Archive for October, 2020
15th October 2020
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I think it would help everybody if, we just acknowledged a few things.
1. Trump is an [redacted]. It’s fine, we have a proud American tradition of [redacted] presidents including LBJ and Harry Truman. Sometimes it also allows people to be necessary change agents. Just say it. “Trump is an [redacted].” It’s not a problem.
2. Trump isn’t a conservative. He is a center-left moderate who cut a deal. He gets to try some new foreign policy stuff and we get judges. There isn’t a single thing he ran on, outside of judges, that wasn’t the bipartisan consensus position before the left exited the American political spectrum, and the right collapsed into a grifter-led minarchist purity spiral. We have to honest with ourselves to be honest with others.
Thank you. That is all.
That pretty much matches my opinion on the subject.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on ‘Trump, in My Opinion’
15th October 2020
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There is a widely held belief that because math is involved, algorithms are automatically neutral.
This widespread misconception allows bias to go unchecked, and allows companies and organizations to avoid responsibility by hiding behind algorithms.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on What Is Mathwashing?
15th October 2020
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The left has won the COVID issue and probably the next election as a result. I am old enough to remember when Nancy Pelosi et al took the counsel of Dr. Fauci and told us that the viral disease the Washington Post had once called the “Chinese flu” in a headline was really no threat. It was all merely a racist, divisive, anti-Chinese stunt by Trump to pretend that the “Wuhan flu” was serious. Well into the apparent upswing of the pandemic Mayor DeBlasio urged maximum attendance at plays and restaurants.
Of course, none of that really happened. These politicians were always at war with COVID, it was Trump who did nothing. CNN says so.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on We Have Always Been At War With COVID-19
15th October 2020
ZMan tells us a story.
In 2020, it appears the official story tellers may have another problem on their hands with the Biden campaign. The story they are selling this time is the public is tired of the tyrant Trump and ready to lift-up world-weary old white man, and his super-smart diverse sidekick, and carry them to the White House. You see, world-weary old white man had a nice run, but now it is time for him to go. His last act will be to vanquish mean old white man and then hand the baton over to diverse sidekick.
It’s a familiar story, one that is the center of so many bad movies it is amazing that they keep trying to sell it. In this case, world-weary old white man is a vegetable that has been in hiding for most of the year, because he has shark eyes and says wacky things suggesting he is not all there. Super-smart diverse sidekick is pretty dumb and reminds everyone of getting their license renewed. It’s a bad story that no one wants to think about and the characters don’t work for the audience.
Compounding it is the world-weary old white man has a son that likes to smoke crack and film himself banging hookers. Fair or foul, people judge people by their children and Hunter Biden is a vulgar degenerate. He lies, cheats, steals and does not seem to have anything resembling a conscience. Worse yet, he seems to be an uncommonly stupid person, getting jammed up over stupid things like leaving his laptop with a repair shop, so the contents can be sold to the tabloids.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Working Class Joe Story
15th October 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
15th October 2020
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With the story having circulated for hours online Wednesday, the Biden campaign had yet to dispute the veracity of a New York Post story detailing how Hunter Biden had exchanged emails with a Ukrainian energy executive talking about exploiting his relationship with his vice-presidential father, Joe Biden. And being the loyal Democratic foot soldiers that they were, ABC, CBS, and NBC all censored the bombshell from their evening newscasts.
As one would expect, Fox News Channel’s Special Report didn’t play favorites like the liberal broadcasters and covered what anchor Bret Baier dubbed “October surprise.” “An explosive story at a critical stage in this presidential campaign, newly released emails allegedly from Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s computer leading to Capitol Hill investigators starting a probe,” announced senior political correspondent Mike Emanuel.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Dem Soldiers: Nets CENSOR NYPost’s Undisputed Biden-Ukraine Bombshell
15th October 2020
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Graphene, one of the world’s strongest materials, isn’t normally magnetic. But when stacked and twisted, graphene develops a rare form of magnetism, new research finds.
The magnetic field isn’t created by the usual spin of electrons within the individual graphene layers, but instead arises from the collective swirling of electrons in all of the three-layers of the stacked graphene structure, researchers reported Oct. 12 in the journal Nature Physics.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Rare Magnetism Found in the World’s Strongest Material
14th October 2020

Kamala Harris grilling prompts doubtful claim from Amy Coney Barrett (The Guardian) Doubtful!
I’m a cancer survivor, but I might not survive Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court (USA Today) These people don’t just borrow trouble, they take out a 30-year mortgage on it.
Trump’s Incompetence Does Not Excuse His Authoritarianism (New York Magazine)
Melania Trump is having a hard time distancing herself from the president (Washington Post)
Justice Department sues author of Melania Trump tell-all book, says Stephanie Winston Wolkoff broke nondisclosure agreement
The Trump Show is facing cancellation. It feels as if it’s already over. (Washington Post)
Kamala Harris Says Affordable Care Act Hinges On Amy Coney Barrett Nomination Really?
CNN Hysteria: Barrett ‘Spells Doom’ for Abortion; Hearings Are ‘Mortal Danger’
‘Dodging Questions’: CBS Anchor Smears ACB for Following ‘Ginsburg Rule’
‘Senator Harris Just Called You A Liar’: John Kennedy Questions Amy Coney Barrett On Her Oath
CNN’s Unhinged Avlon Wails: Barrett Sitting in ‘Stolen’ Federal Court Seat!
Chris Cuomo: Amy Coney Barrett’s People Of Praise Affiliation ‘Makes Her Different Than Most Catholics’ Yeah, she actually believes that stuff.
SHOCK: NBC Shoots Down Dem Claims ACB on Mission to Nix ObamaCare
The Cultural Failure That Makes Spouting Nonsense About Trump Possible
Time Magazine Hates the Illogical Masses
Democrats Smear Barrett for Saying ‘Sexual Preference,’ a Term Recently Used by Biden and Ginsburg
Of The 88 Notre Dame ‘Colleagues’ Who Signed Letter Criticizing Barrett, There Are 4 Gender Studies Profs, 4 ‘Peace Studies’ Profs, 7 Librarians… And No Lawyers
Where’s the Fact-Check? CNN Lets Cuomo Deny Nursing Home Order, Call It Trump’s ‘Propaganda’
‘I Take Responsibility For Every Death’: Andrew Cuomo Tells ‘Morning Joe’ — After Blaming Trump, GOP
Orwellian: Dictionary Changes Definition of ‘Sexual Preference’ To Smear ACB
Joy Behar Outraged by ACB’s ‘Sexual Preference’ ‘Dog Whistle’: ‘There’s Something Wrong’ With Her!
Report: Biden Has Had 50% Fewer Media Questions Than Trump Since Aug. 31
Demi Lovato Releases Song Aimed At President Trump
Billy Eichner Wants To Make Amy Coney Barrett’s Life ‘A Living Hell’
More Demagoguery from Richard Blumenthal
Gross: ‘View’ Star Accuses GOP Senators of ‘Flirting’ With Barrett
‘COVID Superspreader Event’ Billboard Says With An Arrow Pointing To Trump Rally
Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch Babylon Bee.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome, With a Side of ACB
14th October 2020
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
14th October 2020
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Pandemic Panic – It’s Titanic
14th October 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
14th October 2020
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
14th October 2020
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Room-temperature superconductors—materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance without needing special cooling—are the sort of technological miracle that would upend daily life. They could revolutionize the electric grid and enable levitating trains, among many other potential applications. But until now, superconductors have had to be cooled to extremely low temperatures, which has restricted them to use as a niche technology (albeit an important one). For decades it seemed that room-temperature superconductivity might be forever out of reach, but in the last five years a few research groups around the world have been engaged in a race to attain it in the lab.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Room-Temperature Superconductivity Has Been Achieved for the First Time
14th October 2020
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Webster’s Dictionary quickly edited the definition of the word “preference” after it was declared by some as an “offensive” term to use when discussing sex.
The dictionary previously added in a definition for “preference” to include “orientation” and “sexual preference,” Steve Krakauer, the executive producer of Megyn Kelly’s podcast, tweeted.
Of course, no intelligent person has depended on a “Webster’s” dictionary for twenty years.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Webster’s Dictionary Sprints to Edit Definition of Word ‘Preference’ to Comply With Grievance Culture
14th October 2020
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It ain’t necessarily so….
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on That Advice to Women to ‘Lean In’, Be More Confident… It Doesn’t Help, and Data Show It
14th October 2020
I often wish I were a shark.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
14th October 2020
ZMan does a deep dive.
A defining feature of the managerial state is that it creates problems that require it to then fashion complex solutions to solve. A group of experts from the managerial class made some reform, which then created unintended problems. The solution is to draft a new set of experts from the managerial class to solve this new problem. Inevitably, this creates new problems and the process continues into forever. A good current example of this is what to do with the tech monopolies.
The reason we have tech monopolies is Congress drafted laws that allowed the firms to turn into behemoths. In gratitude, these firms then showered their favorite politicians with cash, in order to avoid getting the Microsoft treatment. This allowed the firms to get bigger and turn the thank you cash into threats. It is not unrealistic to think these firms are now able and willing to blackmail politicians with information gleaned from their social media, e-mail and mobile devices.
