Hello Booger.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Vegas 2 Washington 3 End2
I do not have faith. This is a continuation of Ukraine 2014, MH370 2014, Leicester 2016, Brexit 2016, Trump 2016, a recurrence of the summer of 1914. In 2018 we have to look to Washington for a restoration of normalcy? T'ain't gonna happen. We have entered a new Dark Age again. The Stanley Cup will reside in Las Vegas.
Trump Asked Session to Reverse Recusal
Robert Mueller is investigating, inter alia, Trump's attempts to get rid of the Attorney General. Those have included Trump's decisions to fire Sessions, twice as I recall, only to be talked out of it and his insulting tweets, one just today. The New York Times reports today on an attempt that "has not been previously reported."
After Sessions announced his recusal Trump refused to take his phone calls. Sessions had called him to talk about immigration and Trump wouldn't talk to him. So Sessions flew to Trump's Mar-a-Lago dacha. There, according to the Times, Trump "berated Mr. Sessions and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request." Sessions refused.
"When...Trump learned of the recusal, he asked advisers whether the decision could be reversed, according to people briefed on the matter. Told no, Mr. Trump argued that Eric H. Holder Jr., President Barack Obama’s first attorney general, would never have recused himself from a case that threatened to tarnish Mr. Obama. The president said he expected the same loyalty from Mr. Sessions."
It was the same demand made of James Comey at a one-on-one dinner at the White House. Comey demurred.
Mueller has interviewed Sessions, "And of the four dozen or so questions Mr. Mueller wants to ask Mr. Trump, eight relate to Mr. Sessions. Among them: What efforts did you make to try to get him to reverse his recusal?"
Today, Trump tweeted "I wish I did!" pick somebody other than Sessions for Attorney General.
"[Mueller's] interest demonstrates Mr. Sessions’s overlooked role as a key witness in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry itself."
After Sessions announced his recusal Trump refused to take his phone calls. Sessions had called him to talk about immigration and Trump wouldn't talk to him. So Sessions flew to Trump's Mar-a-Lago dacha. There, according to the Times, Trump "berated Mr. Sessions and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request." Sessions refused.
"When...Trump learned of the recusal, he asked advisers whether the decision could be reversed, according to people briefed on the matter. Told no, Mr. Trump argued that Eric H. Holder Jr., President Barack Obama’s first attorney general, would never have recused himself from a case that threatened to tarnish Mr. Obama. The president said he expected the same loyalty from Mr. Sessions."
It was the same demand made of James Comey at a one-on-one dinner at the White House. Comey demurred.
Mueller has interviewed Sessions, "And of the four dozen or so questions Mr. Mueller wants to ask Mr. Trump, eight relate to Mr. Sessions. Among them: What efforts did you make to try to get him to reverse his recusal?"
Today, Trump tweeted "I wish I did!" pick somebody other than Sessions for Attorney General.
"[Mueller's] interest demonstrates Mr. Sessions’s overlooked role as a key witness in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry itself."
"With ‘Spygate,’ Trump Shows How He Uses Conspiracy Theories to Erode Trust"-NYT
Just saw this. Around noon I was drafting a post in my head on a topic raised by that lede but then had a meeting I had to get to. The post was to be entitled, "Demagoguery Dies in Darkness," a pastiche on WaPo's slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" for Donald Trump would never have happened had the media, mainstream and, as here, social, had not spread Trump's demagoguery. This is not original. It has been written here and elsewhere, including the Times, during the campaign and after: ~$4 billion in free advertising through the election; the Huffington Post originally decided to relegate Trump's nonsense to the entertainment section, taking it off their front page. But if they ever did I sure as hell missed it.
"Bad money drives good money out" it is said of counterfeiting and nothing spells money like T-R-U-M-P. It's a race to the bottom for the Huff Post, for the Gray Lady, for Chief WaPo. Just ask the Times. Spreading Trump's demagoguery has improved their bottom line. So now we have ledes like that at top drawing eyes and advertisers bucks to "analytical" articles, because that's what we do at The New York Times, we give you "analysis." Under the guise of analysis, with the fig leaf of quotation marks, the Times repeats, spreads and amplifies Trump's lies and distortions, which do in fact "erode," just as the lede says. Trump's lies and demagoguery erode trust--in The New York Times, as well!--they erode the "currency" of "All the News That's Fit to Print," they erode public discourse, they erode "news,"--There is nothing "new" about what Trump does. Why cover it?--they erode our politics, they erode democracy itself. All in the name of more debased money redounding to the benefit of one person: Donald Trump. Democracy does die when a free press cannot shine a light. It also dies when a magnifying glass concentrates that light in a burning, destructive beam.
"Bad money drives good money out" it is said of counterfeiting and nothing spells money like T-R-U-M-P. It's a race to the bottom for the Huff Post, for the Gray Lady, for Chief WaPo. Just ask the Times. Spreading Trump's demagoguery has improved their bottom line. So now we have ledes like that at top drawing eyes and advertisers bucks to "analytical" articles, because that's what we do at The New York Times, we give you "analysis." Under the guise of analysis, with the fig leaf of quotation marks, the Times repeats, spreads and amplifies Trump's lies and distortions, which do in fact "erode," just as the lede says. Trump's lies and demagoguery erode trust--in The New York Times, as well!--they erode the "currency" of "All the News That's Fit to Print," they erode public discourse, they erode "news,"--There is nothing "new" about what Trump does. Why cover it?--they erode our politics, they erode democracy itself. All in the name of more debased money redounding to the benefit of one person: Donald Trump. Democracy does die when a free press cannot shine a light. It also dies when a magnifying glass concentrates that light in a burning, destructive beam.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Continuing our popular series "Learned Mini-Treatises That I Make Up As I Go Along on Sin, Crime, Bad Jokes, and the Apologia Culture" I entirely agree (what else?) with ABC's decision to cancel professional comedienne Rosanne Barr's new TV show for this tweet on former Obama strategist Valerie Jarrett,
"muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."
Too much pain, insufficient gain for Barr's apology that it was a "bad joke".
"muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."
Too much pain, insufficient gain for Barr's apology that it was a "bad joke".
That's my story and I'm sticking to it at 11 pm in the night, Normal Cop Time when my head hurts. Leave me alone.
David Hogg the 18 year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor who started the #NeverAgain movement organized a "die-in" at a Publix supermarket in Coral Springs, Florida.
Photographs of the die in were posted on the Coral Springs/Parkland Facebook page.
Brian Valenti is a Coconut Creek Police Officer of 23 years.
Officer Valenti quickly took the post down but not until a woman took a screenshot of it and sent it to the Coconut Creek police chief, Butch Arenal. Chief Arenal responded to the email that Valenti's post was,
Photographs of the die in were posted on the Coral Springs/Parkland Facebook page.
Per the Sun-Sentinel "Posts started coming in attacking Hogg." Here is one of the posts attacking the students who participated in the die in:
Brian Valenti is a Coconut Creek Police Officer of 23 years.
Officer Valenti quickly took the post down but not until a woman took a screenshot of it and sent it to the Coconut Creek police chief, Butch Arenal. Chief Arenal responded to the email that Valenti's post was,
“unprofessional and inappropriate. The officer admitted that it was in poor taste, and indicated that it was meant as a joke, but certainly didn’t come off that way. It is for that reason that he thought it better to remove the post. He will be offering an apology, as he has indicated that he wants to do whatever he has to do to make it right. I want to personally apologize to you, since you not only had to see it, but you then had to take time out of your day to write to me. I am directly accountable for the actions of all of the employees who work for me, and this unfortunate decision by one of those employees has been disappointing and embarrassing.”
Here is some reaction to the incident from the Sun-Sentinel:
Michael Rajner, a human rights activist from Wilton Manors lending support to the #NeverAgain movement, said Hogg has suggested the officer post a video apology on Twitter.
Rajner said he himself was outraged by the Facebook post. Yet he said he still believes in what he called teachable moments....
“After careful consideration of the adverse impact Officer Valenti’s Facebook post may have had on any of the individuals involved, his deep regret for making the comment, and the damage inflicted upon the Coconut Creek Police Department’s reputation, I have decided to suspend Officer Valenti for a period of five days without pay.”
Rajner said he himself was outraged by the Facebook post. Yet he said he still believes in what he called teachable moments....
“After careful consideration of the adverse impact Officer Valenti’s Facebook post may have had on any of the individuals involved, his deep regret for making the comment, and the damage inflicted upon the Coconut Creek Police Department’s reputation, I have decided to suspend Officer Valenti for a period of five days without pay.”
-Coconut Creek police chief Butch Arenal, today.
Here are my own reactions:
Only in America 2.0 could this happen. It takes a country birthed in insanity and reared in hate to spawn such as Brian Valenti and others, Laura Ingraham, who attack David Hogg. Such as NRA supporters. Such as Trump supporters. And I detest them every one, even in my own family, particularly in my own family.
I am jaded about apologies. There was an apologia culture in the former United States of America, it is less present in Donald Trump's America 2.0, it is based in Christianity, is present in the American criminal justice system, and encourages confession, apology and remorse as essential steps toward forgiveness and redemption. Thus: "I am truly boo hoo-hoo sincerely sorry that I raped and murdered boo hoo-hoo your loved one. I throw myself on your mercy, and the Lord's." Thus, the apology does more good for the sinner-criminal-rapist/murderer than it does for those, like David Hogg, who are attacked. The apologia culture encourages, even requires, forgiveness by victims, heaping an additional demand upon those who have been insulted, threatened, assaulted, violated, because it is their ticket to heaven too. "God loved mankind so much that he gave his only son." God forgave us for torturing and murdering his child. You should forgive me for torturing and murdering yours. Well, fuck all of that. There are many, many things that we say and do that we should never be able to apologize for. It is insulting! Or would be insulting in a country not birthed in insanity, taught according to Christianity, and reared in hate. You cannot undo the hurt, you cannot go back in time. I am jaded about the whole apologia culture.
Then, there are other things we say and do that unintentionally cause pain or harm that are not "covered" by the apology, unintentional acts that cause harm. The apology requires intent: intent to do the original harm, recognition after the fact that you could have not done the harm, acknowledgment of harm-doing through confession and, "I'm sorry boo hoo-hoo." So, why should we apologize for unintended harm? What does that even mean? We don't expect a rabid dog who bites us to howl in remorse after the fact. We don't ask an insane person to apologize for rape and murder that he has no idea he did. It is not logical. Thus, I agree with Kate Simonson, who sent Valenti's post to Chief Arenal that a "meaningless apology" ain't gonna cut it for Valenti...What about a meaningful apology? For over three decades I have been exposed to cop humor and I recognize Valenti's post as cop humor. It unintentionally caused pain. If I accidentally step on your bare foot I will apologize immediately and profusely. It is not logical that I do so but with pain as opposed to (I am making this up as I go along) harm, sincere remorse does make things better, it eases the pain. In this instance I agree with he who was pained, David Hogg, (via Michael Rajner) that an apology on social media will ease the pain. I also agree with Arenal that in addition to apologizing Valenti should be punished. But why?...Should you be punished for stepping on a lady's foot?...No. An apology is enough for accidentally stepping on someone's foot. Then why?...To attempt to correct the unintentional pain cause by intentional act. Thus: If I drive drunk and kill your loved one, I can still apologize, it is still not logical, does not undo the harm but is "less meaningless" in that instance than if I with premeditation shot and killed him, but I must be punished! In attempt correct the intentional behavior, drinking and driving, that resulted in unintentional harm. This "logic" is more so when pain but not harm is the result. I thus agree with Michael Rajner that sensitivity training for Valenti, and all cop humor prone cops, is mandated. That, with intent to correct the disturbed thought that produces the disturbed acts of cop humor that when posted on social media results in pain. Finally, I agree--basically, I agree with everybody-- with Arenal that cops should be reminded of the widespread pain that results from "sharing" their disturbed cop humor on social media. No pain, no gain.
That's All Folks! MH370 Search Efforts End After 4 Years
CNN, where they're still doing 24/7 coverage, enthusiasts will recall that Malaysia contracted with American company Ocean Infinity on a no find-no pay basis. They no find. Official searches ended in January, 2017.
The Knight Was a Golden State
In Texas the "Rockets" were in a cold, foldin' state in the second half for the second game in a row, their 11 point half time lead blown up by a 33-15 third quarter deluge. The "Warriors" went on to win 101-92 and advanced to their fourth straight Finals matchup with Cleveland. Good news for Mistake Haters. GS will turn the wine and gold to blood and pus once more.
In Las Vegas. My oh my Vegas. The castle was smokin', the Knight at center ice pre-game was smotin' and when the reality show turned real the "Golden Knights" completed a golden night with a 6-4 win over D.C. to take a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.
In Las Vegas. My oh my Vegas. The castle was smokin', the Knight at center ice pre-game was smotin' and when the reality show turned real the "Golden Knights" completed a golden night with a 6-4 win over D.C. to take a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Monday, May 28, 2018
'Loffs
It is Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Brought to You by Ceasar's Palace and a real burn barner it seems. Vegan and Wershington are tied 3-3 with 4' left in the second period.
It is Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals, the winner to play Cleveland and Houston is up a big 12 pernts on Golden Pond with a minute left in the half. If Houston wins this, I think this is a real opportunity for Cleveland. And that exasperates the hell out of me. Houston is good, everybody is good in the conference finals but this generation of "Rockettes" has not been to The Finals before and Cleve has been there four straight times. Cleve has the best player...and you know the adage. Cleve would still have the best player against GS but it would be close and The Town has got sooo many great players, four Hall of Famers, they claim, with justification: Curry, Thompson, Durant, and Green. And Golden has played the Mistakes the last three years, winning twice. They Know they can beat Cleve as many times as they want. There is No. Doubt. in them. In Houston there will be doubt. They have not played Cleve in the Finals, or anybody else in the Finals. Big psychological advantage to Cleve if H wins this and closes out GS.
Final check before I lay myself down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to burn. Houston leads Golden State 54-43 at the half. The "Capitals" and Vegans are tied 3-3 at the end of the second period. GOOO CAPITALS, BEEET VEGANS. GOOO "WARRIORS", BEEET "ROCKETTES."
It is Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals, the winner to play Cleveland and Houston is up a big 12 pernts on Golden Pond with a minute left in the half. If Houston wins this, I think this is a real opportunity for Cleveland. And that exasperates the hell out of me. Houston is good, everybody is good in the conference finals but this generation of "Rockettes" has not been to The Finals before and Cleve has been there four straight times. Cleve has the best player...and you know the adage. Cleve would still have the best player against GS but it would be close and The Town has got sooo many great players, four Hall of Famers, they claim, with justification: Curry, Thompson, Durant, and Green. And Golden has played the Mistakes the last three years, winning twice. They Know they can beat Cleve as many times as they want. There is No. Doubt. in them. In Houston there will be doubt. They have not played Cleve in the Finals, or anybody else in the Finals. Big psychological advantage to Cleve if H wins this and closes out GS.
