of course!

Important Question for the GOP "Intellectual" Class: What Percentage of the GOP Do You Estimate Actually Are Irredeemably Racist Deplorables?

—Ace

There are several possible answers to this.

One answer -- which "Consistent Conservatives" used to offer as a matter of course -- is that of course there are some racists and anti-Semites in the GOP, or at least who try to mix in GOP circles, but 1, this is a small fraction of the GOP, a fringe which has no power nor influence, and 2, the Democrat Party has a roughly equal fraction of racists and anti-Semites. Probably more, actually.

Witness Obama's condemnation of those ill-educated racists of Pennsylvania who "cling bitterly to their guns and religion" and harbor a hatred of those who look different or hail from different countries.

Another possible answer is that there are so many racists -- or near-racists ready to become full racists are soon as the Go Sign, the Racist Bat Signal, is flashed up to the sky -- that it requires the extreme measure of throwing a presidential election to make sure that this faction is checked and the party is kept from being "hijacked" by this largish force.

No conservatives have previously claimed this -- though a lot of ex-conservatives have claimed it on their way out the door, in their The Party Left Me salutation.

So for the NeverTrumpers making the argument that Trump must be stopped to keep this faction from being "empowered:"

Just how large of a force do you think these Racist, Anti-Semitic GOPers constitute?

Apparently the latter -- apparently it's such a large fraction that if they are given any succor, anything that Team Racist can call a "win" on Twitter, the party will naturally and inexorably join the Dark Side and hate on minorities.

So it seems that question is answered, by implication.

So let me ask you some more interesting questions:

1. At what point did you realize the party was jam-packed full of racists and anti-semites, so many, in fact, that it becomes a moral necessity to tank an election to prevent them from taking over the country?

Have you always suspected this? Or did this revelation occur the day Trump won enough delegates to become nominee?

And if it's the latter: Do you think maybe you're living in the echoes of a powerful emotional experience, and perhaps should discount your emotional response a little bit?

2. Do you think that, after you successfully throw the election to Hillary, all these racist voters can be successfully re-programmed to be non-racist?

Or do you just hope to use the racists for more useful ends, such as being needed votes for TPP and amnesty and bombing Syria or whatever?

On that last point: If you intend to re-assimilate the racists into your party to regain political power, but use them to your own ends, you're still kinda depending on/courting these racists, aren't you?

3. Assuming, once again, you agree that the party is so stocked with racists and anti-semites that it's necessary to throw an election to keep their twisted claws off any kind of real political power: In what sense do you disagree with Hillary Clinton's claim that "about half" of Trump's supporters could be put into a "basket of deplorables," irredeemable in their racism?

It seems to me the only sense you could disagree with her is in an insincere sense. You would disagree out of obligation -- without actually finding any large error in her claim. Maybe you'd disagree it's not one half of Trump voters; merely two fifths.

4. If you really believe the party is this stuffed with Jim Crow revanchists, White Supremacists, and outright Nazis -- what could possibly compel you to remain part of such a disgusting company?

I know if I believed those premises, I wouldn't stay.

I know, for example, that I now believe the party to be controlled by people with very deep cultural sympathies to the urban left, to such an extent they feel more of a tribal loyalty to the left than with the party they ostensibly champion - and that alone is enough to drive me out of the party.

I personally have no more emotional attachment to it -- and note that my objection is a lot less serious than objecting that it's a nest of vicious racists.

So what's keeping you guys here, if the party is indeed so filled with irredeemable deplorables?

Open Thread.

I expect absolutely no answers to these questions, by the way.

It has become the practice that the conservative media, like the liberal media it shares so many affinities and inclinations with, to ignore any impertinent questions from the cultural inferiors whose opinions must be managed, guided, and kept on the road via cultural guard-rails.

PS: Bonus:

5. We're still all claiming the Southern Strategy wasn't racist though, right? We're all still on board with that spin, huh?

PPS: Are you guys who think the party is chock-a-block with racists sure you're not just spending too much time on Twitter?

Yes, it was a weird, alarming thing when several hundred "CelticWarrior69" and "OdinsTears77" accounts sprung up at once and began tweeting out racist and anti-semitic memes.

But many of you suspect -- with good reason-- that many of those accounts are actually bogus accounts created by Russian Intelligence to fuck with American politics.

So... why are they being treated as real in some circumstances, and fake in others?

Also: Do you not get that Twitter isn't real?

It's, at most, a simulacrum of the real world. It is emphatically not the real world, however.

You know that, right?

The map is not the territory, guys.

The map is not the territory.

Atlantic: Many Trump Voters Have Never Left Their Hometown

—Ace

Your daily disparagement from your "elite" superiors working drudgey jobs cranking out clickbait for online websites.

According to the just-released PRRI/The Atlantic poll, 40 percent of Donald Trump�s likely voters live in the community where they spent their youth, compared with just 29 percent of Hillary Clinton voters. And of the 71 percent of Clinton voters who have left their hometowns, most�almost 60 percent of that group�now live more than two hours away.*

The effect is even stronger among white voters, who already tend toward Trump. Even a bit of distance matters: Trump wins by 9 points among white likely voters who live within two hours of their childhood home, but by a whopping 26 percent among whites who live in their hometown proper.

And speaking of Consistent Conservatives --

Why, I'm old enough to remember when Conservative Websites used to mock the media for crying "Angry White Men" or whatever the disparagement of the day was for people not voting the way they wanted, instead of dutifully joining in on the disparagement of Republican votes.

Remember when conservative (or "conservative") writers used to write articles castigating the left for its "oikophobia," its casual venom for everyday Americans?

Here's how Charles Krauthammer described the leftist venom for their fellow Americans in 2010:

Promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.

-- Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.

-- Disgust and alarm with the federal government's unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.

-- Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.

-- Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.

Now we know why the country has become "ungovernable," last year's excuse for the Democrats' failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?

Now that seems to have changed: It is now the accepted position among much of our intellectual class that if we don't stop Trump by electing Hillary, the shabby, uneducated gang of racists we call "Republican voters" will mainstream racism and antisemitism and demand that the White House seal be replaced with Pepe the Frog.

Speaking of "consistency," fellas, remember when we used to be pretty sure that the left's claim that the US was on the verge of anti-minority pogroms was a fanciful but politically useful paranoia?

Turns out that when this becomes politically useful for many on the right, they too seize upon it and use it as an easy line of attack against people who committed the grotesquely racist crime of disagreeing with another putative "elite."

As Krauthammer observed:

"Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. . . . What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument."

In the current moment, the GOP Establishment has lost the argument in the court of Republican primary electorate opinion, and so... resorts to the same tactics of deligitmization and dehumanization they once objected to when employed by the left.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Hurricane News

—Ace

Drudge linked this article via the headline "Matthew May Fizzle, Looking Ragged," but, as a reader points out, the article doesn't say that. It just says it's a strong storm, category 4.

So I've changed the headline.

I know some Florida Morons have already been affected by evacuation orders. I hope you're at least enjoying room service or whatever other advantages your temporary hide-out might offer.

Flashback: In October 2014, France Had a Panic About Evil Marauding Clowns Abroad in the Night, Too

—Ace

Reason has an article knocking the media for reporting on the clown menace.

I'm conflicted. Of course this is bullshit to push clicks; but do we really care? Does anyone actually believe this crap?

Is it okay for the media to present bullshit as entertainment, if people are generally in on the joke?

I know not everybody can be in on the joke. Some people will take this seriously. However, those people will not be dissuaded by a piece pointing out that this is a silly not-so-massive mass delusion.

So given that there's no getting to them, is there any problem with the rest of us enjoying the Alternate Reality the media has cooked up for us today?

And how is this bullshit Alternate Reality different in quality than the bullshit Alternate Reality it usually cooks up for us? I'd rather read the media lie about the Creeping Clown Menace than lie about Trump or Sid Blumenthal's non-involvement in pushing the Birther conspiracy.

I dunno.

I followed this Clown Panic in 2014, when it was going on in France. Perhaps we can learn from them and how they dealt with clowns, pseudoclowns, and Anticlown mobs.

Reprinted from the blog on October 27, 2014:

I'm not joking, and I'm only slightly exaggerating.

There is actually a fear that these attacks -- and the growing fear/panic about violent clowns -- will become worse as Halloween approaches.

Fake clown attacks put French police on alert and trigger vigilante response

Residents fight back after spate of incidents thought to be fueled by social media while real clowns are saddened by trend

Anne Penketh in Paris
The Guardian, Monday 27 October 2014 14.58 EDT

French police are on high alert after fake clowns caused panic across France in a spreading phenomenon that has led to violence and a response by vigilantes.

Fourteen teenagers dressed as clowns and carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats were arrested outside a school in Agde, southern France, on Saturday. One provincial newspaper, Dauphine Libere, wrote: "These clowns aren�t funny any more."

