Year: 2017

The Swedes are the Greatest People on the Face of the Earth

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Swedish passenger operator MTR Express opened up a new line between Stockholm and Gothenburg, and they held an online contest to name it, the obvious happened, but unlike the killjoys at the Natural Environment Research Council, they decided to name the line Trainy McTrainface:

A Swedish rail operator has vowed to name one of its trains Trainy McTrainface after a public vote, saying it would bring joy to people disappointed when Britain rejected the name Boaty McBoatface for a polar research ship following a similar poll.

Trainy McTrainface won 49% of the votes in the naming competition, conducted online by train operator MTR Express and Swedish newspaper Metro, beating choices such as Hakan, Miriam and Poseidon.

“[This is] news that will be received with joy by many, not just in Sweden,” MTR wrote in a statement.

The train will run between the Swedish capital Stockholm and Gothenburg, the country’s second-biggest city.
………

MTR said another train had been voted to be named “Glenn”, an apparent tribute to an IFK Gothenburg soccer team of the 1980s that featured four players of that name – uncommon in Sweden – including Glenn Hysen, who later captained Liverpool.

This is so cool.

Epic Troll

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Over at The Register, they discuss how the Royal Navy will maintain offensive capability now that they will have no antiship weapons between 2018 and 2020.

Their proposal is to put the biplane Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber on their aircraft carriers:

The solution to the Royal Navy’s post-2018 problem of having no anti-ship weapons is already in service and can even equip the UK’s new aircraft carriers.

The Fairey Swordfish (pictured above) is a versatile, rugged torpedo bomber first introduced into service in the 1930s. Having outlived everything introduced to replace it during the WWII, two flying examples remain in service with the RN Historic Flight.

These two aircraft could each be assigned to HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the 70,000-ton aircraft carriers due to enter naval service in the near future.

Although neither carrier has catapults (or, indeed, aircraft until the year 2021), the Swordfish is capable of taking off within 540ft at full power* with the ship steaming into a 20kt wind – which compares very favourably with the QE-class’s 920ft flight deck.

The Swordfish has a noble and proud history of delivering the Navy’s ship-sinking capability, most notably over the Italian fleet at Taranto in 1940 and crippling the battleship Bismarck later in WWII. It is a proven war-winning platform with a straightforward wood-and-canvas construction that means spares and logistic trains will cost infinitely less than the heart-stoppingly expensive F-35B fighter jet (at around $130m per aircraft, according to some estimates) which will not be able to fly from the British carriers until 2021 at the earliest.

Snerk!

MSNBC Gets to Know C. Megalodon*

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I have noted the self-immolation of the journalistic credibility by Rachel Maddow in the past, and while I do not generally watch Maddow, or MSNBC any more, I was bored and flipping channels, and came across Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell having a rather breathless discussion about how Donald Trump is asking for legal opinions about whether he can pardon family members and himself.

They are referring to a Washington Post story in which there is a more general discussion of legal tactics considered by the Trump administration.

Pardons came up, but is appears to be a part of discussion of a myriad of potential legal options to thwart Mueller’s investigation, so, not only did MSNBC bury the lede, but in so doing they missed the real story, which that the entire f%$#ing Trump administration is planning to subvert a federal investigation by constructing a  pretense for his dismissal:

Some of President Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, building a case against what they allege are his conflicts of interest and discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons, according to people familiar with the effort.

Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.

Trump’s legal team declined to comment on the issue. But one adviser said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understanding the reach of his pardoning authority, as well as the limits of Mueller’s investigation.

“This is not in the context of, ‘I can’t wait to pardon myself ,’ ” a close adviser said.

With the Russia investigation continuing to widen, Trump’s lawyers are working to corral the probe and question the propriety of the special counsel’s work. They are actively compiling a list of Mueller’s alleged potential conflicts of interest, which they say could serve as a way to stymie his work, according to several of Trump’s legal advisers.

………

Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s private lawyers, said in an interview Thursday that the president and his legal team are intent on making sure Mueller stays within the boundaries of his assignment as special counsel. He said they will complain directly to Mueller if necessary.

“The fact is that the president is concerned about conflicts that exist within the special counsel’s office and any changes in the scope of the investigation,” Sekulow said. “The scope is going to have to stay within his mandate. If there’s drifting, we’re going to object.”

Sekulow cited Bloomberg News reports that Mueller is scrutinizing some of Trump’s business dealings, including with a Russian oligarch who purchased a Palm Beach mansion from Trump for $95 million in 2008.

