Scattershots – 13jul19 (updated 16jul19)

George Rebane

Thistle and Shamrock is a weekly program of Irish music on NPR hosted for years by Fiona Richie who speaks in a rich Irish brogue.  On weekends at our house we hear about the first ten minutes of it before one of us turns it off or to another station.  And that is because neither of us have developed an ear for rhythmic Irish tunes, the kind that are played by small combos at gatherings or in public houses.  To us they all sound pretty much alike.  The deficit is clearly ours, because we like many varieties of music and have always supported this cultural art form.  Every time I hear another Irish tune on the radio, the long-held notion always crosses my mind that I could write and program an Irish tune-composing algo that could readily pass the Turing test – i.e. people alternately listening to such machine and human composed music would in their aggregate judgments not be able to tell which is which.  Maybe some music major could do that in a graduate program.

Our language continues to languish under progressive pedagogy. So many words have lost their unique meanings as they are required  to carry excess semantic baggage that makes their parsimonious use obsolete and obfuscates their meaning, especially in today's political commentary.  My latest addition to this list of overburdened words is ‘hate’, ‘hatred’, ‘hateful’, et al.  (It joins established residents like ‘racist’ and ‘hero’.)  In days gone by, the semantic for using anything from the ‘hate genre’ was reserved for feelings and expressions of “intense dislike, or extreme aversion or hostility.”  Not anymore.  Today our liberal literary lightweights append the hate-word to any and every person, group, behavior, or expression that simply disagrees with any one of the limited number of shibboleths that for most progressives comprise their politics and worldview.  If you happen to disagree with some Democrat or communist’s prescriptions or assessments, and write or talk about it, that is immediately labeled as ‘hateful’ or ‘hate speech’.  And make no mistake, they are the final arbiters of such judgments, from which there is neither appeal nor available eleisons.  The real scary thing is that they all want Big Brother to become the all-seeing and powerful censor of everything that to them is hateful.

Mighty today, missing tomorrow. ‘Remember Visicalc?’ asks Christopher Mims (here) in the 13jul19 WSJ.  Visicalc was the first spreadsheet and killer app, and I remember the relief of switching to it around 1980 after spending a weekend programming a cash planning model on the HP-85 for an electronics manufacturing company I was just hired to turn around.  In those days it cost about $10K and over a week to have your accountancy firm do a cashflow projection for, say, the next 8 quarters, and $5K for every subsequent update of the model.  Once Visicalc arrived, I turned my people on to it and quickly became a spreadsheet ‘expert’ – suddenly the PCs had a real and unique business use.  Soon Lotus 1-2-3 came along and we all jumped on that bandwagon, until Bill Gates brought us Excel, and we’ve stayed with that ‘forever’ (while always keeping an eye out for the next better thing).  Anyway, the succession of spreadsheet makers illustrates the history and ongoing saga of companies making it big, and then failing by missing the newest big wave.  Next into the breech is Google according to Daniel Colin James in his very readable ‘This Is How Google Will Collapse’.  Many are now eagerly awaiting its demise, especially since it so obviously and salaciously abandoned ‘Do no harm.’

[14jul19 update]  Even the vaunted WSJ sometimes comes off the rails, as they did recently in a column written by some worthy claiming economist credentials.  He patiently explained to the reader that markets work and trades occur when buyer and seller value equally what they are willing to give each other in the trade.  You don’t need to be an economic maven to understand that such an arrangement is patently not true.  If both parties value equally what they already have, then there is no reason to go through the risk and bother of a trade.  It is ONLY when both parties view what the other has as being more valuable to him than what he currently holds that then make functioning markets and dealing possible.  When prices are set at value parity or higher, markets stagnate.  (Methinks the writer has strong grounds for demanding a refund on his tuition, since he can now demonstrate that they taught him nothing.)

[15jul19 update]  President Trump screwed up again tweeting the recommended return of the Democrats’ Squad members to their native countries.  With another swipe at the English language, Pelosi called his tweets “xenophobic”.  Representative AOC and her House rabble rouser squad have their origins in Somalia, Puerto Rico, Palestine, and Africa.  To be fair, Trump did advise them to go back to fix the obvious problems in their native lands.  However, IMHO he should have called attention to their outrageous policy proposals by pointing out that they are seeking to bring to America the same kind of policies and political methods that have devastated places from which they and/or their ancestors hailed.

