Jobs

+209K, unemployment up to 6.2%. Not bad, but not good enough. As usual these days.

Morning Thread

For those who were wondering, it's FRIDAY. Yeah!

Late Night

Rock on.

Thursday Evening

Enjoy

Non-Partisan Bi-Partisanship

The political press are, of course, purely objective, having no ideology and no policy preferences. Except, of course, they do, both as individuals and as a culture, collectively. There's pressure (failing, but still) on Republicans to do something about immigration law in part because the collective agrees something must be done. Even though "something" is pretty loosely defined, it's about the most liberal "everybody agrees in a non-partisan bi-partisan way" issue that we've had in awhile. Doesn't mean I understand it.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Savvy

One big pet peeve is the people who inevitably respond to any report of specific state malfeasance with, "this surprises you???" Sometimes it's from those who are being apologists - spying on you is their job!!! - and sometimes it's from those who have long ago concluded that everything is inevitably horrible and that everybody else is just a naive fool who is unaware of the evil around us.

boring

Bring It

Probably too much for a small blog post, but I am struck by the often one sided embrace of patriarchal gender roles, most recently with the whole "women against feminism" thing but usually it's dudes whining about how women actually expect them to not be horrible and then have the nerve not to make them a sandwich or give them sexytime on demand.

I offer no defense of gendered gender roles - expectations that men are like this and women are like that - but there's nothing wrong with a bit of specialization in relationships. Still if you really want to embrace gender roles, then there are, you know, two roles. There are expectations placed on men and they have responsibilities, too. They have to bring something.

Forgive the heteronormative language.

Surprising Nobody

And if they'd do this, what wouldn't they do.

WASHINGTON — CIA employees improperly accessed computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to compile a report on the agency’s now defunct detention and interrogation program, an internal CIA investigation has determined.

Hope The Hippie Punching Was Fun

One of the many maddening things about the discourse surrounding our recent glorious wars is that all of its supporters were much more interested in punching hippies than making sure that anything actually went well. Hippies would be all like "we're lighting money on fire and killing lots of people and nothing good is happening" and instead of observing that, yes, things in Afghanistan and Iraq are actually fucked up and bullshit, the response would be "nuh-uh hippies you just love terrorists and Saddam and in six months everything will be wonderful."

Everything was total shit. Really expensive shit. I guess if your friends all live in Northern Virginia that's a feature, not a bug, but still.

Nerdbros

Now that nerds rule the world, we all learn that they can be horrible too (not that it's really surprising).

Bendis's Powers is pretty fun.

That's A Bit Of A Problem

They'll all break before then. Enjoy the flooding.

But in recent years, L.A.'s elected leaders have been unwilling to hike water rates enough to fix them more rapidly. As it stands, the city-owned Department of Water and Power is on track to replace main water lines only once every 300 years.

I have no idea if this is a well-run authority generally or if rate hikes, as opposed to fewer fingers in the candy jar, are necessary, but those pipes don't last 300 years.

Must Find A Way To Keep The Lower Orders In Line

If they're more disciplined about working at their minimum wage jobs, and pray more, they too will become not poors.

Also, too, new jobless day. 302K new lucky duckies.

Nothing Important

Molly I & I both really enjoyed the United States of America Network's comedy series Playing House. The episodes come across as breezy & inconsequential, on first viewing, but that's deceptive -- the series explores real issues about friendship & love. And it's piss-funny. Hoping for a second season.

Wednesday Night

Tomorrow is new jobless day!

Assholes

Not that it would justify it in any way, but I can sort of understand that cops could come to see drug dealers and other criminals as "the other" and basically less than human. But when they (allegedly) take the drugs and re-sell them themselves...

The indictment alleges the officers falsified records, held people without arrest, stole drugs and shared in the proceeds.

Short Everything

Grifters gonna grift.

Sad thing is the grift can pay amazingly well.

Well He's Pretty Much Right About Everything And Not Responsible For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Deaths

I actually turned on CNN and Michael O'Hanlon was on my teevee.

It never ends.

What's In A Name

I admit to being a bit confused about just why the owner of that football team from Washington think it's so important to keep their current name. I'd think a big splashy name change would be a business win. Sell lots of merchandise, etc.

The Old Pipes Problem

I'm no expert on this stuff, but as the years go by the "bad infrastructure" problems are increasingly going to hit the post-war and later suburbs. It's going to cost a lot more, per capita, to replace old pipes in low density developments.