Some Order Here Please

"We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads." --Zeynep Tufecki, UNC Chapel Hill

Globally, more than $490 Billion was spent on advertising in 2016 ($135 Billion spent by the top 200 US Brands alone).

These are smart, coldly-calculating people - they don't spend that kinda dough on shit that doesn't work.

Which makes this one even more important:

My Ayn Rand radar picked up on "...we can't abdicate our responsibilities..." - that's one of Rand's basic tenets even though her bit isn't only about responsibility - it's about reason and logic too, which makes those things are very closely related.

Anyway, I always love it when somebody uses one of the Daddy State Libertarians' favorite memes against them, and their insistence on ignoring and denying the bad shit that grows directly out of a short-sighted "philosophy" of "I'm gonna get mine and all y'all can just fuck off".

This is an old concern of course, and it goes with every big technological advancement.

What makes this instance particularly dangerous is that we don't have the kind of leadership that gets us to stop and think about what we're doing and where we're going with it.

Unfortunately, the people running this joint are in the thrall of some weird critical mass that (at best) carries us all forward into the 18th century, but this time with uncontrollable computer power and nuclear weapons.

Today's Tweet

The war is on Poverty, not poor people
... Drugs, not addicts
... Terrorism, not veterans

The GOP’s idea of a war on poverty is putting poor people in prison. Too many Republicans are way beyond vicious they are evil. Most annoying are those who call themselves Christians. https://t.co/66MZUrFPXr

— John Dean (@JohnWDean) December 28, 2017

 

Today's Pix

45* Speaks

NYT ran Michael Schmidt's interview with 45*, and here's a little taste:

Is that how your average not-guilty guy talks - or is it something else?

Charlie Pierce has an interesting take (as usual):

On Thursday, El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago sat down with Michael Schmidt of The New York Times for what apparently was an open-ended, one-on-one interview. Since then, the electric Twitter machine–and most of the rest of the Intertoobz–has been alive with criticism of Schmidt for having not pushed back sufficiently against some of the more obvious barefaced non-facts presented by the president* in their chat. Some critics have been unkind enough to point out that Schmidt was the conveyor belt for some of the worst attacks on Hillary Rodham Clinton emanating from both the New York FBI office and the various congressional committees staffed by people in kangaroo suits. For example, Schmidt’s name was on a shabby story the Times ran on July 23, 2015 in which it was alleged that a criminal investigation into HRC's famous use of a private email server was being discussed within the Department of Justice. It wasn’t, and the Times’ public editor at the time, the great Margaret Sullivan, later torched the story in a brutal column.

Other people were unkind enough to point out that the interview was brokered by one Christopher Ruddy, a Trump intimate and the CEO of NewsMax, and that Ruddy made his bones as a political “journalist” by peddling the fiction that Clinton White House counsel Vince Foster had been murdered, one of the more distasteful slanders that got a shameful public airing during the Clinton frenzy of the 1990’s. Neither of those will concern us here. What Schmidt actually got out of this interview is a far more serious problem for the country. In my view, the interview is a clinical study of a man in severe cognitive decline, if not the early stages of outright dementia.
Just because you're paranoid about a president who might lose it completely at any minute and get us all incinerated - that doesn't mean we're not in danger of being incinerated because we have a president who might lose it completely at any minute.

Amendment 25, Section 4.

Surprise - Really?

Matthew Yglasias, Vox (making it clear that he's using his head for a butt plug again):

But what’s flown under the radar is that there is plenty surprising about Trump’s conduct in office. In particular, on economic issues he’s governed a lot more like a hard-right conservative than a freewheeling populist.

As a candidate, Trump promised a crackdown on abusive pharmaceutical pricing. As president, Trump has put a pharmaceutical executive in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS is changing regulations to better fit the needs of pharmaceutical companies, and Trump is personally pocketing club membership fees from people with business before the federal government, including the CEO of Allergan. The candidate who ran as the champion of the forgotten man has led an administration dedicated to such causes as making it easier for financial advisers to rip off their clients and ensuring that workers suffer continued exposure to toxic chemicals in paint-removing solvents.


There is nothing surprising about any of this. "Donald Trump lies" was at the top of every tautology chart in the world before the GOP primaries even got started.