NYC’s DeBlasio is now hands down the top Democrat big city incompetent idiot.  Single-handedly he has reversed the city’s years-long declining crime rates by denying the legitimacy of its justice system.  In the process “He propagates the smear that the majority-minority NYPD unjustifiably targets minorities when conducting street investigations. He knows there is nothing racially proportionate about reported violent crimes in the city, which in the busiest precincts affect only minorities. His posturing and gamesmanship provide fuel for the worst kind of conspiracy theories and hate speech against officers. Never has a mayor been more disdained by his police.”  Lest you think this turkey is the current Lone Ranger in these generations long urban disasters of governance, DeBlasio is joined by like-minded incompetents from his party in a long list of cities that begins with San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles.  (more here)

[16jul19 update]  "We have a really hard time (“connecting with voters”),” Sen Hirono (D-HI) lamented (here), "and one of the reasons it was told to me at one of our retreats was that we Democrats know so much, that is true. And we kind of have to tell everyone how smart we are and so we have a tendency to be very left brain."  Unfortunately, that is neither true nor anywhere close, as Will Rogers said, “It’s not what you know that worries me, it’s what you know that ain’t so.”  However, she did nail the Dems’ attitude about their constituents; intellectually they are a challenged lot as we have pointed out for years.  And Sen Hirono herself is one great example of a Deficit Diva leading her flock of gimmes.  (H/T to RR commenter for digging this out.)

Comments

[Russell Steele]

Jupyter is the New Excel

If you are doing data analysis Jupyter should be your choice.

✔️Powerful data manipulation — It is the data scientist’s toolbox after all!
✔️Advanced visualization capabilities — No more boring charts!
✔️ Better user experience
✔️ Big dataset processing — No more crashing!
✔️ Performance management — Making advantage of multiprocessing
✔️ Test-Driven Development — Think quality!
✔️ Open source accessibility — “There is a lib for it!”
✔️ Error traceability
✔️ Easier automation
✔️ Self-documenting — Don’t underestimate the value of this!

https://towardsdatascience.com/jupyter-is-the-new-excel-a7a22f2fc13a

There are Python libraries for just about any data processing function you can think of from web scraping, graphic and photo analysis, geo-mapping, to machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning and modeling. I find new uses every time I try to solve a data analysis problem. Here is a list of examples:

https://medium.com/activewizards-machine-learning-company/top-15-python-libraries-for-data-science-in-in-2017-ab61b4f9b4a7

[George Rebane]

RusselS 1258pm - Actually Jupyter is a specialized reporting and data handling/display utility that must have a programming language in its back-end, else it does little to nothing. It is most certainly not a more powerful spreadsheet than Excel. The back-end programming language is usually Python, but can also be Matlab. However, Matlab already has Exlink which makes Excel an extremely easy to use front end for complex Matlab code. Python needs a Jupyter, but Matlab does not, but will integrate with Jupyter for those Jupyter users who need something more powerful than Python to do the back-end processing. Excel has no visible competition on the horizon; its native function set (that includes evolutionary and non-linear programming tools) is very extensive. Nevertheless, Python and Jupyter are free - Matlab and Excel are not (and for a reason).

[Robert Cross]

George--
Our language continues to languish under progressive pedagogy." Is there anything that those damn progressives don't fuck up?

[Bill Tozer]

Only things they don’t touch.

[fish]

Posted by: Roberta Cross | 13 July 2019 at 02:24 PM

Is there anything that those damn progressives don't fuck up?

Well Roberta it certainly seems not......

[George Rebane]

RobertC 224pm - Collectivists of all hues have been looking for such a lucky break since the French revolution - no luck yet. However, I'm ever the optimist - never say never.

The problem all starts with collectivists (which includes progressives) having an extremely simple and dysfunctional model of human behavior, relationships, and reward structures. Couple that with their almost inability to incorporate existential feedback ('Ideology rules, we don't need no stinking realworld feedback.'), and not only can you understand the last 250 years of history, but also accurately predict the prospects for, say, socialist policies enacted today. Glad you asked.

