[johnu]

Winstonm, on 2018-November-11, 11:51, said:

Kellyanne Conway has just produced a great new argument

Speaking of Kellyanne Conway, there's this:

Dennison Claims He Doesn’t Know Matt Whitaker. That’s Not What Kellyanne Conway Says.

Quote

“The president’s point is it’s not like he’s putting a friend in there who he’s known for his entire life,”

By that logic, Dennison doesn't know Kellyanne Conway either.

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2018-November-11, 17:29, said:

Speaking of Kellyanne Conway, there's this:

Dennison Claims He Doesn’t Know Matt Whitaker. That’s Not What Kellyanne Conway Says.



By that logic, Dennison doesn't know Kellyanne Conway either.

By the "known my whole life" logic, the on;y people he ever knew were his mother, himself, the doctor and a nurse. And maybe the anesthesiologist if his was a cesarean birth.

[Winstonm]

What's the rush in counting votes when the new terms don't start until January? Isn't it better for all concerned to make certain that the vote is accurate rather than fast? Florida? You listening?

[y66]

moved

[Winstonm]

I have to agree with the White House on this one - when the person in charge of the election is also running for office, the chance of fraud and corruption is pretty high.

[johnu]

Lyin Mitch the hypocrite goes full Dennison

Mitch McConnell’s Spectacularly Tone-Deaf ‘Partisan Politics’ Rant Backfires

Hyper partisan Mitch McConnell goes completely off the rails complaining about the new Democratic house majority which won't even take office for 2 more months. It's very Dennison to complain without facts that the opposition is going to do the very thing which you have been doing for years.

[Winstonm]

WaPo corrects Fox and Friends:

Quote

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Jacob Cruz really did register to vote in July, listing his home address as the county jail where he awaits trial after police say he confessed to the mass shooting.

He registered as a Republican, which “Fox & Friends” didn’t mention.

There is nothing suspicious or mysterious about what Cruz did from his cell. In general, jail inmates are constitutionally entitled to register and vote before their trials, assuming no prior convictions or legal disqualifications. Broward County records show that in 2016 and previous elections, several inmates did exactly that from the same jail where Cruz now sits.

[Winstonm]

On this I am ambivalent:

Quote

Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Abrams’ campaign chairwoman, is overseeing a team of almost three-dozen lawyers who in the coming days will draft the petition, along with a ream of affidavits from voters and would-be voters who say they were disenfranchised. Abrams would then decide whether to go to court under a provision of Georgia election law that allows losing candidates to challenge results based on “misconduct, fraud or irregularities ... sufficient to change or place in doubt the results.”

One would think it unnecessary in a democracy for the losing candidate to be forced to correct fraud and misconduct or irregularities in a statewide election, yet, without that challenge the voter suppression exercised by the Kemp side in Georgia is allowed to prevail while a successful challenge opens up all elections to the same claim. Calling for a second round of voting is a no-win proposition.

By allowing the Kemp congregation to get away with this suppression for so long prior to election day, the Democrats find themselves in a Catch-22.

[y66]

From KaPow! The Super-Sheroes That Stan Lee Created by Maya Salam:

Quote

“I am so honored to have played a part in your universe, and will forever look back on the opportunity with love.” — Halle Berry, in a tribute to Stan Lee on Instagram. She played Storm in the “X-Men” films.

I spent most of childhood buried in comic books. Despite the stereotype that the genre belongs to white suburban teenage boys, there were few outlets better for a girl like me who felt like a stranger in a strange land, or more specifically, an Arab in a small Kentucky town. In comics, being an outsider is your boon, and using your strangeness to conquer negative forces makes you a hero.

So the death of the comic book revolutionary Stan Lee this week, at age 95, got me thinking about his impact on how I perceive, and have perceived, women in the comics universe.

In the 1960s, Mr. Lee started creating female characters who played second fiddle to no one and had agendas besides getting the guy — like conquering evil and saving the world, no biggie — and unparalleled powers like shape-shifting, telekinesis and invisibility.

“Comic book history is chock-full of readers who wanted female characters to be sexy, dressed in revealing clothing and not particularly smart,” Bob Batchelor, author of the 2017 biography of Mr. Lee, “The Man Behind Marvel,” told me this week. But Mr. Lee instead opted for a “different, modern sensibility” — portraying female characters as leads and superheroes — marking a significant new phase for comic books, Mr. Batchelor said.

So while I continue to wait for my latent powers to manifest, I’ll take this chance to highlight a few of my favorite super-sheroes created by Mr. Lee.

Sue Storm (1961)

Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl who became the Invisible Woman, was Marvel’s first female superhero and a founding member — and a full, powerful member — of the superhero team the Fantastic Four. Even Doctor Doom, a Marvel supervillain, has called the Invisible Girl the foursome’s most powerful teammate. Granted, like several of Mr. Lee’s early super-sheroes, Sue Storm did fill the role of love interest as well, but Mr. Lee was “pushing boundaries as much as possible,” Mr. Batchelor said.

Scarlet Witch (1964) and the Wasp (1963)

Scarlet Witch, like the Wasp, was an Avenger. She would often save the team with her overwhelming “hex powers,” and Mr. Batchelor called Scarlet Witch “possibly the most world-changing of any superhero in the Marvel Universe.”

The Wasp, despite being a sexy female teammate, was highly valuable and intelligent, using her ingenuity and smarts to outdo villains — “particularly when the other members were either too aggressive or headstrong to act rationally,” Mr. Batchelor said.

Jean Grey (1963)

For those of you who think comic characters fall squarely into the realms of either good or evil, meet Jean Grey: one of the original “X-Men” and one of the most complex and important characters in the Marvel Universe, as well as one of Mr. Lee’s most enduring and popular. As an Omega-level mutant, the most powerful class, she has virtually unlimited power and can manipulate the universe in her palm, making her one of the few characters who can destroy it.

Hela (1964)

Inspired by Norse mythology, Mr. Lee created the goddess of death Hela. She is thought of as the most powerful female supervillain in the Marvel Universe and a match for any supervillain, no matter the gender. She has been portrayed as one of only a few characters who could go head-to-head with Thor.

The 2017 film “Thor: Ragnarok” is the only film in the Marvel Universe to feature a woman as the main villain. In it, Hela was played by Cate Blanchett.

[Winstonm]

Quote

A Canadian curling team that includes an Olympic gold medalist was ejected from a curling event in Alberta on Sunday for being “extremely drunk,” breaking brooms and swearing.

Build that wall! Build that wall!

[ggwhiz]

Winstonm, on 2018-November-19, 11:55, said:

Build that wall! Build that wall!

We are not planning an invasion, we huddle together on our southern border to keep warm.

[Al_U_Card]

Winstonm, on 2018-November-19, 11:55, said:

Build that wall! Build that wall!

If it will keep away free access to guns then throwing brooms, kicking stones and drunken swearing will do fine.

[y66]

From The Annals of Flannel by Steven Kurutz at NYT:

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“Forty years ago, we were able to make great shirts here, great jeans here, sold at a price that made sense to mainstream consumers,” Mr. Winthrop said at the outset of his project. “We’ve lost that capability in 40 years? We can’t make a flannel shirt in America? I’m not going to accept that answer.”

[johnu]

DC Clerk Nixes Marriage Of Man Because Of His ‘Foreign’ New Mexico ID Card

Funny or frightening? You be the judge.

[y66]

From Can You Like the Person You Love to Hate? Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser were Twitter enemies. Then they met. (Dec. 3, 2018) by Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser at NYT:

Ms. Weiss is a writer and editor for the NYT Opinion section. Ms. Peyser writes about politics and culture for Vice.

Quote

BARI WEISS: Everything sucks. That’s the overwhelming feeling I get when I spend too much time on Twitter. It makes me feel anxious and angry and amped up. And that’s on a day when I’m not even trending as a Very Bad Person.

This fall I read Jaron Lanier’s book “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.” He helped me see that these feelings were the inevitable result of being manipulated by this behavioral modification machine.

I didn’t delete my account — yet! I know! I am full of shame! — but I did change the way I use it (no looking at my mentions; far less tweeting; aiming to highlight the work of people I like rather than criticize the work of those I don’t). It also made me think about how I saw other Twitter users, like Vice’s Eve Peyser. She was clever and often funny — and I disagreed with her about just about everything. Sometimes she jabbed at me. I watched her posts with a suspicious side-eye.

But I wondered: If we had met at a dinner party rather than on Twitter, would we have liked each other? Was social media, as Mr. Lanier’s book suggested, creating a sense of intense conflict where there might be intense conversation? Did we actually dislike each other, or was Twitter just making us think we did?

We ended up at the same conference, and you asked if I wanted to hang out. I thought there was a solid chance you were going to try to James O’Keefe me.

EVE PEYSER: In the woke world of New York digital media, the worst person in the world is Donald Trump, but you, Bari Weiss, are a close second. You’re the perfect target for media leftists because you look like you’d be one of us, but in fact, you have contrarian views on subjects like Israel and #MeToo.

Hating you was the natural position for me to adopt. After all, I’m a social democrat who eagerly voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries and has contemplated purchasing a “Free Palestine” T-shirt.