Final check before I lay myself down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to burn. Houston leads Golden State 54-43 at the half. The "Capitals" and Vegans are tied 3-3 at the end of the second period. GOOO CAPITALS, BEEET VEGANS. GOOO "WARRIORS", BEEET "ROCKETTES."
There is a similar disconcerting image of that animal outside Nyanza Mwami Palace giving undersigned pause that it might be the King of Rwanda. And his bride and heir trailing a respectful distance behind His Majesty, peut-etre?
Continuing from Nataraja's Foot...from the hand of the person writing the blog Nataraja's Foot...
"Today, the King's Palace affords a tour of how Rwanda's kings used to live." This is immediately followed by two images:
Which I don't think His Majesty lived on the road.
Now that's more like it!
"Lots of interesting history. If someone was accused of a crime they could seek escape from punishment if they could run up (past all the king's guards) and touch the pole in the doorway."
Captioned, "Outside the main palace."
Interesting!
"Central fire." (Note Arsenal colours)
"All of the mats in the palace are see-through except these ones which separate the king's bed from prying eyes. Men would sit and talk in the central area and women had a screened section at the back where they were supposed to sing so they couldn't listen to the men."
"King's bed." I too sleep on a bed on the floor/ground.
"This is the entrance to the milk hut. Milk was very sacred and tended to by a virgin girl." :)
"This is the beer hut. Beer was also very sacred...(!) It was tended by the royal taster who was castrated so that he didn't get drunk and bother the milk virgin." :o
"These are the royal cows who produce the milk." Mystery solv-ed.
"Then it was on to the modern palace..."
One can tell this is the modern palace from the chic Art Deco facade and colours.
"He wanted one that resembled the houses he'd seen in Europe with an upstairs and downstairs..."
Toldja! Nothing says modern like an upstairs and a downstairs.
"After lunch at a nearby hotel, we headed up to the art gallery for a look."
Oooh. Nice. Really.
"Whereas the Mwami Palace is an excellent day out, you can probably give the art gallery a miss. (:o) There wasn't much there, or any explanation of the displays."
Visit Naranja's Foot is you cannot Visit Rwanda.
Arsenal to Challenge for Genocide Cup
"The tourism deal is not the only link between Rwanda and the north London side. Many of [President Paul] Kagame’s critics compare his prolonged stay in power to that of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who retired this year after 22 years in charge. Kagame...posted a plaintive message this month about Wenger’s departure from “my beloved Club Arsenal." [Kagame]...has recently changed the constitution to allow him to stay until 2034."
According to Wikipedia this is "A reconstruction of the King of Rwanda's Palace at Nyanza."
According to Wikipedia this is the "principal facade" of the King of England's Palace at Westminster.
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Note the similarity in rounded form of Arsenal's palace and the King of Rwanda's Palace.
Thus RwandArsenal.
Sunday, May 27, 2018
10
Okay kids, that's all I can stand, I can't stand no more. CONGRATS CLEVELAND. FOUR STRAIGHT TRIPS TO THE FINALS. 8 STRAIGHT FOR LBJ. They will play the Game 7 winner between Golden State and Houston in Houston. Bawston needed Dr. Heimlich down the stretch. Too young, too inexperienced, not enough Imodium.
OH! And That is the Dagger. Geoge Hill with a bucket with 1:16 Left, Cleve up by 7, 81-74
When Irish Eyes are Crying,
The Whole world Cries Along with them.
The Whole world Cries Along with them.
Puckering Assholes in Beantown
Cleveland has taken a rare lead in this low-scoring desultory affair 56-53 with under 3' left in the 3Q.
56-53. Lord that could be a half-time score. LBJ's over/under in this one was 38 points by his lonesome. Beans led by 8 after 1; 4 at the half and have been outscored, now by five in the Turd. It's now 56-55 with under 2 to go.
Not a good sign by my lights for Chowder. Dear God, I have to like LeBron to win such a close low-scoring drecky game in the 4th but God help me if I make a correct decision. Very strange game...Oh, Cleve hit a trey, it's now 59-56 entering the 4Q.
56-53. Lord that could be a half-time score. LBJ's over/under in this one was 38 points by his lonesome. Beans led by 8 after 1; 4 at the half and have been outscored, now by five in the Turd. It's now 56-55 with under 2 to go.
Not a good sign by my lights for Chowder. Dear God, I have to like LeBron to win such a close low-scoring drecky game in the 4th but God help me if I make a correct decision. Very strange game...Oh, Cleve hit a trey, it's now 59-56 entering the 4Q.
Torn Between Two Lovers
Splash!
It was the return of the Splash Brothers that inundated Houston last night. Klay Thompson was 13/23, 9/14 from range, 35 and the Elf Magician 12/23, 5/14, 29. Do it every time, that will. Chris Paul didn't play.
Lovey Dovey Turtle Dovey (concussion protocol) will not play today for Lake Mistake and that is enough for me to change my Official Prediction: Bawston will win Game 7.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Obviously a Major Malfunction
Dear JEsus. Golden Pond just FLOODED the Houston launch pad. They followed their 3Q 33-16 beatdown with an unbelievable 31-9 4th, outscoring H 64-25 in the second half. Houston led by 17 after 1. Were outscored 93-47 after that. :o and :o :o.
Wait...Houston, You Have a Problem
Golden Pond splashed their bodily essence all over the faces of the "Rockettes" in the 3Q, outscoring the latter by 33-17 in the 3Q to take an eight point lead, 84-77, heading into the final quarter. Well, that certainly escalated quickly.
Elimination Weekend
It is Elimination Weekend in some world sports. Exorable Liverpool went splat in the Champions League embarrassing England and giving cause for anti-Livers like moi to change our underwear a couple of times since the glorious result came in.
On the Left Coast of the colonies the Houston "Rockettes" are laying some wood on Golden State. They lead at the half by 10 and led in the 1Q by 17.
And tomorrow we have a double elimination. Will the Beans break wind and cause the Sword to go limp or will the Sword the slice and dice the Beans. The adage that playoff series are won by the team with the best player is firmly on the cutting edge. Predictions here: a cheater's boldness in the Houston-GS series, the Rockets will rise and end Golden State's spectacular run. And in Beans, I'm going with the adage. The Beanies are too young, too inexperienced, and are missing their two best players. LBJ does not want to have another Humiliation in Boston. One caveat: LeBron is bushed, has only one full day rest between his 46 in 46 supernova Friday and manana. Does he have enough left? Yes, barely. Cleveland wins the game and the series. It will be Cleveland-Houston in the Finals and with Chris Paul undoubtedly back the "Rockets" red glare will turn the wine and gold into blood and pus.
On the Left Coast of the colonies the Houston "Rockettes" are laying some wood on Golden State. They lead at the half by 10 and led in the 1Q by 17.
And tomorrow we have a double elimination. Will the Beans break wind and cause the Sword to go limp or will the Sword the slice and dice the Beans. The adage that playoff series are won by the team with the best player is firmly on the cutting edge. Predictions here: a cheater's boldness in the Houston-GS series, the Rockets will rise and end Golden State's spectacular run. And in Beans, I'm going with the adage. The Beanies are too young, too inexperienced, and are missing their two best players. LBJ does not want to have another Humiliation in Boston. One caveat: LeBron is bushed, has only one full day rest between his 46 in 46 supernova Friday and manana. Does he have enough left? Yes, barely. Cleveland wins the game and the series. It will be Cleveland-Houston in the Finals and with Chris Paul undoubtedly back the "Rockets" red glare will turn the wine and gold into blood and pus.
Trump, Go to the Fucking Summit
Kim and Moon had a surprise meeting on the DPRK side of the border today. Looks like things went well.
And yet...The right wing is saying things like "Trump must stick to his snub." That is utter bullshit. Trump's Dear John letter was caused by China telling Kim to slow the fuck down. The Chinese were aftaid all peace was goin to break out. Can't have that! Trump and Kim win Nobels, the U.S. gets the credit, China a wallflower: not in China's interests. Learn who your real friends are, whippersnapper! Kim took notes and obeyed.
Trump's letter had the effect of peeling China and the DPRK apart. It caused Kim to pause and think, "Who really has my and my country's best interests at heart?" Kim's answer to those questions is photographically depicted above.
Friday, May 25, 2018
LeBron Had 46 of C's 109 Points.
He scored more than the next three Mistakers combined. 46 points in 46 minutes played. That's efficient! 17/33 from the field. Over 50% shooting is pretty good!. 11 boards, 9 assists. What, no treble-double? Da bum. He played 8 more minutes than anybody else on his team. Game 7 Sunday at 8:30 p.m. in the night time, Normal Cop Time. Listen, Beans: take some Immodium game day, K? Brad Auerbach, see if you can figure out a way to keep That Man from scoring 42% of his team's fucking points. It's really important.
Man, Boston fans are arrogant about their "Celtics." Coach Brad Stevens is fucking Red Auerbach. They think they are going to run LBJ out of Mistake Land again. May be right. Cleve is up 10 at the end of 3Q after being down 5 at the end of the first. Went on a big run in the second. B outscored them by one in the third. Game 7 would be in Beans.
I just have the hardest time seeing this team, without Bed Bugs and without Gordon Hayward, beating C in this series. Which is stupid of me because they've done it three times already. If they come back in the 4th and beat them I'll be a sonofabitch. They're 1-6 on the road in these 'loffs, they've callow as hell, missing their two best players, and playing against the best baller in the world. And if Bawston doesn't win tonight I don't see that young, inexperienced team winning a Game 7, even at home (where they're 10-0) against Cleveland-cum-LeBron. If I see it then I'll see it.
I just have the hardest time seeing this team, without Bed Bugs and without Gordon Hayward, beating C in this series. Which is stupid of me because they've done it three times already. If they come back in the 4th and beat them I'll be a sonofabitch. They're 1-6 on the road in these 'loffs, they've callow as hell, missing their two best players, and playing against the best baller in the world. And if Bawston doesn't win tonight I don't see that young, inexperienced team winning a Game 7, even at home (where they're 10-0) against Cleveland-cum-LeBron. If I see it then I'll see it.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Finally tonight, congratulations to the Wershington "Capitals." Now that's what an expansion team should be in its first year: 8 wins, 67 losses, 5 ties. GAWD, they were dreadful. And in year two and three and. Didn't make the playoffs or finish with more W's than L's until year ten. Now in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in, gulp, 45 years. Against first year Vegan. Go "Caps."
Houston led by as many as 11 points in the 2Q and by eight with 3:15 to play but Golden Pond closed on an 8-0 run sparked by KD's trey at 2:12. His two free throws at :51.8 cut the lead to one and Draymond Green made one of two with :24 seconds left to even it. Steph Curry even had a three-point shot at the buzzer that would have give GS the lead. They never had the lead in the first half, which is frustrating for the "Rockettes". 45-45 half time and all the momentum with The City.
Somebody just clicked on this post. this post. The cite in Blogger stats appears only as "I can't get over that photograph" and I didn't remember what photograph it was or what the post was about. So I clicked on it my ownself. I reprint the text sans photo (of Liu Shaoqi and granddaughter) below. Everything I wrote then I could write now, could have written on any day from 2004 on. It is true. I was surprised that that post was as recent as 2016. I had dropped the Cultural Revolution as a frequent writing topic years before. What that 2016 post means is that the pain of China writing stayed with me years after I stopped writing about it regularly. Yes, I mean that. Writing about China caused me pain.
And this is the thing with China. China does that. There is so much beauty, kindness, love, greatness, history but always admixed with the most exquisite pain. That photograph could be on a Hallmark card, right? "Ah," it just makes you want to go, "Ah." It is adorable. And yet...
It's always there. The pain is always there; you meet a Chinese person, (s)he seems perfectly normal-happy or well-adjusted or content. Intelligent, personable. Get to know them a little: there is pain inside there. Every Chinese has got pain inside. Pain of a kind you have never experienced. Pain of an intensity that, mercifully, few of us ever know. Just remember: no matter how normal they seem, there is pain inside.
And this is the thing with China. China does that. There is so much beauty, kindness, love, greatness, history but always admixed with the most exquisite pain. That photograph could be on a Hallmark card, right? "Ah," it just makes you want to go, "Ah." It is adorable. And yet...
It's always there. The pain is always there; you meet a Chinese person, (s)he seems perfectly normal-happy or well-adjusted or content. Intelligent, personable. Get to know them a little: there is pain inside there. Every Chinese has got pain inside. Pain of a kind you have never experienced. Pain of an intensity that, mercifully, few of us ever know. Just remember: no matter how normal they seem, there is pain inside.
Harvey Weinstein To Be Arrested Friday
He is surrendering to the Manhattan D.A.'s office on rape charges.
Trumpie, did you proof read that letter before you sent it? It's only three paragraphs long.
In the second paragraph, the "Big" one, you wrote "...I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."
In the last paragraph you wrote "If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write."
What is the fucking matter with you, you loon?
In the second paragraph, the "Big" one, you wrote "...I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."
In the last paragraph you wrote "If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write."
What is the fucking matter with you, you loon?
Melt Down The Coins
Trump canceled the summit with Kim Jong-un.
And the medal.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Boston leads Mistake Land by 19 with under 11' left in the game.
The first two games in this series were in Beans and the "Celts" won by 15 and 13.
The next to in Lake Mistake. The "Cavs" won by 30 and 9.
The home team in professorial tackle football gets three points by Las Vegas. Doesn't matter if you're FIU playing in front of 6,000 or Michigan playing in front of 106,000, you're given a field goal over the line in the same game played at a neutral venue. Okay, that's college kids, and that isn't much. I don't think it's the same in the NBA but there is some bonus you're going to be given, even in the NBA, just for playing at home.
This series is unusual in the drastic swings between home and away but the home team does have an advantage even in the NBA, even after playing two or three games every year in the same building on the same floor year after year. It bothers and puzzles me that these creme de la creme professionals are bothered detectably by playing in someone else's gym. It exasperates me that this Cleveland team, a veteran championship team and THE GREATEST PLAYER ON EARTH is effected to this degree...By what? The hostile crowd? LeBron James gets that about 50 times a year. This is, I think, his 15th year. Serious?--The lead is now 16 with 2:53 to play--That makes no sense to me. It can't be that. It has to be psychological but then why would not this Einstein of the Hardwood be able to figure out, in consultation with psychological professionals, how to overcome it? I just don't get it and the usual explanations leave me cold. Final: Boston 96 Cleveland 83. Friday night in Cleveland.
The first two games in this series were in Beans and the "Celts" won by 15 and 13.
The next to in Lake Mistake. The "Cavs" won by 30 and 9.
The home team in professorial tackle football gets three points by Las Vegas. Doesn't matter if you're FIU playing in front of 6,000 or Michigan playing in front of 106,000, you're given a field goal over the line in the same game played at a neutral venue. Okay, that's college kids, and that isn't much. I don't think it's the same in the NBA but there is some bonus you're going to be given, even in the NBA, just for playing at home.