[Gregory]

Here's one of progressivism's great pedagogical failures... let me summarize:
Life is a trigger warning, then you die.

https://slate.com/technology/2019/07/trigger-warnings-research-shows-they-dont-work-might-hurt.html

From the sometimes thinking lefties at Slate.

[Rock Hunter]

Robert-
If only Hitler had won the war. Our world be perfect. All the trains would run on time, Trump would have a life long job, Muslims and people from shithole countries would be vaporized, our borders would be secure, and our language would not have been subjected to progressive pedagogy.

[Robert Cross]

George: Could not it be argued in the same vein that multi-national corporate capitalism is also a "dysfunctional model of human behavior, relationships, and reward structures" based on its focus on wealth as the carrot which in turn promotes avarice in the pursuit of that wealth? One need only look at global wealth disparity for evidence. While I do not think a government controlled economy (as if it were not the current case) is the answer what about a system of worker owned cooperatives rather than primarily investor owned endeavors?

[Russ]

George@01:46 PM. Not sure I agree completely with your analysis. MatLab can be used with Jupyter, but many are turning way as the power of Python grows, especially in data analysis. More details here: https://www.kdnuggets.com/2018/05/poll-tools-analytics-data-science-machine-learning-results.html/2

Yes, Excel will always have a place, but in a big data world, it needs a major update.

[Scott O]

from the crossed up one - "One need only look at global wealth disparity for evidence.
Yes - and totally ignore the vast expansion of wealth among the previously impoverished. Left wing policies in govts are the biggest drivers of wealth disparity. But Bobby wants more of it. Go figure.
Also - "...what about a system of worker owned cooperatives rather than primarily investor owned endeavors?"
What about it?
There is nothing stopping you from starting one.
Other than the fact that it usually doesn't work.
You lefties never have gotten the knack of how humans work.

[George Rebane]

To our collectivists Messrs Hunter and Cross - You err grossly on your prognostication of Hitler's world. Hitler was a big government collectivist as are you two, and would have brought forth a world as you describe and are currently working toward. Hitler's ideology has nothing to do with conservatives, libertarians, or conservetarians like me. That neither of you can understand that little nuance speaks volumes.

And you also confuse capitalism with corporatism; please look up the meanings of both. Hitler ran a corporatist economy within a collectivist dictatorship. Lenin and Stalin promised "a system of worker owned cooperatives rather than primarily investor owned endeavors." How did that work out, and how have similar attempts worked out in the aftermath of WW2?

If you give humans freedom to achieve, the smarter ones will naturally out produce and earn the dumber ones. But that's not the problem as long as the social utility enables the lowest on the productivity spectrum to earn a good quality of life according to their abilities. It's when you social planners start imposing various levels of parity and equality on achievement and its rewards that we run into the problems of envy and class warfare, and all the reasons why pure democracy has never worked and remains the siren song presented by would be tyrants.

[Don Bessee]

You mean like this @905? Have nothings and can not feed yourselfs and have the worlds best collection of 1950's running USA Detroit metal because you have to but hey you have the chi coms old train!

A driver in an American classic car waves as the first train using new equipment from China rides past, in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, July 13, 2019. The first train using new equipment from China pulled out of Havana Saturday, hauling passengers on the start of a 915-kilometer (516-mile) journey to the eastern end of the island as the government tries to overhaul the country’s aging and decrepit rail system. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuba-debuts-modern-chinese-train-235653922.html

;-)

[Todd Juvinall]

I guess Rockhead and Crosseyed are fascists. What a hoot!

[George Rebane]

Russ 554pm - I understand where you're coming from. The only point I want to make is that Matlab and Python have two distinct user populations, and fields of application. Free Python has become the go-to language of convenience for everyone who started programming as a sophomore in high school, and is now an 'expert' in web programming. Matlab is overwhelmingly used as the industrial strength development environment for very complex systems and data analyses since it is very facile, streamlined, powerful, and has toolsets with UIs for every imaginable application. Both languages have their place in the programming world. But one thing is for certain, no one today will use Jupyter as a spreadsheet to replace Excel. I would really like to see evidence of that ever happening. Nevertheless, Jupyter is probably the most powerful front end for running Python programs.

[Gregory]

Anyone else see "Look Who's Back"?

