The Great American Eclipse of 2017

Three years ago today:

As viewed from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee within the band of maximum totality.

(ole boy’s got some skills, no?)

by Paul on August 21, 2020 at 3:08pm | Permalink
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It’s not often I agree with Bill Clinton, but…

The former President had some rather apt remarks to make last night regarding the current President and Conspiracy Theorist-in-Chief:

If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he’s your man.

Indeed. For fuck’s sake, President Hump doesn’t even “go to work” until 11AM… nice “work” if you can get it.

Denying, distracting and demeaning works great, if you’re trying to entertain, or inflame. But, in a real crisis, it collapses like a house of cards.

Boy oh boy, does it ever! President Hump fucking gave up on COVID-19 over a month ago. He’s only paying lip service to our national crisis now that it’s apparent that even many of his supporters don’t think he’s handled the crisis properly!

Of course, as Jennifer Senior made perfectly clear over four months ago in the New York Times (This is What Happens When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis):

And most relevant, as far as history is concerned: Narcissistic personalities are weak.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is genuinely afraid to lead. He can’t bring himself to make robust use of the Defense Production Act, because the buck would stop with him. (To this day, he insists states should be acquiring their own ventilators.) When asked about delays in testing, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” During Friday’s news conference, he added the tests “we inherited were “broken, were obsolete,” when this form of coronavirus didn’t even exist under his predecessor.

Our president is weak. He’s clearly fragile — can’t take the slightest fucking criticism without losing his shit. The sad fact of the matter is that America is in the shitstorm it finds itself in today vis-à-vis COVID-19 simply due to the fact that despite all his bluster, President Hump is afraid to actually do anything for fear that he may make a mistake.

by Paul on August 19, 2020 at 6:13am | Permalink
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It’s a Service, Not a Business

I’ve been hearing people talk about the Post Office “losing money” for over three decades now. People, it seems, just love to bitch about the Post Office. People also love to miss the finer details, so I’ll fill you in a little bit.

The Post Office is a service, not a business.

I know this will come as shocking news to many of you, but there’s been clues there all along that you’ve simply missed!

The first clue is in the name: the name is actually the United States Postal Service! Imagine that!

So what’s the big deal about service vs. business? Well, businesses may make or lose money, but services cost money.

No one ever seems to complain that the U.S. Military is losing 3/4 of a trillion dollars a year, do they? Of course not, and why? Because the U.S. Military is not losing that money — the U.S. Military is also a service, and not a business.

Most people seem to be ignorant of the fact that the Postal Service is one of the few government agencies specifically authorized by the Constitution. More importantly, no one seems to understand that the Postal Service is required by law to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, and to serve all Americans at a uniform price and quality. But this is perhaps the most important thing to understand about the Postal Service.

Now, everyone just loves to compare the Postal Service to private shipping businesses, namely FedEx and UPS. Of course, this is comparing apples to oranges, but no one ever seems to care about that! The bottom line, however, is that FedEx and UPS will be more than happy to deliver your mail, but they won’t be doing it for anything near 55 cents. Oh, but they’ll guarantee overnight delivery. Yes, for an additional price. But I’ve checked just now: FedEx will be happy to deliver a letter for me to the next street over in my subdivision. The cost? $17 and a half bucks! And if I ship it today it won’t be delivered until Wednesday of next week for that price. The Postal Service will deliver it tomorrow and do it for $0.55.

Moreover, FedEx will charge me more to deliver the same letter to the other side of the state, and more yet to deliver the same letter to the other side of the country. The Postal Service is not allowed to do this.

Hell, even suggest that the Postal Service raise rates to something more competitive and people just bitch, bitch, bitch! All they can seem to say is that the Postal Service should be privatized, and I’m not against that, but no one seems to understand that if the Postal Service was privatized, the very first thing they’d do — and they’d have to do it — is establish competitive rates, meaning the $0.55 first class stamp would be long gone.

But no one wants that. No, people want to be able to simultaneously stand of both sides of the metaphorical fence on this issue. They want the Postal Service to keep doing what it already does, but to do it for less money.

Well, the sad news is that that’s not going to happen. But remember, it’s not a business, it’s a service. Just ask yourself this: when was the last time the U.S. Military cost us substantially less money to operate than the previous year?

See what I mean?

by Paul on August 14, 2020 at 7:01am | Permalink
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Who would have thought?

At the bike rally in Sturgis [South Dakota], there are a quarter of a million bike enthusiasts — motorcycle enthusiasts — who are gathering together… in one place… during a pandemic. Who would have thought motorcycle enthusiasts would not understand epidemiology?

— Penn Jillette, Penn’s Sunday School podcast #629, 13 August 2020 @5:54.

by Paul on August 13, 2020 at 4:55pm | Permalink
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Reason: How Cancel Culture Violates Intellectual Freedom

Criticism is expressing an argument or opinion with the idea of rationally influencing public opinion, through public persuasion, interpersonal persuasions.