This series is unusual in the drastic swings between home and away but the home team does have an advantage even in the NBA, even after playing two or three games every year in the same building on the same floor year after year. It bothers and puzzles me that these creme de la creme professionals are bothered detectably by playing in someone else's gym. It exasperates me that this Cleveland team, a veteran championship team and THE GREATEST PLAYER ON EARTH is effected to this degree...By what? The hostile crowd? LeBron James gets that about 50 times a year. This is, I think, his 15th year. Serious?--The lead is now 16 with 2:53 to play--That makes no sense to me. It can't be that. It has to be psychological but then why would not this Einstein of the Hardwood be able to figure out, in consultation with psychological professionals, how to overcome it? I just don't get it and the usual explanations leave me cold. Final: Boston 96 Cleveland 83. Friday night in Cleveland.
Unai Emery Named Arsenal Manager
Another adage pertaining to the NBA is that a playoff series hasn't really started until one team loses a game at home.
According to that adage, therefore, the Mistake-Chowder series hasn't started yet. Cleve destroyed Boston in their two games in the Pawn Shop just as Boston had them in Beans. Series tied 2-2. Game 5 tonight in Boston.
Following that adage the Houston-Golden State series has started twice in four games. GS won one in Houston and last night the "Rockettes" won in The Town. Series tied 2-2. Game 5 manana night-o in Tex.
According to that adage, therefore, the Mistake-Chowder series hasn't started yet. Cleve destroyed Boston in their two games in the Pawn Shop just as Boston had them in Beans. Series tied 2-2. Game 5 tonight in Boston.
Following that adage the Houston-Golden State series has started twice in four games. GS won one in Houston and last night the "Rockettes" won in The Town. Series tied 2-2. Game 5 manana night-o in Tex.
WHAT Is The Matter With The Chosen People?
Phillip Roth died. This is from The New York Times obituary:
"...more than just about any other writer of his time he was tireless in his exploration of male sexuality. His creations include Alexander Portnoy, a teenager so libidinous he has sex with both his baseball mitt and the family dinner...
...almost against his will sometimes, he was drawn again and again to writing about themes of Jewish identity, anti-Semitism and the Jewish experience in America.
...some of Mr. Roth’s preoccupations, women especially.
...
Mr. Roth’s other great theme was sex, or male lust, which in his books is both a life force and a principle of rage and disorder. It is sex, the uncontrollable need to have it, that torments poor, guilt-ridden Portnoy, probably Mr. Roth’s most famous character, who desperately wants to “be bad — and to enjoy it.” And Mickey Sabbath, the protagonist of “Sabbath’s Theater,” one of Mr. Roth’s major late-career novels, is in many ways Portnoy grown old but still in the grip of lust and longing...
...Portnoy’s Complaint,” the novel for which he may be best known and which surely set a record for most masturbation scenes per page.
It was a breakthrough not just for Mr. Roth but for American letters, which had never known anything like it: an extended, unhinged monologue, at once filthy and hilarious, by a neurotic young Jewish man trying to break free of his suffocating parents and tormented by a longing to have sex with gentile women, shiksas.
...
Josh Greenfeld, writing in The New York Times Book Review, called it “the very novel that every American-Jewish writer has been trying to write in one guise or another since the end of World War II.”
...
...And once again the rabbis complained. Gershom Scholem, the great kabbalah scholar, declared that the book was more harmful to Jews than “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
...
[In] Sabbath’s Theater...His voice is nothing if not American: an angry, comic, lustful harangue.
“In this new book life is represented as anarchic horniness on the rampage against death and its harbingers, old age and impotence,” Frank Kermode wrote in The New York Review of Books, adding, “There is really only one way for him to tell the story — defiantly with outraged phallic energy.”
Copycats
Now, analysts want to know what caused the North’s return to the dark side, which took senior Trump officials by complete surprise. But the new hostility should have been anticipated. It was evident that Xi Jinping, whom Trump called a “friend” yesterday, put the North Koreans up to their new bristling posture.
..."I will say I’m a little disappointed, because when Kim Jong Un had the meeting with President Xi, in China, the second meeting—the first meeting we knew about—the second meeting—I think there was a little change in attitude from Kim Jong Un,” Trump said. “So I don’t like that. I don’t like that.”
...Xi obviously has been up to no good. In addition to openly violating U.N. sanctions in recent months, Xi has undoubtedly been schooling Kim in the art of defiance of the international community, especially the United States. That second Xi-Kim meeting—held May 7 and 8 in the Chinese city of Dalian—preceded North Korea’s return to bad behavior.
It took some time for Trump to recognize what was going on...
Over the last two months, China’s sanctions enforcement has markedly deteriorated. Moreover, Beijing has ramped up support for the North Korean economy. In the last few weeks, for instance, gas and diesel prices in the northern part of North Korea have fallen dramatically, which could not have happened unless China had been pumping substantially more oil into the North through its pipeline.
Beijing says it wants North Korea to denuclearize, and that may be true, but most of all it does not want to be left out of decision-making affecting the region. “China’s biggest nightmare is North Korea having a closer relationship with the United States and South Korea than it does with China,” prominent China-watcher Bonnie Glaser of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told The Washington Post.
...Xi Jinping has been trying to convince Trump—and Moon—that every plan to denuclearize North Korea runs through the Chinese capital. Xi apparently got Kim to act up to create a need to consult Beijing...
https://amp.thedailybeast.com/trump-blames-chinas-xi-jinping-for-sabotaging-the-kim-jong-un-summit
..."I will say I’m a little disappointed, because when Kim Jong Un had the meeting with President Xi, in China, the second meeting—the first meeting we knew about—the second meeting—I think there was a little change in attitude from Kim Jong Un,” Trump said. “So I don’t like that. I don’t like that.”
...Xi obviously has been up to no good. In addition to openly violating U.N. sanctions in recent months, Xi has undoubtedly been schooling Kim in the art of defiance of the international community, especially the United States. That second Xi-Kim meeting—held May 7 and 8 in the Chinese city of Dalian—preceded North Korea’s return to bad behavior.
It took some time for Trump to recognize what was going on...
Over the last two months, China’s sanctions enforcement has markedly deteriorated. Moreover, Beijing has ramped up support for the North Korean economy. In the last few weeks, for instance, gas and diesel prices in the northern part of North Korea have fallen dramatically, which could not have happened unless China had been pumping substantially more oil into the North through its pipeline.
Beijing says it wants North Korea to denuclearize, and that may be true, but most of all it does not want to be left out of decision-making affecting the region. “China’s biggest nightmare is North Korea having a closer relationship with the United States and South Korea than it does with China,” prominent China-watcher Bonnie Glaser of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told The Washington Post.
...Xi Jinping has been trying to convince Trump—and Moon—that every plan to denuclearize North Korea runs through the Chinese capital. Xi apparently got Kim to act up to create a need to consult Beijing...
https://amp.thedailybeast.com/trump-blames-chinas-xi-jinping-for-sabotaging-the-kim-jong-un-summit
Waitress!
Twelve North Korean waitresses are now now holding up the Trump-Kim summitt. That's how stupid this has gotten.
The Waitstaff 12 defected to the South--Between courses? Could I at least have a doggy bag?--the North claims they were kidnapped and is demanding their return. Moon is red and has passed on the compliments to the co-chef, Trump, who now says there is "substantial" possibility those coins will have to be melted down.
