Obligatory Safe Space For The Snowflake Joke

Much more reasonable the black college students being a little bit upset that their campus invites someone to tell them that they are stupider than white people.

The director of the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, Henry Barnet, told Politico that Pruitt was “approached in the airport numerous times” and had profanities “yelled at him” during his travels.

Barnet told the publication that one specific incident saw a person approach Pruitt and shout “Scott Pruitt, you’re f---ing up the environment” while recording it on a cellphone.

Getting the vapors. Take me to the fainting couch.

Something Is Wrong With The NYT

And not saying it would be less sad it there were poor kids, obviously. Just such a waste to see kids with so much opportunity before them wiped out.

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) February 15, 2018

Assholes

Blame lead or the culture or Fox News, but whatever the cause, a significant number of people in this country are total assholes. Just really mean people. Those of us who, while not saints, at least have a bit of empathy and aren't necessarily prone to kick homeless people for laughs, find this hard to comprehend. Yet...

Did You Know Nazis Don't Like Jews Very Much?

The self-identified "alt-right" including but not just those who happily refer to themselves at Nazis, or at a minimum invoke clear Nazi symbolism, don't like Jews very much. They aren't coy about this. They don't keep it a secret.

After years of watching the modern conservative movement try to marginalize Leftists of any kind for being anti-Semitic, often through little more than tenuous guilt-by-barely-association links, and the "objective" media willing piling on, it's been a bit puzzling to watch. Admittedly often the "leftists are anti-Semites" charges were based on the ever-popular "the real racists are the ones who cry racism" because likening people to Nazis was somehow worse than people maybe being Nazis, so I guess things haven't changed that much, but still you'd think this would be less important than people who were loudly and proudly actual anti-Semites. And, you know, not just anti-Semites, but Nazis, who have a few ideas of what just should be done about the Jewish problem. These things are not hidden!

So all the dapper Nazi photo shoots and loving profiles of the "alt-right" really have shocked me. Explicit bigotry against most minority groups is tolerated and even perpetuated by our elite media outlets, but there was a line there which limited the promotion of Antisemitism. And then there wasn't.

What's It All For

One thing about the ubiquitous surveillance state is that it never seems to actually prevent any terrorism. Oh, yes, sure they like to hint that They Keep Us Safe regularly, but if they were really busting up plots they'd be screaming it in every news outlet there is, like they do every time the FBI entraps some poor mentally challenged loner with a scary sounding name.

Lunch Thread

We all gotta eat.

To Use Them For What They Are For

Some guns are designed for hunting. Some for self-protection. There's some overlap between the two, but not too much. The rest are designed to kill people. I think the "self-protection" fetish in this country is stupid and dangerous. A gun for home protection isn't useful if you follow guidelines for safety. Not much use when the intruder comes if it's unloaded and/or locked away. Carrying when you're out and about might be useful, but will probably result in a situation escalating far beyond what it should (personally I don't think we should accept that executing an unarmed mugger is okay, but YMMV).

But, OK, fine, hunting and self-protection. Remington is going bankrupt and the reason probably is that they make guns for hunting and self-protection (well, that and a little class action suit). They mostly don't make guns that are just designed to efficiently kill people for the lolz. I'm not saying REMINGTON IS GOOD. Just that their business mostly wasn't these.

Gun nuts collect lots of guns. I suppose there's a certain madness that affects collectors of just about anything, but Hummels aren't designed to kill people. The guns that gun nuts collect are (I specify "gun nuts" because I suppose you can collect revolutionary war rifles and not be a gun nut). That is their sole useful purpose. And not even in a "self-defense" kind of way. They are offensive weapons designed to slaughter people.

What's the point of this hobby if you aren't planning and hoping to use them for their clear intended purpose?

Death Cult

If you dip into the gun nuts swamps of the internet, and their enablers/sympathizers among supposedly respectable conservatives, it's quite clear that they get very excited when there's a mass shooting event, even at a school. Not quite as excited as they do when a "good guy with a gun" kills a black person, but almost.

How To Talk To A Gun Nut

Don't bother.

Wednesday Night

Tomorrow is...

Stalemate

On most issues you can, if you try really really hard, argue that "both sides" are intransigent and if only tipnronnie would get together for a drink a "compromise" could be reached which would be good by definition because compromise is always good no matter how many babies it splits. This is often bullshit, but you can sorta do it without being completely dishonest. But on guns? No. There is literally nothing Republicans will support that will in any way make it harder to purchase, carry, or use a gun. Nothing. Except the basic "guns are illegal for black people" which is effective if not actual policy anyway.

So when people like Kristof push this bullshit... well, fuck them. He knows better. He just can't bring himself to say "this is on the Republicans."

This breaks our hearts. If only it would also break our stalemate and lead to more sensible gun policies in America--like these https://t.co/avVvSu95nH https://t.co/LJNH5vWU3J

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) February 14, 2018

I don't think the tiny things Democrats would support (a lot of them aren't exactly into taking all your guns away as I am) would do all that much, but they're more than nothing. For Republicans it's nothing.

Lighting Money On Fire

Fun to run a business like this.

Despite a turbulent year for the ride-hailing company, sales were $7.5 billion. But the company also posted a substantial loss of $4.5 billion. There are few historical precedents for the scale of its loss.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Nothing Really Matters, Anyone Can See...

Washington Post health care reporter.

I actually think it's super weird how people are blaming their diminished sense of well-being on the Trump administration. Personal events determine my quality of life; not who's in the WH.

