The Russians are here again. Oops! Pageviews by Countries Entry Pageviews Russia 16 Philippines 2 United States                          1

So curious the posts they read. Are they doing it by month. Today is February, March, 2012 day? Tomorrow, April and May? They often read posts that are personal to me, some make me wince. In this cache I winced over "I am so proud of the president of my country...," Feb. 24. I sure remember that post, even remember where I was and about what time I wrote it. Makes me feel bad because I was so proud of Barack Obama, I liked him so much, I felt like I knew him personally. And now I don't. I feel like I lost him, worse, that I never knew him, that my pride in him and my like for him were misplaced. It makes me feel really bad.

Posts

Entry	Pageviews
On Song Binbin. Feb 26, 2012	1
http://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2008/03/blog-post.html Mar 12, 2008	1
On Song Binbin. Feb 25, 2012	1
Why do I have to act like a guy all the time...Wh... Feb 24, 2012	1
Chna's Great Wall of Silence: Dr. Rongfen Wang's e... Mar 11, 2008	1
On Song Binbin. Feb 25, 2012	1
There’s another thing on my emergency writing lis... Feb 24, 2012	1
I am so proud of the president of my country, and ... Feb 24, 2012	1
Yeeshan Yang, who added me to her facebook page, ... Feb 24, 2012	1
On Song Binbin. Feb 25, 2012	1

**

I thought of Britney Spears today. Which is a first in about ten years. Which was occasioned by my daughter mentioning last night that she actually likes Justin Bieber now, that his new album is really good, there are a few songs on it that are really good, which she played for me and I agreed were pretty good and different for Justin and Justin Bieber and Britney Spears being associated in my mind as teenie boppers who drove me nuts! So I listened to "Oops! I did it again," which I thought was "I'm not so innocent"-Oh, I know what you're thinking, Yes, you are don't lie to me yesyouare!-and remembered what a wonderful tune that is.

I confess! I
                                            confess,

that the first time I saw the video I was working out at the home of the unfortunate second ex-Mrs. Harris, two things I no longer do, and was in fact thrown into paroxysms of desire. I remember, in fact, that the song was introduced with the words, something like, "And now, every teenage boy's wet dream." Ms. Spears was adorable as a 19 year old and of course the lyrics...But it was the beat of the song, punctuated by periodic heart-attack thump instrumentals and the backing vocals that made the song...it was addictive is what it was, it was like an injection of some testosterone-opium mix.

I cannot keep to a beat, I cannot move my body that way, I cannot dance in other words, but I could move to that beat, I hardly could not. 

What I had not remembered, memory obliterated by red paint body suit, was how insipid young Britney's voice was, how insufferable it was, Oh Britney forgive me!, how not even the red body suit could have delivered me from homicidal ideation if it was only Britney's voice on that soundtrack.

But it wasn't. And I was delivered. There were other voices, those backing vocals, adult women voices, uninfluenced by breathing helium or chewing bubblegum, that put the heart into the heart attack thump.

I was addicted. I looked it up on Wikipedia to see who the song writers were, I forget now who, I listened to it sans red body suit, a YouTube version with just the lyrics scrolling that only served to emphasize Britney's lone voice in the beginning and was starting to get to me, I searched for a version done by another artist, there was one by a woman seated on a stool playing the guitar...? That did not compute. You cannot perform that song as Joni Mitchell or something, I found an instrumentals only version. No. It doesn't work with no voices it has to have voices. So I listened to the Britney version, yes, again. Oops.*

*UPDATED: Unbelievable. I found a version with only the original backing vocals and instrumentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCSwqzhuf00. This is a good year so far.

**UPDATED UPDATE: The writers and producers were Max Martin nee Martin Karl Sandberg, Max take a bow,

thank you, Max is Swedish.


And Rami Yacoub, رامي يعقوب. Rami, big hand for Rami,

Rami is Palestinian Swedish.

The background vocals which save the whole shebang are by one woman, so background vocal, Nana Hedin aka Na Na akaaka Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye, no I'm just kidding, aka Nana d'Aquini, also Swedish. Big...

...Generous, enthusiastic round of applause for Nana.

Three Swedes and a half Palestinian, is this a great country or what.

Now:

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Okay.

What if Trump had run as a Democrat?

He was a Democrat from 2001-2009 and before 1987.

Fivethirtyeight says Trump-2015/2016 reminds them strongly of George Wallace, 1968. Wallace was a Democrat who later ran as an independent. Wallace had cross-party populist racial appeal to white people. He appealed almost exclusively the Southerners. Okay, there is some ascriptive appeal to Trump's anti-Mexican, anti-Chinese, anti-Muslim messages, it is sort of populist, and he seems to have a lot of support in "SEC country." And, Bernie Sanders thinks he can get some cross-over support from Trumpets!

