Year: 2018

Yes, Supporting the Corrupt Son of a Bitch is Working Out Well

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OIt looks likely that Democrat Bob Menendez is in a tight race with Republican Bob Hugin for his New Jersey US Senate Seat.

Note that New Jersey has not voted for a Republican Presidential Candidate since 1988, and hasn’t elected a Republican Senator since 1978. (There have been some ‘Phant appointments)

But Hugins is in the margin of error, because he was tried for corruption and the jury hung, and because the Supreme Court made it next to impossible to prosecute corrupt politicians with the Bob “Governor Ultrasound” McDonnell decision.

The Democrats are not running against Wall Street, because they want the campaign cash, they are in hock up to their eyeballs to big pharma, (Jim Manchin’s kid is behind price gouging on the Epi-Pen), and now they are putting forward corrupt candidates.

This is the stupidest Democratic Party campaign strategy since ……… Well, 2016, but you get my point.

The Value That They Share Is a Dedication to Looting

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Neera Tanden, who has made a career out of supporting the worst that the Democratic Party has to offer in order to suck up corporate money, and Bill Kristol, who has made a career out of being Irving Kristol’s kid, are holding a mutual talk to discuss what they have in common.

📢 WATCH NOW! We are #live with @BillKristol & @NeeraTanden as they talk about shared #values on both sides in the latest #policytalks, part of the @WeListenUSA Fall Conference. Link to view: https://t.co/15pQ3OANcx 📺 pic.twitter.com/kplwJrJqds

— Ford School (@fordschool) September 30, 2018

What you have in common is that you are a bunch of contemptible parasites who make the world a profoundly worse place.

Yeah, the Fix is In on Kavanaugh

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No questions to Kavanaugh or Ford, Ramirez was barely intervieded and and corroborating witnesses were given the brush off.

The money quote here is, “No one who lived in Lawrance Hall (so far as I know) has been contacted by the FBI What a charade.”

The WaPo has a list of people that he FBI refused to interview despite their claims that Kavanaugh is a liar, which is a critical part of a background check, and another story from them about how the FBI refused to interview someone who had text messages showing that Kavanaugh was doing damage control on Ramirez before he told the Judiciary Committee he knew about the allegations.

Of course, Susan Collins has signed off on the sham, because her moderation only really applies when her vote does not count.

So, it looks like we are going to get a liar, gambling addict, alcoholic, rapist on the Supreme Court.

He has a pretty good shot at being a worse justice than Roger B. Taney.

Linkage

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Word is that Matt Damon nailed this in less than 24 hours:

F%$# the DNC

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Pathetic

Tom Perez, chair of the DNC says that here will be no consequences for Democratic Senators who vote for Kavanaugh.

Seriously, the only reason that the Democratic Party establishment gives to vote for them is, “The Supreme Court,” and Perez cannot even hold the line on that.

They are the problem, not the solution, and they are dedicated to the dystopian status quo.

Give to candidates, or give to state parties, but don’t give money, or your personal information, to the DNC, and do not refer friends to the DNC, because they are nothing more than a way for incompetent consultants to get paid.

Frat, Drunk, and Stupid Is No Way to Go through Life, Son.

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The drip, drip, drip of Kavanaugh revelations continue.

First, and most significantly, text messages have been revealed showing that Kavanaugh was marshalling a response to Deborah Ramirez before anyone had heard of her, which begs the question:  How could he know if, as he has testified, this had never happened?

Also, it appears that he started a bar fight in 1985:

As an undergraduate student at Yale, Brett M. Kavanaugh was involved in an altercation at a local bar during which he was accused of throwing ice on another patron, according to a police report.

The incident, which occurred in September 1985 during Mr. Kavanaugh’s junior year, resulted in Mr. Kavanaugh and four other men being questioned by the New Haven Police Department. Mr. Kavanaugh was not arrested, but the police report stated that a 21-year-old man accused Mr. Kavanaugh of throwing ice on him “for some unknown reason.”

A witness to the fight said that Chris Dudley, a Yale basketball player who is friends with Mr. Kavanaugh, then threw a glass that hit the man in the ear, according to the police report, which was obtained by The New York Times.

The report said that the victim, Dom Cozzolino, “was bleeding from the right ear” and was treated at a hospital. A detective was notified of the incident at 1:20 a.m.

Mr. Dudley denied the accusation, according to the report. For his part, speaking to the officers, Mr. Kavanaugh did not want “to say if he threw the ice or not,” the police report said.

Nope, no indication of a teen drinking problem there.

