I like a good rotary club sandwich.

This American tech startup only got $1,007 when trying to raise $25,000 on Kickstarter. After moving to China, it attracted $28 million.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1006785783318175748

Republican Voters Embrace Trump-Style Candidates

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/us/politics/primary-south-carolina-virginia-nevada.html

Deepfake Videos Are Getting Impossibly Good

https://gizmodo.com/deepfake-videos-are-getting-impossibly-good-1826759848

The House has decided not to vote on a bill about DREAMers, and will instead vote on a bill about funding a Border Wall -

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-immigration-house-deadline-20180612-story.html

Trump's takeover of the party is complete. He's not a faction or an aberration. The party likes what it's got -

https://twitter.com/zachdcarter/status/1006727802853486592

I like a good rotary club sandwich. ~ JD at June 12, 2018 10:39 PM

Reminds me of Mitch Hedberg and his riff on club sandwiches:

"I order the club sandwich all the time, but I'm not even a member. Man, I don't know how I get away with it. How'd it start anyway? I like my sandwiches with three pieces of bread. So do I! Well let's form a club then. Alright, but we need more stipulations. Yes we do. Instead of cutting the sandwich once, let's cut it again. Yes, four triangles, and we will position them into a circle. In the middle we will dump chips. Or potato salad. Okay. I got a question for ya, how do you feel about frilly toothpicks? I'm for 'em! Well this club is formed. Spread the word on menus nationwide."

Clubs? I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member. Thanks, Uncle Groucho.

Meanwhile, in Denver, I'm seriously impressed that an "only one" has actually been charged with a crime after mishandling a firearm.

An FBI agent who shot a man in the leg after dropping his gun while doing a backflip on a dance floor has been charged with second-degree assault and more charges could be filed based on the results of blood alcohol tests.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/12/dancing-fbi-agent-arrest/

Trump's takeover of the party is complete. He's not a faction or an aberration. The party likes what it's got ~ Snoopy at June 13, 2018 4:32 AM

Why not? With him, it won an election in an era in which it was all but written off. Until Trump, Hillary was considered an automatic legacy for Obama.

The Democrats sold their souls to the Clintons when Bill gave them a Democrat who won re-election for the first time since 1944. They later came to lament that decision - as the Republicans may come to lament the Trumps.

Dynasties do not fare well in the US. Voter fatigue sets in. Wariness of family dynasties runs deep in the American meritocratic character. After the second family member, the dynasty tends to fade away. Two Adams were enough. Two Roosevelts. Two Bushes. One Clinton.

On the national scene, we'll tolerate family involvement at all levels, but not near-automatic succession to the presidency. The Adams got two presidents, one a Cabinet secretary and a senator. The Tafts got one president, later chief justice, and one senator. The Bushes got two presidents, a few representatives, and a senator. The Kennedys got three senators, a Cabinet secretary, and a handful of representatives, but only one of them was president. Sprinkle a few state and local offices for each family and you have the limits of our dynastic tolerance thus far.

The Clintons may have petered out. Bill was the politician in the family. Hillary got a Senate seat and a party nomination on his coattails, but not much on her own. Even the Cabinet appointment was based on her coattail candidacy, not her merits. Chelsea's achievements thus far do not earn her serious political consideration, no matter how furiously she tweets and how seriously she poses.

I don't think any Trump dynastic political ambitions will get beyond Donald's presidency. None of his progeny now old enough to run for office will be able overcome the scorn of late night comedians or fatigue over their father's intemperate outbursts. Don, Jr. and Ivanka have not been able to separate themselves from their father in or out of the family business. Ivanka has irretrievably tied herself to her father's legacy. Junior needs a few significant achievements outside of Trump, Inc. - and shooting a lion does not count - to begin to make name for himself. Even on The Apprentice he was little more than Ivanka's placeholder.

Of course, the family name and connections can be enough. Ted Kennedy simply stepped into his brother's Senate seat in 1962 and parlayed that into a near-permanent seat. George W. Bush was a successful businessman and governor, mostly on his own merits, but not nationally regarded as a presidential contender until the family money and connections were brought to bear.

I hasten to add that the chief reason only one Kennedy was president is that we shot the other one before he was elected.

"...Elvis Presley was the only great man America ever had that we never shot at." ` Johnny Carson

I'd also hasten to add at this point that one reason we never shot at Elvis may be that he was heavily drugged and heavily armed.

No one backs baby into a corner. No one.

https://twitter.com/alicialewisKARE/status/1006827600277397504

We are sooooo screwed!

Identity Warriors Have Infiltrated the Sciences. Here’s the Damage They’re Doing.

How Identity Politics Is Harming the Sciences

I guess Identity Politics is the missing piece of the Fermi Paradox.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox