Today's Today

December 9th is Grace Hopper's birthday. She would've been 109 today.

I never knew her, but along with probably millions of people just like me, I owe Admiral Hopper an awful lot.

Because of her work developing Compilers, computers became very human-friendly, which greatly helped to open the floodgates for computer technology to evolve with unbelievable speed.

If I have to work in machine language, I couldn't program my way off of a flatbed truck. Grace Hopper made it possible for me to master a certain level of Application Programming that led me to some pretty great things in a very satisfying career.

One of my favorite things is the story of her presence at the birth of the term "bug" as it applies to computers. 

Wikipedia:

While she was working on a Mark II Computer at a US Navy research lab in Dahlgren, Virginia in 1947, her associates discovered a moth that was stuck in a relay; the moth impeded the operation of the relay. While neither Hopper nor her crew mentioned the phrase "debugging" in their logs, the case was held as an instance of literal "debugging." For many years, the term bug had been in use in engineering.[35][36] The remains of the moth can be found in the group's log book at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.[37]
Like I said - I owe that lady a lot.

Worse Is Better

Starting with tonight's performance, the part of Martha Mitchell will now be played by Ms Simona Mangiante.

(She's trying pretty hard to be Maureen Dean, but I don't think that's working for her just yet)

It would seem that Mike (The Holy Beard) Pence, is among very few guys in 45*'s gang who aren't married to, or engaged to, or separated from, or hangin' with a woman who has very obvious ties to the Russian government.

So, "follow the money"?  Yeah, OK - but with these guys, it's also "follow the dick".

Nicole LaFond, TPM:

“He never took any initiative, as far as I know, unauthorized,” she said. “He never took any initiative without the blessing of the campaign.”

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October and has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the foreign power to win the election. According to court documents, Papadopoulos was charged for lying about his communications with a professor who had “substantial connections to Russian government officials” and promised to provide “dirt” obtained by the Russians on Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The court records did not identify the professor, but Mangiante identified him as Joseph Mifsud, whom both she and Papadopoulos have worked for in the past. She told ABC News that they met last year after Papadopoulos reached out to her on LinkedIn because of their connection over Mifsud.

“I know (Mifsud) was interested in George because he was working for Trump,” she said.

She said getting interviewed by the FBI caught Papadopoulos “out of the blue” and she thought he didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.

“As soon as he find out that he committed a mistake, he took responsibility for that and he passed to the right side of history, in my view,” she said, adding that she received a subpoena from Mueller on the same day Papadopoulos plead guilty to the FBI. “It was very brave because he has been the first one and he is helping a lot. … I think he has been the first domino in Russia-gate.”

ProLeft Podcast

Don't you dare call it "Trumpism" - what we're seeing is what the Republican Party is now.

And people like Joe Scarborough and David Brooks have been perfectly happy helping it to become what it is - what they both now insist isn't what they wanted.  That may be "true" technically, but along with so many others, they looked the other way and accepted the inclusion and the growing influence of the shitty people who're now in charge of the joint.

The monster is rampaging through the village, and they don't get to pretend they didn't have a hand in building it.

The Professional Left

GoFundMe

From Illinois Times:

After more than 400 episodes, Langum and her husband have this down pat. With themselves as bosses, butter-smooth voices made for radio and no commercials to squeeze in, their podcast lasts about an hour, and if it runs a few minutes over or under, no biggie. It sounds remarkably professional as the couple sprints from one topic to the next, with nary an “er” or “ah” or “um” marking time as they consider what they should say next.

They do their homework, making notes throughout the week so that they can discuss such nearly forgotten Republicans as Jacob Javits (worthy of respect) alongside more familiar names such as Newt Gingrich (boo, hiss) with aplomb.

They don’t flinch from f-bombs, and the media isn’t spared. Fox News? “It helps to understand it as a puppet show,” Driftglass says. Donald Trump’s least-favorite network is no better. “CNN puts red ants and black ants in a jar, shakes them up and passes it off as debate and drama,” Langum asserts. How about public radio? “Nice, polite Republicans – that’s what NPR stands for among liberals,” she says. The couple rejects notions that both the right and left are up to the same tricks in a never-ending battle for hearts and minds.