So I proceeded as one does these days: tsk-tsking various columns of yours, occasionally snarking about you on Twitter, and ascribing to the belief that The New York Times’s decision to hire you was most likely bad for America and the future of liberal democracy.

But I always had this nagging feeling that the Bari Weiss cyber outrage was overblown. Then, we became friends, and every tender thought I’d had about you was confirmed.

Rest of story

[Winstonm]

Inversion today (12-4-18) in the 2-year/5-year treasury yield curve with 2-10 (2.80-2.91) likely to follow suit soon. Can you say recession, boys and girls?

[Al_U_Card]

But the financial sector "knows" what's best for us suckers. (The best way to fleece the sheep.) The Fed got control of the economy in 1913 and everything has been peachy since then ... for the banksterz

[y66]

Winstonm, on 2018-December-04, 15:39, said:

Inversion today (12-4-18) in the 2-year/5-year treasury yield curve with 2-10 (2.80-2.91) likely to follow suit soon. Can you say recession, boys and girls?

From The Yield Curve Is Trying to Tell Us Something by Mark Gongloff at Bloomberg:

Quote

Brace yourselves everybody, a recession is coming! Sometime in the next, uh, two years. Or less. Or more.

Earlier this week, interest rates on 3-year Treasury notes turned higher than 5-year rates for the first time since the dawn of the previous U.S. recession, back in 2007. This is called an inversion of the yield curve, or at least a small piece of the curve. The Big One will be when 2-year and 10-year Treasury rates swap places, and bond traders are doing their darnedest to make it happen soon, as Robert Burgess points out. That particular inversion has preceded every recession since the late 1970s. The thing is, as Bloomberg economist Michael McDonough notes in this chart, the yield curve is kind of a loooong leading indicator:

Quote

So maybe don’t head for your bomb shelter just yet. But it’s worth asking why the yield curve is such an uncanny predictor of recessions (and no, it’s probably not different this time). Karl W. Smith suggests the market is pricing in lower Fed rates in the future, either to end a recession or to prevent one. A recession isn’t destiny, in other words: The Fed could respond to the yield curve’s signal by cutting rates to head off the recession. But this would require a level of forward thinking the Fed hasn’t shown in the past. Usually it just keeps raising rates, yield curve be damned, and it may be about to make the same mistake, Karl writes.

Another big recession indicator is the recent weakness in housing. This, along with growing volatility in stocks, could help explain why high-income Americans are more pessimistic about the economy than low and middle earners these days – an unusual situation, as Danielle DiMartino Booth notes. High earners do the bulk of consumer spending, which is the life blood of the economy. If they cut back, then a recession becomes more likely, Danielle writes.

Housing weakness was one reason Rick Rieder, BlackRock Inc.’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, didn’t believe it when Fed Chairman Jay Powell suggested in October the central bank was nowhere near done hiking, Brian Chappatta writes. The market has caught up to Rieder’s forecast of a Fed pause – though the pause may come too late.

[johnu]

Feds Investigating Millions Of Fake Messages Opposing Net Neutrality: Report --- FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai conceded that 500,000 fake comments urging the death of the popular system came from Russian emails.

Quote

Of the 22 million messages sent last year to the FCC website, nearly 21 million were bots, organized campaigns or fakes, including many using stolen identities, according to a Stanford University study.

Hmmm, I wonder which side those automated messages supported.

Quote

Of the total estimated 800,000 unique comments sent, 99.7 percent supported net neutrality and opposed a controversial push by the Trump administration’s commission head Ajit Pai to terminate net neutrality. Pai recently admitted that Russia meddled in the system and acknowledged that 500,000 of the suspect comments were linked to Russian emails.

Instead of comments, the FCC could have solicited cash donations to reduce the debt, help social programs, etc. If government is going to be bought, it should be paid with real money.

Quote

The FCC has stonewalled requests by the media — and the New York state attorney general — to release information concerning the fake messages.

Why is it not surprising that there is Russian infiltration into yet another area of the US government.

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2018-December-09, 03:18, said:

Feds Investigating Millions Of Fake Messages Opposing Net Neutrality: Report --- FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai conceded that 500,000 fake comments urging the death of the popular system came from Russian emails.



Hmmm, I wonder which side those automated messages supported.



Instead of comments, the FCC could have solicited cash donations to reduce the debt, help social programs, etc. If government is going to be bought, it should be paid with real money.



Why is it not surprising that there is Russian infiltration into yet another area of the US government.

Two questions for anyone who might know or have a guess: 1) how did the Russians know which side to take, and 2) why would the Russians care about net neutrality in the U.S.A.?