Tuesday, November 24, 2015
What's Going To Happen
Predictions are always hard, especially about the future, but I honestly can't see how the clown car show ends. I guess I'm just a silly blogger because if I were a big boy reporter I'd know that Christiementum is here and unstoppable.
This Shouldn't be Surprising
But it is.
A charge of murder is expected to be filed against a white Chicago police officer accused of shooting a black teenager 16 times, just one day before a deadline by which a judge has ordered the city to release a squad-car video of the incident.
Everybody Gets A Medal
Christie did his best to be the biggest asshole this week (and still failed!), so it's his turn.
There's no polling to justify this, but, hey, this journalist is just gonna feel it at you. I guess Barbaro's wheel-o-beat-sweetener landed on Christie, so he'll keep humping that leg until Christie drops out. Polls are for gay wizards like Gandalf and Nate Silver.
There's no polling to justify this, but, hey, this journalist is just gonna feel it at you. I guess Barbaro's wheel-o-beat-sweetener landed on Christie, so he'll keep humping that leg until Christie drops out. Polls are for gay wizards like Gandalf and Nate Silver.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Crazy Days, Man
For some reason Trump and Carson, talking about all those Mooslems they saw in New Jersey cheering on the falling WTC, remind me of Evil Bert.
Only Evil Bert is real!
Only Evil Bert is real!
Are The Kids Still On My Lawn?
Quite frequently I come across a comment (because I read too much of the internet) like "we'll never see a talent like that again." Yes, it's quite amazing that the pinnacle of human talent happened to arrive just at your formative years, about when you were between the ages of 15-25. Six billion people on this planet, and new ones being formed every day, and the greatest moments of art and music just happened to arrive at that time of your life. What a coincidence!
I'm old enough now to see younger people expressing such sentiments too, and I respond like an old to some extent, thinking "no that actually sucked you idiot!" Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but the kids are always on the lawn, with their hippity hop and their fleek and whatever the hell it is they're up to now.
I'm old enough now to see younger people expressing such sentiments too, and I respond like an old to some extent, thinking "no that actually sucked you idiot!" Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but the kids are always on the lawn, with their hippity hop and their fleek and whatever the hell it is they're up to now.
Maybe In Another Friedman
They already announced that Bertha won't start moving again for another month, but I put this in my calendar awhile ago because I figured it wouldn't happen.
That's from July. The new date for the completion of the training and arming of the moderate Bertha is December 23, because massive public works projects always start 2 days before Christmas.
Tunnel-boring machine Bertha, whose front end remains in pieces along the downtown waterfront, is to resume digging Nov. 23, according to a new timetable from the construction team.
That's from July. The new date for the completion of the training and arming of the moderate Bertha is December 23, because massive public works projects always start 2 days before Christmas.
There's Always Money For Killing Machines
Not much else though.
I'm sure the "military equipment budget" will do a heckuva job in its mission "to fight terrorism."
Prime Minister David Cameron will announce plans Monday to boost Britain’s military equipment budget by 12 billion pounds ($18 billion), the latest in a range of government commitments to fight terrorism and other security threats as Europe remains on a state of high alert.
I'm sure the "military equipment budget" will do a heckuva job in its mission "to fight terrorism."
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Radical Proposals
If only some cranky blogger with a silly baby blue blog template from 2002 had suggested this.
No I'm not the first or only one, but I think it was an underappreciated proposal even from the good people who get more respect than I do. They "printed" a lot of money, they just gave it to the banks instead of us. The "monetary policy" mechanism shouldn't be banks 5 seconds after the banks basically destroyed the economy. The banking function is supposed to be efficient capital allocation. That's the justification. They aren't actually any good at that. They're good at slapping down money on the craps table, then blackmailing the House into making them whole when they lose it all.
No I'm not the first or only one, but I think it was an underappreciated proposal even from the good people who get more respect than I do. They "printed" a lot of money, they just gave it to the banks instead of us. The "monetary policy" mechanism shouldn't be banks 5 seconds after the banks basically destroyed the economy. The banking function is supposed to be efficient capital allocation. That's the justification. They aren't actually any good at that. They're good at slapping down money on the craps table, then blackmailing the House into making them whole when they lose it all.
Burbsplaining
One local problem is that so many of our local elite - media figures, Big Charity, CEOs, etc... - don't actually live in the city. "Philadelphia Magazine" has become much better in its coverage of the city, but for years was a magazine for suburban Main Liners. All of this has changed a bit in recent years, but I'm still occasionally shocked that people I long associated with "Philadelphia" either never really lived in the city or moved "back" quite recently.
The point isn't that one has to be a resident to comment or try to influence what happens here. You don't have to be a resident to be a genuine stakeholder, and plenty of nonresidents pay taxes to the city. The problem is that it's so many powerful and influential people. It's like the urban hellhole version of the "deep state." As a group they're powerful, and to a great degree they don't live here. But they have big microphones and big pocketbooks.
The point isn't that one has to be a resident to comment or try to influence what happens here. You don't have to be a resident to be a genuine stakeholder, and plenty of nonresidents pay taxes to the city. The problem is that it's so many powerful and influential people. It's like the urban hellhole version of the "deep state." As a group they're powerful, and to a great degree they don't live here. But they have big microphones and big pocketbooks.
Of Course They Make Themselves Look Better
But the more "hilarious" thing is that it's almost 2016, and we're still training Iraqi troops. I guess we gave up on painting schools, at least.
Nobody ever actually explains what this "training" involves. It sounds nice. I suspect it involves finding a new bunch of recruits, giving them weapons, pointing them at the supposed bad guys du jour, and hoping for the best. Rinse and repeat.
Such changes are at the heart of an expanding internal Pentagon investigation of Centcom, as Central Command is known, where analysts say that supervisors revised conclusions to mask some of the American military’s failures in training Iraqi troops and beating back the Islamic State. The analysts say supervisors were particularly eager to paint a more optimistic picture of America’s role in the conflict than was warranted.
In recent weeks, the Pentagon inspector general seized a large trove of emails and documents from military servers as it examines the claims, and has added more investigators to the inquiry.
Nobody ever actually explains what this "training" involves. It sounds nice. I suspect it involves finding a new bunch of recruits, giving them weapons, pointing them at the supposed bad guys du jour, and hoping for the best. Rinse and repeat.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
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