Canceling comes from the universe of propaganda, not critical discourse, and it’s about organizing or manipulating a social environment or a media environment with the goal or predictable effect of isolating, or deplatforming, or intimidating and ideological opponent.

by Paul on August 7, 2020 at 7:02pm | Permalink
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Jerry Falwell Jr. Taking Leave of Absence From Liberty University

Mr. Falwell, the college’s president and a supporter of President Trump, agreed to a request by the school’s board of trustees.

Elizabeth Dias reporting for the paper of record:

Jerry Falwell Jr., one of President Trump’s most prominent and controversial evangelical supporters, will take an indefinite leave of absence from his role as president and chancellor of Liberty University, the board of trustees announced on Friday.

The news comes days after Mr. Falwell posted, and then deleted, a photograph on Instagram of him posing alongside a woman with his pants unzipped and his arm around her.

[…]

In the photograph, both Mr. Falwell and the woman have their pants unzipped. His hand is close to her chest. “More vacation shots,” the post said. “Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that’s just black water in my glass.”

Unzipped pants with his arm around her? Yeah, that sounds like the kind of “religious” leader that would support this President.

Mr. Falwell has been involved in a number of controversies in recent years.

In May he tweeted Blackface and Ku Klux Klan imagery, prompting demands for his firing and resignations of at least four Black faculty and staff members.

Yeah, solid religous leader there.

by Paul on August 7, 2020 at 6:33pm | Permalink
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Trump Wasn’t Invited to Throw Out First Pitch

The paper of record:

An hour before Dr. Anthony S. Fauci threw the first pitch at the season opener between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals, President Trump stood on the briefing room stage at the White House and declared that he, too, had been invited to throw out his own opening pitch.

“Randy Levine is a great friend of mine from the Yankees,” Mr. Trump, referring to the president of the baseball team, told reporters on Thursday as Dr. Fauci was preparing to take the mound. “And he asked me to throw out the first pitch, and I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium.”

There was one problem: Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.

No surprise here. I’ve known people who lie as chronically as the President does. What happens is, they get to a point where they just can’t tell the difference between the lie that they’ve made up, and the reality that it never happened (or didn’t happen that way).

Just more bullshit from the Liar-in-Chief.

by Paul on July 28, 2020 at 8:12am | Permalink
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Trump: “I haven’t seen him lately”

The paper of record:

President Trump’s national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the administration said on Monday. [..]

It is unclear when he was last in physical contact with Mr. Trump, although he joined the president on a July 10 trip to Florida.

Speaking to reporters before departing the White House on Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump said he had heard about Mr. O’Brien but did not know when he had tested positive. “I haven’t seen him lately,” the president added.

Uh, okay, so the President is not in regular contact with his National Security Advisor? Really? The National Security Advisor? Doesn’t the National Security Advisor have an office just a few steps from the Oval Office? Doesn’t that tend to indicate that it’s a pretty important position? Does this make anyone feel good?

“Oh, I’m so relived that the President doesn’t have much to do with the National Security Advisor…” That just doesn’t sound right, does it?

I’d expect a President of the United States — any President of the United States — to be in at least regular contact, if not daily contact with the National Security Advisor… Holy fucking shit!

by Paul on July 27, 2020 at 7:16pm | Permalink
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Grant Imahara, Former Mythbuster, Battlebots Champion, Dies at 49

The Discovery Channel:

We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant. He was an important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Grant Imahara was an electrical engineer who dedicated his life to using his skills to make people smile. Beyond his time with the Discovery family, Grant was one of the few officially trained operators for famed droid R2-D2 within the Star Wars universe, he also engineered the Energizer Bunny’s iconic rhythmic beat.

Grant was part of the Mythbusters team for 10 years, where his dedication to his craft and his ability to bust myths with the best of them brought tech to life for his fans.

by Paul on July 14, 2020 at 6:43am | Permalink
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The Guilty Dog Barks the Loudest

Brian McCullough on the Techmeme Ride Home for 2 July 2020:

Sometimes, you fear the most the thing you suspect in others that you know you’re guilty of yourself.

This concept was known to our parents and grandparents generations as, “The guilty dog barks the loudest.”

It’s why spouses who cheat, come to believe that their spouse is also cheating. It’s why people who lie and cheat, like our President, come to believe that everyone else also lies and cheats.

Of course, we all remember about a year ago the myriad stories about how President Trump cheats at golf and has for years, for example, this from golf.com: How and why President Trump cheats at golf — even when he’s playing against Tiger Woods

Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He cheats like a three-card Monte dealer. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: “Pele.”

“I played with him once,” says Bryan Marsal, longtime Winged Foot member and chair of the coming 2020 Men’s U.S. Open. “It was a Saturday morning game. We go to the first tee and he couldn’t have been nicer. But then he said, ‘You see those two guys? They cheat. See me? I cheat. And I expect you to cheat because we’re going to beat those two guys today.’… So, yes, it’s true, he’s going to cheat you. But I think Donald, in his heart of hearts, believes that you’re gonna cheat him, too. So if it’s the same, if everybody’s cheating, he doesn’t see it as really cheating.”

Precisely. The cheater comes to see everyone as a cheater, and then, lacking good character in the first place, they justify their bad behaviour.

by Paul on July 3, 2020 at 11:24am | Permalink
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