No, I don't think the Wallace comparison advances things. Trump leads in New Hampshire, is close to the top in Iowa. Wallace's was a purer racial campaign. It was also purely anti-black. I don't see Trump as appealing to whites as anti-black. I cannot think of seeing a single black person in any of his audiences, though! That, I think, is a function of running as a Republican. Which means Trump should have some black support if he had run as a Democrat. Which means he should have some support among white Demos if he had run as a Demo. Which means he's not "contained," my word, in the Republican Party.

Is he? Would he have some black support if? And would he have some support among white Demos?

No, I don't think so. I don't think you see, or at least I haven't seen, black people at his rallies because his anti- messages are too close for comfort. I don't think there are many Jews who support Trump either and Trump hasn't said anything remotely anti-semitic.

It's his policy pronouncements. Trump would have far less chance at the Democratic nomination than he does at the Republican. The Democratic Party in 1968 was split racially, regionally, culturally and ideologically. The '68 election ushered in realignment. Henceforth, the South was Republican, except in 1976, and until the last couple of elections. Both parties, Democratic and Republican, are far different than they were in 1968.

Trump's policy pronouncements are so out of the current Democratic mainstream you cannot even see the mainstream from where Trump is.

No, fivethirtyeight, the Wallace comparison is bogus. No, Bernie Sanders you are wrong. And yes, Trump is contained within the GOP.

Ah! Master Dickens.

"He looked almost like a man inspired, as he said it. I waited for a few moments, until he could give me his undivided attention...

As we went along, partly to hold him in conversation, and partly to satisfy myself, I asked him about Ham."

David Copperfield was Charles Dickens and these are just two short passages where we see what Dickens really was: a keen observer who took in even the most subtle.

This is an important conversation Copperfield has with Mr. Pegotty, it is emotional and intense, a setting where subtlety is often blasted away. Dickens-as-Copperfield sees delicacy and calibrates his participation. When he waits "a few moments" he is playing a canon and calibrates himself to Mr. Pegotty's receptiveness to avoid the blast. When, four paragraphs later, Copperfield says to Mr. Pegotty, "Think of your great object!" it is Dickens saying to himself "Think of your great object!," the story.

Copperfield controls the conversation, its tempo and its pace. When they walk and Mr. Pegotty is thinking and silent Copperfield perceives that he is losing control and deliberately engages in related conversation to "hold" Mr. Pegotty.

Dickens was a court reporter. He was paid to observe and to listen keenly and his descriptive powers are unsurpassed. Fancy then that in his fiction he described what he had not seen nor heard. His observations of British aristocratic life in Bleak House were made up, observed only in his imagination. No Hemingway, Dickens. Yet David Copperfield's life was real, the general outlines anyway, for Copperfield was Dickens. Dickens was in real life as Copperfield is in the canon with Mr. Pegotty, a subtle participant in intricate human interaction.

Do not look to Dickens for realism, Victor Nabokov told us,-Look to Hemingway he might have said.- rather, revel in Dickens the story-teller. It is the story that is his great object and his powers of description employed in pursuit.

David Copperfield, the story, got away from Dickens. The canons merged and became a great fugue whose intricacies Dickens did not master, whose complexity overwhelmed the great object of the story. Dickens did not "hold" all of the parts together, Dora Spenlow is a cul de sac; the later Mr. Dick a different character than the earlier Mr. Dick. Dickens could not play the Dora sequence of notes and it is as if he forgot what notes he hit earlier with Mr. Dick and hit those he reckoned nearby later on.

Curiously, David Copperfield falls short as a story by this master story-teller and excels, in parts, in realism. 

Sporting Roundup.

My goodness gracious. The University of Oregon scored the first 31 points of their Alamo Bowl game against Texas Christian and damn if the damned "Horny Toads" didn't score the next 31. Now they're in the second overtime tied at 38. Amazing.

City won today. And never did you read more deprecating words about a winner. They beat Watford 2-1and scored all three goals, the "Hornets'" on an Aleksandar Kolarov own goal. I watched the goal highlights after the match and texted both issue: "Wow, I just watched all 3 goals-I don't know WHAT Kolarov had on his mind. Yaya's strike-SOOO quick and powerful, BOOM! And Kun's header: exquisite."

Arsenal won, also unimpressively, beating hard-luck Newcastle 1-0 to keep the "Striped Prison Shirtings" in the relegation zone and themselves in first place. Leicester are second, City third.

Wayne Rooney scored for Manchester United to move into, I think, second place on the EPL all-time scorer's list and to give respite to embattled Louis Van Gaal. United beat Swansea.

