Category Archives: General

General

Ho boy… politics and news

Nowadays and in the political sphere, things come at you fast and furious.

Yesterday, for example, Donald Trump called in to Fox and Friends and ranted and raved to such an extent that over on Reddit, they posted this amusing graphic showing the Trump-lover hosts before and nearing the end of the interview:

The actual full phone call/interview, if you dare!

If you’re curious for even more stuff, there are plenty of comments and takes on this off the rails phone call/interview.  You can read it over here:

Before and after your call to the President

A comment by Ryepodz at that link noted the following regarding the video:

At 13:43 you can hear a producer or staff in the background saying “oh god…” At 13:55 he says “jesus christ…” 

Wading through all the crap Trump said, one of the things that really hurt him was stating that Attorney Michael Cohen barely did anything for him and, further, he admitted for the first time that Cohen handled the Stormy Daniels affair, comments which not two hours later was presented to the judge handling the Michael Cohen case as evidence that the documents seized from him were not subject to the attorney/client confidentiality provisions.

Man, talk about shooting yourself in the… foot.

If you want still more information about this, check out this article by Chris Cillizza over at CNN.com where he encapsulates…

The 53 most stunning lines from Donald Trump’s Fox and Friends interview

But that’s not all!

The second bit of big news is that actor/comedian Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault against Andrea Constand.  Ms. Constand was quite literally the last person who could bring Mr. Cosby to justice as the many, many women who have subsequently come out and given testimony eerily similar regarding Mr. Cosby’s actions (ie, drugging then sexually assaulting them) had already passed the time limits for prosecution.

Mr. Cosby was supposedly unemotional when the guilty verdict was read but he had an outburst following the verdict and when talk turned to revoking his bail.  In arguing to revoke his bail, Prosecutors stated he had an airplane and might use it to flee.  At that point Mr. Cosby blurted out: “He doesn’t have a plane, asshole.”

Yes, Mr. Cosby referred to himself in the third person.

One can only guess that the gravity of his predicament finally came into focus at that point.

Anyway, if you want to read more about that, here’s an article about the trail by Eric Levenson and presented on CNN.com:

The long, winding path to Bill Cosby’s guilty verdict

But wait, there’s still more!

As if all that wasn’t enough, later in the afternoon came this stunning news, which you can read in the article by Joshua Berlinger, Nick Thompson, and Euan McKirdy and presented on the below link:

North and South Korea leaders hold historic summit and pledge to end Korean War

Wow… just… wow.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the very real fear a potential nuclear war might occur because of the actions of North Korean leader Kim.  His provocative missile “tests”, his nuclear ambitions…

So what exactly happened?

I suspect a few things, and one of them is this: Donald Trump.

There’s an old cliche that goes like this: Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Mr. Trump’s instability and outrageous threats leveled at Kim, I suspect, unnerved him.  Previous U.S. Presidents, Kim knew, wouldn’t risk a nuclear war and, perhaps, that emboldened him to push his luck with them.

But because Trump is so out there, he might (and, I repeat, might) have finally gotten worried that he was facing someone as crazy as he was projecting himself out to be and, therefore, the risk of a war was suddenly far higher.

Note, there are certainly other factors.  Leader Kim went to China, which suggested the mighty country might have finally decided to reign him in.  There is also talk that his latest nuclear tests might have collapsed the entire research facilities he had in the mountains for them.

Regardless, these factors -and, yes, including Donald freaking Trump- I believe played into the stunning news presented yesterday.

Will Kim continue down this path?

For the sake of the world, one hopes so.

General

Dan LeBatard…

Found this article written by Mike Schur and featured on Slate.com.  It concerns on of the more popular radio talk hosts and talk shows around currently, ESPN’s The Dan LeBatard Show…

Do you get the show? ESPN’s Dan LeBatard built a sports-talk empire by talking about sports as little as possible

I’ve known about Dan LeBatard for far longer than most out there because for years before he made it to talk radio he was a sports writer for The Miami Herald.  I enjoyed his writing, which was often quite humorous but, unlike his radio show, did indeed focus on sports topics.

