Sunday, April 30, 2017

Ducks Escaping Oil Spill

Man, the "Valley Ducks" opened the scoring at :25 :o Which blows. They increased it to 3-0 before Edmonton pulled one back. Ed tied it in the second, 3-3, before Ana retook their lead. Now in the third the "Ducks" have quacked twice more. 6-3, 4:38 left. Wild game. "Ducks" gonna escape. 

Hockey Night in Canada

It is Hockey Night in Canada and Rogers Place in Edmonton is rocking! Their beloved "Oilers" are the new favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which shocked the undersigned, but that's what Las Vegas authoritatively said yesterday (Edmonton's two wins in the Valley were the reason.). Maybe not now though, Anaheim leads 4-3, with 8:58 left in the second period. Go "Oilers"! Drench those "Ducks" in petroleum!
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tack











Little boxes on the grass pitch











Little boxes all the same.
There's a blue one and a red one
And they're all made out of tiki-taka
And they all look just the same.


A lede one should never read:

Manchester City battle back to hold Middlesbrough


Text one should never digest:

Middlesbrough 2 Manchester City 2: Were Boro Cheated of three points?


Gabriel Jesus scored a late equaliser as Manchester City twice came from behind to salvage a 2-2 draw at relegation-threatened Middlesbrough.

Little boxes
On the hillside
And they're all made
Out of tiki-taka

Draw-Chester

Manchester United 1
Swansea 1
FT

Middlesbrough 2
Manchester City 2
FT

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Conner Strong

He is the most inspiring person from the most inspiring university in America.

"With the 105th pick in the 2017 NFL draft the Pittsburgh Steelers select James Conner..."

You couldn't hear the rest; the cheering from Team Conner drowned out the announcement.

Why James Conner to the Steelers is the most perfect NFL draft pick ever

The Steelers had the best moment of the NFL draft when they selected a Pitt star who beat cancer-USA Today

First he beat cancer to come back for his senior season at Pitt. And on Friday night, James Conner became the best story of the NFL draft when he was drafted by the Steelers in the third round of the NFL draft.

Why James Conner to the Steelers is the most perfect NFL draft pick ever

...
Conner’s not just the Steelers’, though. He’s Pittsburgh’s, and we’ll claim him long after his career there ends.
-SB Nation



Replying to @mattfreedpghpg and 4 othersCouldn't be happier for this exceptional young man and the Steelers12:05 AM · Apr 29, 2017

The moment @JamesConner_ learns he's a @steelers. #NFLDraft #NFLDraft2017


That man is a beast! Congratulations my brother @JamesConner_ couldn't happen to a better person!11:40 PM · Apr 28, 2017

"This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."


Trump Is Unhinged

"Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers," the Republican president said from his desk in the Oval Office, handing out maps of the United States with areas he won marked in red. "It’s pretty good, right? The red is obviously us."

He had copies for each of the three Reuters reporters in the room.

More than five months after his victory and two days shy of the 100-day mark of his presidency, the election is still on Trump's mind. Midway through a discussion about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the president paused to hand out copies of what he said were the latest figures from the 2016 electoral map.
kashiya nwanguma, molly shah and henry brousseau
1

?

38North Goes South

http://38north.org/
Site under construction. Check back soon!

:o
Car dealers are a low form of human life.
What a strange stat. ManU has drawn 13 times this season, more than any other club in the EPL, and has lost only three times, two fewer than Swine Chelsea and co-best in the league with Spurs. I would have bet those were City's stats.

What's the conventional wisdom on that? ("I don't know" is the honest answer but I shall speculate.) It seems to me one plays for a draw when one blows. City in the bad old pre-Revolution days. Every pint was precious, could be the diff between continuing to sip fine wine with Sir Alex and chugging spiked piss in the Championship.

And Mou has done that before! Not with relegation-threatened teams but with good teams who were up against it against a superior opponent. Like City a couple years ago. "Parked the bus" in front of City's strike force. Let 'em wail away. Rope-a-dope. Worked, as I recall! I think they beat us that match. ALMOST worked for Mark Hughes and the dreadful QPR team he brought to the city in the coronary-inducing finale to the 2012 season. Clearly, Mou doesn't  have the hosses to chase a trophy this year. He'a currently on Europa. BUT, he still has a good shot at the Champs League next season, he is only one pint and two goals behind City with each having five matches to play (United are two and two behind the "Cannibals", City one and even, each WITH A GAME IN HAND on the "'Bals".) A loss at City last Thursday would have severely dented the Chevy. And he was without Ibrahimovic and Rios and Rooney probably was drunk again. What to do? AVOID THE "L"! At all costs, avoid a loss. That was a six point match. A loss would have left the Chevy in a ditch four points back; a win would have put them two in front and level on points with Liverpool. Playing the odds, at City and without his talisman, Mou calculated to play for the one point with the draw--live to play the remaining five in other words, no worse off than when he started the day. That's what he did.

WHERE IS MH370? SCIENTISTS SAY THEY HAVE 'CREDIBLE INFORMATION' FOR LOCATION


It is now more than three years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370disappeared, and there is growing evidence that the search authorities have been looking for the aircraft in the wrong place. The Conversation
...
[The new crash site] is immediately to the north of the 120,000 square kilometer region that has already been searched.
(Newsweek 4/28/17)

Is MH370 in NORTH KOREA? Shock theory Kim Jong-un HIJACKED missing Boeing 777

The North Korean conspiracy theory centres on rumours that Kim Jong-un, the dictator of the hardline regime, ordered the hijacking of the flight because he wanted it for experimentation.
...
[un] wanted a “really, really huge plane” for research into technology advancements.
(Daily Express UK 4/28/17)
Ooh boy, they booed M Trubisky when he was introduced at the "Bulls"-"Celtics" game in Chicago. Murder City felt M wasn't all that with one career start in college, against Pitt. Pitt was the measuring stick for quarterbacks in the draft. The answer to "How'd he do against Pitt?" took primacy over arm strength, Wunderlic scores, 40 yard dash times and all that jazz. "You, Deshaun Watson, how'd you do against Pitt?" Deshaun could only bow his head in shame. "Jew see how M did against Pitt?" Deshaun could only nod his head through tears.

I feel a puff of ill wind when contemplating my Beloveds and the upcoming scholarly tackle football season. The Rasputin of the Confluence is gone to become the Bard of the Bayou and Pitt just wouldn't have beaten some of the teams it did last year without his wizadry. Like Paterno-Sandusky. Like Duke. NEVER saw a more imaginative, lightening-fast, defense-befuddling offense at the college level. No mo that. No mo Nate Peterman (Eh), no mo James Connor. No mo "defensive" backs and secondary I HOPE. Some of those mo-fo's graduated, I hope. New OC, new QB, Sam-something I think, a transfer, as was Peterman, from USC. How many of those gaudy numbers the O put up last year were due to Rasputin's hypnosis of opposing D's? Gonna find out fer sher but I bet one of 'em's gonna be PSU. At the Shower Stall this fall. The "Nittany Pedo Bears" came on big time last year. After that Pitt loss--Did they lose another frigging game?--they ran the table or pert near and played in the Rose Bowl which they pert near won. Gonna be some celebratory buggery goin' on in the stands during that one, I bet, don't know fer sher but I bet.

Friday, April 28, 2017

NSA, You're So Fluffy I Could Die

N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets


WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency said Friday that it had halted one of the most disputed practices of its warrantless surveillance program, ending a once-secret form of wiretapping that dates to the Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11 expansion of national security powers.

The agency is no longer collecting Americans’ emails and texts exchanged with people overseas that simply mention identifying terms — like email addresses — for foreigners whom the agency is spying on, but are neither to nor from those targets.

The decision is a major development in American surveillance policy. Privacy advocates have argued that the practice skirted or overstepped the Fourth Amendment.
...
[Okay, I can give credit where credit is due, if STOPPING BREAKING THE LAW is credit.]

"Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who sits on the Intelligence Committee and has long been an outspoken critic of what he saw as N.S.A. overreach, hailed the decision and said he would offer legislation to codify the new limit in federal law

“This change ends a practice that allowed Americans’ communications to be collected without a warrant merely for mentioning a foreign target,” Mr. Wyden said. “For years, I’ve repeatedly raised concerns that this amounted to an end run around the Fourth Amendment. This transparency should be commended.”
...
"Until 2013, [the worst year of my life] it was not publicly known that the equipment installed on network switches was systematically sifting all cross-border internet traffic and sending to the N.S.A. messages containing such a targeted email address anywhere — not just emails to or from targets, but also between other people who talk about them.
...
On Friday, Mr. Snowden wrote on Twitter that “the truth changed everything.”

He also called the change “likely the most substantive of the post-2013 NSA reforms, if the principle is applied to all other programs.” However, there was no indication that the N.S.A. intended to cease this type of collection abroad, where legal limits set by the Constitution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act largely do not apply.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/us/politics/nsa-surveillance-terrorism-privacy.html

Okay, an UNQUALIFIED GOOD! My son says this is a "massive win." It earns the Wyden-Snowden seal of approval, it gets PUBLOCC's. Way to go NSA! Thank you!


                                                                 Trump...TRUMP...

HEY DICKHEAD!

What is Macedonia?

"It's PRESIDENT Dickhead by the way and YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOUT! I know my ancient Grecian history by the way and Macedonia was a city state a long time ago, did pretty well, by the way, made a lot of money, 'course taxes were lower back then, NO I WILL NOT RELEASE MY TAXES, gorgeous women, GORGEOUS, won a Miss Ancient Universe pageant, you should have seen her, aligned with Sparta to defeat Athens in the first Olympic Games."


Swear?


Thank you.


Russia blames the

U.S. after protesters 

storm Macedonia’s 

parliament (WaPo)

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Dear God

City and United drew 0-0 today in the city.

Can we just end this fucking season already? This is the dreariest, most boring Manchester City team since before the Revolution. There was a year, "Psycho" Pearce was the manager and we had...what was his name, something like Georgio Chamaras or something as a "promising" player, and we had Joey Barton in florid psychosis, when we scored like 20 goals the whole fucking year. Almost got relegated. That was the most hopeless year since I've been true blue. This season is second-worst. It is shocking that this has come under the World's Greatest Manager. Pep Guardiola changed the way this team plays, tiki-taka, and we've tiki'd when we should have taki'd evidently. I don't know! I don't know what the problem has been, are we passing too much?, taki-taka puts a premium on passing, how many fucking shots on net have we had this year?, I don't know what it is but there is no explosion in this team, we are not scoring goals, and when your defense is atrocious and you've got "Claudio" "Bravo" in goal, basically, when you don't score goals, can't defend, and your goalkeeper has his head up his ass, you're not going to be successful in soccer. Sorry!

Pep brought Yaya (By the way, Yaya, happy birthday) out of exile, got Vinny back for at least a match, HAS KUN AGUERO!, David Silva, Raheem Sterling, Kevin DrBruyne, etc & etc...that team should NOT be BORING! THAT team should not be hanging on by its fingertips to fourth fucking place! That team has REGRESSED. Under PEP GUARDIOLA!  Dear God.

End of World

Google aggregates its news stories in categories, U.S., World, Health, Trump Blows, Science, Sports, etc. Ten stories per category. All ten in Sports are on the NFL draft. 
M Trubitsky (I only know who he is from the Pitt game, the swine) was selected second overall by the Chicago "Who Dats" in the National Concussion League draft. Good ballplayer, M.

COME HOME CARL!


Monumental Failure


De Facto Fool is trying to get something, anything, to show for his first 100 days. R&R ObamaCare, the Wall, China, North Korea, NAFTA, the guy has got a streak of yellow in him that becomes his orange hair. The official shoe wear of the Trump White House is the flip-flop. He's decided to take on inanimate objects for his scattershot practice and is taking aim at national monuments to cement his "legacy" by Saturday. So, he has gone on the attack, launching an out-of-nowhere verbal barage against parks, wetlands, land, waterways, the underground, accusing these mute offenders of depriving his real estate and business friends of their God-given right to pursue happiness by "developing" them. That's what he's doing. That and threatening to nuke Canada.

Derby Day!