Christian Hackenberg, the abused Pennsylvania ISIS quarterback, announced that he will become abused professionally after today's loss to Jaw-ga. Young Mr. Hackenberg wrote a very nice good-bye letter on Facebook where he thanked everyone at Penn State including former coaches and the water boy. Almost everyone. There was nary a mention of head coach James Franklin, now proud possessor  of a four-game losing streak heading into next year.

And finally. The Florida "Panthers"...? Unless I am very much mistaken this is the first time this Broward County-based hockey club has ever been mentioned in these here pages. Because they SUCK, is the reason for that. But not at this particular juncture in this particular season. The "Panthers" beat the New York "Strangers" today 3-0 and it was their eighth win in a row, a club record. Florida is now in first place in the eight-team Atlantic division with 22 wins, 12 losses and 4 overtime losses...Don't get me started on how the NHL scores overtime losses.

Florida, when they were Miami-Dade County based had one brief shining moment, "The Year of the Rat," No, I didn't just make that up. No, I'm not going to explain it, when they scurried all the way to the Stanley Cup finals where they were summarily dispatched by the Colorado "Avalanches." The Year of Rat Scurrying was 1996. Since then, they've been back in their hole. Not this year. So far.

Today:

Cuba! Holy molio. Pablo, como estas?! I had to look that up! I am so lame!

Pageviews by Countries Entry Pageviews United States 81 Russia 54 Germany 30 Australia 18 China 7 Ireland 7 France 3 Poland 3 Cuba 2 United Kingdom 2

How's your day going? Better than these guys', I bet:

Donald Trump featured in new jihadist recruitment video
-Washington Post.
lol. You knew that was coming. "See, I was right," Hillary Clinton can say now.

Turkey Says President’s Hitler Comment Was ‘Distorted’

-Time

Tayyip! The funny thing is, no one seems clear on the meaning of what he said. From the Quasi's:

...he cited Hitler in response to a question about whether a strong presidency was possible in Turkey...

Mr. Erdogan, who is pushing to imbue the largely ceremonial presidency with sweeping executive powers, told reporters late Thursday that “there are already examples in the world.”

“You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany,” he said.

So...Hitler is an example of what he is trying to do in Turkey? 

Mr. Erdogan did not elaborate, but his comparison to Hitler drew immediate criticism because of what many view as his increasing authoritarianism. His comment also raised the issue of how the leader of one of the world’s most influential countries, an American ally and member of NATO, would mention Hitler in the context of his own tenure.

Good, Tayyip! 

Comparing the president and Hitler, one person wrote on Twitter, “The difference is that Hitler was a bit shorter.”

Oh, capital job there, Quasi's, capital job. That's how their article ends. That is priceless. Very well done. 

Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg ruled out of the TaxSlayer Bowl

-PennLive.

lolol, "TaxSlayer Bowl." To state the obvious, no one should ever voluntarily attend Penn State, ergo Christian Hackenberg should not have attended Penn State. But he did. Young people make mistakes and he did. Since all young people make mistakes we as a society try not to make those mistakes too costly. In this one we failed. Hackenberg was a star recruit coming out of high school, could have gone anywhere, and from there to the NFL, chose Penn State, had a brilliant first year, but then his coach left for the NFL his own self. Hackenberg regressed under new coach James Franklin, his career plans took a hit, and he took many, many hits, he spent much of his time regressing flat on his back on the field, repeatedly planted there by opposing players. Miraculously he avoided serious injury until today, the last game he would play before, presumably, declaring his intention to leave ISIS for the NFL. The seriousness of the injury has not been revealed yet but it is to the shoulder of his throwing arm. 

Your day's been better than those three guys', I hope.

*mad face

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How do you do that? :> That looks like a Condor. :| That looks dead. How do you make a mad face on a keyboard? I don't know. Obviously.

War in Afghanistan

This is one of the posts read by the Russians:

Monday, March 12, 2012

War in Afghanistan

The headlines--in the New York Times, in Britain's Daily Mail, on CNN--say a U.S. Army Sergeant "killed" 16 Afghan civilians, including children.

Why "killing?"  It's murder.

The license to kill in war does not include targeted children.

Or does it?

The United States targeted the entire civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in atomic attacks in World War II.  I approve of that.  The United States also bombed Dresden and other German cities into oblivion.

I remember my brother, initially trained as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam war, saying he didn't think he could kill someone face-to-face, as this Army Sergeant in Afghanistan did, but dropping bombs on the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong?  He could do that. I understood that.

I think I could kill face-to-face and bomb.  But I couldn't do what the Army Sergeant in Afghanistan did (apparently): deliberately setting out, going door to door, and shooting unarmed civilians, including children.