— Paige W. Cunningham (@pw_cunningham) February 14, 2018

One could bring up many possibilities, but because she's a health care reporter...

The first year of the Trump administration was dominated by an attempt to repeal ACA and replace it with basically nothing. I can't even remember what was in the final bill before Saint McCain did the right thing for once, but at various times the ability for people with pre-existing conditions to obtain insurance, and therefore medical treatment for their possibly life-threatening ailments, was seriously threatened. I'd guess (I am making this up because I am not a health care reporter) close to a majority of Americans over 50 have a nontrivial medical condition that at the very least requires ongoing monitoring and medication, and of course many more of all ages plus we all have friends and family who could be in that situation even if we aren't personally.

Also, too, there's currently a flu epidemic.

Policy matters. How could you be a policy reporter and not know this?

Wednesday Belgian Endive Blogging

I found the "invention" of the endive to be pretty fascinating.

Endive has a unique story—it’s a youngster in the vegetable world, which is ironic considering that the root it’s grown from, called chicory, is one of the earliest plants cited in recorded literature. Endive, on the other hand, was a relatively recent discovery, thanks to a lucky accident. In 1830, a farmer named Jan Lammers in Brussels, Belgium, stored some chicory roots in his cellar because he was planning to dry and roast them for coffee (it was commonly used as an additive or coffee substitute). But then he left his farm for several months to serve in the Belgian War of Independence, and when he returned he discovered that his chicory roots had sprouted small, white leaves that were tender, crunchy, and delicious.

Likely merely a "local" discovery, but still.

The Best People

They're all grifters. The best ones, no doubt.

Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general has found.

Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA’s third-most senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government — then used the award to justify paying for his wife’s travel, Inspector General Michael J. Missal said in a report released Wednesday. VA paid more than $4,300 for her airfare.

They'll Still Have Drivers

I mean, "human monitors."

What also may have gone unnoticed was a January news item that Waymo had ordered "thousands" of Chrysler Pacifica minivans from Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU), which is the car Waymo used in the 100-vehicle early rider program. The order signals that Waymo is ready for widespread deployment, with Waymo CEO John Krafcik announcing, "with the world's first fleet of fully self-driving vehicles on the road, we've moved from research and development to operations and deployment."

...

Not only did Waymo score more miles, but its disengagement rate fell to 0.18 per thousand miles, down from 0.20 in 2016. For reference, a disengagement occurs when a human monitor has to assume control of the autonomous vehicle. Waymo's figure was also well below GM-Cruise, which scored a 0.8 disengagement rate, though GM claimed this was a huge 1400% improvement from 2016, which, admittedly, is also impressive.

These figures are kind of meaningless unless you know how much they're gaming the results by driving lots of "easy" miles. Also, I suspect (but don't know) they're obscuring first/last 100 feet problems. But even if you take it at face value that you can run an automated taxi service that only needs a driver once every 5 thousand miles, you still need a driver (I mean "human monitor") all the time if you need one once every 5 thousand. Neat if true! Still not good enough, and no way they work that well in my urban hellhole, which is pretty easy to drive in compared to, say, Boston.

Don't Shit Where You Eat

Whenever we have "sports fans assault someone" or "sports fans burn down the city" stories, I'm always pretty sure they're coming from the suburbs. One reason is simply that people who attend sporting matches skew white and higher income and, yes, suburban. The other is that as someone who mostly grew up in the suburbs, I get the attitude which is that the city is a place where the normal rules don't apply and you can just fuck shit up because that's what you do. There's plenty of homegrown theft and vandalism and violence, but it's different. It isn't "let's turn over a car for lulz after having 10 beers." Or "let's get liquored up and go start some fights in the city." And, basically, don't shit where you eat for no reason at all.

Philadelphia police asked the public for more help on Tuesday in finding revelers involved with multiple cases of vandalism in the aftermath of the Eagles' first Super Bowl win.

...

In the other clip, a man in a kelly green Eagles jersey is shown holding a crosswalk sign and talks to the camera, appearing to say, "We're gonna tear this whole city apart."

Again, this isn't "city people good, suburban people bad," it's about suburban people sometimes not seeing the city as a place where people actually live. Just an urban funhouse where The Purge rules occasionally apply.

The one arrest they made was of some young guy from the Main Line.

Have You Applied For Your Own Immigrant Yet?

I guess that wasn't just a dream.

Abolish ICE

First candidate to propose this (meaningfully) gets my vote, unless they're beaten by someone demanding a war crimes tribunal.

SEATTLE (AP) — The chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle has been charged with stealing immigrants’ identities.

Raphael A. Sanchez, who resigned from the agency effective Monday, faces one count of aggravated identity theft and another of wire fraud in a charging document filed Monday in U.S. District Court.

Prosecutors with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section allege that Sanchez stole the identities of seven people “in various stages of immigration proceedings” to defraud credit card companies including American Express, Bank of America and Capital One.

Idiot could have robbed them all blind and probably even gotten a personal slave or two (they're all the rage now). Mistake was fucking with the credit card companies.

Cunning Plans

Politico has published a piece from some University of Chicago law professor and someone else (I didn't bother to google) which is about importing immigrants to be personal slaves. No they don't call it that, but that's what it is. You can find it yourselves.

The worst thing about being wealthy in America is you just can't always abuse your personal servants as much as you can in some other countries. Time to fix that apparently.

Happy Hour Thread

get happy.