Today's Tweet

How has this not gone viral 😂 pic.twitter.com/wQQHhKa73X

— Mr. Jameson Neat (@MrJamesonNeat) February 26, 2017

Dots

There's nothing solid, of course, but there could be something between this:

and this:

Reuters:

Thousands of Russians marched through the center of Moscow on Sunday to honor opposition leader Boris Nemtsov two years after he was gunned down near the Kremlin walls, and to call for further investigations into his killing.

The 55-year-old Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin late in the evening of Feb. 27, 2015, as he walked home with his girlfriend from a restaurant.

Investigators have charged several Chechen men with the murder, but lawyers for Nemtsov's daughter said the investigation had failed to uncover who ordered the shooting.

Putin has said that he supported the investigation into Nemtsov's murder.

"We gathered here to demand bringing of Boris Nemtsov's killers to justice, not only its performers but also its organizers and those who ordered it," Ilya Yashin, a Russian opposition activist and an organizer of the march, told Reuters.

"We gathered here to demand political reforms and release of political prisoners."

Today's Internet Poll

I voted - and it's an online thing, so there's no accounting for anything, and it's Fox Nation where they can turn on a dime.

At least with this one, the numbers add up - more or less.

Space Junk

From working satellites to dead satellites to tools and nuts and bolts to burnt-out rockets to gloves and boots - here's a map of the 500,000 objects in orbit around Earth that NASA has to keep track of just so we don't have worthless shit colliding with important shit at speeds as high as 17,500 mph.

Ever had your hand out the car window bombin' down the highway and get hit by a grasshopper?

Seventeen Thousand Mile Per Hour

Guess why all that intelligent life out there never comes to visit.

They're not gonna drop in on us once they see what a buncha fuckin' slobs we are.

Near Quote

One of the great challenges in life is knowing enough to think you're right, while understanding you don't know enough to know why you're wrong.

--Neil DeGrasse Tyson

"Near Quote" because he said he had trouble remembering it exactly the way he put it in a tweet.

Joe Rogan podcast

Professional Left Podcast

At the rally in Florida, Melania Trump reads the Lord's Prayer which is in the book of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 9.

Also in Mathew 6? Just a few verses before that?

The World Is Not a Stage6 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

2-4 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.Pray with Simplicity

5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.(The Message)

I am nobody's Christian, but I listen to driftglass & Blue Gal, and Bible Bitch teaches me stuff.

The Obamacare part is really good too.

And the Media Criticism - the takedown of the Both Sides bullshit.

And then Sebastian Gorka.

Shop for
The Professional Left

A Questionaire

Please answer each question as honestly as possible

• What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
• When did you decide you were heterosexual?
• Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase that you may grow out of?
• Do you flaunt your heterosexuality?
• Could you be happy just being what you are and keeping quiet about it?
• Do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into that lifestyle?
• Have you considered therapy to help you change your heterosexual tendencies?

hat tip = @samkalidi

Trae Crowder

"...to hate somebody enough to distract them from how much they hate themselves."

Intercepted Podcast

LGBTQ issues, some scary NSA shit and 45* vs The Press.



Intercepted on Stitcher

Today's Tweet

If the Russians compromised a president & then wanted him to abandon our ability to monitor Russia's nuke arsenal, they'd have him say this. https://t.co/RJUkLEikX9

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) February 23, 2017

Today's Pix

This Just In

It can now be reported that we're getting the first of the photographic evidence of people having been paid to turn out for the Town Hall meetings that have been so boisterous and potentially riotous.

hat tip = @JoshSchwerin

The Cost Of Things

Jeff Scon at Moyers & Company

After the most recent Super Bowl, I read an article that estimated it cost employers $1 billion in lost productivity on the Monday afterward — a mix of people calling in sick, showing up late and spending time discussing the top commercials (46 percent), the halftime show (12 percent), and the game play and strategy (12 percent).

Ask yourself: How much time during the last week did you spend ‘on’ Trump?

This article got me thinking about how much the Trump presidency will cost the US economy during the next four years due to similar losses in productivity.

Trump’s narcissistic behavior — manifested in his unfiltered and uncontrolled Twitter communications and his preoccupation with being the center of attention — has created an unrelenting daily media frenzy. Every day brings a new crisis, new accusations, insults and lies that suck us into spending time “on” Trump.

Ask yourself: How much time during the last week did you spend “on” Trump?

Here's a snapshot of Schon's quickie pass at the math:

 

And what do you think we might be able to do with that kinda money? Go check the end of his piece.

Pushing Back

WaPo:

A new poll from Quinnipiac University suggests that while people may be broadly unhappy with the mainstream media, they still think it's more credible than Trump. The president regularly accuses the press of “fake news,” but people see more “fake news” coming out of his own mouth.

The poll asked who registered voters “trust more to tell you the truth about important issues.” A majority — 52 percent — picked the media. Just 37 percent picked Trump.

The poll did find that registered voters by a narrow margin think the media has treated Trump unfairly, with 50 percent saying they disapproved of the coverage of Trump and 45 percent approving. But voters are even more critical of Trump's treatment of the media, with 61 percent disapproving and 35 percent approving.

Even 23 percent of Republicans say Trump is mistreating the media, and independents disapprove 59-35.

And in case you missed it, WaPo quietly added a little something to it's banner:

 

Which brings us to Three Things About The Daddy State

1. Every government needs to do certain things without telling us about it, but the Daddy State needs the dark more than any other. There are way too many things they can't afford to let us see - a lot more than in anything resembling a democracy. Leakers and the Press are light-shiners; Daddy Staters hate them, and spend a shitload of time and energy covering their own asses and fighting disclosure - because they're always up to no good, and they know it.
2. The greatest threat to the Daddy State is anybody with a functioning memory. 45* is always carping about the Press because they write things down and compare what he says today with what he said before - sometimes moments before.  Creating the illusion of near-infallibility is a key element in any cult. Pointing out mistakes and contradictions makes you their enemy. And boy oh boy do they love having enemies.
3. Citizens who insist on being involved in the decision-making process comprise the best possible preventative measure and the best remedy.

That last one sounds like a very old and very tired cliché because we always assume we get to make up our minds and freely express our opinions and go out and vote once in a while.

But we've internalized the Rent-Seeker's ambition - sit on your ass enjoying the benefits while everybody else does the work.  Anywhere from 40% to 60% of the people who could vote don't vote.

Because we've also internalized the bullshit (fed to us all the time) that government sucks; they're all the same anyway; both parties are corrupt; the major candidates are just two sides of the same coin so why bother blah blah fuckin' blah.

Get past it.

You want better choices? Get your ass out to a Caucus; or vote in the primary.  And take somebody with you. And stop being so damned polite to people who won't help. When you refuse to be part of the solution you become part of the problem. ie: If you think it's shitty but you refuse to make even the simplest effort to improve it, then you're helping the buttheads who're making it shitty. Silence implies consent.

Or you could run for office yourself.  Have you not seen some of these bozos? Look who's in the White House right now.  It is - for all practical purposes and by every modern standard - impossible for you to be any worse than what we've got now.

Cutting to the chase: Bullet point 3a is real simple. When everybody votes, the Daddy State loses - by definition the Daddy State loses and Democracy wins when we all take part in this little experiment called Self-Government.

Feel The Love

This world map shows who feels most threatened by whom.

hat tip = Facebook bud Doug R