Why not?  Certainly, the immediacy--my brother's tipping point of squeamishness--would make it harder; in addition, the defenselessness of the Afghan civilians, especially the children. Would my brother and I have been able to bomb deliberately the very houses where the Afghan civilians were shot?  Speaking for myself now, if I were told "Hey Harris, wanna have some fun?  Go bomb those houses. They only contain civilians, including kids," my moral tipping point would have been reached and I would have refused.  But, if I were told, "Hey Harris, go bomb this area (point to map)" and that area was known or reasonably assumed by me to have civilians present, that I would do.

Newt Gingrich, as he frequently does, said a brilliant thing over the weekend.  He said he didn't think America was "ruthless" enough to wage the kind of war in the Middle East necessary to success--the kind of war that Abraham Lincoln came to see as necessary to win the Civil War.  I entirely agree with Gingrich and have written the same thing here.

But you can't just go house-to-house looking for people to shoot and then shoot them regardless of whether they're the enemy, civilians, or children. I say that's murder.  Why?

Image: New York Times.

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"About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation."

New planning document signed by Putin yesterday. Names the US and expansion of NATO as threats. New. The old one, signed by Medvedev in 2009, didn't. Putin is sincere, paranoid moron. Not new. Obama...I don't know what Obama has done wrong since 2009 but something.

SS Eastland Disaster.

Okay. In July of 2015 I posted a remembrance of this, cum outraged commentary. In November I posted a similar remembrance of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. I ran across a horrifying simulation of the Fitzgerald disaster. Just yesterday I saw a simulation of the Eastland. To recall for you, the Eastland capsized while being MOORED! in a FUCKING RIVER! THAT WAS 20' DEEP!!!!!! That's alright, ONLY 844 PEOPLE WERE DROWNED!!!!! As compared with 29 in the Fitz. People done forgot about the Eastland. Well, it was 100 years ago. CHICAGO FORGOT ABOUT THE FUCKING EASTLAND ABOUT 99 YEARS AGO.

In choosing among stupid acts of Chicago resulting in holocausts you have the Eastland and the Iroquois fire (602 dead). It's not really a contest: For sheer Chicago Retardation, the Eastland takes the cake. Here is the simulation video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4jc79KMwNQ

Now, if that doesn't make you want to punch your computer...Well, you have greater forbearance than do I.

Chicago, you are a fucking abortion of a city.

Stanford beat Iowa 38-9 (Alright fine, there's still five minutes left). @fauxpelini does not like Iowa*:

Fake Bo Pelini ‏@FauxPelini  3h3 hours ago

Iowa is going to dominate in kickoff return yardage

Fake Bo Pelini ‏@FauxPelini  2h2 hours ago

.@StanfordFball STOP IT THEY'RE ALREADY DEAD

Fake Bo Pelini ‏@FauxPelini  2h2 hours ago

Remember Iowa gets the ball first in the second half

Fake Bo Pelini ‏@FauxPelini  2h2 hours ago

Iowa's marching band just gave up 3 first downs

*UPDATE: Down, 38-16 with 2:46 to play, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz called for an on-side kick...? Guess he wanted to show Stanford that he wasn't giving up, that they could too score 22 straight points in 2:46. So Stanford didn't give up. After recovering the on-side kick they threw a 42-yard pass for another touchdown to make it 45-16. Stupid call, stupid.

UPDATED UPDATE: So then Stanford kicks off, no on-side, and Ferentz leaves his starters in to still try to win the game. Right? You'd expect him to do that by now. They drive all the way down to the Stanford 20 and take a timeout with 16 seconds left. Then their quarterback fumbles the ball and Stanford recovers with 11 seconds left and runs out the clock. Somebody take Kirk Ferentz for a CT-scan.

My goodness gracious, some surprising results in scholarly tackle football today-Oh yes, there are more today, six five in fact, everything is never quite enough in America. New Year's Day is traditional for the sport.

They are singin' "Rocky Top" in Tennessee.. The "Volunteers" smacked down Northwestern University 45-6. Northwestern was the higher-ranked of the two, too also. It's a little known fact that in America tackle football is really only played in the South. It's too cold up north. They play games like homosexual child rape up there. See, I learned ya somethin' today.

Meeshagan 41, Florida 7. Ah, I know what you're thinking but see that's southern Michigan and central Florida.

The Ohio State University beat The University of Notre Dame du Lac 44-28 but those are two northern schools so it doesn't really count.

And Stanford is sticking their tree in the "Hawkeye" of the University of Eye-owa, 28-0 but it's only the second quarter so Iowa still has a chance. No.

Munich 'not under imminent IS threat' - German officials-BBC

December, 2015 was a very good month for us at Public Occurrences, 5038 pageviews, 162/day, 56% higher than average. All-time 47% of pageviews have come from the United States. 

And a crimson tide came and it engulfed them.

UP!

Heh-heh-heh-heh.

Too much excitement for me. Happy New Year, everybody! See you in 2016.