In dry dock bow view

In dry dock, stern view

Hull patch

More Damage

Another view of patch

Following its collision with a cargo ship, the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) is in dry dock, and it got seriously damaged.

Now we have pictures, and this ain’t just door dings:

A new series of photos released on Wednesday by U.S. 7th fleet now show the hidden damage suffered by USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) from its June 17 collision with a merchant vessel.

The pictures of the guided missile destroyer from the Navy’s dry dock facility in Yokosuka, Japan show the size of the hole the bulbous bow of ACX Crystal punched into Fitzgerald’s starboard side amidships below the waterline.

Four five foot by 20-foot hull patches have been installed to cover the hull breach welded in place by divers since the ship was been pier-side following the collision.

While published images from Fitzgerald show the extensive damage to the ship’s superstructure above the waterline – including the collision’s effect on the ship’s A/N-SPY-1D(v) radar and the crushed commander’s cabin – the Wednesday images are the first that show how badly the destroyer was wounded below the waterline.

The below-the-waterline collision flooded two berthing spaces and one machinery space and resulted in the death of seven sailors.

This really is kind of horrifying to look at in detail.

I do look forward into an inquiry as to what happened, but US Navy culture being what it is, it is clear that the career of the Fitzgerald’s skipper is over.

What the F%$# was the USPTO Thinking?

Case in point, they just issued a patent for using a computer to count calories:

This month’s stupid patent, like many stupid patents before it, simply claims the idea of using a computer for basic calculations. U.S. Patent No. 6,817,863 (the ‘863 patent) is titled “Computer program, method, and system for monitoring nutrition content of consumables and for facilitating menu planning.” It claims the process of using a computer to track nutrition information like calorie or vitamin intake. It is difficult to think of a more basic and trivial use for a computer.

The ‘863 patent is owned by a patent troll called Dynamic Nutrition Solutions, LLC. Dynamic Nutrition filed a lawsuit this month in the Eastern District of Texas accusing Australian company Fatsecret of infringing the ‘863 patent. Dynamic Nutrition had filed four other lawsuits. Consistent with a pattern of nuisance litigation, each of those earlier suits settled very quickly.

What “invention” does the ‘863 patent purport to cover? Claim 1 of the patent is reproduced in full below (with comments in brackets):

A computer program comprising a combination of code segments stored in a computer-readable memory and executable by a processor to provide nutrition content information related to consumables, the computer program comprising:

a code segment operable to receive and store an input related to consumption of consumables, and to associate the input with a calender [sic] date [i.e. program a computer to track daily food intake]; and

a code segment operable to generate an interactive display screen, wherein the interactive display screen includes— [i.e. include some kind of user interface]

one or more lists of consumables and related nutrition content information, and [i.e. list food options and nutrition information]

a summary section of past consumption of consumables. [i.e. list past food intake]

In other words, program a computer to help people keep track of meals and calorie or vitamin intake.

The USPTO may be more dysfunctional than the Pentagon, and that is saying a lot.

this is a test, please ignore.

Democracy Dies in Derpness pic.twitter.com/otunUeS43a

— David V. Johnson 🌹 (@contrarianp) May 24, 2017

This is actually lamer than the tripe that oozes from the pens of Charles Krauthammer and Richard Cohen.

Thomas Friedman Shows Yet Again the Economy Still Has Good Paying Jobs for People Without Skills

—Dean Baker

I know, fish in a barrel, but it is amusing fish in a barrel.

By that, I mean DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

I was engaging in self pity over my general lack of writing skills, and he posted this:

You Will be seeing this again on my blog.

Cities Hit Hardest by Extreme Poverty – 24/7 Wall St.

Every now and then, I wonder if I have become so pessimistic, and so cynical that I can no longer be outraged by what is going on.

And then I read this report that Donald Trump and an aide are suggesting that liberals are calling in bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers and Schools while desecrating Jewish graves because it makes for good politics:

President Trump suggested on Tuesday that the recent spate of anti-Semitic bomb threats and cemetery vandalism could be politically coordinated attacks to “make people look bad” — an apparent suggestion that his opponents could be behind them.
Continue reading the main story

Speaking at the White House to attorneys general from around the country, Mr. Trump was asked by Josh Shapiro, the attorney general of Pennsylvania, about the wave of attacks and how the federal government could work with state governments to confront the violence.