“They’re talking about real estate transactions in Palm Beach several years ago,” Sekulow said. “In our view, this is far outside the scope of a legitimate investigation.”

………

The president’s legal representatives have also identified what they allege are several conflicts of interest facing Mueller, such as donations to Democrats by some of his prosecutors.

Another potential conflict claim is an allegation that Mueller and Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia had a dispute over membership fees when Mueller resigned as a member in 2011, two White House advisers said. A spokesman for Mueller said there was no dispute when Mueller, who was FBI director at the time, left the club.

………

Some Republicans in frequent touch with the White House said they viewed the president’s decision to publicly air his disappointment with Sessions as a warning sign that the attorney general’s days were numbered. Several senior aides were described as “stunned” when Sessions announced Thursday morning he would stay on at the Justice Department.

Another Republican in touch with the administration described the public steps as part of a broader effort aimed at “laying the groundwork to fire” Mueller.

“Who attacks their entire Justice Department?” this person said. “It’s insane.”

It’s a big story, but MSNBC is so far into its, “A noun, a verb, and Vladimir Putin,” that it’s missing the actual story:  Obstruction of Justice, the thing that they got Nixon for.

Lame.

*The largest shark, and likely largest predator fish ever. It died out some 1.5 million years ago. The Genus is still in dispute, between either Carcharodon (Great White) or Carcharocles (broad toothed Mako). But in either case, you are jumping C. Megalodon, you have jumped the biggest shark ever.

Mindbogglingly Incompetent

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We have a reveal of the Democratic Party motto for 2018:

I shouldve corrected this immediately; I've deleted original tweet. Full slogan is "A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages"

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) July 20, 2017

This is monumentally incompetent.

My take:

Jeebus. The unofficial Motto of Reed College would be better, "Atheism, Communism, Free Love."

— Matthew Saroff (@40_Years) July 20, 2017

Fail

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Mitch McConnell and his merry band of psychopaths have failed even worse on their 2nd try to repeal Obamacare:

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, announced Tuesday morning on the Senate floor that the Republicans’ effort to repeal and replace Obamacare had failed.

This turn of events marks a stunning defeat for President Trump, who has made a “repeal and replace” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) one of his central policy goals. Although he has issued executive orders on immigration, deregulation, and taken other reactionary initiatives, no major legislation has been moved through Congress for him to sign.

McConnell was unable to bring the latest version of Senate Republicans’ Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) to a vote after two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, came out in opposition to the bill, leaving the Senate leadership at least two votes short of the number needed to begin debate on the measure.

Two other Republicans, Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, had already signaled their opposition. With a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate, the measure could only lose the support of two Republicans, with Vice President Mike Pence brought in to break a tie.

Senate Republicans then pivoted to “Plan B,” described by McConnell as legislation that would include a “repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable two-year transition period.” This measure was scuttled almost as soon as it was advanced, as three Republican senators indicated that they would not vote to bring it to the Senate floor.

I  believe that the source of Republican problems is that, as Stephen Colbert noted, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

This interferes with Republican attempts to impoverish and inmiserate the American public.

This Is the Right Thing to Do, Though the Reasons Are Probably Wrong

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Donald Trump has ended the CIA’s effort to fund Jihadi/al Qaeda forces in Syria trying to overthrow the Assad regime.

Of course, since this story was revealed by the Washington Post, which has endorsed every fakakta regime change scheme forever, they try to spin it as some sort of collusion with Putin, but the fact that the CIA has literally been providing support to al Qaeda affiliates indicates the complete intellectual bankruptcy of this effort.

It also is a shot across the bow of other nations **cough** House of Saud **cough** that their support of Salafist fighters in Syria.

The sad thing about Syria is that for most of the country (Kurdistan* is the exception), Bashir Assad is the best option, which is thoroughly depressing.

President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials.

The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later.

Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests. The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washington’s limited leverage and desire to remove Assad from power.

………

After the Trump-Putin meeting, the United States and Russia announced an agreement to back a new cease-fire in southwest Syria, along the Jordanian border, where many of the CIA-backed rebels have long operated. Trump described the limited cease-fire deal as one of the benefits of a constructive working relationship with Moscow.

The move to end the secret program to arm the anti-Assad rebels was not a condition of the cease-fire negotiations, which were already well underway, said U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the secret program.

