August 23, 2016

Why Trump has rallies in safe states

I'm surprised at the surprise.

Every rally he holds is covered live by the news networks. So it doesn't really matter where he has them. It's not as if the people attending the rallies need any persuasion to vote for him.

IMHO, it makes more sense for him to whip up a large enthusiastic crowd in Bumblefuck, Alabama, and to have that broadcast on Fox to every car repair waiting room in Ohio, than to have a rally in Ohio.

August 20, 2016

Play-Doh?

Fucking Play-Doh?

What the ever-living.... I mean, holy....

Play-Doh?

That's the... Good golly, Play-Doh?

Get outta here. I refuse to believe this.

I thought, well that's kind of a dumb photoshop. Nobody would ever... And then...

Play-Doh? What on earth?

August 18, 2016

Says HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

And here come the remixes....

August 17, 2016

The Simplest Observation To Make About The "Hillary is really sick" Thing In General

The "Hillary is really sick" thing is a good one because it exploits natural observation bias. If Hillary speaks for an hour, and doesn't cough or clear her throat, then it's not as if anyone notices something that didn't happen. But with the "Hillary is really sick" thing, then every cough, scratch or twitch is an occasion for "Aha! See!"

Now, let's look at what I call "the reality staring you in the face."

The reality staring you in the face is that both candidates are of relatively advanced age. I'm sure that both of them have many things in common with everyone else of relatively advanced age. However the plain fact staring you in the face is that both of them (and to varying degrees, yes) have been engaged for a solid year in physical activity that is more challenging that anything that goes on in the Oval Office in the first place.

They have been giving standing speeches for hours, traveling ungodly distances, keeping ungodly hours, walking through state fairs, hotel hallways and convention centers, waving, smiling, parading, and doing far more rigorous and challenging things than (1) Waking up in the East Wing of the White House, and (2) Going to sit at a desk in the West Wing of the White House.

You can argue all you want to about physical fitness, but it is blitheringly obvious that what you can see, with your own two eyes for a solid year now, are no significant physical impairments.

What does anyone thing they are doing? Auditioning for Cirque du Soleil? It is plainly apparent that both candidates have physical fitness appropriate to the demands of the actual job involved - which is less physically demanding than the job that both of them have right now.

Rather than to go down ratholes with your "did you hear this" friends, it may be more helpful to point out that simple apparent fact - what have they been doing for the last year, and continue to do, compared to anything they would be doing in office, from a purely physical point of view.

August 17, 2016

Surprisingly well done sarcasm from Manafort

In an article on the campaign re-shuffling:

"Manafort, in a statement, said that he is sure the additions will 'undoubtedly help take the campaign to new levels of success.'"

I gotta give Moscow Mannie credit for that extremely dry comment, because nobody in the campaign is likely to detect the what is implied by "new levels of success".

But, sure, going from 40% down to 20% is certainly going to be a "new level of success" for them.

He didn't say they were going to succeed or be successful, but that they would hit a "new level of success".

I don't care who you are, that's a pretty funny thing for him to say.

August 15, 2016

Why are Jamaicans so fast?

This article explains that, contrary to armchair anthropologists, the answer is a more interesting story....

https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/the-secret-of-jamaicas-runners.amp.html

How do Jamaicans do it? It’s not because of genetics, as some claim. A vast majority of Jamaicans’ ancestors are from West Africa, which has relatively few outstanding sprinters. Nor can genetics explain why Jamaicans outperform other blacks in the Americas, especially in Brazil, which has 36 times as many of them.

Ask a Jamaican like me (I was born and raised there), and we’ll give you a very different answer: Champs. Officially called the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association Boys and Girls Athletics Championship, Champs is an annual competition attended by 30,000 wildly enthusiastic fans. Jamaica is perhaps the only country in the world where a track and field meet is the premier sporting event.

But it’s not just Champs. The competition is one part of a broader framework — track and field is huge at every educational level, with periodic regional meets drawing athletes of all ages from the most remote rural areas. So the real question is, why is Jamaica nuts for track?

...

The answer is complex and incomplete. But it might lie in a deeper truth about the island. Political and economic successes are often top-down, relying on leadership that adapts and manages appropriate institutions that also benefit the non-elite. But things like health reform and sports success — and the reggae industry, for that matter — are largely bottom-up. Jamaica is yet to acquire the leadership for national development it deserves. But it has no lack of talent, energy and self-reliance — qualities as evident in health statistics as they are on the track.

August 11, 2016

President Trump should get a 25th Amendment, Section 4 cabinet

This is the only hope, if he is elected:

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

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That's the "president gone crazy" safety valve.

August 7, 2016

Source: Trump kept asking about Area 51 during classified briefing

I'll bet his questions are awesome. "So, you tell me. Why did Obama present a clearly-forged birth certificate? Didn't he lose his citizenship when his mother remarried and moved to Indonesia?"

And so they explain it to him and he keeps saying, "That's not what my sources say!"

It's gotta be like telling Palin the Queen does not run England, or why there are two Koreas."