Commenter Snoopy seems to have been scared away, but the Orange Goofball might have a few remaining personal admirers out here, so this is a good moment to note that—

He sold you out. Caved. Got played, and squandered his best hand of poker.

Maybe he reached the end of his luck.

But he CERTAINLY reached the end of his talent.

(Integrity was never a listed resource.)

Indeed, it's sad that Poppy couldn't hang on a few more months....

Suddenly we are awash in metaphor.

Just what I need. Tedium first thing in the morning.

Journalists have been telling laid off coal miners, for years, to "learn to code." In the wake of the Covington debacle, where journalist made royal asses of themselves (which could have been avoided by doing a modicum of research), massive layoffs of journalists (and I use the term loosely) are the result. All of HuffPo's opinion section has been shut down. (I always thought all of HuffPo was the opinion section.)

And folks are remembering the "Let the eat cake!"* attitude that journalists displayed and have decided to give it back. Surprisingly, the former soi-disant journalists are not pleased.

She really should learn to capitalize proper nouns, unless she relishes the thought of helping her uncle jack off a horse.

* Yes, yes, yes, I know Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake!" Shut up already!

Patrick, we're remembering their let them learn to code attitude, which is a matter of record unlike the late queen's alleged quote.

Related, another newsie goes on a longish rant, and basically demands the public to pay more to support her hobby.

If you think attacking customers for not spending enough money on you is a good business model, you might be a reporter

https://twitter.com/KestrelArts/status/1088518409325703168

This is as good a Hollywood special effect as you'll ever see.

This aged well. From 2013.

Should Journalism Schools Require Reporters to 'Learn Code'? No

The faulty logic behind a popular theory

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/should-journalism-schools-require-reporters-to-learn-code-no/280711/

I'll be in my bunk, with my schadenboner. If it lasts more than 4 days, should I seek medical treatment?

Michel Legrand died. Listen to the first two minutes of each of these—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JaqitGkm7Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qivt-4LZZtk

And, so, here we are again: The kulaks must be liquidated as a class. But who is a kulak?

We might glean some insight into that from the progressives’ thinking in the recent free-speech debates, which goes something like this: “We’re all in favor of free speech, but Nazis should be chased from the public square, by violence if necessary, and we should harass their employers in order to ruin them financially. Also, everybody who disagrees with me is a Nazi, including children wearing hats that I don’t like.”

You may not feel like a kulak. You may take comfort in hearing that only the “tippy-top” wealthiest people are to be expropriated in the name of social justice. Those children at Covington Catholic probably didn’t think they were Nazis a week ago, either.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/elizabeth-warren-tax-plan-is-asset-forfeiture/

So there's this tune, and it will always remind me of airliner wine & peanuts. But that's not important now.

The important thing is that I recorded it off an internet radio channel three years ago, and the recognition app on my phone finally identified it this morning. It is Chris Zippel aka Genuine - "As Possible" featuring Sandra Baschin.

These people are Germans. Until I figure out how to email them, I need someone's help to tell me what the lyrics are. I know the male actuality at the top is from the Picardian Patrick Stewart. But if anyone can tell me what the woman is singing, in any language, I'd be grateful. (I'm about half deaf, and it's a rich mix.)

Warren's plan is also clearly unconstitutional. Which is why she released a long winded paper with it talking about how if you squint just right it might be constitutions. Sorry Lizzie, it aint.

And this is how Crid's head explodes when Trump gets a second term.

But who is a kulak? ~ I R A Darth Aggie at January 26, 2019 7:09 AM

The term "kulak" came out of the 1906 imperial reforms of Russian agriculture. It almost literally means "tight-fisted."

They were peasants who owned substantial farms and herds of livestock; who sometimes hired peasants as farm labor. These richer peasants became major figures in peasant village life. They lent money, provided mortgages, and played central roles in the villages' social and administrative affairs.

The countryside was mostly unaffected by the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. By 1918, the communist government sent armed squads into the countryside to remedy that, seizing grain to feed the cities and supply the Red Army (then fighting the Russian Civil War and various foreign invasions).

The Bolsheviks implemented their version of class consciousness onto the rural population, labeling any peasant with more than a cow, or who resisted giving up his grain, a "kulak." A rural revolt broke out and Lenin ordered brutal repression of the "kulaks."

Lenin relented in 1921 when his collective farms could not produce enough food to feed the cities, encouraging the kulaks to sell their excess grain and keep the proceeds.

In 1929, "kulak" was formally defined as anyone who

• owned a mill or creamery
• used hired labor
• rented agricultural equipment or facilities
• had sources of "non-labor" income (e.g., lending money, selling surplus grain on the open market, holding mortgages, etc.)

When Stalin implemented land reforms in 1929, he ordered that the kulaks be "liquidated as a class." By 1932, Stalin discovered what Lenin had already discovered, collective farms could not produce enough food to feed the nation and the 1932-33 famine was the result. Stalin, however, did not relent in his persecution of anyone he deemed an "enemy of the proletariat" or of him.