Posted in Think about it. | 2 Comments »
14th October 2020
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Lake County prosecutors said that the gun Kyle Rittenhouse used in the Kenosha shooting was bought, stored and used in Wisconsin. No charges will be filed against him in Lake County.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Lake County Prosecutors Announce They Will Not File Charges Against Kyle Rittenhouse
13th October 2020
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
13th October 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
13th October 2020
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome, With a Side of ACB
13th October 2020
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
13th October 2020
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We’re 10 months into 2020, and businesses are still making adjustments to the new realities of large-scale telework (which, if you’re not in the IT biz, is just a fancy term for “working from not in the office”). In the Before Times, telework was an interesting idea that tech companies were just starting to seriously flirt with as a normal way of doing business—whereas now, most businesses large or small have a hefty fraction of their workforce staying home to work.
Unfortunately, making such a sweeping change to office workflow doesn’t just disrupt policies and expectations—it requires important changes to the technical infrastructure as well. Six months ago, we talked about the changes the people who work from home frequently need to make to accommodate telework; today, we’re going to look at the ongoing changes the businesses themselves need to make.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Yesterday’s Corporate Network Design Isn’t Working for Working From Home
13th October 2020
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Essentially, Massachusetts voters are deciding on whether or not to add “mechanical” vehicle telematics data—realtime updates from a car’s sundry sensors transmitted to an automaker’s private servers—to the list of things OEMs have to share with independent mechanics. Telematics data was purposefully excluded from the original 2013 law, but as cars have gotten more computerized over the last decade, that gap in coverage has grown more pronounced.
The ‘right to repair’ fight is typically framed in terms of farm equipment but it really extends across the hi-tech universe.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on There’s Another Huge Right to Repair Fight Brewing in Massachusetts
13th October 2020
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I would look forward to moving.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Researchers at Hadron Are Confident to Make Contact with Parallel Universe
13th October 2020
The Other McCain lays in out.
Politics is not about debate. Politics isn’t about compromise. It is not about “image.” Ultimately, politics is about power.
This is something Republicans have a habit of forgetting. Because the Republican Party represents the respectable middle class, its leaders tend to be concerned with bourgeois respectability, an encumbrance which does not inhibit Democrats. Having assembled a coalition of the aggrieved and impoverished — including criminals, drug addicts, perverts and decadent intellectuals — Democrats unapologetically advocate the selfish interests of their constituent groups, whereas Republicans seem almost embarrassed by their own middle-class supporters.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on ‘Well, We Just Have to Win Then’
13th October 2020
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A viral campaign on TikTok urged users to reserve spots at Trump’s rally in Staten Island, New York in September. The goal was to try to drive down attendance. Instead, the Staten Island GOP turned the tables on them, the New York Post reported. The local Republican group charged for the previously free tickets.
Now that’s comedy.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on TikTok Leftists Donate Nearly $16,000 to GOP Trying to Sabotage Trump
13th October 2020
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Jeez, who would want him?
And who would pay anything to get him back?
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on FBI: Groups Also Eyed Kidnapping Virginia Governor
13th October 2020
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The pitfalls of radically changing the election system to mass mail-in balloting in the weeks and months leading up to an election are more apparent by the day. Yet the mainstream media keeps telling us there are no problems, have never been problems and never will be. Twitter and Facebook automatically add “context” to legitimate news posts about voting troubles to explain that everything is safe and secure no matter what you just read. News organizations question whether they should call winners on election night or wait days – perhaps weeks – for stray ballots to be counted.
There’s a reason why we vote in person.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Apparent Pitfalls of Mail-In Voting
13th October 2020
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No, they just poke fun at the proglodytes, and that gets a laugh every time. Mission Accomplished.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Humorless NY Times: Babylon Bee Exhibits ‘No Kind of Principled Conservatism’
13th October 2020
Severian shares.
Pyrrhic victory. Like most of the rapidly-dwindling band of people who are capable of thinking for ourselves, I regard the Kung Flu freakout as a mostly manufactured event. The initial freakout was real enough — Boomers still control the culture, and Boomers are nothing if not obsessive about their last few minutes on the stage — but it was quickly co-opted by cynical political operators as a great way to damage the Bad Orange Man and his booming economy. And it worked: record unemployment, lots of businesses closing. But it might turn out to be the very definition of a Pyrrhic victory.
The great online-ening of the past year has shown just how useless so much of the modern “economy” is. To take just the most obvious example, ask any teacher how important face-to-face instruction is. If you’d asked them before March, you’d be forgiven for thinking that teaching is some kind of super-skilled, rocket scientist-level job that only years of training and fanatical, monk-like dedication can prepare you for. Post-COVID, and “education” means “log in, look at the powerpoint, and answer the multiple choice quiz… you know, whenever you feel like it. Or don’t, it’s all good, because following schedules and completing assignments is racist.”
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on More Scattered Thoughts
13th October 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
13th October 2020
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We have the technology. (For those not In The Know, “EULA” stands for End User License Agreement.)