In Montpellier, a 35-year-old man was beaten with a metal rod on Saturday night by a man dressed as a clown who tried to rob him with two accomplices. They were arrested the next day.

A 19-year-old butcher�s apprentice, who had dressed as a clown to terrorise children in Douvrin, northern France, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence at a court in Bethune last week....

But the trend, fueled by Facebook and other social media, is spreading -- prompting police to issue a national appeal urging people to report the fake clowns. Meanwhile, some people have taken the clown hunt into their own hands. Police in Bordeaux stopped a dozen youths who were carrying sticks and metal rods and said they were hunting clowns. One was a 12-year-old boy armed with a dagger.

In eastern France, five people were arrested in Mulhouse last week after setting out to catch scary clowns.

More from Le Figaro.

The below translation is weak and over-relies on Google translate. This was just a really tough thing to translate. A lot of words I'd never seen before. I just sort of threw up whatever seemed to make sense.

Police Aren't Laughing Anymore About Alerts About Violent Clowns

bu Jean-Marc Leclerc, Paul de Coustin

The Interior Minister wants an end to the attacks by painted fools which are creating a panic. One of the two [recently arrested clowns] has been sentenced to twelve months of prison... for having attacked a passer-by with a length of metal.

This is not a joke. The attacks against pedestrians led by the false clowns are growing a little throughout France. To the point that the Interior Minister has been required to call a special meeting, bringing together police and gendarmeries, for trying to put a stop to the phenomenon originating in the US.

That's a reference to the creepy-looking clown that's been spooking people in Wasco, California.

...

But in France, the Internet is buzzing now with thousands of rumors of "Hordes of Clowns," ready to attack on Halloween...

For the past two weeks the phenomenon is growing in strength, sometimes degenerating into real aggression. It's sustaining a kind of panic in small towns or neighborhoods, north, south, east, to Perpignan, or Guingamp in the Pas-de-Calais. Monday afternoon at Chelles, near Paris, a 14-year-old dressed as a clown was arrested after he tried to attack a woman. She was not injured "but was put in great fear," said the police told AFP. In Besan�on, a student who claims to have been injured Saturday by a clown armed with an ax has filed a complaint.

In the night from Saturday to Sunday, Herault also had a strange burst of violence: a clown damaged a car in Marseillan; three motorists have filed complaints against "frightening clowns" in Palavas-les-Flots, Th�zan-l�s-B�ziers and Cessenon-sur-Orb; a pedestrian 35 years was beaten to death with an iron bar and robbed of his cell in Montpellier by two teenagers and an adult dressed as clowns.

...

Then, still in l'Herault, four juveniles had been arrested in the parking lot of [a high school], carrying guns, knives, and baseball bats. [Are they] hunting clowns?

The situation is in the middle of degenerating into a melee between clowns and anticlowns....

Police are now urging people on social media: "Report the presence of an aggressive clown, by dialing 17 or 112."

"Anticlown" is in the original.

Incidentally, France's national security system is called "Vigipirate," which I imagine came originally from the notion of being vigilant against pirates.

The Vigipirate system is now being used to report both the Clown Menace and Anticlown Mobs.

...

And from October 28, 2014:

The Clown Menace grows.

(Translated.)

A 14-year-old was attacked yesterday by an individual disguised as a clown in the region of Macon. While returning to his parent's house, he was knocked to the ground, then hit by the fake clown, all the while receiving a barrage of insults.

A little later, the juvenile was able to alert his family, who in turn called the police station. According to several witnesses, two other clowns had been spotted near a bus stop. One of them was carrying a baseball bat. [Alarming as this may have been], there was no attack in this second case.

"Fake clown" was actually "pseudo-clown" in the original.

I mentioned this in the other article, but a group of fourteen armed clowns were arrested in a high school parking lot in Agde.

I think I misread this article and took these 14 to be an "anti-clown" posse. Nope, they were just more Evil Clowns.

Fourteen juveniles dressed as clowns and carrying pistols, knives, and baseball bats were arrested Saturday night in the parking lot of the high school Agde (in Herault), taken into custody and released Saturday morning, according to a police source. Witnesses disturbed by the sight of the group of armed clowns had called the police who had then moved to arrest them.

Furthermore, at Montpellier (Herault), a 35-year-old pedestrian had been struck 30 times with an iron bar, late Saturday night, by a man dressed as a clown and two accomplices who had tried to strip him. The three were been arrested.

In Herault, six complaints had been sworn out alleging attacks by "clowns seeding terror."

Below, some gory and scary Evil Clown Prank Videos.

Weird Ish Yo: The Mandela Effect

—Ace

So this is apparently some crazy notion that's picking up traction with people who are crazy.

The Mandela Effect got its name based on this anecdote: Some woman misremembered Nelson Mandela as having died in prison in the 80s. She was speaking to a woman who also misremembered this.

Mandela was released from prison long, long ago and even led South Africa. He died a couple of years ago -- not in prison.

But this woman was so impressed with how detailed her own misremembering was, and how it jibed so well with this other person's misremembering, she gave the phenomenon a name: The Mandela Effect.

That's not the weird part. The weird part is that the theory is now offered that if a bunch of people misremember something the same way, that must be evidence that they are accurately remembering a parallel universe/alternate timeline in which the events transpired precisely as they remember.

The idea that several people could just misremember something seems... illogical to them. No, it must be that they're having memory-echoes of a now-overwritten timeline or something.

Another example of the "Mandela Effect" of people remembering alternative universes or parallel timelines which have been over-written in the current "official" reality concerns... the spelling of the name of a children's cartoon about bears.

Warning, Snopes.com link:

The Berenstain/Berenstein Bears

No single example of the Mandela Effect has generated more online buzz than that of the children's book series and animated TV show The Berenstain Bears. Quite a few people who grew up with the series, it turns out, remember the title being The Berenstein Bears, with the name ending in "ein" instead of "ain" (with some even going to go so far as to maintain that the fictional bears' surname was changed along the way to make it "less Jewish"):

A page on Broome's web site cites a number of testimonials:

I too clearly remember it as �Berenstein� even though I never read the books. Why would anyone change that? Seems irrelevant.

Does anyone remember the Berenstein Bears? I do. Although somewhere along the line the name has changed to the Berenstain Bears. No record of �stein� which is definitely how it was when i was younger. No question about it

I would like to say that I VERY CLEARLY remember �Berenstain Bears� being Berenstein Bears. I very specifically remember it being pronounced �STEIN� on the show.

Didn't it used to be the Berenstein Bears? Now, suddenly it's the Berenstain bears? Is this some sort of anti-semitic cover-up? Or have those of us who grew up in the 1980's been misinformed, misread, and mispronounced?

I consider this pretty convincing. I can imagine any number of compelling, logical reasons that aliens or humans from the far future would travel backwards in time to re-write history to change the name of the "Berenstein Bears" into something less Jewish-sounding.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's misremembering of that Bush quote must be something like this. He has a very, very strong memory, he says, therefore, Bush must have really said what he remembers him having said in an alternate timeline.

Sean Hannity: Megyn Kelly, You're a Hillary Clinton Supporter

—Ace

I don't know why this is a big story.

I suspect it comes down to three things:

1. Fox is a fairly stage-managed operation and so a bit of backstage bickering is interesting.

2. The conservative movement is over-interested in personal squabbles between its "celebrities."

3. The NeverTrump class that controls most of the commanding heights of conservative media is very opposed to saying people who clearly support Hillary Clinton clearly support Hillary Clinton, for purely self-interested reasons. They want to support Hillary Clinton while forbidding you to note the obvious, on pain of shunning and whatever actual purging from the party they have the power to pull off.

It's their plot to tank the election, then come forward as the leaders of GOP thought again.

Basically, their plan is to give West Point to the British, and then, after the war is lost, they want to demand that America put them back in charge of West Point again.

To "save the party" or whatever.

They have therefore agreed mutually among each other that to call an obvious Hillary supporter an obvious Hillary supporter is on the level of a racial slur, a disgusting insult never to be uttered. And anyone who dares to speak the obvious should be branded guilty of a speechcrime akin to racism.

One More: I forgot to include this one:

4. The conservative movement as a whole is a stage-managed operation. There is this wrongheaded idea that we must hide all internal disagreements so that the liberals and/or the media do not see it. Necessary arguments are squelched in the interests of "presenting a united front."

Then the putative leadership class wonders how the hell it so badly misread the electorate, while the putative intellectual class wonders why people aren't as psyched about free trade as everyone was at their last Cato Institute symposium.

So it feels weird to have a public argument, instead of the sublimated passive-aggressive sniping that we usually have.

Mid-Morning Open Thread [CBD]

—Open Blogger

This is another one of the government funded depression artists. The painting has that odd, puffy, muscular look that is typical of the era. But it's fun to look at.