A curious thing: I get LeBatard.  I get what his show is about.

But, unlike his writing, it doesn’t work for me.  Yes, its goofy and at times it can be fun but… its just too frivolous for my taste.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the hell out of the article, though it did have this one curious error:

The Clevelander Hotel, on Miami’s South Beach, feels less like a hotel than a hangover you can sleep in. It appears to have sprung spontaneously from the sand, perhaps when a Lamborghini dealer spilled tequila on a magical turntable, and provides its guests with both a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean and the diametrical opposite of a good night’s sleep, thanks to the 24-hour Pitbull video raging in the outdoor courtyard.

Guys, we’re on the east coast.  The ocean we’ve got at our doorstep is the Atlantic.

Books/Literature, General

Will Davies, Harlequin Romance cover artist

This article, from CBC news, is about artist Will Davies…

He designed over 500 Harlequin romance covers – Now there’s a Canada Post stamp in his honor

Must admit, I wasn’t all that familiar with Mr. Davies’ work.  Here’s the piece being used for the stamp:

Image result for will davies stamp

A closer view of the actual image:

Nice.

I looked up other works by Mr. Davies.  Here are some neat ones I found:

Image result for will davies harlequin covers

Image result for will davies harlequin covers

Nice stuff, though clearly meant for the romance book market.  He did other stuff, too.  Like this piece for Ford…

Image result for will davies harlequin covers

For Chevrolet…

Image result for will davies commercial art

And he did some fascinating pen and ink works, as well…

Image result for will davies commercial art

Image result for will davies commercial art

Fascinating stuff.  Until yesterday, I hadn’t heard of Mr. Davies.  Now I’m incredibly intrigued by his artwork!

General

A quick political note…

Yesterday was… interesting, to say the least on the political front.

The biggest news was likely the fact that Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the House, was retiring.

Huh.

I don’t have many good thoughts regarding Mr. Ryan.  His silence during many of Donald Trump’s more -let’s be kind here- jaw dropping escapes was deafening.  He really had nothing to say about any of the twitter comments?  Or Trump’s attempt to talk well of Nazis in Carolina?  Or Trump’s constant attacks on pretty much everyone?  And for a “deficit hawk”, he’s allowed this to balloon thanks to the latest tax breaks pushed through.

Someone far more clever than I posted:

Man farts up entire elevator then gets off at next stop.

Crude, but it does make the point, IMHO.

General

Hit ’em where it hurts…

Laura Ingraham, a host of one of the many highly opinionated right wing shows over at Fox “News”, got into it with Parkland survivor David Hogg.  She took a dig at him via twitter, writing:

David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it

This… did not go well for her.

Over at cnn.com, Tom Kludt writes about the after effects of this ill-advised twitter statement:

Laura Ingraham apologizes for mocking David Hogg

What happened, in a nutshell, is that the Parkland students, including Mr. Hogg, hit back at Ingraham.

Hard.

It started with some of them shaming her but then moved on to pointing out her advertisers.

And her advertisers took note and, at least in a couple of cases, decided Ms. Ingraham had crossed the proverbial bridge too far.

So, facing a possible flight of advertisers (and, thus, revenue to her program), Ms. Ingraham offered this apology via twitter:

On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how ‘poised’ he was given the tragedy. As always he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion.

Ho boy.

Look, I guess she’s trying to show genuine contrition, but for crying out loud, why start with this “in the spirit of Holy Week” crap?!

She is, rightfully IMHO, getting raked over the coals for this opening line.  Some have wondered if she is somehow implying that had it not been Holy Week, then the remarks made would be perfectly acceptable?!

Of course not.

However, if you remove those six words from the rest of her apology, even someone as turned off by the likes of Ms. Ingraham and her type of opinion hit pieces will recognize it is a refreshingly direct apology (no “if my words offended anyone” type garbage).