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on EULA Found on a Package of Fruit
13th October 2020
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It’s been three weeks since the U.S. threatened to bomb pro-Iran Iraqi militias unless Iraq eliminated the threat first. The American position was that Iran was at war with Americans in Iraq and said so frequently and publicly. All the major Iraqi Shia religious leaders have called for the disbanding of all PMF (Popular Mobilization Forces) militias, in part because Iran was rapidly turning the entire PMF into an Iraqi version of the Lebanese Hezbollah organization called Kataib Hezbollah. Founded in the 1980s with Iranian help, the original Hezbollah still takes orders from Iran and has dominated Lebanese politics for over three decades. Most Lebanese want Hezbollah gone but a heavily armed militia with enormous economic power in Lebanon is difficult to disband. Iraqis want Kataib Hezbollah gone and cannot understand why their prime minister does not act. Fear probably has a lot to do with the delay. In Lebanon Iran had several senior Lebanese politicians assassinated for being too openly hostile to Hezbollah. The personal danger for the Iraqi prime minister is based on fact, not just speculation.
Posted in Living with Islam: The world's most intolerant—and intolerable—religion | Comments Off on Iraq: Sniper Rules
13th October 2020
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Following the money can answer many questions, especially when it comes to the virtue merchants. The Lincoln Project exudes virtue, but selling virtue can be very profitable. A group of elites that may be engaging in class warfare by protecting their elite political status.
They have endorsed Joe Biden, and needless to say, will be immune to the policy decisions of a Biden administration. Defunding police departments, no school choice, and the loss of blue-collar jobs will not affect them. They can afford a Tesla, so no fracking, no problem.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Who Is Funding the Lincoln Project?
13th October 2020
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Joy Behar is the poster child for the irrational crazy wing of the Democrat Party.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on ‘Play a Dead Hand, Joe’: Joy Behar Says Biden Should Stonewall Voters, Democrats Should Pack the Court
12th October 2020
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12th October 2020
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome, With a Side of ACB
12th October 2020
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
12th October 2020
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
12th October 2020
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Is this a great country or what?
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Criminal Bears Are Caught and Put to Work Destroying Coolers
12th October 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
12th October 2020
Jack Butler points out the dirty little secrets of the Crust.
That Barrett’s background is distinct in this way is not in itself a reason to place her on the Court. But a serious assessment of modern American life ought to consider why her background is so unique — that is, why so many people who end up holding positions of political and cultural power, whatever their origins, tend both to go through and then be molded into similar shapes by a set of common elite institutions.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Amy Coney Barrett and Ben Sasse: Traitors to Their Class
12th October 2020
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We have the technology.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Ferrari Is Bricked During Upgrade Due to No Mobile Reception While Underground
12th October 2020
ZMan draws a parallel.
America is now a corporation, rather than a country. It is why the public space is being transformed into something that looks like a corporate training center. You don’t go there to express an opinion or advance your interests, but to learn the latest policies. The person in charge sees herself as a facilitator, using behavioral techniques she learned in graduate school, in order to help you reach your potential an employee.
Just look at how the big social media platforms censure people. It is not traditional censorship we would see in an ideological state. Instead, the first violation gets you a day off to think about what you have done. The next violation gets you a longer bit of time off, which everyone knows means you’re on the list. The next downsizing means you get let go, regardless of your performance. Finally, like an employee that never fit into the corporate culture, you’re fired from the platform.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Incorporated America
12th October 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
12th October 2020
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I’ll bet you didn’t know that.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Graphene Microbubbles Make Perfect Lenses
12th October 2020
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I actually heard an ice-cream truck (didn’t see it, but I heard it) the other day. That’s the first time in decades. Brings back good memories, though.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Company That Has a Monopoly on Ice Cream Truck Music
12th October 2020
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Last Friday the Berlin police evicted a group of Antifa squatters from a building on Liebigstraße in Berlin. The anarchists had been living there illegally for thirty years, but the Powers That Be have only now gotten around to removing them. The reason? The neighborhood has recently been “renovated”, i.e. gentrified, and the municipal authorities had been under pressure to get rid of the undesirables and their eyesore of a building. In other words, it was a typical NIMBY initiative on the part of affluent progressives.
Below are two news videos about the eviction. Notice that all the graffiti on the inner walls of the building seem to be in English. Do the residents not speak German?
Have you ever noticed how protest signs are almost always in English, even in countries where they don’t speak English?
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on The Eviction of Antifa from Liebig 34
12th October 2020
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This George Will column is called “Republicans, are you tired of winning yet?” Oddly, Will makes no real effort to assess the extent to which, from a conservative Republican perspective, America has been winning under President Trump.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Not Tired of It, but There Has Been Plenty of Winning Under Trump