Trump’s dealings with Russia have been under heavy scrutiny because of the investigations into the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election. The decision on the CIA-backed rebels will be welcomed by Moscow, which focused its firepower on those fighters after it intervened in Syria in 2015.

Some current and former officials who support the program cast the move as a major concession.

“This is a momentous decision,” said a current official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a covert program. “Putin won in Syria.”

No, Putin didn’t win, you are your merry band of regime change fetishists lost, and you deserved to.

Look at Libya and Iraq. Your world view sucks wet farts from dead pigeons.

The interventionist foreign policy consensus, as personified by the Council on Foreign Relations, has created instability, terrorism, suffering, and massive loss of life around the world, and it needs to be repudiated.

*Of course, at the end of all this, the Kurds are going to get completely f%$#ed, because that is what Ankara will demand, but the Kurds always get f%$#ed in the great power games in the Middle East.

Linkage

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A good essay on swords, though katana lovers might object to some of the characterizations:

    Not a Good Prognosis

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    This is a very aggressive cancer, and typical survival rate after diagnosis is around a year and a half:

    Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, his office said Wednesday, throwing into doubt when and if he will return to Washington to resume his duties in the Senate.

    The Mayo Clinic said doctors diagnosed a tumor called a glioblastoma after surgery to remove a blood clot above McCain’s left eye last week. The senator and his family are considering treatment options, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, according to the hospital.

    McCain, 80, has been away from the Senate this week, recovering from the surgery and undergoing tests. His office issued a statement describing him “in good spirits” and noting that his doctors say his underlying health is excellent — but not indicating when he will return to the Senate.

    Glioblastoma is an aggressive type of brain cancer, and the prognosis for this kind of cancer is generally poor. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) survived less than 15 months after his was found in 2008. McCain’s doctors said the “tissue of concern” was removed during the blood-clot procedure.

    In the best case, McCain is unlikely to be back in Washington for a while, which would make things even worse for Mitch McConnell in his attempts to corral votes.

    Damn

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    Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee said on Tuesday that Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan stripped her amendment, which would have repealed authorization for the use of military force against ISIS, from a defense-spending bill.

    “Ryan stripped my 01 AUMF repeal amdt from DOD Approps in the dead of night. This is underhanded & undemocratic. The people deserve a debate!” she tweeted Tuesday night.

    Lee’s amendment, which received bipartisan support, would have repealed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force and made Congress pass another one to continue the campaign against ISIS.

    You knew that this was going to happen.

    If the Republicans weren’t willing to repeal the AUMF under Obama, who they loathed,  they won’t do it now.

    It is cowardice.

    Because of the 2001 AUMF, they don’t have to vote to authorize the next war, and the members of Congress do not want to own that decision.

    Live in Obedient Fear, Citizen

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    Clearly a Conscientious Officer

    A police officer in Baltimore was filmed planting evidence on his body cam.

    He was unaware that the camera constantly recorded video, and saved the 30 seconds before the camera was turned on, and a sharp eyed public defender spotted this:

    ………

    Now there’s word of another such incident in Baltimore, related to video from a January drug arrest. The officer’s trickery was revealed by the fact that his body cam retained footage for 30 seconds before it was activated to begin recording. During that time, according to the footage and the Baltimore public defender’s office, officer Richard Pinheiro puts a bag of pills in a can in an alley and walks out of the alley.

    The Axon cam’s initial 30 seconds of footage, by default, doesn’t have sound. After 30 seconds, viewers of the video can both see and hear the officer looking for drugs in the alley. Lo and behold, he finds them in the same soup can that he placed them in, according to the footage, which was released Wednesday. Pinheiro can then be heard yelling “yo” to his fellow officers, telling them he found drugs in the alley.

    The Baltimore Police Department said Wednesday it was investigating the matter, and the three officers seen in the video. The Baltimore public defender’s office discovered the incident when reviewing body cam footage while preparing to defend an upcoming drug prosecution.

    The footage paved the way for the authorities to drop charges against the drug suspect, who had remained jailed since January on $50,000 bail he could not post. The Baltimore public defender’s office said the officer in question is a witness in as many as 53 other active cases, according to the Baltimore Sun.

    (emphasis mine)

    Why this officer, and the two other cops in the film, haven’t been charged is completely beyond me.

    There is clearly probable cause sufficient for the state’s attorney to get an arrest warrant by all three officers.

    Most likely the police commissioner and the state’s attorney are busy trying to figure out what the absolute minimum to deal with this issue, because covering up for bad cops is what the authorities do.