A 2015 German comedy about Hitler coming back to modern Germany but while he looks like Hitler to the moderns, they don't quite grok that it's really him.

A kicker... Adolf thinks the Greens would be his natural ally.

On Netflix

[Gregory]

Got to the reference... Hitler talks about the miserable leadership he has found in Germany:

'The so-called Federal Republic of Germany is in the hands of a clumsy woman with the charisma of a wet noodle (Merkle)... this matron joined forces with the Bavarian Christian Party: to form a pitiful copy of National Socialism!... Today the Social Democrats are led by an obnoxious fatso and a docile farm hen!!@ ...knitting for change!

"The only hope is an oddball party called "The Greens".

[Scott O]

Rocks for Brains @ 5:20 - This is why we have these discussions. In his little diatribe, we see the view that the left have of anyone who doesn't agree with them. RockHead can't point to a single conservative person who posts here having the views he ascribes to us. Doesn't matter. Having no evidence or facts means nothing to the left. Just get out the big 'ol barn brush and dip into the barrel of 'NAZI, homophobe, racist, hater, tired old white man, etc' narrative paint and have at it. Pointing out reality to these folks simply enrages them and they respond by name calling and attempts to shut down the information they don't like. How many times have we seen the leftists call for George to be kicked off of KVMR? Has George ever suggested the same of any other person? It's pretty obvious who the facists are.

[Rock Hunter]

Scott 7:10
"Just get out the big 'ol barn brush and dip into the barrel of 'NAZI, homophobe, racist, hater, tired old white man."

You nailed it . . . must have touched a soft nerve there.

[George Rebane]

ScottO 710am - Well, it looks like RockH's 748am again answers the question we have asked over the years. The asymmetry between the nation's political poles demonstrates itself daily.

[Gregory]

"Rock Hunter" 748am

Ton the contrary, all you have is the same tired name calling the hard left has used to demonize opponents for years, tossing labels about like feces in the monkeycage at a bad zoo..

[Robert Cross]

George 9:46 -- Can you not read or are your biases so deep that it skews your thinking? Did I not say "multi-national corporate capitalism"? Is that not the same as "corporatism"?Your semantic argument is a weak dodge of the question.

"Lenin and Stalin promised "a system of worker owned cooperatives rather than primarily investor owned endeavors." There is a difference between a promise and reality. The Russian experiment failed because it was a top down bureaucratic quagmire just like western corporate capitalism. The workers didn't own anything, they worked for the government who owned the means of production. That is entirely different than a worker owned and operated system of production.

[George Rebane]

RobertC 957am – I do believe I’ve accumulated some demonstrated reading credentials, but I’m not sure about yours since you deal fast and loose with semantics. ‘Multi-national corporate capitalism’ is not at all like ‘corporatism’. Corporatism is the practice of an intimate relationship between government and a (usually) large bureaucratic corporation no longer nimble enough to compete on its own in the marketplace, thereby requiring government to intervene on its behalf and inhibit its competitors through various regulations and taxations, interventions which are bought and paid for by the corporatist corporation. Multi-national corporate capitalism per se makes no claim on such governmental aid, although there is nothing to stop multi-nationals to attempt installing corporatist relations in countries where they do business. I think you may be able to understand this difference.

Your argument re worker-owned cooperatives is beyond timeworn and lame. Every socialist since the French revolution has come on the scene, observing the detritus of past socialist policies, and promising that they now have concocted the secret elixir to make the next draught of collectivist kool-aid more palatable. You and your kind can only conceive of governance by “top down bureaucratic quagmires” as you have repeatedly demonstrated in this country's states and cities where your ideology has become politically dominant – your poster-children dot the American landscape. As I said, the next Stalin or Hitler always starts his march to power by promising ‘worker owned’ means of production to the light-thinkers. You are just the latest such shill in line.

[fish]

Posted by: Rock Hunter | 14 July 2019 at 07:48 AM

“.......You nailed it . . . must have touched a soft nerve there”.

.......when all you proglodyte dimwits have is the same nonsensical chants that you’ve been spewing for the last 50 years I imagine that it does indeed “touch a nerve” when called on it!

Really the puppet called “ Rock” try not to be as blatantly stupid as the puppet called RobertaBot!