“First, he said the acts were reprehensible,” Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat who was elected to the post in November, said while recounting Mr. Trump’s response. “Second he said: ‘And you’ve got to be careful, it could be the reverse. This could be the reverse, trying to make people look bad.’ ”

The comments echoed the Twitter post of an adviser, Anthony Scaramucci, who suggested that Democrats were behind threats to Jewish community centers.

It’s not yet clear who the #JCC offenders are. Don’t forget @TheDemocrats effort to incite violence at Trump rallies https://t.co/uTBFGhI0Kh

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) February 28, 2017

Seriously, I need to go live in a f%$#ing cave.

Just shoot me now.

87 miles as the crow flies

Here is an interesting bit of speculation on why a Russian spy ship is hanging out in international waters off of Long Island Sound:

I love maps. They often reveal things quickly and simply in a way text cannot. Like this map I’ve pulled together showing two points recently in the news.

To the right, Groton, Connecticut, where the U.S. has a naval facility

To the left, Glen Cove, New York — the location of a waterfront compound, Killenworth Mansion, owned for decades by Russia. The site was used for electronic spying according to the Reagan administration. A second compound, Norwich House, located five miles away in Upper Brookville, was vacated in December after former president Obama issued new sanctions on Russia in response to alleged interference in U.S. 2016 presidential election.

Multiple news reports yesterday noted a Russian spy ship “loitering” approximately 30 miles south of Groton, near Long Island’s shoreline, in international waters.

But none of them mentioned the ship was approximately 60-80 miles from the site of the Russian government compounds.

………

It’s almost if the Russians left something behind on Long Island and were looking for it.

Or listening for it.

As Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”

The Fed’s Ability to Negotiate International Regulations Helps Ensure U.S. Financial Stability and Competitiveness

I get that there are people out there who think that any oversight by  of the Fed, or any attempt to enforce statutory limits on the organization will be the end of the world.

We already tried your way.

It ……… Did ……… Not ……… Work

So, Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, the daughter of Anne Gor butsuch Burford, known as the “Ice Queen” by her staff during her brief tenure as the worst head ever of the EPA, is Donald Trump’s selection to replace Antonin Scalia.

I’m glad that the speculation is over, because the speculation had some of the stupidest sh%$ ever written, such as this paean to the alleged brilliance of Clarence Thomas, but this guy is actually to the right of Scalia, particularly with regard to administrative rulings.

The Democrats are promising a filibuster, but, true to form, the right wing Democrats upon which the establishment lavishes so much aid, are already lining up to knife the party in the back.

WV Senator Joe Manchin (Father of the Epipen profiteer) has already announced that he will not filibuster the appointment, and Senator Heidi Heitkamp has pretty much said as much.

The Republicans have threatened to nuke the filibuster, but they will do so eventually anyway.

If your Democratic Senator votes for cloture, don’t vote for them for reelection.  They don’t deserve your vote.

I saw today’s Google doodle:

And I think that this is Mountain View’s way of telling Trump to go Cheney himself.

I am the dullest motherf%$#er on the face of the Earth.

I noted a while ago that I had purchased a 2004 Toyota Prius.

I have been driving it for a while, and I noticed that I am enjoying it far more than any car I’ve ever driven.

I just realized something:  This is my midlife crisis car, and instead of something like an MG-TD, or an old Triumph, or a Karmann Ghia, or a Jaguar, or Fiat Spider, I bought a 13 year old used hybrid.

They could market me as a sleeping aid.

There are unquestionably many factors behind this result. But I want to focus on the biggest one that was completely under Democrats’ control. It is the same thing that killed the Republicans of Hoover’s generation: gross mishandling of an economic crisis. Democrats had the full run of the federal government from 2009-10, during the worst economic disaster in 80 years, and they did not fully fix mass unemployment, nor the associated foreclosure crisis. That is just about the most guaranteed route to electoral death there is.

—Ryan Cooper

From the beginning, the Obama has been more concerned with coddling Wall Street, as opposed to dealing with problems that the banksters caused for Main Street.

In terms of the foreclosure crisis, they actually aided and abetted the criminals.  (See Geithner, Timothy, “Foaming the runway.”)

Much like Hoover, they continued to insist that the economic orthodoxy that caused the economic meltdown was the solution to the problems.

Obama actually went softer on corporate criminals than George W. Bush.

Is it any wonder that the Democratic Party is a political Super Fund site right now?

Donald Trump has just chosen Linda McMahon as head of the Small Business Administration.