At least an attempt was made to offer a genuine apology, flawed as it was in its opening.

General

Living World War II veterans…

Found this chart over on reddit.  It was produced by the US Census department…

As the chart states, this is the number of living World War II veterans from 1960 to 2016.

World War II officially ended in 1945 so if you were an 18 year old at that time, by 1960 you were around 33 years old.  This is, of course, assuming the youngest age for conscription, though there were people who lied about their age to join the army!

By 1970 you were 43.  By 1980 you were around 53 years old.  By 1990, you were around 63.  By the turn of the Century, the year 2000, you were 73.

By 2010, you were in/around 83 years of age.

By 2016 and the end of this particular census, the youngest recruit, again assuming they were in/around 18 years of age in 1945, was now in/around 89 years of age.

Add two more years to get us to 2018 and you’re now talking about this individual being in/around 90/91 years of age.

And, again, we’re talking about recruits/veterans who were at the very youngest age possible in 1945, the year the war ended.

Once again one can’t help but be confronted with what is the ultimate reality of life: Time marches on for everyone.

When I was in High School, there were approximately 12 million WWII veterans still alive.  Today, there are less than a million.

My brother-in-law’s father was a WWII veteran and he passed away a few years back at the age of 96.

Soon, too soon, there will be no more veterans of that world wide conflict left alive and one can’t help but be saddened by that reality.

As I said before, time marches on.  For everyone.

General

New York filmed in 1929… with sound!

Fascinating article by Richard Kaufman and presented on boingboing.net and concerning the above…

New York filmed in 1929 with sound

Ok, I’ve provided the link and I hope you give the site a look see.

Now I’m about to spoil the whole thing and present the two videos from the article.  First up, filming from the back of a truck (it appears) while going down the street.  Interesting to hear all the horns and see all the signage…

Next up, some more driving but hang on (or fast forward) to approximately 11 minutes and you get some high angle views of New York, including a distant shot of the Statue of Liberty…

If you’re at all like me, this stuff should be absolutely fascinating.

The sad thing to realize?  Considering this was filmed 89 years ago, it is more likely than not that everyone in these two videos, including the youngest children you can spot (here and there) are all dead.

I know, I know, a very grim thought but it does give you pause, doesn’t it?  Make the most of your lives for eventually, time takes us all.

General

This ‘n that… beware: Politics be here!

A few stories from yesterday:

First up comes the fact that despite being given a memo which, in all caps, warned “President” Trump DO NOT CONGRATULATE Vladimir Putin for his election, our fearless leader did just that in a phone call to him.  This caused a mini-furor because details of the “do not congratulate” memo and what Trump said on the call were leaked to the press some two hours afterwards and clearly involved some of Trump’s very closest staff.

Over on CNN.com, Chris Cillizza offers the following fascinating article regarding this latest brew-ha:

The real problem for Donald Trump in the DO NOT CONGRATULATE story

It is Mr. Cillizza’s opinion that:

I think the real motivation for the leaks is that some within particularly the national security apparatus have decided that leaking things to the media is the only way to a) get the President’s attention and b) possibly change his mind.

Mr. Cillizza goes on to say this is no way to run a White House.

Huh.

Tell me something I don’t know! 😉

*****

Second story: Joe Biden, in a speech, stated that if Trump and he were in High School, he’d have “beaten the hell” out of him.  This was in relation to his many sexist statements and alleged sexism.

Sigh.

Look, I like Joe Biden.  I do.  He seems like a decent guy and all.  But, come on Joe.  The line might be good to rouse the crowds before you but the sentiment is at best silly and at worst the type of reaction that feeds a ghoul like Donald Trump.  Witness this article, by Lee Moran and found on Huffingtonpost.com:

Donald Trump taunts Joe Biden: “He would go down fast and hard, crying all the way.”

Sheesh.