Neither is his letter to has friends in high school about their weekend getaway which stated that, “Warn the neighbors that we’re loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us.”

Nope, no sign of out of control drinking there either.

Also, Chad Ludington Kavanaugh’s Yale roommate, has called him a liar about his drinking in college:

In recent days I have become deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale. When I watched Brett and his wife being interviewed on Fox News on Monday, and when I watched Brett deliver his testimony under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, I cringed. For the fact is, at Yale, and I can speak to no other times, Brett was a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker. I know, because, especially in our first two years of college, I often drank with him. On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.

I’m beginning to think that if he got drunk, and forcibly buggered Mitch McConnell over his desk on the floor of the Senate, he would still get at least 48 Republican votes, including Mitch McConnel, to confirm him to the Supreme Court.

Tru Dat

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I know that we are living in Bizarro world when Donald Trump is telling the truth.

In this case, he told the King of Saudi Arabia that they were dependent on the US for their continued survival.

Taking down the corrupt creeps in the House of Saud, even rhetorically, is a good thing:

President Donald Trump made an undiplomatic remark about close ally Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, saying he warned Saudi Arabia’s King Salman he would not last in power “for two weeks” without the backing of the U.S. military.

“We protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say they’re rich. And I love the King, King Salman. But I said ‘King — we’re protecting you — you might not be there for two weeks without us — you have to pay for your military,'” Trump said to cheers at a rally in Southaven, Mississippi.

I don’t know if  he actually said this to representatives of the House of Saud, Trump has a long history of blowing smoke up people’s asses, but the statement is pretty accurate with regard to the to the real value of the few thousand thieves who claim to be princes.

About F%$#ing Time

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The latest FAA authorization bill gives the agency the right to regulate seat spacing:

The recently announced multi-year deal to reauthorize the FAA contains many gifts for industry, from new rules restricting the misuse of service and support animals to policies that advance the safe integration of commercial drones. But a provision tucked in the bill that would clear the way for the FAA to regulate minimum seat sizes has some industry watchers concerned that Congress may be overstepping its bounds.

Section 577 of H.R. 302—the legislative package containing the FAA reauthorization bill—would give the agency one year to issue regulations that establish minimum seat dimensions for all commercial aircraft operating in the U.S. These would include minimums for seat pitch, width and length.

………

The proposed regulations—if approved—would likely be felt most acutely by the ultra-low-cost carriers (ULCC), which have high-density seating to maintain their low unit costs. 

This does not mean that the FAA will act, and they have seemed disinclined to do so, but I think that political pressure will eventually lead to meaningful action.

That;s the First One

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An F-35 has crashed in South Carolina its pilot ejected safely:

An F-35 fighter jet crashed in South Carolina, the US Marine Corps said, in the first such incident to affect the most expensive defence programme in the world.

A statement said the crash occurred in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina, at approximately 11.40am on Friday.

“The US Marine pilot ejected safely,” the statement said, adding that there were no civilian injuries and both the health of the pilot and the cause of the crash were being evaluated.

If it’s the Marines, then it is the “B” model.

I’m wondering if this is just the normal course of things, or if it is another glitch in the program.

Wrist Slap

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Elon Musk has to resign as chairman of the board and he, and Tesla, have to pay a small fine, which looks like meaningful enforcement, but has little real consequence: He still runs the company, he is still the largest share holder, so it is a distinction without a difference:

Elon Musk is to step down as chair of Tesla for three years and pay a fine after reaching a deal with the US financial regulator over tweets he made about taking the firm into private ownership.

Under the settlement Musk would remain as chief executive but must leave his other post within 45 days. Both he and the company will each pay a $20m (£15.3m) fine.

The entrepreneur has overseen two tumultuous months for the car company that battered Tesla’s share price and Musk’s reputation. Last Friday Tesla’s share price was down close to 14% as investors lost confidence.

 Weak tea.

Headline of the Day

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Of Course Ted Cruz Should Be Publicly Ostracized

—Ian Welsh

This is in response to the hand wringing by Washington’s “Very Serious People” over protesters confronting Cruz in a restaurant.

Mr. Welsh has a very good rejoinder:

If you could have only one rule for creating a good society it would be the following:

Elites must experience the consequences of their behavior.

Making Ted Cruz’s dining experiences uncomfortable is clearly an inadequate response.

When there is no accountability by the decisions made by the elites, their decisions are self interested and destructive.