    If they are forced to prosecute by public pressure, I expect the case to be mismanaged, because they will play to lose.

    True

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    The founder of the Russian punk bank Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, is saying that liberals are using Putin as a scapegoat to avoid looking at the problems of the Democratic party.

    Considering the fact that Putin had her thrown in jail for over a year for their protests of his regime, it is a remarkable statement:

    Sirota: Do you believe the American political class and media exaggerate the threat of Putin for its own ends?

     Tolokonnikova: Yeah. They’re just looking for a scapegoat and, you know, for Trump it’s Muslims and Mexican workers. And for liberal media in America it is Putin.

    I’ve been saying this for how long?

    I Have Heard This Story Before

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    Because what is going on in student loans looks a lot like the dodgy documentation that have been a feature of mortgages over the past few years.

    This all very similar to the clusterf%$# that is MERS that I have been writing about for years:

    Tens of thousands of people who took out private loans to pay for college but have not been able to keep up payments may get their debts wiped away because critical paperwork is missing.

    The troubled loans, which total at least $5 billion, are at the center of a protracted legal dispute between the student borrowers and a group of creditors who have aggressively pursued them in court after they fell behind on payments.

    Judges have already dismissed dozens of lawsuits against former students, essentially wiping out their debt, because documents proving who owns the loans are missing. A review of court records by The New York Times shows that many other collection cases are deeply flawed, with incomplete ownership records and mass-produced documentation.

    Some of the problems playing out now in the $108 billion private student loan market are reminiscent of those that arose from the subprime mortgage crisis a decade ago, when billions of dollars in subprime mortgage loans were ruled uncollectible by courts because of missing or fake documentation. And like those troubled mortgages, private student loans — which come with higher interest rates and fewer consumer protections than federal loans — are often targeted at the most vulnerable borrowers, like those attending for-profit schools.

    At the center of the storm is one of the nation’s largest owners of private student loans, the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts. It is struggling to prove in court that it has the legal paperwork showing ownership of its loans, which were originally made by banks and then sold to investors. National Collegiate’s lawyers warned in a recent legal filing, “As news of the servicing issues and the trusts’ inability to produce the documents needed to foreclose on loans spreads, the likelihood of more defaults rises.”

    National Collegiate is an umbrella name for 15 trusts that hold 800,000 private student loans, totaling $12 billion. More than $5 billion of that debt is in default, according to court filings. The trusts aggressively pursue borrowers who fall behind on their bills. Across the country, they have brought at least four new collection cases each day, on average — more than 800 so far this year — and tens of thousands of lawsuits in the past five years.

    ………

    In her defense, Ms. Watson’s lawyer seized upon what he saw as the flaws in National Collegiate’s paperwork. Judge Eddie McShan of New York City’s Civil Court in the Bronx agreed and dismissed four lawsuits against Ms. Watson. The trusts “failed to establish the chain of title” on Ms. Watson’s loans, he wrote in one ruling.

    ………

    Judges throughout the country, including recently in cases in New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas, have tossed out lawsuits by National Collegiate, ruling that it did not prove it owned the debt on which it was trying to collect.

    ………

    National Collegiate’s beneficial owner, Mr. Uderitz, hired a contractor in 2015 to audit the servicing company that bills National Collegiate’s borrowers each month and is supposed to maintain custody of many loan documents critical for collection cases.

    A random sample of nearly 400 National Collegiate loans found not a single one had assignment paperwork documenting the chain of ownership, according to a report they had prepared.

    (emphasis mine)

    People who say that our financial industry must be free to innovate need to look at sh%$ like this.

    To quote Paul Volker, “The only thing useful banks have invented in 20 years is the ATM.”

    *Saroff’s Rule: If a financial transaction is complex enough to require that a news organization use a cartoon to explain it, its purpose is to deceive.

    What a Delicate Snowflake

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    Donald Trump is refusing to make a state visit to the UK until he gets promises that he won’t see protestors.

    If he cannot handle some protestors carrying signs, how can he be expected to fight terrorists?

    Donald Trump reportedly told Theresa May he will not make a state visit to the UK until he is guaranteed a “better reception”.

    The US President asked the Prime Minister to prepare a “warm welcome” before he agrees to set a date, it has been claimed.

    The pair spoke on the phone to discuss the planned state visit, which has now been postponed until next year.