[Gregory]

Chairman Mao and Pol Pot need remembering. Alliende and Tito, too. Chavez... who am I leaving out of the list of socialists who made mistakes interpreting Marx or Lenin that the next guys promise to not repeat?

[Walt]

If those "CO-OPs" were all that great, there would be MORE OF THEM.
No one is stopping them. Welcome to America.

Have at Babs... Round up your Proggy pals and go into business.
There are plenty of dopers here for your CO-OP. Put your money where your rhetoric is.
I with sit back at watch the fighting begin. "Your not doing as much work as the rest of us! Yet you want your "equal" cut of the bucks!!"
If you had studied a lick of your American history, you would have known that was already tried..(and a big fail)

[Scott O]

Ah - there's the key word! "system".
"That is entirely different than a worker owned and operated system of production."
Bobby knows he can start (and flop) with a 'worker-owned' cooperative anytime he wants. It's the 'system' he's after. And who, what, how, ushers in this system?
Unicorns, Pixies and Moondust, apparently.
Of course - that evil top-down govt will 'help'.
Cough, cough.

[Robert Cross]

George.. you are stuck in first gear and your trite 'red scare' arguments preclude any further discussion of the notion of employee owned and operated means of production. You seem not to want to discuss ideas but instead just seek to reinforce those which you already adhere to at the expense of those who might disagree.

As for stupid "proglodyte dimwits" and light thinkers..... the kettle calling the pot black -- perhaps if very small fish in a very small mud puddle was capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation... but alas those with nothing to say ..say nothing of consequence beyond stroking their genitals.

[fish]

Pull the string at the back of Roberta’s neck....listen to the same phrases over and over again.....again.....and again.....and again......!

[Walt]

Good job Babs,, your the Putin cuddlier now. Keep trying to sell the joys of Socialism.(just another feel good word for Commieism.)

Now weren't you demanding Trump's head for just the accusation of him talking to a "RED" ?
How your tune changes all of a sudden. Now,, it's OK.
Got it...
Thanks.

[Walt]

The Yuba claims another today.
Where is Emery? What's the body count so far this year?
Build a dam and fill it with water.. You know,,"If it saves ONE life"....

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Our language continues to languish in Progressive pedagogy. Ok, perhaps I lied. Well, somewhere in this fun read is something on topic. :).

Scaling Wokeback Mountain.

“T]he Democratic Party is on a tear. One by one, its candidates have embraced losing issue after losing issue. First came reparations for slavery, a noble idea lacking only popular support and practicality and possibly amounting to yet another attempt to right a wrong with money. Before that, the various candidates raised their hands in support of Medicare-for-all, which could strip millions of people of their private insurance plans. That is sure to be characterized by Trump as socialized medicine with the sick growing old and dying, covered in cobwebs while waiting to see the doctor. GOP strategists must be hyperventilating over all the goodies arrayed before them. This is a campaign even Trump could win. . .

The urgent challenge is to rid the nation of Trump, not to mollify this or that identity group or wrestle over issues that could not be solved when they were relevant — such as busing. As it is, the candidates are campaigning in an America of their own imagination — a bit to the left of Sweden and as racially unified as one of those old Coke commercials. They pander to the extremes of the early caucus and primary states, thinking they can seduce the middle later on down the road or, in my case, giving me a choice of one of them or Trump.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/07/democrats-start-to-worry.php

Or maybe I should have put this under Looney Tunes

[Walt]

This critter has been misnamed. It should have been called the Progtick. At first read of it's description, it sounded like a Liberal.
https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2019/07/clone-tick-swarms-new-to-us-are-killing-cattle-by-draining-their-blood-chasing-after-humans.html

[Robert Cross]

fish 11:44 -- but alas those with nothing to say ..say nothing of consequence beyond stroking their genitals.

[Todd Juvinall]

My younger brother passed last night. He was 61. I took him in in February as he was in need of help. Please do not drink alcohol to excess. God speed to Gaylord, 61 is way to young. I miss you badly.

[Walt]

Our prayers go out to you Todd.

[Bill Tozer]

So sorry Todd.

[Walt]

Bobby is living up to his own 12:41!
You right Bobby,, you have said NOTHING of consequence.
So give,m a good stroke.

