Today's Nostalgia

The more things change, the more they stay the same?

It shouldn't come as a big surprise that people start thinking in terms of "vast conspiracies" when the things most of us want to see change don't change.

Today's Tweet

The moon, saving our asses. Never Forget. pic.twitter.com/5FEQA6wEEX

— Learn Everyday (@CoolestLifeHack) April 24, 2016

Sometimes, it's easier to feel a little more charitable towards people who need to see "the hand of god at work".

But ya gotta confine your desire to apply that shit to the stuff you choose to know nothing about, and stop trying to shoe-horn god into the things that the nerds have already figured out.

Nerds rock, baby.  Love the nerds.

Today's Pix

Keep It In Mind

At this point, Hillary looks a lot like a shoe-in.  And that's bad news if she doesn't make a solid case for moving people out to the polls anyway in order to boost the down-ballot support that she has to have if she's gonna get anything done.

Hillary in the White House without significant gains in Congress means more of the same - and here's why:

Sam Geduldig, a former senior aide to John Boehner, is now a lobbyist, and argues that a Clinton victory is not necessarily a worst-case scenario for Republicans. “An independent conservative running could actually help the House and Senate,” he said in an email. “It means Clinton definitely wins, so it could depress Democratic turnout in places like Illinois. So the Trump people help Mark Kirk, the [placeholder] people help Kirk, Democrats might not turn out because Clinton wins (Illinois) easily and we hold the Senate. Then in 2018 there’ll likely be a wave of anti-Hillary energy and we’ll run up huge majorities in her first midterm. Leading to a favorable redistricting process in 2020.”

The Yearnin' For The Bern ain't dead - keep pushing, guys - but remember that you don't always get everything you want, and that you don't stop supporting what Bernie stands for just because Bernie's not the candidate anymore.  Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

If we want Hillary to move on any of Bernie's ideas, we'd best be hammerin' on her from the start.  We get her attention by making it known that we're working to support her because we have a reasonable expectation of getting more than the occasional bone tossed our way once we put her ass in the Oval Office.

Read that Geduldig quote again - the long game is the only one that works here, kids. Get in it and stay in it.  

Stop thinking you can hire a President and go back to sleep for another four years.  This is supposed to be a democracy, which requires direct participation - it's not some shit you just watch on TV.

Stay together. Work together. Get shit done.

A Day Late

I spent so much time yesterday casting about for something to post, that I plumb forgot it was National Teacher Appreciation Day.

Here's a bit from Tim Wise (fast becoming my favorite social critic) from earlier this year. He's trying to throw some light on the facts of "education" here in USAmerica Inc these days.

My main takeaway is that we have to stop thinking the people in charge are stoopid and that they're making stoopid decisions.  The decisions are made and policies are put in place for specific reasons - and those policies are working almost exactly as intended.

And BTW - here's the Jefferson quote:

This bill proposes to lay off every county into small districts of five or six miles square, called hundreds, and in each of them to establish a school for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. The tutor to be supported by the hundred, and every person in it entitled to send their children three years gratis, and as much longer as they please, paying for it. These schools to be under a visitor [i.e., superintendent], who is annually to choose the boy of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools [high schools, in effect] of which twenty are proposed to be erected in different parts of [Virginia], for teaching Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of numerical arithmetic. Of the boys thus sent in any one year, trial is to be made at the grammar schools one or two years, and the best genius of the whole selected, and continued six years, and the residue dismissed. By this means twenty of the best geniuses will be raked from the rubbish annually, and be instructed, at the public expence, so far as the grammar schools go.

Tommy Jeff was cool enough, but I have no doubt he was a man of his times; an elitist with a bit of a conscience, but an elitist nonetheless.

Dude - Chill

First - somebody needs to be a little more careful about keepin' that guy away from the coffee. Jesus - it's like grandma's Chihuahua got into the Aderall.

And I'd dearly love it if the Zombie Lie of "the surge worked" could be laid to rest.

Three things about "the surge worked" that even I know:

1. The sheiks started to get pretty reasonable about not fighting us when we started to pay them to stop fighting us, because...
2. The sheiks realized we were telling them we'd fuck off and leave 'em alone if they cooled it long enough to let us pretend we'd won the thing
3. The propaganda of "The Surge Worked" is what worked.

This guy is doing the classic Deflecting Denialism thing - "our policy didn't fail; we failed to carry through on the policy..."

And it ends up being: "Iraqis are still fighting back and killing Americans, so obviously, we haven't killed enough Iraqis - let's go kill some more Iraqis".

And so, secondly - how many times do we need to learn the same lesson?  You don't kill your way to a solution for political problems.

People have been trying this same shit forever.  It's partly the lesson of The Greater Fool - "I will prevail where others have failed" - and that's all well and good, Skeezix, but ya gotta remember that better people than you have been trying to conquer the world for a solid 40,000 years at last count, and guess what - the world remains undefeated.

So knock that shit off.

Don't Get Pimped

This came in the mail with my kid's Voter Registration Card:

Make sure you get your shot at exercising the franchise - don't get shut out.

Today's GIF

Tim Wise

On things we don't like to deal with - or even think about.

Last Go 'Round

Obama's 8th White House Correspondents' Dinner:

The guy's got some soul.  And the best part for me is the last bit when he says it without saying it - the Press Poodles need to drop the pretentious both-sides horse-racey political crap, and try to get back to concentrating on facts.

Today's Today

So it's Beltane.  I'm not really at all concerned about anybody's religious holidays.  One superstition is as silly as the next.  But these old Pagan rituals at least seem like a lot more fun.

Today's Pix

Some Tunes For Thursday

A little nooner with Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds

Today's Tweet

I am a man of the sea ⚓️🌊 pic.twitter.com/JLcKBA6Sys

— Fascinating Videos (@FascinatingVids) April 27, 2016

Today's Eternal Sadness

I got away from posting things like this for a while, but I keep having to come back to it.

News from Milwaukee:

A mother driving down a Milwaukee highway was shot and killed by her toddler son in the backseat when he got his hands on a gun, police said.

Patrice Price, 26, was driving a car belonging to her security guard boyfriend when the two-year-old accidentally fired a weapon that had been left in the vehicle, her father Andre Price told WISN.

She was pronounced dead on scene Tuesday on Highway 175, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

TODDLERS SHOT ONE VICTIM PER WEEK IN 2015

We gotta figure out how to stop being stoopid about this.