The Waitstaff 12 defected to the South--Between courses? Could I at least have a doggy bag?--the North claims they were kidnapped and is demanding their return. Moon is red and has passed on the compliments to the co-chef, Trump, who now says there is "substantial" possibility those coins will have to be melted down.
That Was Fun!
Had a dream last night my son had been killed. Woke up. So realistic I couldn't shake it. Thought about going to his house to check on him but thought he would kill me.Walked around the abode, wept. Went back to sleep. Dreamed my daughter had been killed. Never had a double header before.
Only got two kids but wasn't chancing going back to sleep again. God damn the dark blessed night.
Only got two kids but wasn't chancing going back to sleep again. God damn the dark blessed night.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Moon Blew? Orange Loon Red
Man. The Summit of the Buttoneers is not looking buttoned down. At all. This weekend was definitely not baked in drama. The DPRK nuclear negotiater made that statement and Trump called South Korean president Moon Jae-in Saturday night to ask WTF? According to the former Quasi's Trump is now canvassing his advisers on whether to go at all.
The Orange Loon is red with embarrassment. Korean War Over! My Nobel! My Nobel! And red with anger. He's pissed at Moon. He doesn't know if Moon misunderstood Kim, put his own optimistic gloss on Kim's willingness to give up his nuclear arsenal or misled him when Moon flew to D.C. to deliver the message to Trump personally. (That message was not in writing and was not from official DPRK.) "Was I scammed?" Trump wonders and there is nothing that makes his orange head redder than being scammed.
Trump is also red at Red China. Was this a plot hatched together by fiendish yellow brains (Revenge of the Pink Panther, 1978)? Kim went to China recently. Again. The first time he went he was obsequious to Xi Jinping. Hardly talked at all. Took notes! Sat there and took notes as Xi spoke. Now, Trump wonders if Xi didn't man-splain some things to the whippersnapper. Wouldn't be a bit surprised, as my father used to say. Today the Orange Loon tweeted that the "word" that he heard was that the Chinese-DPRK "Border," like wife's vajeen, had become "porous"and "more has been filtering in" from Red Chinese Yellow Hordes. "China must continue" to have "strong & tight"vajeen border. "I" want vajeen "porous" "but only after signing!" Vajeen Free Use nukes agreement. Me and Kim. First me and Kim sign then Red Chinese Hordes may use Kim's "porous" border to fienish yellow brain delight till it hang like wizard sleeve and China nuts ache and Kim leak with overflow filter. It was a tweet by Trump pregnant with meaning. Or innuendo. It distracted me.
Having been told by a tiny few people (including some real Chinese) that he understands a tiny few things about China, about its soul, the undersigned makes bold to share with a tiny few others his "thoughts" on this chroma study.
The soul, the animating principle, of China is survival.
Chinese fear encirclement as Donald Trump fears being scammed.
China has stuck by and propped up the DPRK dictatorship of racist dwarfs for nigh 70 years because of that soul and that fear.
China only lost 1,000,000 men fighting the U.S. in the Korean War. It was worth it to them.
Chinese, including the Communist leadership, are a highly intelligent people in a super-computing sense.Their intelligence is close and dense. They crunch. They study matters very intensely, they memorize.
Chinese knowledge is insular. Limited to China and what they must learn from "The Foreigner" for China to survive.
Chinese are short of intuition because of their insularity.
They are intelligent enough to know when they don't know.
Chinese leadership is cautious.
Chinese intelligence is neither creative nor curious. They don't invent, they copy. They don't explore, they stay home.
They are indirect, not direct.
China is ~94% ethnic Han. They are far--far, far, far--the most racially/ethnically homogenuous of the world's major nations.
Chinese are racist.
Chimese are not happy.
You will never be Chinese. Chinese do not want you or your land. They have enough of both. They will never invade you.
Chinese are not religious.
Chinese leadership is pragmatic. They will do only what is in China's interests.
Chinese have made a close study of Donald Trump and have consulted with others about Trump because they are cautious in making judgments of foreigners. They have concluded that Trump is an interesting, dangerous moron who can be scammed. They have shared their conclusions with Kim Jong-un.
China has use for the DPRK. DPRK leadership is like their leadership. The DPRK keeps China from being encircled to the east. China does not want to see the DPRK "totally destroyed." Neither does China wish to have a Western-like, South Korea-ish DPRK. That would be giving in to encirclement.
Chinese leadership is of two minds about the U.S. presence in southeast Asia. In one part of their fiendish yellow brains they see danger of encirclement. In another part they do not see danger from the U.S. presence. They do not believe that the U.S. is trying to encircle them militarily. Mao even told Kissinger "You take it," referring to Taiwan.
In the no-danger part of their brain Chinese have use of the U.S. in its presence in Korea: it is the DPRK's raison d'etre. No U.S. in Korea, no DPRK. No DPRK~encirclement of China. In this version of wei chi it is the DPRK and the U.S. who are encircled. The former is totally dependent on China and the U.S. has troops, 30,000 of them, in South Korea pinned down from the north by the DPRK and to the west by China with their backs to the sea. In any new Korean war 30,000 U.S. men and women and millions of South Koreans would be killed. Ultimately in any such war the DPRK would be totally destroyed and the wei chi board flipped. China would then be encircled. So, China does not want a full scale war. But, they like the possibility. China will act in its interests and its alone and China loses the game if the DPRK is totally destroyed or if the DPRK becomes McDPRK with porous, infiltrated wizard sleeve border. In either case China would lose its buffer against encirclement. China went along with every recent sanction, every recent U.N. resolution against the DPRK proposed by Trump because they believed that the dangerous moron would totally destroy the DPRK. Xi Jinping convinced Kim Jong-un that Trump would totally destroy the DPRK. Kim stopped his nuclear tests and his missile flights. China did not want the DPRK to have a nuclear capability, the DPRK got one anyway, Kim began threatening the U.S. and China had to step in.
However, China is not down with the Kim-Moon hand-holding. They do not want a unified Korea because that would mean a South Korea and a McDPRK. They do not want a porous border, they do not want the DPRK to be "VERY successful" or to get rich. So, China is of two minds about the Trump-Kim summit. They want the DPRK to be denuclearized but do not want the DPRK to be rewarded by the U.S. for it. China is thus tacking back, "filtering in" food, materiel, and supplies, demonstrating Chinese support, control, easing the pressure on Kim, rewarding Kim, preempting Trump. Kim is taking notes. Both Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un want Kim Jong-un and the DPRK to survive and ahead of the summit they have gotten the moron Trump to go along: Libya and Qaddafi will not be the model. That preserves the DPRK qua DPRK. The summit will go ahead. Kim will sign a very strong denuclearization agreement, Trump will trumpet "Korean War Over!," collect a Nobel, Kim will refuse to attend or to accept, and Kim will begin cheating, violating the agreement just enough so that the U.S. restores its own sanctions but not enough to court total destruction. China will not go along with the new sanctions, will keep filtering in supplies and U.S. troops will remain in Korea and remain encircled.
The Orange Loon is red with embarrassment. Korean War Over! My Nobel! My Nobel! And red with anger. He's pissed at Moon. He doesn't know if Moon misunderstood Kim, put his own optimistic gloss on Kim's willingness to give up his nuclear arsenal or misled him when Moon flew to D.C. to deliver the message to Trump personally. (That message was not in writing and was not from official DPRK.) "Was I scammed?" Trump wonders and there is nothing that makes his orange head redder than being scammed.
Trump is also red at Red China. Was this a plot hatched together by fiendish yellow brains (Revenge of the Pink Panther, 1978)? Kim went to China recently. Again. The first time he went he was obsequious to Xi Jinping. Hardly talked at all. Took notes! Sat there and took notes as Xi spoke. Now, Trump wonders if Xi didn't man-splain some things to the whippersnapper. Wouldn't be a bit surprised, as my father used to say. Today the Orange Loon tweeted that the "word" that he heard was that the Chinese-DPRK "Border," like wife's vajeen, had become "porous"and "more has been filtering in" from Red Chinese Yellow Hordes. "China must continue" to have "strong & tight"
Having been told by a tiny few people (including some real Chinese) that he understands a tiny few things about China, about its soul, the undersigned makes bold to share with a tiny few others his "thoughts" on this chroma study.
The soul, the animating principle, of China is survival.
Chinese fear encirclement as Donald Trump fears being scammed.
China has stuck by and propped up the DPRK dictatorship of racist dwarfs for nigh 70 years because of that soul and that fear.
China only lost 1,000,000 men fighting the U.S. in the Korean War. It was worth it to them.
Chinese, including the Communist leadership, are a highly intelligent people in a super-computing sense.Their intelligence is close and dense. They crunch. They study matters very intensely, they memorize.
Chinese knowledge is insular. Limited to China and what they must learn from "The Foreigner" for China to survive.
Chinese are short of intuition because of their insularity.
They are intelligent enough to know when they don't know.
Chinese leadership is cautious.
Chinese intelligence is neither creative nor curious. They don't invent, they copy. They don't explore, they stay home.
They are indirect, not direct.
China is ~94% ethnic Han. They are far--far, far, far--the most racially/ethnically homogenuous of the world's major nations.
Chinese are racist.
Chimese are not happy.
You will never be Chinese. Chinese do not want you or your land. They have enough of both. They will never invade you.
Chinese are not religious.
Chinese leadership is pragmatic. They will do only what is in China's interests.
Chinese have made a close study of Donald Trump and have consulted with others about Trump because they are cautious in making judgments of foreigners. They have concluded that Trump is an interesting, dangerous moron who can be scammed. They have shared their conclusions with Kim Jong-un.
China has use for the DPRK. DPRK leadership is like their leadership. The DPRK keeps China from being encircled to the east. China does not want to see the DPRK "totally destroyed." Neither does China wish to have a Western-like, South Korea-ish DPRK. That would be giving in to encirclement.
Chinese leadership is of two minds about the U.S. presence in southeast Asia. In one part of their fiendish yellow brains they see danger of encirclement. In another part they do not see danger from the U.S. presence. They do not believe that the U.S. is trying to encircle them militarily. Mao even told Kissinger "You take it," referring to Taiwan.
In the no-danger part of their brain Chinese have use of the U.S. in its presence in Korea: it is the DPRK's raison d'etre. No U.S. in Korea, no DPRK. No DPRK~encirclement of China. In this version of wei chi it is the DPRK and the U.S. who are encircled. The former is totally dependent on China and the U.S. has troops, 30,000 of them, in South Korea pinned down from the north by the DPRK and to the west by China with their backs to the sea. In any new Korean war 30,000 U.S. men and women and millions of South Koreans would be killed. Ultimately in any such war the DPRK would be totally destroyed and the wei chi board flipped. China would then be encircled. So, China does not want a full scale war. But, they like the possibility. China will act in its interests and its alone and China loses the game if the DPRK is totally destroyed or if the DPRK becomes McDPRK with porous, infiltrated wizard sleeve border. In either case China would lose its buffer against encirclement. China went along with every recent sanction, every recent U.N. resolution against the DPRK proposed by Trump because they believed that the dangerous moron would totally destroy the DPRK. Xi Jinping convinced Kim Jong-un that Trump would totally destroy the DPRK. Kim stopped his nuclear tests and his missile flights. China did not want the DPRK to have a nuclear capability, the DPRK got one anyway, Kim began threatening the U.S. and China had to step in.
However, China is not down with the Kim-Moon hand-holding. They do not want a unified Korea because that would mean a South Korea and a McDPRK. They do not want a porous border, they do not want the DPRK to be "VERY successful" or to get rich. So, China is of two minds about the Trump-Kim summit. They want the DPRK to be denuclearized but do not want the DPRK to be rewarded by the U.S. for it. China is thus tacking back, "filtering in" food, materiel, and supplies, demonstrating Chinese support, control, easing the pressure on Kim, rewarding Kim, preempting Trump. Kim is taking notes. Both Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un want Kim Jong-un and the DPRK to survive and ahead of the summit they have gotten the moron Trump to go along: Libya and Qaddafi will not be the model. That preserves the DPRK qua DPRK. The summit will go ahead. Kim will sign a very strong denuclearization agreement, Trump will trumpet "Korean War Over!," collect a Nobel, Kim will refuse to attend or to accept, and Kim will begin cheating, violating the agreement just enough so that the U.S. restores its own sanctions but not enough to court total destruction. China will not go along with the new sanctions, will keep filtering in supplies and U.S. troops will remain in Korea and remain encircled.
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Lord Stanley Is Living in the Castle
Vegan grounded the "Fast Planes" 2-1 in Manitoba just now. Won the series 4-1 and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Yuja Wang
I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of Ms. Wang before yesterday. Stumbled upon her yesterday. Was reading an article in the ex-Quasi's and saw a blurb: "Yuja Wang Plays Dazed Chaos, Then Seven Encores." Obviously Chinese and what intrigued me enough to click on the blurb and read my first article EVER on Ms. Wang was the obvious, to me, Chinese-ness in the lede for "dazed" is what Chinese often have been and "chaos" often has been what has dazed them. The phrase "Dazed Chaos" as applied to China conjures in me, obviously, the Cultural Revolution. "Chaos" (混沌)is the dirtiest word in the Chinese language today but back then it was a good, sort of. "Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent" (在天堂下的一切都完全混乱;情况非常好) . Good in a Maoie kind of way. I instantly could picture in my head what it would mean to interpret a score and to play the piano as Red Guards played politics and I felt a frisson. I thrilled to read and my heart pace quickened. This is from the Times:
Through her concert’s uncompromisingly grim first half and its wary, stunned second, Ms. Wang charted wholly dark, private emotions.
After the playbills had been printed, Ms. Wang...revised her program. That's 混沌.
Ms. Wang played none of these pieces in a way that made them seem grounded or orderly; (Of course not!) she even seemed to want to run the seven together in an unbroken, heady minor-key span...these pieces blurred into and stretched toward one another. Ms. Wang emphasized unsettled harmonies and de-emphasized melodic integrity. [In] the Étude-Tableau...she was telling two surreal tales at once. The martial opening of the Prelude in G Minor...swiftly unraveled into something woozy and bewildering. The washes of sound in the Étude-Tableau in C Minor (Op. 39, No. 1) were set alongside insectlike fingerwork — neurotic, insistent, claustrophobic.
Her bending of the line in the Étude-Tableau in B Minor (Op. 39, No. 4) felt like the turning of a widening gyre, infusing the evocation of aristocratic nostalgia with anxiety. (Rachmaninoff composed most of the works Ms. Wang played as World War I loomed and unfolded...The stretched-out, washed-out quality of melancholy in her account of the Étude-Tableau in C Minor...made that sorrow seem more like resignation: The loneliness she depicted felt familiar to her, even comfortable.
The prevailing mood — dreamlike sadness; a feeling of being lost; rushing through darkness...The relentless trills...glittered angrily.