The Morning Report 10/6/16 [J.J. Sefton]

—Open Blogger

Sorry for being tardisil. Have a better one, kids.

• Florida Braces for Impact
  
• Just What We Need: Another Snowden
  
• "The Daily Soap Opera"-Literally
  
• Erdogan Purges 1,500 More Profs as World Academia Focuses on Teh Jooz
  
• MFM Eats Itself Part 1 . . .
  
• . . . Part 2
  
• OOO (Oval Office Occupant) Still Pissed We're Not Falling For the Climate Scam
  
• Yom Kippur War Erupted 43 Years Ago

Wednesday ONT - I Used All The Good Stuff Last Night Edition [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

Damn, I'm not sure I have any good content for tonight. You guys know you can send me stuff for the ONT, right? @Weirddave on GAB and @Weirddave0 on Twitter.

Chili

Anyhow, Brent Cochran sent me this. I dunno why he didn't send it to CBD for the food thread, but lets start out with a picture of Brent Cochran's homemade chili:

Brent's a good guy*. Just don't wear a skirt around him, he freaks out.

S-M-R-T

32 People Who Will Probably Make You Feel Smart

Most Likely a Hillary supporter

Some of these are just brain farts, and some of these are truly astonishing gaps in knowledge. I once watched an impeccably made up lady pull her Mercedes into a 7-11. She came out with a quart of oil, fumbled around for a minute until she got the hood open, and then poured the oil right on top of her engine. I suppose her oil light had gone on. I started across the parking lot to help her, but she pulled away (in a cloud of smoke) before I could get to her. Sometimes being afraid to display ignorance reveals a deeper ignorance.

Someone sent me this picture a while back. This isn't ignorance, it's just Bawlmer. That's a zink. We warsh our hans in it.

This on the other hand...

At the Berlin Wall last week. Walls work. pic.twitter.com/2N3B4IUhbj

— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 5, 2015

Oy.

Feel Good Story of the Day

Incredible recovery of the Nigerian 'witch child' who was left for dead by his parents

People can be so damn good if we let them. This Anja Ringgren Loven is doing damn good, damn hard work. The change in that little boy is remarkable.

We Done Bitches

Interesting choice of wording on Edmonton road sign.

I have a fantastic sense of direction. I took my wife unerringly to my grandparent's old house in Florida, despite not having been there in 20 years and never having driven down there. We were driving and it was just “Hey, I think we're close to...” and off I went. This is true just about everywhere I go. I may get lost, but I can always get back to where I came from at the very least.

Everywhere that is except Edmonton. For some reason I get lost in Edmonton like nobody's business. I dunno why. Magnetic fields, maybe. It's a mystery.

Great Moments in Golf

Fan heckles European team during practice. They throw down the gauntlet, “You think you can do better?” A c-note on the green, just to up the pressure. You'll never believe what happens next! Click here to see!.

World's Ugliest Dog Competition

Them's some ugly bitches

I Have Fought a Good Fight, I Have Finished My Course, I Have Kept the Faith

Remains of Pearl Harbor’s hero priest identified after almost 75 years

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. -John 15:13 (KJV)

A Stupid Time to be Alive

British man wins Ig Nobel Prize for living as a goat in the Alps

Taxpayer funded, no doubt.

Still my favourite journalistic line ever. pic.twitter.com/fwWxj7SXrt

— James Doleman (@jamesdoleman) September 22, 2016

News You Can Use

Analysis: Is it lawful self-defense to “run down” rioters surrounding your vehicle?

Certainly if the protestors attempt, or reasonably appear to attempt, to forcibly enter the blockaded vehicles, this would constitute reasonable grounds to fear an imminent deadly force attack.  Such conduct would include the smashing of windows or attempts to force open doors.  The same applies to attempts to set vehicles on fire, or to flip vehicles over.
Note that a defender need not necessarily wait until the protestors have turned violent against his particular vehicle.  If they have begun threatening or using deadly force against other blockaded vehicles it is reasonable to infer that your own vehicle is likely to be next — you are, after all, legally entitled to defend yourself not just against the danger already occurring to you but also against the danger that is about to occur, that is imminent.
I caution, however, that you can’t just speculate that some danger about to occur, you must be making a reasonable inference from actual evidence (e.g., observations) around you.  “For all I knew they were about to start setting cars on fire,” is not enough, that’s mere speculation.  “I saw someone approach with a Molotov cocktail,” or “I saw other vehicles ablaze” is, in contrast, evidence from which one can reasonably infer an imminent threat.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by Banana Forts:

The Yahoo Group gets hard to clean blood stains out of all types of fabric.

*Brent and Alex's Drift Compatible podcast. Also, on a serious note, Brent and his family will be evacuating ahead of Matthew tomorrow. Let's keep them in our prayers.

Close it up

Hurricane Matthew- Wednesday night (tmi3rd)

—Open Blogger

Back at it, my friends. I'm tmi3rd, and Hurricane Matthew is one bizarre storm to work on. Its steering is truly a mess, but the forecast is beginning to look like it's genuinely going to loop back to the south and west. The last landfalling hurricane I'm aware of that did this- and I haven't looked this up- was Juan in 1986, but I'm sure there have been others.

More below the fold...

Shock: Hillary Caught Using Child Actress To Ask (Presumably) Scripted Question at Alleged Town Hall

—Ace

I wonder why people think she's a shifty haggard villainess.

I don't want to end the day on a down note, but it seems to big to not mention: A Farleigh Dickenson University poll puts Clinton up ten points nationally, 45-36. I guess that's nine points but I guess it rounds up to ten or something.

Archprog Steven Colbert Makes Fun of Mike Pence's Invocation of Faith By Making a Really Hack, Really Cheap Gay Joke

—Ace

Mike Pence says it's good to spend time on one's knees -- praying for wisdom, obviously -- and super-funny, super-innovative Stephen Colbert immediately makes a gay joke unworthy of a 7th grade class clown.

Listen: Political correctness is not about what can be said and what can't be said.

It is and always has been about who can say something, and who cannot.

It's not about outlawing words: It's about outlawing people.

Not a Smidgen of Corruption: DoJ Abruptly Drops Case Against Arms Dealer After He Threatens to Spill Beans on Obama's and Hillary's Secret Arming of Rebels in Libya

—Ace

Of course. Of course.

Text article at the Right Scoop. Video report below.

Oh, by the way, Steve Harvey's staff provided Hillary Clinton with an exact script of the questions he intended to ask her for their sit-down (of course) interview in Flint.

"ClownLivesMatter" Objects to Profiling Clowns in Wake of Clown Attacks

—Ace

Oh yeah, this isn't going to cause any Massive Social Media Freak-Outs or anything.

After a wave of creepy clown sightings and crimes committed by people in clown masks, professional clowns around the country are fighting back by declaring 'Clown Lives Matter.'

People in clown make up or costume have been spotted around the country in recent months, resulting in headlines questioning what exactly is going on. Many people have been frightened by the sightings and, in recent days, people dressed as clowns have begun robbing people.

They say the Clown Panic threatens their livelihood.

I get the joke and I kind of like the joke. I don't fault them for running with the joke.

They do know the world has gone crazy and will not permit any jokes about the media-political complex's precious agitators Black Lives Matter, though, right?

I hope they do.

Eh, I give the clowns some props for daring to make a harmless reference which should bother no one at all.

But we live in the days when such things are considered provocations to violence (with the leftist political-media complex cheering the violence on).

Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football Ratings Fall Again

—Ace

Nice league you got 'ere. Be a shame if somethin' were to 'appen to it.

It seems likely that the numerous #BoycottNFL online campaigns and fan outrage aimed at the National Anthem protests in the NFL have taken a toll in terms of viewership this season. Additionally, cord-cutting continues to eat into traditional TV�s ratings at an alarming rate. But could there be something else at play?

We�re barely a year removed from the NFL setting all-time records in viewership, yet now the league is on pace for its lowest ratings in years. That�s a sharp and unexpectedly sudden turn.

Given the politicized controversies and the variety of streaming options this year, have we reached a cumulative point of football fatigue? The numbers suggest so.

Last night�s Monday Night Football matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants drew a 9.1 overnight rating, an 8% drop from last year�s comparable Week 4 game between the Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks. The New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs game in 2014 earned a 9.6 rating.

Overall, Monday Night Football's ratings are down 19% year-to-year.

Sunday Night Football's ratings also continue to fall.

At this point, NFL fans have to wonder if the league is ever going to publicly address its declining TV viewership. As the ratings continue to shrink, so too does the advertising money, hitting the league where it really hurts. Last night was no different.

NBC's Sunday Night Football was down yet again in viewership, drawing in 16.68 million viewers and scoring a 6.19/19 rating in the advertiser friendly 18-49 demo. The numbers mark a season low for SNF and the show's 11.0 overnight rating is the lowest total since 2007 (ouch). While the NFL still won the night in total viewers, those numbers mark a steep drop from last week's 18.62 million/6.8 ratings and the week before�s 20.6 million/7.4 rating.