Why do I have to qualify this to say that this is not a parody?

Ummm….Because the former wrestling executive, and some time performer has graced us with performances like this:  (click through if the GIF doesn’t animate).

She’s shown kicking husband Vince McMahon in the cojones.  (It’s fake, pro wrestling is fake, and if you observe carefully, you can see how they set up the whole stunt so that no one is actually hurt)

About the only thing that could make this worse, and more undignified, would if pro wrestling were real.

Are Economists Partly Responsible for Donald Trump’s Shocking Victory in the US Presidential Election?

Mainstream economics has glorified inequality and rent-seeking by calling it, “free trade,” and the ensuing disaster for the bottom 90% of Americans gave us an inverted traffic cone as President elect.

Barack Obama said that he can’t pardon Edward Snowden because he has not been presented before a judge.

This is a blatant and transparent lie.

The President’s powers with regard to federal offenses are very broad.

They can grant clemency on a whim.  The person need not to have been charged, nor do the offenses need to be specified.

Just witness Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush’s self-serving pardons of his Iran Contra co-conspirators.

Worst Constitutional Law Professor Ever^™

The Trump Campaign has admitted that they are actively engaging in voter suppression efforts.

This is no surprise.  When Reagan launched his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi talking about states rights, the subtext was always that, “N*****s should not be allowed to vote.

Here is the money quote:

To compensate for this, Trump’s campaign has devised another strategy, which, not surprisingly, is negative. Instead of expanding the electorate, Bannon and his team are trying to shrink it. “We have three major voter suppression operations under way,” says a senior official. They’re aimed at three groups Clinton needs to win overwhelmingly: idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans. Trump’s invocation at the debate of Clinton’s WikiLeaks e-mails and support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership was designed to turn off Sanders supporters. The parade of women who say they were sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton and harassed or threatened by Hillary is meant to undermine her appeal to young women. And her 1996 suggestion that some African American males are “super predators” is the basis of a below-the-radar effort to discourage infrequent black voters from showing up at the polls—particularly in Florida.

(emphasis mine)

Investigative reporter Murray Waas has, discovered a coverup of Donald Trump’s sexual misconduct orchestrated by the publisher of the National Enquirer.

This was done, at least in part, to boost his campaign for President:

Story summary: Only two weeks after Donald Trump began his presidential campaign, a former hedge fund manager informed the Trump Organization that he might publish sexually suggestive photographs of Trump online—which would have early on raised the issue of Trump’s misogyny and treatment of women that has only belatedly come into focus. To suppress the photographs, Trump and his attorney turned to a close friend and political supporter, David Pecker, the CEO of the National Enquirer. Over a period of weeks, the hedge fund manager, Jeremy Frommer, sought out contracts with the National Enquirer worth hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars, and lesser favors from Trump personally, according to contemporaneous records, including emails, text messages, and internal company documents. Some National Enquirer executives privately worried that had they followed through, they would be using corporate funds to pay hush money to assist Trump’s presidential campaign, a potential violation of federal campaign finance laws.

I would note that John Edwards beat the wrap, because Edwards, unlike most politicians, practiced law in a court, and he declined to cut a deal because he (correctly) believe that a jury would not convict.

Still, from a political perspective, it is a rather fascinating story, if just because one of the principals in this affair had a similar role in the revelation of Arnold Schwartzenegger’s extramarital activities.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is reversing a widely criticized decision that would have banned the use of kratom, a plant that researchers say could help mitigate the effects of the opioid epidemic.

Citing the public outcry and a need to obtain more research, the DEA is withdrawing its notice of intent to ban the drug, according to a preliminary document that will be posted to the Federal Register Thursday.

The move is “shocking,” according to John Hudak, who studies drug policy at the Brookings Institution. “The DEA is not one to second-guess itself, no matter what the facts are.”

The DEA had announced in August that it planned to place kratom in schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive regulatory category, as soon as Sept. 30. But since announcing their intent to ban kratom, the “DEA has received numerous comments from members of the public challenging the scheduling action,” acting administrator Chuck Rosenberg wrote in the notice, “and requesting that the agency consider those comments and accompanying information before taking further action.”

(emphasis mine)

5 years ago, no one beyond the NORML crowd would have batted an eyelash, but with the rise of the Marijuana legalization movement, people no longer take the whole “War on Drugs” bullsh%$ as gospel.

This is a very good thing.