Back Loaded Bribery

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Following years of fronting for the natural gas industry, Vicki Fuller, the former chief investment officer of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, secured a lucrative do-nothing sinecure from the Williams Companies, a major player in the energy market:

New York State’s former top pension investment officer was appointed to the board of a natural gas conglomerate after the pension system bought up the company’s bonds, rejected demands to divest from fossil fuels and supported multimillion-dollar pay packages for the company’s executives after the firm’s stock price had dropped.

Vicki Fuller was appointed as a director of The Williams Companies on July 31st — the same week she left her position as the chief investment officer of the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

The CIO job — appointed by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli — is considered one of the world’s most powerful financial positions, directing $207 billion of investments for a system responsible for safeguarding the retirement savings of more than a million current and former state employees and their beneficiaries. Fuller will be granted $275,000 worth of salary and company stock every year for the part-time position serving on Williams’ board.

The move comes during an increasingly bitter policy debate between the comptroller’s office and environmental groups over whether the pension fund should divest itself from fossil fuel companies that contribute to climate change. In correspondence with DiNapoli over the last two months, major environmental groups have asked whether Fuller’s new position is a reward for her and DiNapoli’s ongoing opposition to selling off the fund’s fossil fuel holdings.

………

“Ms. Fuller’s appointment calls into question the integrity of the management of the New York State Common Retirement Funds by New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli,” wrote 30 groups to state ethics officials. “It is outrageous to us that a person can one day be CIO of the New York state pension funds and the next day take a well-compensated appointment as a board member of the corporation into which she oversaw — or even directed — large investments while helping to shield the company from an adverse divestment decision by the funds.”

………

The decision to launch an investigation will be up to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which is largely comprised of commissioners appointed by a governor who himself has ties to Williams. WNYC previously reported that a Cuomo-led political group raked in $100,000 from Williams earlier this year, and Cuomo’s own re-election campaign this year is run by a registered lobbyist for Williams who is on leave from her firm. At the same time, Williams is asking the Cuomo administration to approve a controversial pipeline that environmentalists say threatens the state’s waterways.

What is shocking about corruption in the United States is not the law-breaking, it is what is technically legal.

Breaking My Embargo of Job Talk

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Generally, my rule of thumb is not do discuss my job. To do otherwise is an invitation for termination

But this one is too good.

I was talking to James, our welder, and he complained that frequently when we are half way through the project, the goals change.

I replied with the following:

Sad life.

 Probably sad death.

 At least there is symmetry.

Made my fucking day, it did.

Monsanto is Killing Us All, Cuba Edition

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It turns out that Cuba is having no problems with colony collapse disorder and related bee issues.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that sanctions have kept Monsanto and its ilk out of the island nation:

Alberto Quesada loads a flatbed lorry in a field in the middle of the night for a two-hour drive to the dense mangrove swamps on the Gulf of Batabanó. “It’s important that they wake up in their new habitat,” he says of his cargo of bees. In the summer his 30,000 hive-dwellers feast on coastal flowers; in the autumn they forage on milkweed and morning glories further north. Around October it is off to the mountains, as Cuba’s trees reach their prime, before he brings the bees back to his farm about an hour’s drive from Havana. There, they have their pick of palm, mango and avocado trees, fresh vegetables—an uncommon luxury in Cuba—and a garden teeming with sunflowers, lilies and bougainvilleas. The diets of these well-travelled insects are more diverse than that of most Cubans.

It is good to be a bee in Cuba. Beekeepers elsewhere lose around 20% of their colony in the winter. Climate change, parasites, the intensification of pesticide use, urbanisation and an obsession with tidiness are causing colonies to collapse. “We mow our lawns and trim our hedges so much that there are now fewer places even for wild bees to nest,” says Norman Carreck of the British-based International Bee Research Association.

Communism has done Cuba few favours but it has proved a boon for its bees. Impoverished farmers cannot afford pesticides. A lack of modern equipment and little economic incentive to farm mean much of the island’s vegetation is wild in a way that keeps bees well nourished and produces high-quality honey.

While honey production in most countries has taken a hit along with hives, Cuba’s healthy bees have been busy. The population is growing by an average of 7,000 hives a year, each yielding around 52kg of honey in 2017, double the average from American hives. Although nine-tenths of total production, around 10,000 tonnes last year, is managed by private farmers like Mr Quesada, they are obliged to sell it to the government at a little over $600 a tonne. It is then exported, mostly to Europe, where it fetches $4,600 a tonne for ordinary honey and $14,000 for the 16% that counts as organic. Were a costly certification process not required, much more could fetch such a premium.

The modern way of farming looks set to destroy itself.