I repeat what I've said a thousand times but which some seem determined to ignore: No one is under any kind of moral or social obligation to participate in this boycott. If you find that you enjoy the NFL too much -- fine. As I mentioned in a comment, I stopped giving blood when I suspected (wrongly) that it was screwing up my body and causing panic attacks.

For some, a boycott is easier; for others, harder. No one is under any requirements, moral or social, to do any additional work outside of working hours, or to limit the amount of joy they take in a life that sometimes seems to have too little of it.

All I'd ask is for such persons to let those of us able and willing to undertake the boycott to do so without being harassed for it ourselves.

You get the best of both worlds: You get to keep on watching football, while other people, not you, put pressure on the league to stop with the politicization most everyone says they're sick of.

Take your ego out of the equation. The fact that you decline to participate in something does not make that something unworthy. Just the same as my decision to stop giving blood based on (incorrect) fears about it affecting my panic did not make giving blood an unworthy action.

Whether you are personally interested in a particular thing says nothing about whether it's generally a good idea to do.

The fact that I was not willing to give blood, deeming it (wrongly) to be too onerous for me personally, did not turn giving blood into a morally suspect action, nor did it make the ads urging people to give blood "bullying" or "pleasure shaming."

Not everyone does every single extracurricular political agitation or socially-desirous action they can. That should not cause people to insist, contrary to all explicit declarations, that those willing to undertake such actions are somehow bullying or "pressuring" them to do likewise.

As I said: We only need a decline of 15%. They will feel that. Oh Lordy, will they feel that.

That means that 85% can free ride off other people's boycott.

So do so. And stop whining about it.

By the way, Rush Limbaugh talked about this and said the decline was a "culmination" of many things, boycotting the anthem for one obviously, but also the fact that rule changes now have fans and refs alike paralyzed as to what a "catch" actually is anymore.

I don't watch the game anymore so I don't know about this new rule. I wouldn't even mention this, except that a friend brought up this very issue as part of his own reason for reduced interest in the NFL. (He also cited the anthem boycott.)

Limbaugh also notes the networks are going to have to pay advertisers a lot of money in free ads and give-backs due to not hitting the ratings goals they promised when they sold the add space.

And what could possibly be the objection to that?

At some point, the idea of taking down the media has to turn into the actual action of taking down the media.

Frankly, it gets a little silly listening to tens of thousands of people natter about the need to "take it to the media" while they stuff money into the media's pockets and tell them, "Don't mind us, we'll keep watching no matter what you do to offend, marginalize, or insult us."

Money talks, bullshit walks.

Let the people willing to talk to the NFL in cash-money terms do so without being yelled at for it.

Community Agitator in Chief: Obama Orders National Security Workforce to Take Up the Critical Issue of "Intersectional" Identity Politics Theory

—Ace

As in -- they should practice it.

President Obama is ordering all national security agencies to expand the use of �unconscious bias� training and address "intersectionality" in a late push for�diversity and inclusion in the federal government.

The president issued a memorandum�on Wednesday entitled "Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce." The memo requires all 17 intelligence agencies, including the Pentagon, State Department, and Department of Homeland Security, to report back in four months on their progress in�collecting information about diversity in their workforces, such as employees'�sexual orientation and gender identity.

Obama listed�"diversity" as "our�greatest asset" in keeping America safe.

Less important assets in keeping America safe: Intelligence, warriors, weapons.

As we all know, the enlightened, True Conservative serious-about-policy position is to support Hillary Clinton this election cycle. To save the party or whatever.

Politico Founder Jim Van Der Hei: I've Always Defended the Media Against Bias Charges, But This Year, They've Proven Themselves to Be Hyperpartisan Embarrassments

—Ace

Even the media is now embarrassed by the media.

In a way they never did before like I've said this before. I've always been a defender of the media. I think these accusations of bias are usually overdone. I think that that�s all out the door, all out the window in this campaign. I think reporters have become so biased, so partisan, particularly on Twitter.

He added:

"Go look at the Twitter feeds of the reporters from your major newspapers -- The New York Times, The Washington Post, others - -and tell me if those are things that they would say on TV or that would have ever been acceptable in previous campaigns....Just let the facts be out there and let people make a judgment."

Twitter is an interesting phenomenon (if a dreadful one). It puts the spotlight on a person's narcissism, and each person's desire to show off and preen and signal for his Tribe acts as a kind of ego-fueled truth serum to confess things he ought really not confess.

Hurricane Matthew- Tuesday NightWednesday Morning (tmi3rd)

—Open Blogger

This was scheduled for last night...so at tmi3rd's request I updated the map to the newest version. He also points out that preparations to evacuate need to be finished today if south of NC. [CBD]

Good evening from the AoSHQ Weather Desk. I'm tmi3rd, and let's not screw around.

If you are anywhere on the east coast of Florida, it is time to leave. You're going to get at least sideswiped, and that means you're going to get at least tropical storm force winds and Category 4 storm surge, to say nothing of a ton of rain.

If you're on the coast in Georgia, South Carolina, or North Carolina, you need to be completing preparations to leave and be prepared to go in the next 24 to 48 hours.

More below the fold...

A hurricane watch in effect for essentially the east coast of Florida south of St. Augustine, and a tropical storm watch is in effect for the southernmost portion of the Florida peninsula.

It's going to slow its motion going forward as it interacts with the Bahamas, but at this point, it looks like the conditions are favorable for it to maintain intensity as it heads north.

Worrying about the specifics of the path at this point is pointless until it completely clears Cuba, but I want to emphasize to the folks from Virginia northward that you need to keep a very close eye on this. It's going to turn east at some point, but it's anyone's guess when that's going to happen.

In the short term- for the southeastern Atlantic coast, prepare for very heavy rain, at least tropical storm-force winds, and major hurricane storm surge. I'll have more as this develops, but stay safe and take this one seriously.

If you need to reach me, find me on Twitter.

-tmi3rd

Close it up

The Morning Report 10/5/16 [J.J. Sefton]

—Open Blogger

Do the humpty-hump, people. Some nooz for yooz. Have a better one!

• Able Slays Kaine
• She Probably Sounded Better in the Original German
• Matthew Turns Deadly As It Heads Towards Florida
• Pro Tip for MSNBC: Never Ask a Question You Don't Already Know the Answer To
• **Yahoo Snooping Customer E-mails for U.S Intelligence Services**
• Who Said Hilary and Obama Are Anti-Gun?
• Consensus? I Got Your Consensus Right Here!
• Roy Blunt, Rhymes With. . .
  Posted by Open Blogger at 06:58 AM Comments

Tuesday Night ONT - I Got Nuthin' Edition [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

Well, that's over. Debate discussion continues below. I'm watching the Os game. Tied at 2, top of the 9th.

Quotes of the Day

I like having a very direct and very powerful impact on worker safety and health.  If you put out a reg, it matters.  I think that’s really where the thrill comes from.  And it is a thrill; it’s a high… I love it; I absolutely love it.  I was born to regulate.  I don’t know why, but that’s very true.  So as long as I’m regulating, I’m happy.

Marthe Kent
OSHA director of safety standards program.
National Review’s Internet Update
June 26, 2000

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

― C.S. Lewis

Knowledge of birth control is essentially moral. Its general, though prudent, practice must lead to a higher individuality and ultimately to a cleaner race.
Birth control is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.

―Margaret Sanger

First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Social Democrats, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Social Democrat. And then they realized that all their problems had pretty much been solved, so they stopped coming for people.

-Slavic Nationalist on GAB

It's All About Control

Killing Affordable Housing in Seattle

New York's Latest Anti-Airbnb Effort

Look, I think it's stupid to want to live in a breadbox, but if someone else decides that that's what's best for them, why should Seattle be able to tell them they can't? Why should New York be able to keep me from renting out my home when I'm not using it? Obviously, they shouldn't be able to, and regardless of what specious reasons given, the real objective is control. It's about people like Marthe Kent up top who simply get off on running ruining other people's lives, or it's about people leveraging the power of government to enrich themselves, as in the New York story.

In either case, the problem isn't the people involved. People are people, and they will always try to accrue power and riches to themselves. The problem is a government that is so entwined with everyone’s life that it can be used as a mechanism to accomplish this.

Very simple example. Widget company A makes blue widgets, company B makes yellow ones. Instead of taking it to the market to let consumers decide which color widget they prefer, widget company A lobbies the government to mandate that all widgets be blue. By doing so they either put company B out of business, or they gain a competitive advantage because B isn't set up to make blue. The problem isn't that company A sought profit, it's that because government has involved itself in the widget trade, the easiest way for them to profit is to use the cudgel of government against its competitor, rather than by making a better or cheaper widget and letting the market decide. What needs to be removed from the equation is government. Without that lever of government power, the only way for people who want money or power to get it is by appealing to the population at large. The Founding Fathers knew this. Too bad they were all cis-normative slave holding white men.

I'm With Hillary!

I agree with Hillary 100% here. (Hint: Turn on the sound. Then turn it off so you don't have to hear that harridan)

Are you with Hillary? Or Trump? Let the world know in the totally meaningless and non-scientific world-wide vote! (LOL Right now, Canada is purple-50/50)

And one final Hillary note: Jeff Dunham Unloads on Corrupt Hillary Clinton

Florida Man has competition

Rambunctious naked woman attacks traffic in Costa Rica

New Jersey man, 59, arrested for wearing clear plastic bikini on beach

Florida Man isn't about to be outdone:

Florida man, high on meth, ‘cuts off genitals, feeds them to alligator’

Yes, Yes You Are the Only One

Am I the only one who thinks it weird that the word sex wasn't mentioned once during the debate? Voting doesn't eliminate sex does it?

— Dr. Ruth Westheimer (@AskDrRuth) September 27, 2016

Also from the Twitter files:

Spongbob Squarepants? I haven't heard that name in years pic.twitter.com/tBanqHrs2R

— RiceGum Clips (@RiceGumCIips) September 20, 2016

Free Legal Tips!

From someone who has been there

Our very own Empress adds from personal experience: “Don't show up for a drug hearing wearing a hat that says COCAINE”. I dunno, do judges not like Eric Clapton fans?

Musical Interlude

Let's close with a song that someone linked on the Wednesday ONT a couple of weeks ago, a very Moron-y kind of song:

Tonight's ONT brought to you by rascally scamps in an appliance store:

The Yahoo Group watches you touch yourself at night.

Close it up

Debate Thread Three: Last Leg, and then Post-Debate Spin

—Ace

I can't imagine there isn't a man, woman, or child in America thinking "I'd like to bitchslap that dirty little bitch" and also "I bet I could easily bitchslap that dirty little bitch."

Debate Thread Two: Will The Moderator or Kaine Interrupt Pence Next?

—Ace

This animated anal dildo is annoying as fuck.

See Luntz' dial-a-response focus group.

Kaine is going over as well with the broader public as he is with you-all.

Pence vs. Kaine Debate Thread

—Ace

I have no ideas about this debate. I barely know either man.

Word Love Thread: Weather and Astronomical Phenomena

—Ace

With a massive hurricane bearing down on the southeastern US coast, maybe this thread is in bad taste. Forgive me if it is.

But I've meant to do this for a while.

I mentioned this one in the Topography thread -- "rain shadow."

My favorite weather-related term right now is blue norther, also called I think "Texas norther:"

A Blue Norther is a fast-moving cold front that causes temperatures to drop dramatically and quickly. Common characteristics are a dark blue-black sky, strong winds, and temperatures than can drop 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit in a few minutes.

Speaking of things which are said to be blue, the conventional claim about what a "blue moon" is, or was, is wrong.

Usually a season has three full moons in it, but sometimes it has four. Particularly around Easter-- as the most important religious holiday in Christendom is determined according to the moons -- it's important to keep track of the moons.

The almanac also follows certain rules laid down as part of the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582. The ecclesiastical vernal (spring) equinox always falls on March 21st, regardless of the position of the Sun. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, and must contain the Lenten Moon, considered to be the last full Moon of winter. The first full Moon of spring is called the Egg Moon (or Easter Moon, or Paschal Moon) and must fall within the week before Easter.

When is the Moon 'blue,' in a calendrical sense? According to the Maine almanac, a Blue Moon occurs when a season has four full Moons, rather than the usual three. This type of Blue Moon is found only in February, May, August, and November, one month before the next equinox or solstice. According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full Moon in a calendar month. This type of Blue Moon can occur in any month but February, which is always shorter than the time between successive full Moons.

At last we have the "Maine rule" for Blue Moons: Seasonal Moon names are assigned near the spring equinox in accordance with the ecclesiastical rules for determining the dates of Easter and Lent. The beginnings of summer, fall, and winter are determined by the dynamical mean Sun. When a season contains four full Moons, the third is called a Blue Moon.

Why is the third full Moon identified as the extra one in a season with four? Because only then will the names of the other full Moons, such as the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule, fall at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinox.

See this Wikipedia entry for more.

Now, if there's a fourth moon in the spring season, it screws with the dating, and so they name the intruder moon a "blue moon" to keep the other moons with their proper ecclesiastical names.

Apparently in the mid-seventies a magazine tried to figure out why almanacs called some blue moons "blue" but they got it completely wrong. It was not, in fact, the second full moon in a calendar month. It was one of four full moons in a season which usually has three.

But over time, this mistaken etymology -- "the second full moon in a calendar month" -- has been accepted as the "modern" definition, because it's easy to explain and people like easy explanations. Even when they're not only wrong, but known to be wrong. Provably wrong.*

And on that general point, I like this list of the names of the full moons, largely taken from Indian names for the moons.

This Space.com article offers some other variations (different tribes had different names for the moons), and notes the moons specifically for 2016.

By the way: November 14, 2016 should be a special holiday for Morons.

It's the Full Beaver Moon.

It really should be a thing. Valentine's Day for men.

* To be honest, I still dispute that "blue moon" originally had this meaning. I prefer to think it meant -- simply, tangibly, poetically -- a moon which appeared more blue than other moons.

As it was rare, "once in a blue moon" became a saying.

Then, later, needing a name for these occasional intruder moons in a season, some wise guy got the idea to just call the spare moon a "blue moon."

I'm very wary of folk etymologies and this whole Blue Moon thing sounds like one to me.

And I just can't get past the idea of a genuine blue moon being an electrifying and resonant image -- and I recoil from the idea that it's just some bullshit word a Lunar Accountant made up to keep his Moon Books straight.

I've seen gigantically luminous yellow moons and of course huge orange moons (usually in fall, the Hunter's moon).

I just can't get past the idea that when people used to speak of a blue moon, they meant, simply, "a moon which is blue."

"Extremely Dangerous" Hurricane Matthew Bearing Down on Cuba; Will Rake the US Eastern Coast Beginning Late Wednesday

—Ace

Looks like we're in for nasty weather.

Here's the projected track of the storm.

Also see the sidebar update.

Make sure you've got candles, water, and food, and an escape plan, if needed.

Guccifer 2.0 Claims to Have Hacked Clinton Foundation

—Ace

Update: The Daily Caller now updates:

Update: A review of the newly released documents reveals no information about the Clinton Foundation. Instead, the documents appear to come mostly from the Democratic Party of Virginia. Other documents appear to come from the national Democratic party.

It should be noted, however, that such documents could have been gotten from the Clinton Foundation. I will speculate -- without knowing -- that the Clinton Foundation could have had a lot of documents from other Democrats on their servers.

Though I have no idea if that's what happened.

...

It's kind of scary that this is apparently so easily accomplished, even versus targets you would think have pretty good security protocols.

Believed to be affiliated with the Russian government, Guccifer 2.0 released a screen shot of a list of files said to be from the Clinton non-profit�s servers. A massive 820 megabyte file was also released on the site as well as links to several databases containing donor information.

The legitimacy of the documents has not been independently verified.

I don't want to link the Guccifer site where you can download this file because, well, I don't think it's a good idea to encourage anyone to download a file from a claimed hacker and I don't want to be repsonsible for someone absently clicking on a link I provide.

So I'll just note this claim, taken from Twitter:

Lion Lamb @LionandLamb

Wall ST gave TARP funds - taxpayer bailout money - back to the DNC, money laundering! #OctoberSurprise #Guccifer2

And:

DeplorableScottErnst ‏@RealScottErnst 29m29 minutes ago Big banks & corporations may have agreed to donate a certain % of allocated #TARP funds to #Dems

"May have."

I've left out the link -- only people using a clean computer (nothing of their own on it) should click on that, I'm thinking.

But that is the claim being made, that somehow some documents "prove" that TARP money was used to donate to Democratic PACs.

I don't know how you'd establish such a thing -- money is fungible.

Some are alleging an agreement to do this was struck.

Here's an excerpt. I cannot vouch for this being accurate information, or making an accurate implication:

I'll believe it when people who can view the documents and verify them tell me what they say.

Also see ZeroHedge. (h/t illiwinks)

Here's why they're calling this a pay-for-play list: For some reason, the list of donations from Wall Street and banks cross references those donations versus how much the firm received in TARP money.

Almost as if the DNC was keeping track if their Wall Street clients had kicked back amounts commensurate with the largesse the government had given them.

The tweet I posted did not have the column-identifiers included -- but apparently the last two columns were labeled "Donations" (or something like that) and "TARP funds received" (or something like that).

Why would politicians be comparing these two figures, except to decide if their beaks had been sufficiently wetted by the people they had given taxpayer monies to?

Yahoo Scanned All Users' Arriving Messages at Behest of NSA and/or FBI

—Ace

Apparently they were scanning for specific strings of characters, that is, words they found interesting for some reason or another.

Eh.

I seem to be in the minority position on this. After 9/11, there was broad agreement that we needed to be vigilant against terrorism.

Now it's become the more intellectually hip position to be paranoid about this sort of thing.* In addition, simple mistrust of Obama (well-earned mistrust, by the by) has made people circumstantially libertarian on the issue.

I don't really see how you can demand that our intelligence agencies to connect the dots without allowing them to gather some dots in the first place.

I've mentioned this before, but personally, I am a lot less bothered by a purely automated, machine-driven search for specific words that only kicks emails containing those words to humans than the thought of an actual human looking at all these emails. The human has curiosities, suspicions, and judgments that a mechanical algorithm simply does not. I feel violated by a human's eyes (and the thoughts that what he sees might spark); I feel nothing at all about purely mechanical search processes.

In addition, of course, I know mechanical search bots are already reading all my emails anyway, or at least recording everything I search for through my browser, and scanning everything I look up on Amazon.

That's how and why when I look up a kind of boot, all of the ads shown on my computer for the next two weeks are about, get this, boots.

I don't understand why I'm supposed to be outraged that the NSA is looking at my emails for mention of bomb-making materials when no one ever says any g**-damned thing about Google using my browser to note every single consumer product I might express a transient interest in.

Don't believe me? Go do a search for "J. Crew Messenger bag." Tell me what your ads try to sell you for the next two weeks.

What's the difference here?

* I guess my problem with this overnight shift in opinion is this: When you were calling for the US government to be more forward-leaning in finding terrorists and protecting you against terrorism, what did you think they would do to achieve this?

My problem with the overnight sea change in opinion on the right is that what we learned they were doing was pretty much what I expected they would be doing -- and pretty much what I thought most on the right understood they would be doing, too.

Colombians Reject Peace/Amnesty Plan for Terrorist Group FARC by Slim Half-Percent Margin in National Referendum

—Ace

Amnesty for career kidnappers and terrorists was a bridge too far for a bare majority of the country.

For more than five decades, the Soviet- and narco-backed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has waged a brutal insurgency against the Colombian government and its people. When Soviet largesse dried up at the end of the Cold War, the guerrillas turned to kidnapping and drug trafficking to fund their insurgency, and they've used just about every terrorist tactic short of suicide-bombings since the very beginning. More than 220,000 people have been killed since the war started in 1964, and more than seven million have been displaced.

So why did a slim majority of the population vote "no" in a national referendum to end the war once and for all?

Because the peace deal was too nice to the FARC.

Amnesty was part of the package, of course. All the FARC leaders could have stayed out of prison if they confessed and made reparations. Worse, the peace treaty would have given the FARC ten seats in Congress--five in the Senate and five in the House--for ten years.

I don't know anything about Colombia and I think it's kinda foolish to opine on another country's politics.

That said, I certainly understand Colombia's choice here. They say you make peace with your enemies, not your allies, and that's true.

But sometimes the price of peace is too high. And justice and retribution are social goods, too.

Obama May Be Reversing Himself -- Or Pretending To -- On His Illegal Bailout Scheme for Obamacare

—Ace

John Sexton notes news I had missed.

The insurance companies are getting out of the Obamacare markets because they're racking up big losses. Obamacare is in its death spiral.

Obama had been illegally shunting money to them -- to the tune of $3 billion -- despite the fact the law itself states that the government will not subsidize Obamacare.

Then Obama and the insurance companies seem to have struck upon the same strategy used by the EPA and others to push federal policy to the left -- encourage "stakeholders" to sue the government for the policy changes they wanted. Then the government would deliberately roll over for the suit and "settle" it by doing what the government actually wanted to do from the start, but had no Congressional authorization to do so.

See, the government, allegedly, can't do things Congress hasn't permitted -- unless the government is "sued" into doing so, and reaches a "settlement" which gives them legal cover to do what they wanted to do, but which they were not otherwise allowed to do.

This was going on with the insurance companies -- they were suing for money they claimed they were owed under Obamacare. Even though the law said they were not to be subsidized beyond a certain time-and-amount limited amount in the so-called "risk corridors."

Obama was planning to roll over for this baseless suit, and "settle" it to give them money he was otherwise legally barred from giving them.

However, perhaps he's gotten heat on this issue, as his government is now beginning to contest these easily-defeated lawsuits.

Or maybe this is just a fakeout -- people got wind of the corrupt scheme, so, like the FBI, he's going to pretend to be pursuing the proper legal course of action while deliberately tanking the effort.

PS, sorry for the late start. Insomina on Sunday night has got me all messed up as far as sleeping and waking.

Colombia's Electorate Rejects A Deal With Psychopathic Murders (FARC) [CBD]

—Open Blogger

And drunken, senile Hillary Clinton was all for this deal, but the good people of Columbia weren't fooled by their elites' call for a treaty with no teeth. In Colombia's Courage, The New York Sun eviscerates her and the rest of the liberal world for whitewashing the horrendous crimes of communism, in the form of a sadistic and violent "revolutionary movement" that did incalculable harm to Colombia.

It turns out that the courageous Colombians were prepared to risk war over a false peace. President Santos had vowed that in any deal there would be no impunity for war crimes and that FARC would be required to make reparations. Yet neither of those promises were kept in the deal presented to voters. The enemy was allowed five years of negotiations while holding child soldiers and girls kept as sex slaves. The idea of lustration, like the war crimes trials we held at Nuremberg, appears to have been laid aside as if none of the crimes mattered, as if all were morally equivalent.

[Yeah...I had to look up "lustration," but it was worth it.]

Communism leads inexorably to murder, and its record is pretty much unblemished. The Colombian people were smart enough to realize that and insist on a reckoning. But The horror-show that is the Democrat nominee was willing to accept letting these people off in the interest of...I have no idea what.

Mid-Morning Open Thread [CBD]

—Open Blogger

Every time I think of using a Norman Rockwell painting I think of this one.

The Morning Report 10/4/16 [J.J. Sefton]

—Open Blogger

Wakey-wakey! Tuesday's here, and here are some things to ponder as we keep an eye on Hurricane Matthew. Stay safe and have a better one.

• Awaiting Assange
  
• Rush: This Is the Same NY Times That Refused to Publish Climategate E-mails Because, Illegal!
  
• Pence vs Kaine vs MLB Wild Card
  
• Smart Power: Clinton's Syrian No-Fly Zone Means War With Russia, Sez US General
  
• Trump Draws 10,000 in Colorado
  
• SCOTUS Rejects Obama's Illegal Deportation Amnesty, and . . .
  
• . . . SCOTUS Refuses to Continue the Wisconsin "John Doe" Witch Hunt
  
• You Can Add the Smithsonian to the Boycott List
  
• Gun Sales Hit Record High for 17th Straight Month

Overnight Open Thread (10-03-2016)

—Open Blogger

******
The creator of the "Gaia Hypothesis" is a bit of a crank. But he is provocative; of that there is no doubt. And now he is goring the Left's favorite ox! In an interview with The Guardian, he fires a broadside at AGW. And reaffirms that he is a nutjob. James Lovelock: 'Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over'

What has changed dramatically, however, is his position on climate change. He now says: “Anyone who tries to predict more than five to 10 years is a bit of an idiot, because so many things can change unexpectedly.” But isn’t that exactly what he did last time we met? “I know,” he grins teasingly. “But I’ve grown up a bit since then.”

****** Unbelievable. The UN is now interfering in the internal politics of our country. They took this tweet down after a few minutes, but the intrepid internet saved it.

I wonder whether these screen grabs would have been vaporized in a puff of burning electrons had the UN been in control?

******
Example #34,091 why Vin Scully is a national treasure. Baseball will be diminished by his retirement.

******
In the academy, Queer To Stay, but it is a vanity subject because of the vanishingly small percentage of Americans who identify as gay. Yes, seemingly every other TV and movie character is gay, and undoubtedly the SJWs are all gay, or at least want to be. But when 97% of Americans identify themselves as heterosexual, the remaining 3% just isn't that important.

Why are my colleagues so caught up in same-sex matters?

Few of them are gay, but they have made "queer theory," gender studies, and other schools of thought opposed to what they call "heteronormativity" central to the humanities ever since the subjects blossomed in book lists, periodicals, conferences, and hirings in the late 1980s and early '90s. Of course, it isn't hard to understand why same-sex attraction draws political support. The professoriate is uniformly liberal on social issues. To them, the case for anti-discrimination is a no-brainer, and conservative resistance to same-sex marriage and transgender rights amounts to a lingering Jim Crow. But making LGBT topics into a research field and a professional identity doesn't make obvious sense.

The demographics don't support it. According to the 2013 National Health Interview Survey, a project of the Centers for Disease Control, 96.6% of American adults identify as straight, 1.6% gay or lesbian, and 0.7% bisexual. Those numbers fit closely to the fields as they were when I started graduate school in 1983, and same-sex issues were a rare concern. The teacher who taught me the most in those years was gay and offered a course in gay lit each year for undergrads, but his position was understood as a side interest, not a defining feature. His professional identity was as a Romanticist taking a history-of-ideas approach.

******
In a section of its web site, perfectly titled "Corruption Chronicles," Judicial Watch exposes one example of our government pissing in our faces and not even bothering to lie and say it's raining. DHS Agency That Enforces Immigration Law Honors Open Borders Activist Who Helps Illegal Aliens
******
Apolitical Reasons to Hate Politics

I hate politics. Part of the reason, to be honest, is that I'm a libertarian, and libertarian views have almost no influence in the world of politics. Libertarians don't just lose every election; policy-makers normally summarily reject our position. Libertarians don't just fail to control a major party; "successful libertarian politician" is almost an oxymoron.

An honest assessment of his own political beliefs and the party that represents them. That's rare! Although....read his postscript and maybe you will disagree with it as fully as I do.

******
Here is a good example of the hubris and arrogance of the NY Times. In an opinion piece titled, Why Don't You Just Call the Cops? a couple of sociologists try to debunk the idea that crime is rising by suggesting that the recent uptick is just a blip on a decreasing national crime rate. Fine. But then they take a blip in "911" calls and extrapolate to ridiculous conclusions....that Blacks have stopped calling the police because they are afraid, and that is why crime has increased.

And take a look at this quotation....it sounds like collective guilt to me. I guess that the Left is happy to protect Islam when it is accused of responsibility for terrorist acts, but is unwilling to extend the same protections to the police.

No act of police violence is an isolated incident and it should not be treated as such. Each new tragedy contributes to and reawakens the collective trauma of black communities, which have been subjected to state-sanctioned assaults — from slave whippings and lynching campaigns to Jim Crow enforcement and mass incarceration — for generations. If acts of excessive police force result in community-level consequences, then cities should implement community-level interventions in the aftermath of such acts.

So...they would approve of carpet bombing Riyadh and Karachi? ****** ©1968 by AceCorp LLC. All Rights Reserved. Spikes are to be worn only in carpeted areas. Supple Leopard^TMpink thongs have been recalled because of reports of skin irritation. Walk-in refrigerator is not to be used for whole carcasses.

Close it up

Hurricane Matthew (tmi3rd)

—Open Blogger

Hi, folks. tmi3rd here, and I'm poking my head up because it now appears that Hurricane Matthew has a reasonable shot not only at hitting the continental United States, but may also be the first major landfalling hurricane in almost a decade for the United States.

More below the fold...

As of the 8 PM EDT advisory, Matthew weighs in as an impressive Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds as high as 140 mph, and gusts up to 165 mph. It is going to encounter some resistance as it crosses the Bahamas, and is also forecast (as you can see above) to track back to the northwest.

If you are along the East Coast from the tip of Florida north to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you need to begin preparations NOW for hurricane-generated surf and probably tropical storm-force winds as Matthew makes its way along the coast. This, of course, also means you if you're in coastal South Carolina or Georgia.

Current thinking- which can and will change over the next few days- has a projected landfall of somewhere near Wilmington, NC Saturday evening. Given its current projected path, the thinking is that its interaction with land should slow its winds down to Category 2 (less than 110 mph sustained winds), but it'll still be pushing a storm surge of Category 4 size.

After landfall, the current thinking is that it'll interact with a cold front and push out to sea, so the danger to the northeastern states is diminishing some. That said, our naval friends at Norfolk are probably going to want to put to sea and head north in the near future.

I'm not going to pretend to guess where Matthew will make that turn eastbound, but plan for intense rain, at least tropical storm-force winds, and the usual accoutrements that come with any hurricane. I'll have more as we get closer.

In the meantime, if you need to get a hold of me, you can always tweet me. I'll get back to you as quickly as possible.

Stay safe!

-tmi3rd

Close it up

Monday Moron Medical Monitoring

—Ace

Not much to report on my end. I seem to be losing a pound a week, maybe, which isn't good, but whatever. It's something. I dropped down to 175 before bouncing back up to 179.

I look better, though. Whereas I used to look like a fat guy who doesn't work out, I now look like a fat guy who works out.

Hey, it's still progress.

Below the fold, something important from last week: Man, does an immersion blender improve the flavor and taste of the Moron Coffee.

So: About DEM GAINZZZ

For Some Reason, the Department of Justice Agreed to Not Look At Cheryl Mills' Computer Communications After the Story about the Illegal Server Had Broken

—Ace

Why would you want to look at her communications during a critical point of the cover up?

She might say something incriminating. And you don't want that.

So you agree to not review her communications during an insanely relevant period.

Oh, and of course the FBI agreed to destroy illegal computers, loaded with classified communications that should not have been on them, rather than charging the people who had the illegal computers.

You're Not Gonna Believe This, but the Media Is Seizing Upon an Out-of-Context Quote of Trump's and Making a Federal Case About It

—Ace

What they report: that Trump said some veterans are "strong" enough to handle the horrors of war, but some aren't.

What he actually said, in context:

Now this is actually a gaffe. I was thinking last week about how Trump could address this problem.*

One of the biggest problems with helping people with depression or similar mental problems is that people -- particularly men, and particularly warriors who are supposed to be Invincibly Strong at all times -- have a great deal of trouble confessing they need some help themselves.

They define themselves as strong enough to lift up others who need carrying; it hurts them to say they might need to be carried for a spell themselves.

The point is, it's a mistake to refer to the problem here as being insufficient strength to carry the burden, as it is precisely that mindset that causes men of strength to avoid seeking help for their problem in the first place.

Still, it's very hard to talk about these things without making this occasional error. Earlier in the post, I wrote "depression or similar mental problems." That is also the wrong thing to say. That stigmatizes people who have such problems, and that in turn causes them to avoid treatment.

When I wrote that, I tried to think of a more artful way to say it -- but then I decided to leave it as I'd written it to demonstrate the problem here.

The problem here is that you're talking about problems, but to call these things "problems" helps contribute to the problem itself.

Yet such mistakes in wording are common. It's difficult to avoid these traps, as I just learned myself two minutes ago.

So I do agree this is a gaffe-- but I would also suggest that even those who appreciate that improper wording can help contribute to warriors' refusal to seek help has difficulty avoiding all the verbal traps himself.

An incorrect word choice, but one made without malice. But of course this is no longer permitted in today's society, unless you're a liberal, in which case all of these Speechcrime laws simply don't apply to you.

If you're a liberal, you're a First Class Citizen, and First Class Citizenship has its rewards. Among them -- the unfalsifiable assumption that everything you say is intended with the best of intentions and filled with the highest possible quantum level of wisdom.

For Second Class Citizens -- everyone who isn't a declared progressive -- all presumptions run against you, that you are full of hatred and ignorance and that everything you say must be read with the least charitable assumptions.

* I only got part of the way through thinking about what someone could/should say, but the basic gist was this: War exposes people to superhuman levels of mental stress. Some people will break under such stress.

Warriors understand that there are some superhuman stresses laid upon the physical being that will cause a break, and no one calls themselves weak or morally unfit should that happen. If you put a man under a two hundred pound load, he's not going to be able to hustle for more than a hundred yards or so. Then he'll collapse.

If a man takes a running step into an unseen pit, his ankle will turn and his leg will break from the physical stresses acting on his bones.

All warriors understand that breaks are common and utterly unavoidable when we speak of the physical body, and no amount of willpower or spirit can change the fact that the body has physical limits.

That sort of understanding should be extended to the mental being -- there are superhuman stresses the mind can't take without suffering a strain, tweak, sprain or break, too.

And similarly, there is no amount of willpower, spirit, or courage that can change that.

So no stigma or feelings of weakness should attach -- no more than attach to your thighbone breaking when hit with a rifle bullet.

And just as you shouldn't try to "tough it out" and "be a man" if your thighbone is broken by a bullet -- you should see a damn medic, post-haste -- so too should no warrior avoid seeking therapy for a mental stress that's causing pain or immobilization.

But even that sort of exhortation is problematic. Because men who have been trained to never accept that some strains are too much for them are still going to recoil from the idea that their brain has been strained or broken by psychic stress.

Obligatory Post About Trump's Taxes

—Ace

I'm not really sure why it's a big deal that someone who has an income loss is not required to pay taxes. It's an income tax -- if you have no income, you pay no tax. Even if you already are sitting on a huge pile of money.

Because it's an income tax, not a gross net worth tax. If you have a high gross net worth, but fail to add to it in a year (or experience a loss), then you pay no income tax.

Also, I don't understand the big issue about carrying forward business losses into subsequent years. This is standard tax policy and long has been. There's a reason for it. Not that it matters -- whether there's a reason for it or not, it doesn't change the fact that this is tax law and people are both required and permitted to obey the law.

The reason for the carry-forward rule is that you can, in fact, lose so much in one particular year due to business losses that it could take you ten or more years just to make up ground. In other words, in one year, you can have a very high negative income -- you get wiped out.

It's been determined by legislators that it's not quite fair just to give you zero tax obligation for the one year you lost almost a billion dollars. Instead, they permit you to carry forward part of that loss over the course of subsequent years. You're allowed to use fractions of that big loss you suffered to offset business income in succeeding years.

Again, it makes sense, when you realize that losing a billion dollars in a year will give you zero tax liability in the year you take that loss, but it could take you many years to make that loss back up, and it's not exactly fair that you'd be paying taxes on business "gains" which are not really gains, simply recouping a fraction of what you lost several years before.

That's why you're allowed to carry forward these losses over several years.

Basically, it's a completely rational rule that basically allows people to pay income taxes on their average yearly income over a period of years. If you lose $950, then make $50 million a year for nine years, your average yearly income is negative $50 million per year.

Which people have decided more reflective of your actual income averaged out over a period of years than the contrary rule of taking your full $950 million loss in one year, paying no taxes in only that year, and then paying taxes on the $50 million per year for nine years. (Given that you still are nowhere near having made up all that lost ground yet.)

Let's make this simple. Let's say you lose $100 million in 2014, then make $100 million in 2015.

What taxes should you pay over that two year period?

Without the carry-forward losses rule, you'd pay nothing in 2014, and then about 50% of your income in 2015.

With the carry-forward rule, you carry your 2014 loss into 2015 so that your average income, over the two year period, is $0 per year.

Which is more fair? I think the latter rule is fair. The first rule uses the artificiality of a strict year-by-year accounting to say you "made" $100 million in one year without taking into consideration you lost the same amount the 12 months prior.

Whichever rule you think is fair, the latter rule is law.

Lottery winners similarly reduce their tax liability by averaging income over several years and paying taxes on the average income over a certain number of years. (Five, I think, but I'm not certain of that.) That seems more fair to the IRS than paying a larger fraction of the lottery windfall in one year.

Anyway, not only is the tax part of this not news -- it's the law; always has been; look it up; Google is your friend -- but neither is it news that Trump took a $900 million loss.

Will Rahn calls this a "great catch" but I don't know if it's a great catch -- if you write a book called The Art of the Comeback, this implies you're coming back from a setback.

If the implication isn't obvious there, there's also the fact that Trump's huge wipeout was big news at the time, and ever since -- when people keep talking about Trump's bankruptcies, do they imagine he went bankrupt during flush years?

There is a problem here, though. The problem is that this is all well known, Trump isn't exactly forthcoming about it, and attempts to hide it to the extent that plausibility will allow, and sometimes a bit past that extent.

Trump does not understand the limits of plausible spin.

Let's compare Trump to George W. Bush.

Bush had a secret that wasn't a secret -- he drank too damn much at one point of his life.

He couldn't keep that a secret. Too many people knew about it. He'd cursed out reporters drunkenly. He had become a teetotaler -- something that only alcoholics (or hard drinkers; Bush never confessed to being an actual alcoholic) usually do.

Did he hide this? No, he made this a fairly central part of his political biography. He turned his alcoholism -- or his problem with drinking too much -- into a humanizing detail, and a story about redemption, and a story about why he now has empathy for other people.

He also used it as an explanation, if I recall correctly, of the larger role God wound up playing in his life. I believe (again, going by memory) he linked getting off the sauce with accepting a Higher Power, as they say.

Net result? A major negative on Bush is turned into something which is neutral-but-leaning-positive, a thing that now kind of counts in his favor, rather than against him.

Now, Trump easily could have made his wipe-out a central part of his political biography. He could have talked about having lost it all -- but having summoned within himself the grit and drive to win it all back. He could have likened his own experience to the fate now facing America, with declining income and debt we can never hope to repay and facing bankruptcy in the not-so-distant future.

Instead, he kept insisting he was a winner and always had been and when he lost, that was just proof of how smart he was.

He didn't really deny he'd taken a bath in 1995 -- but he got very evasive when he talked about (or around) it, rather than taking it head on.

As I'm typing this, Trump is making a case similar, sort of, to the one I outline above (though note I've had this post written in my head all day).

But it's a bit late to offer positive spin after having dodged this fact for so long. He could have made this a central positive rationale in his favor -- I've been at the brink and I've fought my way back through grit and wit; I can do the same for America.

Instead, by not ever thinking too much about what spin is plausible (acknowledge the failure, but claim a redemption story and wisdom gained from it) and what spin isn't plausible (I always win, and even when I lose, I meant to do that), I think this is now irretrievably a net loss for him.

By the way, the Italians have a word for the idea of being "too cunning and savvy to accept bullshit as true." I forget the word. I've mentioned it on the site before, but now I forget it. If you know it, let me know.

This idea that permeates Italian society -- of craftiness -- actually fuels cynicism and conspiracy theories, because naturally the people who are the craftiest don't believe anything anyone ever says, even things that are almost certainly true.

Anyway, this habit of Trump's of offering spin that only fairly unsophisticated people could believe alienates people who like to think of themselves as sophisticated (whether they're right about that belief or not).

Like this crap that he's a "genius" for utilizing a completely well-known and frequently-used part of the tax code.

The Italians may have a special word for it, but people everywhere like appearing to be knowing enough to not be taken in by horseshit.

When you offer people horseshit, their ego gets involved, and they wind up deciding something like, "I can't support this guy, because if I do, people will think I believe this bullshit, and I must appear to be craftier and more knowing than to believe that."

I don't understand that algorithm myself -- I think these people aren't crafty enough to realize you can discard such horseshit and yet still decide that, on balance, Trump's horseshit is less stinky than Hillary's -- but such is the thinking of the halfway smart.

I wish the #HalfwaySmartSet could get past the need to look smart for their fellow #HalfwaySmartSet brethren, and actually be all the way smart, but that has never happened in all of history and won't be happening to the GOP chattering classes this year either.

Eddie Dane: Very smart. What were you doing at the club, talking things over with Leo?

Tom Reagan: Don't think so hard, Eddie. You might sprain something.

Eddie Dane: You are so goddamn smart. Except you ain't. I get you, smart guy. I know what you are. Straight as a corkscrew. Mr. Inside-Outski, like some goddamn Bolshevik picking up his orders from Yegg Central. You think you're so goddamn smart. You join up with Johnny Caspar, you bump Bernie Bernbaum. Up is down. Black is white. Well, I think you're half smart. I think you were straight with your frail, I think you were queer with Johnny Caspar... and I think you'd sooner join a ladies' league than gun a guy down. Then I hear from these two geniuses they never even saw this rub-out take place.

Frankie: Boss said to have him do it. He didn't say nothing about...

Eddie Dane: Shut up! Or maybe you still got too many teeth. Everyone is so goddamn smart. Well, we'll go out to Miller's Crossing... and we'll see who's smart.

Note that even though Tom eventually shows himself to be all-the-way smart, Eddie Dane was actually right about Tom being halfway smart here. Were it not for a (somewhat convoluted) plot twist, Tom would in fact have been exposed as halfway smart when they searched for the (non-existent) body at Miller's Crossing, and then executed.

Fortunately for him, some sheenie yegg had planted an entirely different body, that of his male twist, out in the woods.

Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton Was "Absolutely Correct" To Insult My Basement-Dwelling, Unemployed, Free Shit Army Supporters

—Ace

Over the weekend, tape was leaked of Hillary calling Bernie Sanders' supporters a bunch of live-with-your-parents, do-nothing, demand-everything creatures of unrealistic entitlement.

"Some are new to politics completely. They're children of the Great Recession. And they are living in their parents' basement," she declared. "They feel they got their education and the jobs that are available to them are not at all what they envisioned for themselves. And they don't see much of a future."

She also suggested Sanders voters were socialist dreamers:

And on the other side, there's just a deep desire to believe that we can have free college, free healthcare, that what we've done hasn't gone far enough, and that we just need to, you know, go as far as, you know, Scandinavia, whatever that means, and half the people don't know what that means, but it's something that they deeply feel.

Now Bernie sells out his own supporters by agreeing with the least-objectionable reading of Clinton's remarks, saying it's "absolutely correct" that Millennials are unable to get "good paying jobs" after taking out loans to get "educated."

Well. She said more than that, man.

Also: Are any of Sanders' Millennial voters not college attending?