“We give our listeners a vocabulary to understand the world that we live in,” Driftglass says. “When you turn on CNN, you see this nonsense. Every time you hear someone in the media say, reflexively, ‘It’s both sides, it’s both sides, it’s both sides,’ that’s an enabling mechanism for conservatives.”

This Joint Stinks

2 more students shot dead at school.

Two students were killed after gunfire erupted early Thursday at a New Mexico high school, according to police.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said the person believed to have opened fire at Aztec High, a school of about 1,000 students near the Colorado border, is also dead. No one else was injured, the sheriff’s office said. The Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President, which oversees territory not far from the school, had previously released a statement saying 15 people were injured.

The FBI and New Mexico state police were investigating.

Officials held an afternoon press conference but released little information about what transpired at the school Thursday morning, including the names of those killed and how the suspected shooter died.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez commended police for their courage and described students “hiding in closets, in teacher’s offices and under desks.”

“There were several acts of bravery by staff members, teachers and students that were amazing, that actually saved lives,” said Martinez, who added that the White House had called, offering its condolences.
But let's spend all day talking about Al Franken's hands and Roy Moore's dick, and how they can be used to change the 2-party dynamic - and blah blah blah - cuz after all, it's just politics.

I get so fucking tired of this shit.

Today's Tweet

A kid murders both of his parents and then pleads for mercy because he's an orphan.

We must cut back on health care to pay for the repairs to the house I just purposefully burned down. https://t.co/h8BP1ZuR5h

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) December 7, 2017

 

Casualties Of War

Al Franken resigned this week.

(hoping I'm wrong about all this, BTW)

I can't stop thinking he got swift-boated. GOP went after him solely because he's been very strong on Equality issues.

It's basic Debate (and Salesmanship) training: If the opponent can knock down your strongest point, they can ignore everything else you have to say and revert to their comfortable assumptions.

There's a strong element of False Equivalence too. Kristen Gillibrand has led the charge, saying that when we argue over Degrees of Offense, we're having the wrong conversation - harassment is harassment is harassment, and we simply cannot have it.

I think I get it - we all have to be called to account, including our friends and political allies.

But this looks a lot like the GOP has played the Hypocrisy Card, and the Dems have bought in like it's Everything On Sale At Whole Foods. 

AKA: taking your strength and turning it against you. And as usual, Dems have been most obliging by going into navel-gazing mode, picking fights with their own, and imploding with self-recrimination.

Meanwhile, we are in fact very busy being drawn into having Ms Gillibrand's Wrong Conversation anyway - because when you overreact, you can lose some credibility, which means you give up the edge, which means the other side gets more control over the subject of the argument.

To wit: we're talking about why The Librul Media cropped out one of their Silence Breakers.

"It's intentional, to represent women who aren't able to come forward," Rosner wrote. "In this case, it is an actual woman with a tale of harassment who was unable to be public, but here she represents all women who remain silent (for whatever reason)."

Rosner also compared this cover to New York Magazine's July 2015 cover, which depicted the 35 women who had accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault at the time. The cover left one empty space to symbolize the women who hadn't come forward with their stories.

"When New York Magazine did their Cosby accuser cover they similarly left an empty chair — it's an elegant and powerful gesture, a visual ellipsis," she wrote.

And suddenly, we're not talking about the problems caused by harassment. The folks who need to be thinking about, and talking about harassment aren't thinking or talking about it.

So Dems, you assholes better make this work, cuz this is USAmerica Inc, where we really suck at nuance. Maybe you're trying to move against that; trying to demonstrate a stark contrast between the two parties, but the Rule Of Unintended Consequences is against you.

If you think this is a low-cost proposition, you're probably in for a rude surprise. I think you can count on a serious backlash against the perception of "Dems being Dems - always looking to tell us how to live our lives - they're a buncha pinch-faced blue-nosed prigs who just love the smell of their own farts, and the Nanny State! and blah blah blah".

If you make it about Purity, we lose the best opportunity we've had in 50 years.

Don't fuck this up.

Stoopid Is As Stoopid Does

The Beaverton:

JERUSALEM – In response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the Palestinian National Authority has announced that it will recognize Texas as a state of Mexico since it was violently annexed by the United States in the 1840s.