It was a dumb line by Biden -and an expected response by Trump- and Mr. Biden should know better.   As they say online: Don’t feed the trolls.

*****

Finally, over at Fox “News”, Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters, a longtime Fox News analyst, is leaving the network but not quietly.  As Oliver Darcy notes on CNN.com…

Fox analyst blasts network as “propaganda machine” while announcing departure

For those like me (there are a few of you out there, I hope?!), this is hardly news.  Fox “News” IS propaganda, a place where you can find two consistent things: Praise for all things/people Republican and scorn for all things/people Democratic.

However, Lt. Colonel Peters is a very prominent, very conservative voice, one that is at times incredibly strident against anything Democratic (he was once suspended for two weeks from the network for saying President Obama was a “pussy”).

For someone as fiery as he to leave the network and to leave it with such accusations suggest something that’s been brewing for a while: There are conservatives out there, rabid or not, who are deeply uncomfortable with the “Presidency” of Donald Trump.

Peters’ criticism is directed at the fact that Fox’s opinion arm is too effusive in their praise of Donald Trump and, he clearly feels, this is hurting the country and many of the institutions that Trump and his underlings are trying their best to slam.

This is also, apparently, exposing a rift within the walls of Fox, as noted Oliver Darcy also notes in this subsequent article for CNN.com:

Behind the scenes: Fox News Analyst’s note hit the network “like a bombshell”

The point of this second article is that there are employees at Fox who genuinely want to be “news” reporters (who knew?) and don’t want to engage in the opinion game.  They take reporting seriously even if they do skew right and try to present the news fairly.

However, there is a large (very large) part of Fox “News” that is clearly opinion based and this section of the network has fawned on Trump’s reign so far as if it were the greatest thing evah.

Will this split become more pronounced?  Will it lead to further problems?

Stay tuned!

Computers/Electronics, General

Facebook and internet culture…

Hard to believe, given today’s news, the situation regarding Facebook and, specifically, Cambridge Analytica and the way they -let’s be blunt here- weaponized personal data through Facebook. (You can read more about that here.  As for Cambridge Analytica, read about how its CEO was filmed talking about using bribes and sex “traps” here).

Here’s the thing: People are vulnerable.  People are willing to think the best of others, sometimes when they shouldn’t.  People are also suspicious but perhaps not suspicious enough depending on circumstances.

I recall a few years back when a new type of crime was being perpetrated: Criminals would go on Facebook and see when people there noted they were traveling/on vacation and would then go to the people’s homes and, upon verifying they were indeed not home, rob the place.

The fact that there are companies out there like Cambridge Analytica taking vast swaths of data (not illegally, it appears) and using it to sway people’s opinions and -at times- make them believe things which are not true is far, far more worrisome.

Perhaps I’m the naive one as I’ve always felt people would be suspicious about information being sent their way.  Nowadays, thanks to things like Fox News and, obviously, the information presented above, I’m far more worried that people can be pointed in directions by those clever enough to do the pointing.

If there is a silver lining to this particular black cloud, its that these systems are being revealed for what they are and, hopefully, parent companies like Facebook will be proactive in shutting down these people.

Now, if only someone would do the same to Fox “News”.

General

Time to get the butterfly nets…

For those who think all I ever do when I talk about politics is slam Republicans, here goes some equal time.

From Ed Mazza and presented on the (oh so liberal) Huffingtonpost.com, a report about a DC lawmaker and his… strange… statement regarding the late winter storms we’ve been having.  The lawmaker, Trayon White, is a Democrat…

DC Lawmaker blames winter storms on Jewish bankers who control the weather

I mean, where do you start here?  The lawmaker later on apologized for his statement but… come on, how does one simply apologize when making a statement that’s that alarming and the people this lawmaker represents just let it go at that?

Sheesh.

There’s been a joke going around that the election of Trump proves we’ve entered into some kind of bizarro alternate universe.

I’m beginning to think this isn’t much of a joke anymore.