Archive for 2017
February 14, 2017
YOU ALMOST FEEL SORRY FOR PAUL KRUGMAN: Even Lena Dunham is mocking him.
THIS MAKES SENSE: Malaria Parasite May Trigger Human Odor to Lure Mosquitoes.
MICHAEL WALSH: The Empire Strikes Back:
Mike Flynn, a good man who saw the enemy clearly, and had the courage to name it, saw Russia not as an enemy but a geopolitical adversary with whom we could make common cause against Islam — and who also vowed to shake up a complacent and malfeasant IC — was its first scalp, and an object lesson to new CIA Director Mike Pompeo should he have any reformist notions. As for the media, having previously failed to take down Trump aides Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, Flynn was the next best thing; their joy today is unbounded.
Is this what you thought you voted for in November? Is this how you thought American democracy worked? Is this the country you want to live in?
Welcome to the Deep State, the democracy-sapping embeds at the heart of our democracy who have not taken the expulsion of the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party lightly. They realize that the Trump administration poses a mortal threat to their hegemony, and so have enlisted an army of Democrats, some Republicans, the “neverTrumpumpkin” conservative die-hards, leftist thugs, Black Lives Matter and anybody else they can blackmail, browbeat or enlist. They mean business.
Read the whole thing.
BILL KRISTOL: “Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state.”
I’m so old, I can remember when conservative leaders actually championed the notion of a small government that would leave average Americans alone, rather than a faceless army of weaponized unaccountable bureaucrats.
ACTUALLY, THE ULTIMATE SAFARI MACHINE IS AN OLD AFRICAN-MODEL NISSAN PATROL: Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landaulet is the ultimate safari machine.
THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE: Boyfriends of Instagram page shares photos of men ‘forced’ to shoot the PERFECT social media snap of their girlfriends.
I suspect “forced” is in quotes because, dating back to the invention of photography, men have never needed much encouragement to take pictures of attractive women in swimsuits.
NAKED LUNCH: Police say naked man on drugs broke into NBC’s DC bureau. An NBC employee “tackled the trespasser and held the person down until police arrived. While holding down the suspect, the employee was bitten on his forearm by the intruder, the police report said.”
No word yet on the whereabouts of Keith Olbermann, Brian Williams, Al Sharpton, the cast of Manimal, and other current and former feral NBC employees.
TRAFFICKING IN LOVE: Colombia Keeps Cocaine From Spoiling Valentine’s Day Flowers.
As much as 330,000 pounds (150 metric tons) of flowers leave Colombia on 30-plus jumbo cargo planes daily starting in late January, presenting an opportunity for the country’s ingenious drug cartels to penetrate the frenzied, overworked chain of suppliers and stash drugs amid the roses.
“Without a doubt we’re a target,” said Augusto Solano, president of the Colombian flower exporters’ association.
Security protocols that the flower industry developed with police begin the moment that refrigerated trucks carrying rose buds depart dozens of flower farms dotting the waterlogged savannah surrounding Colombia’s capital. Once the flowers are inside the airport, 100 police offices equipped with 15 drug-sniffing dogs and electronic scanners inspect each shipment.
Last year, police said they found almost 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of cocaine hidden in flower boxes.
Just last month it was 3,000 pounds of marijuana badly-disguised as watermelons.
ACCOUNTABILITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: It’s Unbelievably Hard to Get the Government to Pay to Fix Your Car After it Hits a Pothole.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Haunted By Student Debt Past Age 50.
WANTED: MORE SAD PUPPIES. Supposedly Nonpolitical Writers Group Goes Hard Left.
YOU CAN’T CENSOR THAT: Appeals Court unanimously upholds ruling that bars Iowa State from politically motivated censorship of T-shirts advocating marijuana legalization. The ruling is the tenth consecutive victory for FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project.
OIKOPHOBIA IN THE STRANGEST PLACES: When Did Young Tech Workers Become The Enemy In San Francisco?