“The territory north and east of the Rio Grande is very important to the Mexican people,” explained a PNA spokesperson. “Before American settlers showed up and implemented slavery, Mexico oversaw this land. Then, President Polk sent his armies to invade the rest of these Mexican territories, and force the country to give up California, New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. We may soon recognize these states as part of Mexico too.”

hat tip = @ALT_uscis

There's A New Wrinkle

I thought it had to be phonied up, but I checked half a dozen sources.

Here's the C-SPAN clip:

Dry mouth, sniffles, slurred speech. Lotsa speculation, particularly about how maybe it's nothing but an older man's dentures getting all wonky on him.

OK, but he's a billionaire who shits in a gold-plated toilet. Wouldn't he maybe have dental implants instead of dentures?

With all the pressure from the Russian thing, and considering all the reports about his usual whacko behavior becoming even more bizarre, I'm thinking some high-octane Medicinal Cocktails are not out of the question.

Let's not forget who this guy's doctor is.

Today's GIF

I'd just like to get back to where I've got some chops - but I promise I won't assault your sensibilities by trying to do anything like this.

'Bout Damned Time

driftglass and Blue Gal have been nailing this one for a good long time - politics is broken, and it's because we have a party making a mainstay of its raison d'etre to piss in our gas tank.

And finally, NYT is starting to catch up:

(Mann and Ornstein)

What is astounding, and still largely unappreciated, is the unexpected and rapid nature of the decline in American national politics, and how one-sided its cause. If in 2006 one could cast aspersions on both parties, over the past decade it has become clear that it is the Republican Party — as an institution, as a movement, as a collection of politicians — that has done unique, extensive and possibly irreparable damage to the American political system.

Even today, many people like to imagine that the damage has all been President Trump’s doing — that he took the Republican Party hostage. But the problem goes much deeper.
These guys have been here before, but as they point out in the piece, they've been going along with the standard crapola that it's all even - the corporate media's insistence on the horse race - the evil duopoly - yada yada yada. 

Not any more.

Today's Pix

(Click to embiggen)

TaxScam 2017

These tax cuts don't work because the numbers don't work. Because the numbers never fucking work on these things.

WaPo:

Republicans would no doubt counter that any time you reduce taxes, you increase the incentives for work. But it’s important to remember that if you’re a regular wage-earning American, this bill is as likely to increase your taxes as decrease them. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper on tax issues, every income group under $75,000 a year will on average see a tax increase by 2027. And while many of tax cuts that individuals at lower incomes might benefit from phase out over the course of the next decade, the cuts that most help corporations and the wealthy are permanent. All that is why, as Ryan Grim points out, while the bill has a net cost of $1.5 trillion, it actually cuts $6 trillion in some taxes but increases taxes in other ways by $4.5 trillion.

To be fair, the tax code already favors investments over work; Republicans merely want to reinforce and extend that characteristic. While they often lecture about the “dignity of work” when they’re proposing to take away safety net programs that aid those in need, they are doing little or nothing to change the tax code so that it does more to encourage work. Right now, wage income (i.e., money you work for) gets taxed at a higher rate than investment income (i.e., money you make when your money makes you more money). The salutary effects of labor on an individual’s spirit apparently only operate on the grubby lower classes, while the wealthy should be honored and rewarded for their ability to watch their portfolios grow.

Everything we do in government - everything we support our government for doing - is a statement of our values. And we need to dig a lot deeper into what we think we're supporting. There are no simple 10-word answers.

We deserve a closer look. We have the right to know everything that's in every bill under consideration.

When the GOP (eg) huddles in private and pushes for a vote with no hearings and no disclosure, we're being treated like serfs - like we only have the right to agree and obey. We are not being well-served.

It's dismissive and condescending and disrespectful.

There's no honor in it.

Today's GIF

TaxScam 2017 is alchemy. It doesn't work. The only way it could possibly do what they say it'll do is if it drives a solid 3% GDP growth - which is something a tax cut plan has never done. 

So the GOP must have discovered some amazing missing piece of the puzzle - a secret ingredient - and I think I know what it is.

Today's GIF

Let's be careful out there

Safe Sex

Today's Tweet

Seriously - what the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

Patriarchy's ultimate self-own pic.twitter.com/Jeg4BKUx4b

— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) December 3, 2017