The meaning of "kulak" was continually broadened until it was applied to any group that the government needed to marginalize. "Kulaks" were anyone the government deemed to be "enemies of the proletariat."

> when Trump gets a second term.

Well, politics is merely that. We were obviously due for some big changes at this point in the century. And it's the electronic media enfranchisement of stupid people as a political school of thought, not just as twitching voters, that needs to be considered here.

They were always around, and many of them were registered to vote. But they weren't big readers and they weren't big writers. It wasn't until they saw their own words on a screen —in lights, as it were— with the knowledge that they were cast across the globe at no charge that these weasels started to regard themselves as schmart people.

Well, stoopit people gonna stoopit. We've always faced that problem, as we would always have to. As Conan (I think) put it, this is not our first weak president.

But those who regard the Orange Dorkmundus as personally admirable? Those folks ought not go unchallenged.

But it shouldn't surprise anyone that even this morning some of his zombies can't recognize their betrayal. They've been flattered and swindled no less than have Bernie voters.

Two Well-start paragraphs and two But-start paragraphs. Apologies... Guys, you gotta understand, this all gets kinda rote after awhile.

Politics versus culture.

It's a great day in America!

On average, it takes between one to two years for this idiocy to jump the pond and reach America

https://twitter.com/HarryTheOwl/status/1088144870991114241

Any bets this will be implemented first in California?

American food or American-style

https://twitter.com/erik_kaars/status/1088816444777861120

Sixclaws, your casual denigration of my swinging California lifestyle is offensive on it's face.

I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying it's offensive.

Look, I'm not mocking your *integrity* or anything...

Seriousballs now, I'm just wondering where you live in the world. Because one thing I've noticed is that California Trends spread rapidly across this nation and then others, if only for manufacturer's convenience... Catalytic converters, Etc.

Trump caved in a technical sense, but I wouldn't count him out, yet. The "caved" meme is simply going round in the media to try to discourage his base from re-electing him, IMO.

As I believe I've said on here, before, if a true conservative runs against Trump in the primary, I will vote for that conservative. But all we have going for alternatives are BS artists like Flake(y), Kasicko, Corksucker, who are no doubt supported by the morally bankrupt neo-con Bill Kristol, who undoubtedly, IMO, supports the wall in Israel while opposing a barrier here.

However, in the general, whomever I vote for, be it GOP, Libertarian or Constitution, the Schadenfreude-laden rants of mean-spirited, crotchety, hatred-filled old Hollyweird-area elitists will factor little in my choice.

How the Wall Became America's Dividing Line

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272624/how-wall-became-americas-dividing-line-daniel-greenfield

OTOH, I should have said, if Trump does head on down the road with a long-term funding measure with no barrier funding and forgoes the SOE as his last resort, it's gonna be:

Well . . . bye!

My support for Mr. Trump is conditional, as it were, not adoring or permanent, as some folks on here seem to wish it would be, so that they can continue looking down their noses at most of America.

Google Employees Reportedly Furious Over Use of the Word “Family”

https://activistmommy.com/google-employees-reportedly-furious-over-use-of-the-word-family/

And this is how Crid's head explodes when Trump gets a second term

Like in Scanners? Unlikely. He'll just continue looking down his nose at Trump's electors. Don't expect any change. Meantime:

Meet Beatie Deutsch, the Ultra-Orthodox Runner Setting Records and Shattering Expectations

https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a25849102/beatie-deutsch-ultra-orthodox-marathoner/

This is a good read:

In fact, the lunch was Spy vs. Spy. Scott-Railton had spent the night before trying to hide a homemade camera into his tie, he later told AP, eventually settling for a GoPro action camera and several recording devices hidden about his person. On the table, Lambert had placed a large pen in which Scott-Railton said he spotted a tiny camera lens peeking out from an opening in the top.

Lambert didn’t seem to be alone. At the beginning of the meal, a man sat behind him, holding up his phone as if to take pictures and then abruptly left the restaurant, having eaten nothing. Later, two or three men materialized at the bar and appeared to be monitoring proceedings.

https://apnews.com/9f31fa2aa72946c694555a5074fc9f42

Man says emotional support alligator helps his depression

Henney acknowledged that Wally is still a dangerous wild animal and could probably tear his arm off, but says he’s never been afraid of him.

But the 65-year-old’s background also indicates a comfort with creatures like Wally. He hosted a show called “Joie Henney’s Outdoors” on ESPN Outdoors from 1989 to 2000, according to the York Daily Record.

I kinda miss the ESPN of yore.

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1088915008447307777

> Don't expect any change.

✔

Yeah. Listen, for a 10th time... I can totally respect Trump voters if it was a protest thing, or an absurdist thing, or a flighty thing, or even an alcoholic thing. Most of all, if you were tired of seeing how America's success-destined apple-polishers had tuned the machine away from more important facets of character, and you thought it was time to toss a wrench into the works, I get it.

Not kidding. For any of those reasons, all presumably nourished by distaste and distrust of Hillary as well, voting for Donald Trump was an understandable choice.

But DON'T tell me it's because he's an admirable guy.

> mean-spirited, crotchety, hatred-
> filled old Hollyweird-area
> elitists

Elistists? Elitists???

How DARE you







Meanwhile, we all knew this.

The theme of this piece would be easier to accept if she were going to demand a slice of the empire for which she'd shown a particular interest or contribution: AWS or the shipping empire or the (elitist!) grocery chain or the outer space ventures, something that she could run for herself for the next twenty years.

Bezos calls to mind this eternal principle.

(A "technical sense"?)

> On average, it takes between
> one to two years for this
> idiocy to jump the pond and
> reach America

Like I was saying about the Catalytic converters....

The United States will steal anything from anybody. But there are at least as many trends moving from this country to the rest as the other way around... And the outgoing ones seem likely to be more consequential. People around the world want to become as wealthy as we are, and will happily adopt our patterns to do so.

If you're a second- or third-world nation that hasn't had time or money for environmental regulation anyway, and you're trying to industrialize and pull your transportation infrastructure together, why wouldn't you just adopt California's standards? That's the product specification that all the international vendors are going to be trying to drop off at your docks anyway.

Thomas P.M. Barnett calls America the "source code" for modernity, a brilliant (if trendy) coinage. This has happened in essentially every realm of human interest... The world is being and has been conquered by United States standards for education, communications, religion, literacy (even for girls!), warfare, constitution clauses, flags, etc. etc.

We have an internal problem —again, with people who are not very bright— who flatter themselves in daydreams as being exotic but humble 'citizens of the world'… Ninnies who'll adopt from foreign cultures precisely the authoritarian political arrangements our forefathers fought, killed and died to avoid... Things like having to explain to your boss what you meant by certain tweets. (You may wonder why many young women who call themselves "feminists" never seem to challenge the gender atrocities in Muslim countries. I think it's because they're not very bright; not aware of the righteousness of their circumstance, and therefore not encouraged to defend it.*)

But we need to remember that this is kind of a good problem to have. Word of the magnificence of our personal liberty is moving so quickly that its echoed distortions are completely obvious to those of us with clarity and a spine, the ones who were going to have to do the fighting for our birthright anyway. The amount of stupidity surrounding us has been, historically, a numeric constant.

There was always, always going to be a battle ahead.

Sixclaws, I'd still like to know where in the world you live. Not an apartment number, just a city or state, etc.




*It was with this sentence, after nearly six decades of living, that I see the word "courage" in "encourage." How about that.

A bit of Twitter sarcasm that describes my annoyance at commenter Ben's reflexive servility.

Mpetrie98, support for any politician should be conditional. You are hiring someone to do a job. If they aren't doing the job you want go to someone else. And as part of that you never get a perfect choice. You just pick the best person you think to give you the most of what you want.

And that is what made Trump stand out in the last primary. He and Cruz were the only ones selling that. Personally I would have preferred Cruz, buy hey, that's just the way things go.

And then you have people like Crid. Unable to cope with reality. Throwing random nonsensical insults all around them. Making predictions that never come true but unable to accept that they were wrong and change so they can act intelligently. Poor guy didn't even have the guts to stand up and say who he preferred. Confused everyone into thinking he was a Hillary voter.

> Confused everyone into thinking
> he was a Hillary voter.

You never do the reading, but I "confused everyone," as if someone were taking notes.

Damn Crid, is the oldtimers hitting you that hard? You don't remember? Oh well, keep yelling at clouds and making those nonsense insults. Is 'never do the reading' joining the rotation?

"Sixclaws, your casual denigration of my swinging California lifestyle..."

Well, ol' Six isn't alone in wondering just what that is, considering the volume of tweets and other things you post here. You might be doubling the output of everyone else.

It's as if you've mastered the task of balancing between commenting here, the part-time job telemarketing and keeping more than one, but fewer than six cats fed.

You have such great powers of expression; when you choose to use them, they are wasted here.

It has been awhile since I saw you properly outraged at a significant issue, and too far between.

On-topic: doncha think a fruitbat hanging on the corner of your house would be WAY better than a camera at keeping thieves away?

> awhile since I saw you
> properly outraged

Yeah, it's a terrible thing when the kids at the playground don't want your candy anymore... But maybe it's time for them to pester some other guy in a different van. If you guys aren't informed, enriched, delighted and amused by my comments, don't read 'em.

I believe the American and Malaysian flags were originally based on the flag of the British East India Company.

Although written evidence of any derivation the American flag from that of the East India Company is scant-to-non-existent, there is a similarity that cannot be denied.

"a fruitbat hanging on the corner"

There's a gay joke in there somewhere but I'm not dumpster diving for it.

> based on the flag of the British
> East India Company.

Had no idea!

(Still pretty comfortable with my point, though.)

(Fairly comfortable.)