• Water is wet
• Pain hurts
• Trump lies

Another Tweet

Coin-Operated Politicians

Sen. Pat Toomey decided to buy between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of GE stock the day he was named one of the Senators who would negotiate the final tax bill. https://t.co/g8lNUKobcI pic.twitter.com/DKYYiRKVIu

— Josh Keefe (@thejoshkeefe) December 28, 2017

 

Today's Tweet

In the Age of The Professional Media Troll

The book editor's comments on Milo's manuscript could be used as a response to just about every comment from a Twitter troll: pic.twitter.com/HaY3uVLdeP

— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) December 28, 2017

 

A Song For Somebody

Somebody I Used To Know (cover) --Walk Off The Earth

The Nail-Biter

Shelly Simonds won her election to the Virginia House of Delegates.

But no she didn't. Not if The Republican Guard has anything to say about it.

There are at least 3 real possibilities on what this voter intended - and 2 of them tilt the race to Simonds.

• First, the voter intended what the Repubs are claiming - straight GOP.
• Second, the voter went with all GOP, but maybe they know Simonds and they were making an exception. Whatever the reason, people split their ballots all the time.
• Third, the strike-thru on the Simonds bubble means the same as the strike-thru on the Gillespie bubble.

This thing was tossed out on the first accounting, and again on the recount, but suddenly, it's magically resurrected when Yancey needs just one more vote.

It's a classic Under-Vote.

Simonds is challenging the decision in court, and I guess we don't find out what happens next for several more days.

Not That It'll Matter

I seem to recall the Wingnut Dis-Infotainment Industry screaming about "the war on cops unleashed by crazed hordes of Black Lives Matter and blah blah blah".

Brett Samuels, The Hill:

The number of police officers who died in the line of duty decreased in 2017 and nearly hit its lowest number in 58 years, USA Today reported Thursday.

As of Thursday, 128 officers died in the line of duty this year, down from 135 in 2016. Since 1959, only 2013 saw fewer officers die while on duty, when 116 were killed, according to data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
So if you're scoring at home - or even if you're alone (thanks Keith), that's:

• Cops killed with guns - 47
• Civilians killed by cops - 971 (so far in 2017)

That's a kill ratio of 20:1, fellas - I don't think you're losing this one.

Today's Tweet

And a very good quote too

.@JoyAnnReid: "If you think of the presidency as a national avatar, Obama is who we hope we are, and Donald Trump is who we fear we are." #LastWord https://t.co/nS3G9DOIUE pic.twitter.com/UYxBbZmQKW

— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) December 28, 2017

 

btw - Joy Reid might be the smartest of the bunch at MSNBC right now

Today's Tweet

I'd sue for whiplash if I could figure out who to go after

(follow the thread)

BREAKING NEWS: The Washington Post reports that Trump's plan is to frantically call Flynn a liar if it's found Flynn gave Mueller any incriminating evidence on Trump or his aides (which, by definition, he did). In other words, CHRISTMAS CONTINUES.

Link: https://t.co/ODZzfTdsFp pic.twitter.com/b9rgu51S75

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 27, 2017

 

Let's Make It A Trend

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

(COLTONS POINT, Md.) — Police in southern Maryland say a man killed his father in a Christmas Eve shootout in the son’s home.

The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday that 66-year-old Roger Allen Bruce of New Market, Virginia, was visiting his son and other relatives in the son’s home in Coltons Point, Maryland.

Deputies say Bruce and the son, 45-year-old Michael Allen Bruce Sr., got into an argument and the elder Bruce began shooting at the younger man.

Police say Michael Bruce returned fire, striking his father. Roger Bruce was pronounced dead at the scene.

Deputies are still investigating the shooting. No charges have been filed.
We can't count on them all just shooting each other - although it does seem possible, given the current state of the rubes' intellectual development, but we might be able to facilitate the process.

Allow me to reiterate my previously proposed plan:

1. Media saturation with PSAs encouraging Open-Carry in all places at all times
2. Amp up the paranoia - make sure they're even more suspicious and distrustful than usual. eg: "There are armed left-wing gangs and crazed lone wolf Libruls everywhere - they're clever too - they could be disguised as your closest gun club buddy, etc etc etc" 
3. Let it build until everybody's giving everybody the stink eye
4. Set it all in motion saying, "They're all out there now, and George Soros has told them to start the shit today, so anybody you see with a gun - shoot 'em!"

I figure if we just stay inside for a while, this is no longer a problem by about next Tuesday.

The Great Debate

PATRIARCHAL: Whatever position the toilet seat is in when I'm done is the position I leave it.

MATRIARCHAL: Put the seat down or die.

EGALITARIAN: Close the goddamned lid, ya filthy animals.

Today's Pix

Hope y'all had a great Christmas. So - let's get back to our normal weirdness.