[fish]

Posted by: Robert Cross | 14 July 2019 at 12:41 PM

Progressvism: a bankrupt philosophy embraced by degenerate halfwits.

No thanks......jerking off has done far less damage than your political opinions!

[Jig Giggly]

Come on team. Lets put our weight together and leave these racist homophobic dwarf hating midget tossing Nazi COJ until August. Let’s see how they do without us. We are out of here.

[Walt]

What's this "we" shit? You and all your sock puppets?
LOL!!!,,,, A-HOLE!!!

[fish]

Posted by: Jig Giggly | 14 July 2019 at 03:18 PM

......let’s put our weight together and leave these racist homophobic dwarf hating midget tossing Nazi COJ until August.

Well if you’re putting your “weight together” just make sure you include jeffty!

That oughta put you over the top.....

[Ozzie Oswald]

I am with you, Giggly. These COJ hate short people. We are out of here

[fish]

Posted by: Ozzie Oswald | 14 July 2019 at 03:30 PM

Nice to see all the personalities on the board today dugsKKKi.

[AV Man]

Who is this dugsKKKi of whom you speak? See you in September.

[fish]

Posted by: AV Man | 14 July 2019 at 03:40 PM

.......so many voices......always chattering in your head........the noise.....never stops......never quiet!

My sympathies dugsKKKi.

[AVMan]

,,,somebody taking my name in vain again??? Oh, it's you Fissshki

,,,now you have to spoof me to refer to me???

So Sad!!!

[Walt]

BOT boy again.

[Scott O]

Oh Bobby - "You seem not to want to discuss ideas but instead just seek to reinforce those which you already adhere to at the expense of those who might disagree."
In other words - "you didn't agree with me so we can't have a discussion."
I have yet to see any lefty post here that can have a back and forth for more than one or two posts that doesn't devolve into name calling. Bobby wants to have a "system" of owner-owned production. He can't expand on it or explain it or define it. He just repeats himself. C'mon Bobby - explain how a worker owned co-op builds aircraft, high speed rail, wind turbines - heck - anything?
Remember - the guy sweeping up gets the same say as the materials stress testing engineer. Go ahead Bobby - show us all how it works. You're the one pitching it. No one here said to go away. The fact is you have no discussion. No ideas beyond bumper sticker blather.

[George Rebane]

RobertC 1121am - I take it that this is what for you passes as a substantive retort. So noted (again).

[Don Bessee]

Trouble in the littorals for the socialist dem clown car. People know they are going to pay in many ways for this socialist fallacy, not to mention what it means for their kids. -

If you’re a criminal, you do not belong here. And the American public doesn’t want it. Why do we as a party support that? I don’t understand it. And that’s why the Democratic Party has not been attractive to certain elements of the working class of our country.

Norcross’s comments have come back to light after multiple 2020 Democrat presidential primary candidates have released platforms where they are promising to decriminalize illegal immigration to the U.S. and provide amnesty to all 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living across the country.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/07/14/influential-democrats-why-party-supporting-criminal-illegal-aliens/

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Whitewashing backlash -

A California school board has voted to paint over a mural of George Washington. Educators want to save it

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/california-school-board-voted-paint-021440930.html

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Our language continues to languish under progressive pedagogy

“If you happen to disagree with some Democrat or communist’s prescriptions or assessments, and write or talk about it, that is immediately labeled as ‘hateful’ or ‘hate speech’. And make no mistake, they are the final arbiters of such judgments, from which there is neither appeal nor available eleisons. The real scary thing is that they all want Big Brother to become the all-seeing and powerful censor of everything that to them is hateful.”—-Dr. Rebane
—-
“Ten people, directly connected to the progressive Democrat political machine who are now controlling our conversations online. Sounds like an important alarm, no?

“What if I told you there were nearly a hundred more?

“By the way, did you know the Public Policy Manager for Global Elections at Facebook was on Obama's National Security Council (Director for Russia) before he was a Special Advisor for Joe Biden? What kind of election policy do you think he will advocate for at Facebook leading into 2020?