    “I haven’t had great coverage out there lately, Theresa,” Mr Trump told Ms May, according to a transcript of the conversation seen by The Sun.

    Ms May replied: “Well, you know what the British press are like.”

    But Mr Trump added: “I still want to come, but I’m in no rush.

    “So, if you can fix it for me, it would make things a lot easier.

    “When I know I’m going to get a better reception, I’ll come and not before.”

    Narcissistic cowardice is no way to run a foreign policy.

    FAIL

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    Two more Republicans have come out against the Senate version of Trumpcare, which means that even with the tie breaking vote of Mike Pence, they are two votes short to passing their healthcare clusterf%$#:

    Two more Senate Republicans have declared their opposition to the latest plan to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, potentially ending a months-long effort to make good on a GOP promise that has defined the party for nearly a decade and been a top priority for President Trump.

    Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) issued statements declaring that they would not vote for the revamped measure. The sudden breaks by Lee, a staunch conservative, and Moran, an ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), rocked the GOP leadership and effectively closed what already had been an increasingly narrow path to passage for the bill.

    They joined Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine), who also oppose it. With just 52 seats, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes to pass their proposed rewrite of the Affordable Care Act. All 46 Democrats and two independents are expected to vote against it.

    Republicans, who have made rallying cries against President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care law a pillar of the party’s identity, may be forced to grapple with the law’s shift from a perennial GOP target to an accepted, even popular, provider of services and funding in many states, which could make further repeal revivals difficult.

    They are running into a classic problem from history:  Invading barbarians tear things down, but then find that they can neither build nor maintain things, and so they cannot maintain control.

    The Republicans are constrained by their philosophy, they have come to believe that government is an unalloyed evil, and as such they cannot propose something that might be seen as an improvement by all but the most delusional right wingers.

    Unfortunately, those, “Most delusional right wingers,” have large enough numbers within the party to swing a primary, but there aren’t enough to swing a general election. (They already vote ‘Phant in the general now)

    Mitch McConnell, meet the Kobayashi Maru.

    The Problem Was the Original Purchase

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    Austria will be removing the Eurofighter Typhoon from service ahead of schedule because they have found it too expensive to operate:

    It is a matter of concern for an aircraft manufacturer when one of the richest countries in the world declares its fighter is too expensive to operate.

    But then Austria is a something of a special case. Critics generally agree that the landlocked neutral state probably never really needed the 15 Eurofighter Typhoons it ordered in 2003.

    In Austrian hands, the advanced multirole fighter, originally designed to tackle the latest Russian threats, has been relegated to an interceptor role, with many of its advanced electronic warfare systems removed.

    I don’t get why they bought the aircraft in the first place.  It’s not like Slovenia is going to invade them any time soon.

    My suggestion would be to replace it with an inexpensive subsonic aircraft, something like the BAE Hawk, but if they feel compelled to go with a supersonic aircraft to deal with the threat from Switzerland or Italy, I would suggest the Chinese/Pakistani JF-16, which is less than half the purchase price of western aircraft.

    But even in this case, to quote Eisenhower, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

    Headline of the Day

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    Legal Arguments in “Monkey Selfie” Case Are Bananas at Hearing

    —Hollywood Reporter

    The nut-jobs at PETA are suing to assign copyright to the monkey because, well, QED.

    There are some legitimate copyright issues involved with this photo, the photographer is arguing that he holds copyright even though it was a crested black macaque that actually pressed the shutter button.

    He has lost to this point, and said crested black macaque, not being a human, has been deemed unable to hold a copyright, so it’s in the public domain.

    Of course, PETA saw fit to invite itself to this, and move a marginally interesting point of law into a freak shot, because ……… PETA.

    One of My Coping Mechanisms

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    The past week was not (and hasn’t been for my adult life) a good time for me.

    So, today, I decided to do something that I haven’t ever done before culinarily, home pickling. 

    It gets my head into a better place.

    I did the whole megillah, using Ball (mason type) jars, to create a pickle that does not need refrigeration.

    It’s a canned pickle.

    I used Romanesco “Fractal” broccoli, but I am also going to do carrots, green beans, normal broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, and Brussels sprouts, because I have a sh%$ load of pickling brine left over.

    I used pickling spice, bay leaves, chipolte peppers, juniper berries, dill, salt, apple cider vinegar, and garlic in the brine, and in about 1/3 of the jars, I added some sugar for sweet pickles.

    Linkage

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    Morgan Freeman as you’ve never heard him before: