6.25.2016

Piracy. Arrrgh.

I Voted for Donald Trump. So Why Am I in Elizabeth Warren's Trump-Bashing Video? - POLITICO Magazine
http://goo.gl/d0tZxw

What is this, Boy Scouts?

I get merit badges from Walgreens for walking. They arrive in an email. Congratulations, the email says.

Walgreens has an app that hooks in to the pedometer app on my iPhone and counts my steps. Walking points get added to points I earn for performing other praiseworthy actions like, for example, buying stuff at Walgreens. I can use them—the points—to buy more stuff. At Walgreens.

Like this morning, for example, I traded in some of my healthy walking points for not one but two bags of potato chips. Win-win.

Let's not waste any money on music

Politico The House of Representatives is telling the military to lower the volume. Lawmakers who have been advocating for reducing the size and cost of military bands - now a half-billion-dollar a year enterprise - won a key victory Thursday with passage of a ...

We have plenty of music as it is. In fact you might say we have a music glut. Have you ever been on a bus next to one of those guys who's singing along with his iPod?

If they try reducing the size and cost of military wars, that might possibly be a good thing too.

Gives new meaning to "singing like a bird"


Chatty parrot may be submitted as evidence in murder trial
Fox News

A foul-mouthed parrot may provide key evidence in the murder trial of a Michigan woman accused of killing her husband more than a year ago. Read the full story

6.24.2016

Joe Biden warns against…wait for it…


Listing global irritants like mass migration, terrorism, climate change, Biden said those factors are leading to leaders "peddling xenophobia, nationalism, and isolationism," including in the United States.


nationalism in the United States!

Make it illegal, duh

There'll always be an England


The British are frantically Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it 

www.washingtonpost.com

Read the full story


Up in Bernie's state

Swamp Bats Defeat Mountaineers

BRATTLEBORO [VT] >> Closer Michael LaBeau, who is a Bellows Falls Union High School graduate, fanned two batters in 1.2 innings of work and picked up his fourth save of the season as the Keene Swamp Bats downed the Vermont Mountaineers 5-3 in front of 1,463 fans at Alumni Field on Thursday night.

Read the full story

Keene is in New Hampshire, just across the river and a little bit down the road from Brattleboro and 39 miles from where I am if I'm a crow, according to Siri. I don't know how far that is in swamp bat but maybe some day I'll find out. 

This could still be a lot of fun

Huffington Post The Sanders campaign compiled an email list with 130 million names, a donor list that produced over $200 million in contributions, and a volunteer army of millions of enthusiastic supporters.

The establishment Democrats still don't get it. Bernie's passionate supporters actually believe in his agenda, and they view the Democrat Party as deeply entangled with Wall Street and the top 1 percent. They are not going to volunteer for Hillary no matter what Sanders says.

Well now, here's a thought to boggle the mind

Coward Paul Ryan is a tool for the National Rifle Association - http://goo.gl/nErLzf

Ryan is so gutless that he is backing a presidential candidate he doesn't like.

6.23.2016

I suppose it sounds too Trumpian to actually happen but…

Boeing’s Man Pushed for the Iran Nuclear Deal—and Now the Company Is Selling $25 Billion Worth of Planes to Tehran - The Daily Beast

"Thomas Pickering, one of the country’s most respected diplomats and a and former ambassador to Israel and the United Nations, has been quietly taking money from Boeing while vocally supporting the Iran nuclear deal—testifying before Congress, writing letters to high-level officials, and penning op-eds for outlets like The Washington Post."

…maybe we should ban politicians until we figure out what’s going on.

Dopes in high places


Clinton staff disabled security of private email server | New York Post

Clinton has repeatedly denied there is any evidence her private email server ever was breached.




Whatta way to start the day

Watch New Yorkers miss the subway by mere seconds - NY Daily News

 

Like voting for The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight*

Hillary Clinton, DNC Campaign Strategy Outlined In Data Dump By Hacker

"And it appears that Hillary Clinton’s troubles are mounting, as Bloomberg reported that the hackers may have penetrated the Clinton Foundation’s systems."

[*The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight]

Time to start studying the list of alternate candidates. It’s a long one; it’ll take a while.

This dog is a real dog

WWBT : Ugliest dog contestant has Trump-like hair

 

Imagine our disappointment

I Tried Making the Secret Starbucks Purple Drink and Failed Miserably

 

6.22.2016

An AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and five handguns

Holland Tunnel gun nuts claim they were on rescue mission | New York Post

"Authorities also found 2,000 rounds of ammo, a bulletproof vest emblazoned with the word “police,” tactical gear, a small amount of pot, three prescription pills and a pot pipe"

Guys try to sneak weapons into Manhattan through Holland tunnel in this top-secret truck…

Screen Shot 2016 06 22 at 6 26 12 AM

 

For extra credit, driver was concealing a loaded .45 by sitting on it.

This Olympics business is starting to sound more exciting every day

Jaguar killed after escaping handlers in Rio torch relay ceremony - NY Daily News

Athletes—a whole country—banned for doping, sewage in the water, killer mosquitos and now, jaguars…

They should hand out gold medals just for showing up.

O brave new world

Tech community desperate for 'Independence Day' more than 'Star Trek' - CNET from CNET News's Tweet

You know that buying [a movie ticket] online assures you a seat without having to move from your seat. This is what Americans call freedom.

6.21.2016

What we deserve


Here's why the RNC needs Donald Trump to step up his fundraising game - The Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com

For the presumptive nominee of a major party to have only $1.3 million in the bank isn't just unusual, it's positively stunning. That figure is what you expect from someone running for a House seat, not someone faced with mounting a national campaign whose costs could approach a billion dollars.

Read the full story

No, it's not having a meager $1.3 million in the bank that's stunning, it's that a campaign for president might cost as much as $1 billion.

When we sell our government to the highest bidder we get what we deserve.


Imagine our dismay


Kim Kardashian slams Senate for not passing gun control legislation
CNN

Kim Kardashian on Tuesday slammed the Senate for failing to pass gun control measures following last week's mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Read the full story


My second earliest tech fantasy…

…(the earliest was the Dick Tracy wrist radio…


…which still seems to be on the way any minute now)…

…the flying car!

…now also seems to be on the way any minute now according to the Washington Post, here.

Although, just as it's often said those guys who wrote the Second Amendment never imagined AR-15's we, three-quarters of a century ago when we first began dreaming about flying cars never imagined traffic on any big-city expressway during rush hour.

We're probably going to need some flying tow trucks too.

I always remember the butter too late…

…right about the time I'm pouring the Canola into the pan…but it's there, in the fridge, and it's been there since the toaster broke. Toast was always my preferred butter delivery system. But scrambled eggs was a close second (this morning with mushrooms and tumeric, not bad).

One of these days I'll remember, and imagine how good that will be.

The invasion of the picture people

Buying into new features that shape emoji could mean giving tech companies the power to control our creative expressions.

"You know, sometimes you've typed a whole message and you realize at the end that you're entirely lacking in emojification…" 

New York Times: http://goo.gl/4NMj7u

A new Apple keyboard will "emojify" your messages for you. This gets a lot of people upset. Me, I'm just waiting for the chance to emojify Moby Dick. Maybe I can finally get through it then. 

😖

6.20.2016

What, me worry?

But not to worry

Wall Street donors seek to block Warren VP pick - POLITICO

"NEW YORK — Big Wall Street donors have a message for Hillary Clinton: Keep Elizabeth Warren off the ticket or risk losing millions of dollars in contributions."

Hillary knows how to keep those Wall Street guys in line. Do what they say, is how.

Me, I’m a Warren fan, but now we need her in the Senate where she can do us some good. She can be the New Bernie sometime else.

Cows are still OK though, right?

WATCH: Celebrities hope to put an end to Chinese dog eating fest - NY Daily News

Or pigs. Does anybody anywhere object to eating pigs?

Because bacon.

So where's the money?

The U.S. economy is 10% larger than it was at its pre-recession peak [2008]. In contrast, the eurozone has grown less than 1% and Japan's economic growth has been nearly flat during that time.

Wall Street Journal, http://goo.gl/EFo4Oq

Tonight it's a Honey Moon


The Moon Hasn't Done This In Nearly Half A Century
The Huffington Post - US

Look to the skies this evening and you'll enjoy something of a rare phenomenon: A full moon on the same day as the summer solstice -- something that hasn't happened since 1967. ... Read the full story

"The Sun gets super high so this moon must be super-low. Even at its loftiest at 1 a.m., it's downright wimpy-low," astronomer Bob Berman wrote on the Old Farmer's Almanac website. "This forces its light through thicker air, which also tends to be humid this time of year, and the combination typically makes it amber colored. This is the true Honey Moon."

6.19.2016

Trump wants to profile Muslims…

…bad, bad…

Donald Trump says US should consider profiling Muslims
www.boston.com

Read the full story

… but US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, apparently, wants Muslims to profile themselves.

"It is very important for to us maintain our contacts within the Muslim community, because, often, individuals, if they're from that community and they're being radicalized, their friends and family members will see it first. They will see activity first. And we want that information to come to us," Lynch said on CNN's "State of Union."


Let's not forget Tricky Dick

Our Worst Presidents Came In With A Lot Of Experience | FiveThirtyEight

Or Lyndon Johnson, for that matter, or Gerald Ford or James Buchanan, yada yada…Obama says there’s never been a better qualified candidate than Clinton—the H one—but have a look at this chart before you swallow that.

Dog bites man is not news, they say, but this is

Staten Island man bites dog | New York Post

"Sharon, 44, feasted on the furry appendage sometime between Nov. 7 and Nov. 11, according to a criminal complaint. He later brought the dog to St. Francis Animal Hospital, but kept nibbling on his pet’s ear in the veterinarian’s office, court papers say."

June 19, 1928: Amelia Earhart becomes first woman to cross Atlantic by air

TimesMachine: June 19, 1928 - NYTimes.com

“[She] alighted in the seaplane Friendship here this morning on the broad expanse of Loughor estuary, after a flight of 20 hours and 40 minutes elapsed time from Trepassey."

So, you know, if you bought tickes to this thing…

Financial calamity declared in Rio weeks before Olympics, but Games will go on - The Washington Post

"In an official decree published Friday afternoon by acting governor Francisco Dornelles, the state government said the crisis could cause a “total collapse in public security, health, education, transport and environmental management.”"

Somehow The Girl from Ipanema will never sound the same.

A new internet-fun thing to do: Pile food on your kid's face

Cheerio challenge: Dads compete to stack cereal on babies' heads - CNN.com

 

Just what I needed

The trash collection calendar for next year. Every week the truck comes down the street and picks up big bags of trash from every house, sometimes two bags or more. What a mess.