We might start with David Talbot, journalist and founder in 1995 of Salon, which despite its financial and editorial turmoil of recent years, was one of the pioneers of web journalism. One might think that with this background Talbot would recognize the creativity and value of the current young tech entrepreneurs migrating to San Francisco. Instead, he has made it his mission in recent years to cast them as aliens and threats to the city.
Mr. Talbot, now a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, regularly declares that the city doesn’t feel like home to him anymore, with the new tech millennials and their money. In a recent column, he explains that he can at least still find comfort in his Bernal Heights working class neighborhood. He contrasts his warm, supportive diverse neighborhood with the cold, homogenous tech workers who are buying up $3 million houses in the area. “Yes the new tech money is invading our oasis,” Talbot declares, “but the street still feels anchored around the committed San Franciscans who grew up here or came here following a dream that did not simply involve getting rich.”
First, as anyone who lives in San Francisco knows, this picture involves multiple misrepresentations. The neighbors he describes live secure, comfortable lives as non-profit administrators, government officials, and public interest lawyers; none is remotely working class. Further, they are not a diverse group; most hold the same politics and world views. Talbot fails to mention that he and his neighbors were the people who gentrified the neighborhood in the 1990s, and drove out the construction workers, teachers and retail clerks who previously had lived there.
Forget it Jake, it’s San Francisco — not only are young tech workers the enemy there, so are young hippies moving into Haight-Ashbury. Why, it’s as if those who pound the theme of “change” the hardest are those who are most terrified of the notion when it actually impacts their own lives.
HOW SKYNET STARTS: Google’s New AI Has Learned to Become “Highly Aggressive” in Stressful Situations. This approach works pretty well for people. Some people thought that supersmart AI would be less aggressive. But what if it’s actually just a good approach?
LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES: Mob Kills Eloped Lovers After Storming Afghan Police Station.
WHY TEXTURE IS the final frontier of food science.
ANDREW MALCOLM: Russia trains Iran as dominant military force as the U.S., well, warns again.
This all presents a growing threat to American allies and influence as Trump builds and gets his new administration up to speed in both foreign and domestic policies. But the president already faces a de facto axis of opposition power with Russia and Iran controlling Syria as a de facto client state.
Trump’s continuation of Obama’s drift there needs to change. The president meets this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and already conferred with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Feb. 2, in addition to numerous telephone consultations with other leaders.
Now would not be a good time to press Israel on some grand new Palestinian peace deal, and especially not to be seen doing so.
MALE PRIVILEGE: Heavy snowfall tied to higher heart attack risk for men.
YEAH, THE FLYNN RESIGNATION’S AN EMBARRASSMENT, but Obama had his failed appointments, often tinged with scandal: “There’s Chas Freeman, Sanjay Gupta, Annette Nazareth, Tom Daschle, Bill Richardson, Nancy Killefer — who am I leaving out? And there are still problems with Adolfo Carrion. But at least Ron Kirk made it through despite his tax problems. . . . Oh, yeah. Judd Gregg. And the Zinni debacle.” I don’t recall the press acting like that was the beginning of the end for Obama’s presidency.
NEW CIVILITY WATCH: “There are plenty of images NYT could have used for this headline that didn’t involve Stephen Miller’s head on a spike. This is just in seriously bad taste, imagine if Breitbart or another more conservative outlet had posted an image of say Valerie Jarrett’s head on a spike.”
You stay classy, New York Times — and I eagerly await Timesman Paul Krugman’s furious condemnation of this eliminationist imagery.
Related: New York Times writer Jacob Bernstein apologizes for referring to Melania Trump as a ‘hooker.’
THAT WAS FAST: White House Names Possible Shortlist for Flynn Replacement.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg will serve as acting NSA, and seems like the safe choice to take the job permanently.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? New Jersey Democrats: We Pledge To Punish Your Employer!
Hey, it’s working so well for California, why not?