Monday, January 01, 2018

C'mon, 2018~!!!

May this be the Year we get a Sea Change!!


20 comments:

  1. A Watergate prosecutor’s guess about the principal focus of the Special Prosecutor’s investigation.[Click] “All of this is going to come together in 2018.”

    High-Tax States Plot to Blunt Impact of New Tax Law[Click]

    Gillibrand Sure Looks Like She’s Running for President[Click] Lots of names are being tossed around, but I haven’t heard any new ones that strike me as particularly interesting. I would like to hear from a candidate who knows something about foreign affairs and can talk about our place in the long arc of history—but do not expect it.

    How Trump Made Special Elections Great Again[Click]
    Title[Click]

    —Alan

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    1. That Watergate note is interesting. I don't mind what takes that man out of office, just that it happen.

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    2. listener--I am sure you mean that you don't mind what legal and nonviolent means take that man out of office.

      Alan

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    3. Surely that is what Listener means, Alan. Certainly, that's what I mean. While I could, totally without compunction, overlook my horror of violence where the Cheato-in-Chief is concerned - it being a justifiable execution to my way of thinking - assassination would turn him into a martyr in his followers' eyes, and that is absolutely *the last* thing we need! So, legal and nonviolent it must be. But legal and nonviolent usually means slow. I want him out NOW!

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    4. I can honestly say I was referring to legal and political scenarios. But I must honestly add that if something untoward were to happen to DT, I would have a hard time experiencing mourning.

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  2. Its -1 degree this noon. I still haven't shoveled my driveway and I don't plan to. It's too dang cold to be out there wielding a shovel. Some good neighbor did all the sidewalks with a snow blower, so I'm glad of that because my sidewalk would have been my responsibility if they didn't do it.

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    1. Same here. Definite proof that Herr Fahrenheit was wrong -- the temperature of an ice-salt mixture is not the lowest temperature possible anywhere.

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    2. How much snow is in your driveway, Susan? With minus temps it's apt to freeze solid. Then shoveling it won't be possible. So just stay home until the January thaw.

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  3. At 7:30am it was -19.8F at my house. We got way up to 1F and presently it's -9F.

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  4. 64F/41F here today, according to the weather report.

    Alan

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    1. Alan, that will be our weather come May.

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  5. From the US Abdication of Influence files:

    Washington Post:

    Pakistani official fires back after Trump tweet, saying U.S. has offered ‘nothing but invective & mistrust’
    Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir-Khan angrily responded to President Trump’s tweet that Pakistan gives “safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”

    Yoo hoo, Donnie; The US moves personnel and supplies into and out of Afghanistan via Pakistan. Are you maybe going to change the route so it goes through Iran?

    Washington Post:
    The South China Sea fell off Trump’s radar last year. He may have to pay attention in 2018.
    China is building bases that, once operational, will enable its military to better patrol the South China Sea, potentially changing the regional balance of power.

    Uhh, this isn’t news. It was the reason for the military “pivot to Asia” during the Obama administration.

    The Guardian:
    China may achieve a feat never attempted by the US or USSR – landing on the far side of the moon[Click] And they may emplace a radio telescope—in one of the most radio-quiet places in the entire solar system. Top-drawer science—like that huge terrestrial radio telescope they recently built.

    —Alan

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    1. Disappointed as I am at the incompetent devolution of influence by the US (starting with Bush the Younger, as I see it), one must give recognition where it is due. As memory serves me, that huge terrestrial radio telescope China built--bigger than the Areceibo Observatory--is optimized for the frequency band that human scientists consider the most likely for intragalactic communications.

      Alan

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    2. And on that note, I think I will watch a movie--The Andromeda Strain. I saw it when it was first in the theaters, so have forgotten quite a bit of it. I should actually prefer to start on a thick book--an autobiography of Garibaldi, but with the workload so heavy at my job these days, that isn't practical. More and more work, with no more help, pay, or simple thanks. I shall soon take back control of the situation by retiring.

      --Alan

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    3. I read the Andromeda Strain before seeing the movie. At the time, I couldn't quite picture the scenes in the book, so the movie really helped. But it's a worthy story and intriguing plot.

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    4. I read The Andromeda Strain when it first came out. I was teaching at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at the time and was shocked that someone with an MD from Harvard could be so ignorant of fundamental biology.

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    5. Yes, failure to quickly recognize the similarity between the two survivors was of course a dramatic device (as were numerous other things). But the movie was a good diversion. BTW, I rather liked the senator from Vermont, played by Eric Christmas.

      P.S.: I got a little carried away typing above; it is a biography, not an autobiography of Garibaldi.

      --Alan

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  6. listener1/01/2018 11:57:00 PM
    Just remember that everything we write here is open to all, and we may assume it is being monitored. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
    --Alan

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