“What about Twitter? The "primary spokesperson and communications lead for the 2016 U.S. Presidential election" at Twitter was previously Kamala Harris' Press Secretary. A Trust & Safety manager who "developed operations and policies related to privacy and free expression" previously worked at the Clinton Global Initiative and at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. A Twitter Director of Public Policy was originally a Press Secretary for John Edwards (D), and Erskine Bowles (D), and Senator Salazar (D), and Senator Barack Obama (D), he was a Policy Director for Obama's Presidential campaign, a Policy Advisor at the White House, Special Assistant to the President, and then he spent three short months on the Clinton-Kaine Presidential Transition Team before deciding to take a job directing public policy at Twitter.”
—
“A Twitter Public Policy Director who owned the 2016 election and both party conventions previously worked for Senator Wyden (D), Senator Higgins (D), Bill Foster's congressional campaign (D), and Senator Dick Durban (D), before that; NBC News Political Desk. Another Twitter Public Policy employee was Obama's Director for Syria after working in Hillary's State Department. Twitter's Public Policy Fellow is a Democrat who came to the company after losing his own run for Washington House of Representatives District 14b. Twitter's Associate General Counsel, Global Policy was formerly an Advisor to Senator Claire McCaskill after being Associate Counsel to President Obama. Twitter's Head of Site Policy was an intern at the William J. Clinton Foundation where she "wrote letters on behalf of President Clinton to heads of state". Twitter's Vice President of Global Public Policy worked for a Democrat congressman for twenty years. The Washington Post called him "one of the most influential tech policy operatives you've never heard of."

"We got the power, we're the new government. You just don't know it yet." - Bob Dylan

“These aren't just Democratic voters, but former employees from the DNC, from the offices of Pelosi, Hillary, Obama, Feinstein, Giffords, Schumer, Reid, Planned Parenthood, even Rachel Maddow, who are migrating en masse to gate-keeping positions in social media companies. They didn't all learn to code, they aren’t designing the like button or working on Messenger. They are taking up residency in the policy departments across the web; shaping the conversation, pushing agendas, picking who gets featured, deciding who gets blocked, judging who gets banned for life, dictating the parameters of the algorithms we'll never be allowed to see, and making cases for censorship - that always seem to ratchet in one direction.

“They cannot stop speech at the government level, it would never get past the Constitutional review. But private companies do not need to abide by the Constitution. As our lives become digital conduits that flow through private companies, they have congregated at the helms of these companies, silencing the right starting with the fringe and working their way in as far as they possibly can.“

https://www.spinquark.com/welcome-to-social-government/

[Bill Tozer]

Re: 15jul19 update] President Trump screwed up again tweeting the recommended return of the Democrats’ Squad members to their native countries. With another swipe at the English language, Pelosi called his tweets “xenophobic”.

Hmmm. And the left calls it “racist”. A look at the exact tweets by Trump reveal the tweets are not racist, but try explaining that to those who read between the lines and hear 24/7 dog whistles echoing in the empty vast expanses of their melons.

I think it was another unfortunate forced error. The Left was tearing itself apart right in front of our eyes without any help, not to mention their really screwy ideas not based in reality they are proposing by the day. With that said, Trump has pointed out the anti-American hatred for the USA by Omar. And that “Palestinian” woman is a piece of work that one can write a whole book on. But, it was an unforced error.
—-
“Tlaib has used the age-old vicious stereotype that Jews have dual loyalties; Tlaib and Omar have defended rocket attacks launched on Israel by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Tlaib has lied about Jewish history in order to delegitimize the state of Israel. Ocasio-Cortez has even been slammed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for her likening the situation at the southern border to the infamous concentration camps where Nazis killed millions of Jews.” Daily Wire
——
.Trump Fires At AOC And Friends: Apologize To America, Israel, For What You Have Said”
—-
"Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how ... it is done." Trump
—
Trump today at presser.

https://www.facebook.com/dan.bongino/videos/2362818770628284/
——

[George Rebane]

BillT 1046am - Thank you Mr Tozer, for the excellent compendium of how the Deep State now also operates in the private sector.

[Bill Tozer]

@ 1:27 pm
No, thank you. It was bad timing posting the excellent 10:46 am link with all this xenophobia talk going down. But, it is now captured for prosperity and maybe some distant future anthropologist or linguist will find it. :)

It does strike a disturbing parallel with Big Wigs of Corporate Leftinista Media and their wives, siblings, and former Dem operatives who now host shows on the lamestream fakenews.