It is Derby Day in England's Second City. God's Team of Righteous City-Dwelling Angels in Sky Blue, fourth in the table and first in our hearts host the fifth-place Suburban "Buccaneers," one tenuous pint behind. Pep vs Mou. Six left to play including this one. Both clubs with two games in hand and two and three points respectively behind the turd-placed "Cannibals," so...this one is not even decisive for the Young Boys-Barca future. Pretty non-consequential, actually, now that I think about it.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

"Trump says no plan to pull out of NAFTA ‘at this time’"-WaPo

Why, Trump? NAFTA was the worst thing next to ObamaCare in the whole history of the earth during your theft of the election. Find out your stupid, again? You've had a lot of those "OMG (smack self on forehead) I'm a moron!" moments. "Who knew?"

"United investigating giant rabbit's death after trans-Atlantic flight"

Business! Business, I am awed...And odd.

"North Korea faces tighter sanctions under Trump strategy"-BBC

Trump team softens war talk, vows other pressure on NKorea

After weeks of unusually blunt military threats, the joint statement by the agency chiefs said Trump's approach "aims to pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with our allies and regional partners." It made no specific mention of military options, though it said the U.S. would defend itself and friends.
-ABC






That's your new strategy. I see. Good strategy, Trump, don't get me wrong, I approve, Dickhead! Not even a Wall, huh. Rooskis built one! You proposed one before you realized you were a stupid idiot. Geez, a wall along the DMZ, that'd at least slow down the North's troops...China built a wall...


So what was that all about, Trump? All sound and fury signifying...nothing? Just re-inventing the wheel?


Oh! Trump, I bet Melanoma is cucking you.
"Hard work guarantees you nothing, but without it you don't have a chance."

That's a Riley-ism, too.

"The wisdom is reaching."

That's that song...the old Subaru Ski World theme song, don't remember it's name...that Marty Balin re-recorded...written by Joe---, tune by -----, Fuck! Interviewed that guy, too (by email.).

Those things are in conflict a little, however, no? Why work, even if it pays off, if  "it always ends"? We really are struggling naked against a huge bolder and in the end it "always" rolls back over us and crushes us to death. Why struggle? (Or at least put some clothes?)...I'm thinking...I'm writing as I'm thinking, which is contraindicated both ways, in hope that I will stumble upon the shining path.

In my work as a struggler against the bolder of the Law I have become acquainted with an inmate-run project called Life Path. It was started by an inmate who is serving a Life sentence and many other of Life Path's participants are doing life. The end purpose of Life Path is to improve the community, whatever community you are in, that is the key part. Including the prison community. So Life Path participants obey all rules and laws of their community, volunteer in the kitchen, around the yard, seek donations for TV's and videos for visiting family, polish the brass, etc. IN THE PRISON.

Why? Hope is one reason. Hope that their good deeds inside will lead to mitigation of their sentence for, "without it you don't have a chance." But also to be "successful"--in whatever community you are in. You want to be thrown in the hole? Keep on the path you're goin', brother. Here's another path that leads away from discipline in solitary confinement. And, "improving the community" is a good thing since you are part of that community. Less chance of getting shanked if everybody obeys the rules and laws. And...You feel good about yourself. You discover you have talents, that you're not destined to be a loser forever. You're trying, you're putting in l'effort. You discover that Success is in the reaching. Hard work has its own rewards.
“You never think it’s gonna end. Then it always ends.”
           
Ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth. The good and the bad. The pain and the joy. Life itself. It always ends. That is Pat Riley. Riley really does have a philosophic touch in his pithy aphorisms. I read something similar that Richard Nixon wrote, I think in his book Six Crises. It was something like, "No defeat is total. No victory ever complete." Very true, too.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Trump, Suicide is Painless

Trump:

Ivanka Trump Is Jeered in Berlin After Defending Her Father

She didn't vote for you, Trump.

Trump:


You don't even know how to act. Do you even know where you are? Maybe in your dotage your mind wandered back to Miss Universe and you thought you heard "There she is, Miss America." OR, maybe you forgot what country and were expecting the Russian national anthem.

Do you even know where "your" "wife," the "First" "Lady," is?


Melania Trump Refuses To Move Into White House? No Signs She’ll Leave Trump Tower


She didn't vote for you either, Trump.
'Course, she couldn't as an illegal alien.

She doesn't want to be with you, Trump. She doesn't love you anymore. She doesn't want to fuck your short, stumpy, impotent dick anymore. She's cucking you, Trump. She's fucking Schwarzenegger. She hates you like everybody else.


You cornhole Bannon now. Sad!