There was the sense that more time than just 20 minutes — decades, perhaps — had elapsed during intermission, after which Ms. Wang played Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8, composed during World War II. Here...Ms. Wang seemed to inhabit a kind of aftermath of the dazed chaos she had depicted in the early-20th-century works on the first half...The effect was still unnerving.
...her ominous vision of this music.
a demented arrangement of Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca”...
And with this from Classical Scene, the undersigned rests his case:
Does she radiate pure joy?... Not her style.
...
Time condensed.
...
[Chopin B Minor Sonata, Op. 58]: She danced over the keyboard for the 2nd movement scherzo and barely slowed down for the middle section, then sped up for the reprise! Which was a bit otherworldly...
...
Her abilities so far exceed mere mortal ones that it just doesn’t occur to ponder what it might be like to play like that.
...
[Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrouchka]: She had us thinking of inner voices (musically) [No! Not only musically] while hearing music that was at once brittle, harsh (both good things), bright, and dark. [Those are the contradictions with which Mao Zedong challenged the Chinese people.] And at times, were there sounds of innocence. Really? Yes, for lack of a better word. And pain.
...
Shimmery playing... And bell sounds... Wang took us for a great ride in the 3rd movement, covering so much ground (and keyboard), galloping then thudding (another good thing) to conclusion.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
"What a pianist, what a phenomenon, Yuja Wang is. We are lucky she came along."
31 years old, born in Beijing, Central Conservatory of Music, Curtis Institute of Music Philadelphia, Yuja Wang.
The Saudi Princes, The Israeli Manipulator, Prince, Trump Princeling
On August 3, 2016, Donald Trump, Jr met at Trump Tower with George Nader a representative of princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and Joel Zamel, "an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation" and Erick Prince, ex-Blackwater.
The Israeli Zamel,
"extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump. The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.
"It is unclear whether such a proposal was executed...But Donald Trump Jr. responded approvingly...and... Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared [Cucky] Kushner... and Michael [Flim-Flam] Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
"After Mr. Trump [bought the] election Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.
"The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel...
The Israeli Zamel,
"extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump. The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.
"It is unclear whether such a proposal was executed...But Donald Trump Jr. responded approvingly...and... Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared [Cucky] Kushner... and Michael [Flim-Flam] Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
"After Mr. Trump [bought the] election Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.
"The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel...
...
"It is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in American elections, and it is unclear what — if any — direct assistance Saudi Arabia and the Emirates may have provided.
...
[Saudi and Emirates princes]...resented President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, his statements of support for the Arab Spring uprisings and his hands-off approach to the Syrian civil war.
...
"Nader also visited Moscow at least twice during the presidential campaign as a confidential emissary from Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi...After the election, he worked with the crown prince to arrange a meeting in the Seychelles between Mr. Prince and a financier close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
"Companies connected to Mr. Zamel also have ties to Russia. One of his firms had previously worked for oligarchs linked to Mr. Putin, including Oleg V. Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev...
"...Deripaska...was once in business with the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort...Rybolovlev once purchased a Florida mansion from Mr. Trump.
...
"Mr. Nader’s visits to Russia and the work Mr. Zamel’s companies did for the Russians have both been a subject of interest to the special counsel’s investigators..."
...
"[Erick]Prince opened the meeting by telling Donald Trump Jr. that “we are working hard for your father.."
...
"By [Aug. 3] a company connected to Mr. Zamel had been working on a proposal for a covert multimillion-dollar online manipulation campaign to help elect Mr. Trump, according to three people involved and a fourth briefed on the effort. The plan involved using thousands of fake social media accounts to promote Mr. Trump’s candidacy on platforms like Facebook.
"There were concerns inside the company, Psy-Group, about the plan’s legality, according to one person familiar with the effort. The company, whose motto is “shape reality,” consulted an American law firm, and was told that it would be illegal if any non-Americans were involved in the effort.
"...Zamel, the founder of Psy-Group and one of its owners, has been questioned about the August 2016 meeting by investigators for the special counsel, and at least two F.B.I. agents working on the inquiry have traveled to Israel to interview employees of the company who worked on the proposal. According to one person, the special counsel’s team has worked with the Israeli police to seize the computers of one of Mr. Zamel’s companies..."
...
"After the inauguration, both Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader visited the White House, meeting with Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon.
"At that time, Mr. Nader was promoting a plan to use private contractors to carry out economic sabotage against Iran that, he hoped, might coerce it to permanently abandon its nuclear program. The plan included efforts to deter Western companies from investing in Iran, and operations to sow mistrust among Iranian officials.
...
"Since [purchasing] the White House, Mr. Trump has allied himself closely with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates [and Netanyahu's Israel]."
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html
"It is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in American elections, and it is unclear what — if any — direct assistance Saudi Arabia and the Emirates may have provided.
...
[Saudi and Emirates princes]...resented President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, his statements of support for the Arab Spring uprisings and his hands-off approach to the Syrian civil war.
...
"Nader also visited Moscow at least twice during the presidential campaign as a confidential emissary from Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi...After the election, he worked with the crown prince to arrange a meeting in the Seychelles between Mr. Prince and a financier close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
"Companies connected to Mr. Zamel also have ties to Russia. One of his firms had previously worked for oligarchs linked to Mr. Putin, including Oleg V. Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev...
"...Deripaska...was once in business with the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort...Rybolovlev once purchased a Florida mansion from Mr. Trump.
...
"Mr. Nader’s visits to Russia and the work Mr. Zamel’s companies did for the Russians have both been a subject of interest to the special counsel’s investigators..."
...
"[Erick]Prince opened the meeting by telling Donald Trump Jr. that “we are working hard for your father.."
...
"By [Aug. 3] a company connected to Mr. Zamel had been working on a proposal for a covert multimillion-dollar online manipulation campaign to help elect Mr. Trump, according to three people involved and a fourth briefed on the effort. The plan involved using thousands of fake social media accounts to promote Mr. Trump’s candidacy on platforms like Facebook.
"There were concerns inside the company, Psy-Group, about the plan’s legality, according to one person familiar with the effort. The company, whose motto is “shape reality,” consulted an American law firm, and was told that it would be illegal if any non-Americans were involved in the effort.
"...Zamel, the founder of Psy-Group and one of its owners, has been questioned about the August 2016 meeting by investigators for the special counsel, and at least two F.B.I. agents working on the inquiry have traveled to Israel to interview employees of the company who worked on the proposal. According to one person, the special counsel’s team has worked with the Israeli police to seize the computers of one of Mr. Zamel’s companies..."
...
"After the inauguration, both Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader visited the White House, meeting with Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon.
"At that time, Mr. Nader was promoting a plan to use private contractors to carry out economic sabotage against Iran that, he hoped, might coerce it to permanently abandon its nuclear program. The plan included efforts to deter Western companies from investing in Iran, and operations to sow mistrust among Iranian officials.
...
"Since [purchasing] the White House, Mr. Trump has allied himself closely with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates [and Netanyahu's Israel]."
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html
The American Princess
It's a loonnng, stately drive up to Windsor Castle from L.A.
Nobody does pomp and circumstance like the Brits.
The British Royal Family continued its screaming run of sparkling additions to the genetic pool today at high noon in Merry Old, 7 a.m. in the colonies.
Now Princess Meghan was astonishingly beautiful.
Radiantly beautiful.
Kate Middleton preceded Meghan. Fine addition to the genetic pool, Ms. Middleton.
Who begat the scrumptious Prince George and Princess Charlotte:
I want to eat your heads.
Which scream began in 1981 with the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, which begat the above pictured Prince William and Prince Harry.
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