[Don Bessee]

You mean like less than a moonbeam moonves and his wife @ 859 being the clinton team shills? If not it is a great fit BT. They are still trying to flush that toilet and then there are the ratings -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Moonves

The new boss is trying to scrub the toilet but the swamp plaque is too deep!

"There are very few people who are able to deliver a trustworthy broadcast without point of view," says CBS News president Susan Zirinsky. "That’s who we want to be.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/norah-odonnell-takes-as-anchor-cbs-evening-news-1224220

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Re: NYC’s DeBlasio is now hands down the top Democrat big city incompetent idiot

Well, the WSJ is not alone. albeit I am on the wrong side of the paywall. Now the Post jumps in. What makes me wonder about Warren Wilhelm Jr (Bill DiBlasio’s real name) is that any reader here has about the same polling as the Mayor of NYC...around zero. :).

Headline: The Post says: It’s time to fire Mayor de Blasio

“Think of all the failures he has overseen, any one of which would have embarrassed a lesser man.Enlarge Image

“After a number of children died when the Administration for Children’s Services failed to act, de Blasio defended its commissioner — until he forced her out. After the number of homeless skyrocketed, he defended his Homeless Services chief — until he forced him out.

“When it turned out that the chair of the New York City Housing Authority lied about lead paint inspections that could lead to kids being poisoned, he defended her — until he forced her out.

Even then, the city ran ­NYCHA so badly that the federal government interceded and set “up a monitor.

“De Blasio gave his wife $850 million for her ThriveNYC mental health initiative, and when questioned by the City Council, she couldn’t come up with one thing it succeeded in doing.

“He spent a jaw-dropping $773 million on his Renewal program to turn around failing schools. It did absolutely nothing except keep kids trapped in institutions the city knew were terrible. Shamed? You don’t know Bill. He claims the biggest threat to education is charter schools, which actually deliver results, not his own mismanagement.

Dead kids on the ACS’s watch. Poisoned kids as NYCHA lies. Kids languishing in failed Renewal schools. All because this mayor didn’t care enough to put effective government ahead of his political games.“

https://nypost.com/2019/07/14/bill-de-blasio-must-go-now-and-andrew-cuomo-should-be-the-one-to-do-it/

Wilhelm Jr.does remind me of James Comey. The only thing they care about is themselves.

“Per the City Charter and the state Constitution, the governor can suspend the mayor immediately for 30 days, then prepare charges, present de Blasio with them, give him a chance to answer them — and finally officially remove him. Or the mayor could do the right thing and resign.

Either way, Bill de Blasio must go. Now.”

Hmmm. Gov. Cuomo can suspend Warren Wilhelm, Jr. for 30days and then remove him? Learn something new everyday.

[Bill Tozer]

Hate speech
Money quote: [As a conservative] “I’m starting to lean toward the necessity of the US government regulating social media firms as public utilities. Because Big Brother isn’t just from the government any more.”

https://pjmedia.com/faith/facebook-bans-st-augustine-quote-as-hate-speech/

Another article takes a stab at why FB classified the St. Augustine quote as hate speech, speculating that the words found within “But men are hopeless creatures,...” is hateful to men or degrading. Who knows?

Of the many articles on this subject, the common theme emerging is references to the novel 1984. Reminds me of a recent quote, “1984 is a novel, not an instruction manual.”

[Gregory]

I've not seen Punchy waving polls around with the Trump bad news, so I went looking:

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove.

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Our language continues to languish...

The daisy chain

https://quillette.com/2019/07/20/how-the-left-turned-words-into-violence-and-violence-into-justice/
————————-
“As Douglas Murray observes, the exact meaning of “fascist” is hazy because the word has been overused. Indeed, what George Orwell said 75 years ago (quoted by Andrew Stuttaford) remains true today:

“Almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.”

By the same token, most people would agree that a group of masked thugs that goes around, en masse, beating people with whom it disagrees about politics is fascist or, at a minimum, has fascist tendencies. No reasonable person would accept that it is antifascist.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/07/the-washington-post-keeps-shilling-for-antifa.php

[George Rebane]

BillT 651am - Our beloved language weeps while ignorance celebrates.