December 30, 2019
December 20, 2019
BREAKING: State of Union
Earlier this year, Speaker Pelosi let the President know that it would be inappropriate for the House to extend an invitation to deliver the State of the Union during the course of a government shutdown, so she held back. The address, originally scheduled for Jan 29, was eventually pushed back to early February.
Trump lashed back the net day.
This time, instead, the Speaker has chosen to formally ask Trump to come by and explain himself on a date certain.
December 17, 2019
December 15, 2019
Michael Bush (January 24, 1948-December 15, 2019)
I'm pushing away against the thought of Michael dead. I'm watching Watchmen, I'm subsumed in the 49ers' lackluster loss, I'm walking the dog around, I'm vacuuming. Listening to Dylan tell his long crooked telling of Highlands
But he's dead, Michael, irrefutably done. Ah.
December 13, 2019
December 05, 2019
Rituals of Deflection
Professor Karlan made the comment that Trump could name his son "Barron," but he could not make him a baron, all this implicitly to underline her point that the powers of the presidency are limited, are not those of a king, who can in fact make a baron with a flick of the wrist.
Republicans responded to the professor's mot with a round of aghast virtue signalling, displaying their moral distaste for anyone who'd drag the name of the youngish child of the president into public discourse. The First Lady's office produced a communication of her own expressing dismay in finding her son so used.
The professor wisely apologized and slunk back to Stanford, deflecting months of potential bother.
As for the son, it is to be hoped that, given his age and sound condition, he is masturbating all over the White House residence and having a grand good time otherwise, as well.
November 22, 2019
Minor Insight
Before the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment hearings aired this week I didn't know John Hodgeman was a Lt. Colonel in the Army. I always thought of him as more of a humorist.
November 03, 2019
A Look At The Santa Cruz Mountains From A Distance
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| The View Across Monterey Bay From Pacific Grove, September 6, 2009 |
November 01, 2019
Pitchers And Catchers Report In February
Elizabeth Nelson fashionably chronicles her advanced Washington Nationals fandom in a wonderful series of posts at Lawyers, Guns and Money:
It's Going To Take Chelada Love
Chelada People Believe In Miracles
I know exactly that elation, having experienced waves of it myself in 2010 when the Giants finally won a World Series in San Francisco. I waited considerably longer for that culmination than Ms. Nelson, but will acknowledge that there can hardly be a happier happiness for any fan of a ballclub than to see their own lads Champions at last.
October 25, 2019
I Wasn't There When It Went Missing
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| A filing cabinet broken into in 1972 as part of the Watergate burglary sits beside a computer server that Russian hackers breached during the 2016 presidential campaign, on display at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in Washington.— Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times (Dec. 13, 2016) |
It takes a kind of technological illiteracy, however fervent, to plead for a search for the supposedly missing DNC server which was sitting there in plain sight in 2016, illiterate in the sense that "server" does not mean, even if it were some other missing server not featured in the photograph, that its possession would advance in any way the parallel and equally mythical quest to find the missing 30,000 emails that have alway been accounted for: emails do not naturally adhere to servers. That's not what a server is. Examining the DNC server would catalog its mechanical and electronic components and find that it is indeed capable of connecting to the internet. The thing you want to find that might have something remotely like what you seek is another piece of equipment entirely. Not a server. The one not missing can never be found.
October 17, 2019
October 12, 2019
October 06, 2019
October 04, 2019
On The Hiberno–Brexit Front
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he did not want to "comment on court cases that are happening in the UK. They'll play themselves out".
He told a press conference in Denmark the EU would consider a request for a further Brexit extension if Mr Johnson asked for one, adding: "Certainly an extension would be better than a no deal".
However, he said many other EU countries would need a "good reason" to approve a further delay to the UK's exit.
He said his preference was to reach a deal with the UK by the summit of European leaders on 17 October and said he believed this was still possible.
"Our focus is getting a deal at the EU Council and I believe that's possible," he added.
Here the renowned fellow Varadkar, high official of the Irish government itself, proposes a last possible exit to diplomacy debouching at the October 17 EU Council Meeting.
It's a gracious gesture, but also cautionary if many nations truly need convincing for further extensions. Any extension requires unanimous consent.
The longer the EU lets Brexit drag on, the more expensive the eventual booting of Britain becomes for the economies of the EU's member states, it says here.
Anyhow, I would say Taoiseach rather that Prime Minister, which is more of a Boris Johnson thing.
September 28, 2019
Revison
Except that of course trying to equate whatever it was that "September 27" indicated in the Julian Calendar of 1066 with what passes for September 27 in the current Gregorian one is an effort bound to fail. They can't help but mean different places.
William, having gathered his forces at the mouth of the Somme, set sail. This was all some time ago, and the rest is history.
September 27, 2019
Recant
No, in spite of previous assertions, this is the 953rd anniversary of the day on which William set sail to conquer the British Isles, September 27, 1066.
September 26, 2019
Respects
This is the 953rd anniversary of the day on which William set sail to conquer the British Isles, September 27, 1066.
I grudgingly applaud the move. Residual self-interest tips me.
September 24, 2019
Robert Hunter (June 23, 1941-Septermber 23, 2019)
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
September 18, 2019
John Cohen (August 2, 1932 – September 16, 2019)
He, "Uncle John" Cohen, wasn't necessarily that Uncle John, but still.
September 12, 2019
Does He Seem Fit?
Candidate Castro made what proves to be a baseless charge against Joe Biden in tonight's debate. Clearly it served as a test of how capably Joe Biden might respond to baseless charges against him, the number of which can only increase, by an elemental law of politics, as the campaign continues.
September 08, 2019
August 25, 2019
He Really IS That Guy Down There At The End Of The Bar
Trumps' Plan To Destroy Hurricanes resurfaces a really old, really bad idea that he likely just discovered and now won't stop going on about.
August 22, 2019
It's Not Easy Being Green
The purpose of owning Greenland is to finally surround Canada with America at last, from Greenland in the Arctic East to Alaska in the Arctic West above and then all the way around to the contiguous 48 below, surrounded. Then let the Canucks try something. Just let them.
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