lookin

“Brad broke the first rule of American politics: under promise and over deliver,” [Rick Wilson] told the Guardian. “Brad’s survival now depends on the good offices of his patrons inside the Trump camp, and [Ivanka and Kushner] are already signaling their displeasure to the media. This could be big. I've long believed (and posted endlessly) that Brad Parscale's used of micro-targeted and misleading use of social media was the primary (if not only) reason Trump was able to turn a popular vote loss into an electoral college win in 2016. Since then, the Trump campaign has virtually merged with the RNC campaign and the tactics used by Parscale have been expanded and refined. It's why I believe the Democratic challenger will need at least a sustained ten-point lead to blunt Parscale's manipulation of the electorate. With him out of the picture, I'm not sure the Trump/Republican campaign has anyone left who could do what he did. Here's hoping that, once again, Trump's volatility and need to blame someone for his own failures will cause him to get rid of one of the few people left who knows what he's doing. And the sooner the better. PS: If you ask me, Rick Wilson has been one of the most prescient of the Trump-watchers.

Well he fooled me. Even though he's well away from the nearest audience member, he's still in a room with plenty of virus droplets likely to be floating around. He must have convinced himself he won't be breathing any in. At least a million people didn't show up. Nor 19,000 people judging from all the empty seats in the bleachers. Apparently Brad Parscale is blaming the protesters, who have been very well behaved from what I've read, but he's the guy who I expect was in charge of bringing in the rubes. And he didn't. I bet somebody's gonna get unmasked tonight.

Trump the Dog Whistler sure wants to do the rally, but I've had this nagging suspicion that Trump the germophobe is looking for a way out. If he walks into a closed space with twenty thousand screaming Oklahomans, he's got to know that at least some of them are asymptomatically infectious. Everybody in there is signing a waiver in case they pick up the virus, so he's got to know that he could pick up the virus. If he goes in there without a mask and does his usual call-and-response for an hour or two, I'll admit I've misjudged him. A medical pile on would give him the cover he needs to pull the plug. All that's missing is someone to blame. http://www.dailymagazine.news/news-images/295003d8e4f588abb08a1f951a852606-690-0-N.jpg

36 if you count the Politics Forum.

Personally, I'm a big fan of boycotts and Chik-fil-A gave me my hardest test yet. I kept hearing how great it was but also how many bad causes they sent their money to. I sure didn't want them forwarding any of my money. As you might expect, it was nearly impossible to find one in the liberal Bay Area so it was only when I visited family back East that the conflict became real. A few years ago, I got as close as their parking lot but was saved by the fact that it was Sunday and they were closed. I toyed with the idea of poking around in the dumpster for a free sample but apparently I was not the only one with this idea. Fast forward to last year when I learned that, not only were they donating to pro-gay causes, they had also just opened up twenty miles away across from my Costco. A week later, I found myself in a long line waiting for my Deluxe Combo, large fries and a chocolate Hand-Spun shake, whatever the hell that means. Now, at long last, I can report that it was anything but worth the wait. Not to me anyway. The chicken was OK, but no better than KFC. The "biscuit" was only a little fluffier than cardboard and a bit less flavorful. The french fries were likewise bland, and a pickle no more goes with chicken than a feather boa goes with board shorts. It was the milkshake that was most disappointing and, had I bothered reading the ingredients first, I'd never have ordered it. Whole milk and nonfat dry milk, sugar, cream, water, contains less than 1% of: whey, mono and diglycerides, corn starch, guar gum, carrageenan, calcium sulfate, cellulose gum, brown sugar, natural and artificial flavor, natural flavor, salt, caramel color, beta-carotene (color), annatto (color), chocolate syrup (cane sugar, corn syrup, water, cocoa, natural vanilla flavor) At the very least, I'd have asked them to serve the guar gum, carageenan, calcium sulfate, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides and artificial flavor on the side so that I could add them to taste. Don't get me wrong. I've had worse fast food. The spicy mutton curry at Little Taste of Calcutta, for example, kept me toilet-bound for three days but the price was right and my table came with its own fly swatter. So, for me anyway, the boycott merely delayed the inevitable and Chik-fil-A is officially off my list for culinary, if no longer political, reasons. They could hire RuPaul as a car hop and I still wouldn't go back.

Honestly! Some days I think I should just stay up in my turret. (Thanks, guys! It's been ten years since I posted this one over at the other site and I never thought I'd be able to trot it out again. )

Reminds me of this old wheeze: Sam and Max pass on the street and start bragging about their summer vacations. “Two weeks at Grossinger’s this year”, says Sam, “in a deluxe room with extra bed - both king size. We signed up for the golf also, two days a week. By Friday, every shot was a hole in one!” “That’s nothing”, says Max. "This year we went to Rome. Esther’s brother got us a room overlooking the Vatican.” “The Vatican?”, says Sam. “Next you’ll be telling me you met the Pope!” “Of course we met the Pope”, says Max. “We got the First Class Tour through the private quarters, complete with two glasses of schnapps. It turns out he’s a very nice man. Her, we didn’t care for.”

Thanks for the thoughtful response, @Caeron. I think what @RockHard and I are both trying to say is that there's room in a good deal for both parties to come out winners. I care about myself a lot and a peaceful environment with lots of smiles around matters much more to me than the ability to shit on other people. (I say this with some modest authority, but that's a post for another forum. ) I think folks who believe they become winners by turning other folks into losers are setting a very low bar for a happy life. Anyone who's had the experience of cutting a deal with all winners will know that life is much better without the "losers" trying to get even.

Couldn't agree more, OZ. I've never felt that Black Lives Matter means that white lives don't matter. What it's always meant to me is that black lives seem not to have mattered in the past and now it's time that they do. As far as I can tell, those who hear Black Lives Matter and then parrot All Lives Matter or White Lives Matter are folks with a zero-sum viewpoint. They think that, if a black life matters more, then a white life must matter less. Personally, I don't believe that's true, nor have I ever been a fan of zero-sum thinking. Like our President, I enjoy making deals but, unlike our President, I don't enjoy zero-sum deals where, in order for me to win, the other person has to lose. Maybe that's what his life experiences have taught him but it's sure not what my life experiences have taught me. I've found that, if I've got a deal where the other person is a loser, there's still more work to do. A deal where there's a loser is unstable. The "loser" is going to be unhappy and will be looking for a do-over at best and revenge at worst. Much better for both parties to end up with a smile on their face. For me, it's always been a matter of increasing the size of the pie so that both parties get a bigger slice. It may take a little more work, but it's well worth the effort. Even if it takes a lot more work, it's well worth the effort. Who wants to be surrounded by disgruntled colleagues? And even if I come out of a deal with a little bit less than I otherwise might, it's worth it to have partners who are content and who will look forward to doing another deal in the future. My white self has certainly got enough privilege throughout my life that I can afford to get by with a little less in the future so that my black partner can get a better deal than he has in the past. The payoff of mutual support, stability and, inshallah, friendship is well worth any conceivable shift in the balance. More than dislike of those who believe that a zero-sum deal is the only kind there is, I'm saddened that their life experiences have given them a win-lose mindset. My hope is that life will be kinder to them in the future. And that they will be kinder and more generous to others.

Good gosh! Here's hoping she won't suddenly pop up out of the tub one day.

I never fail to glory in his antics terpsichorean.

So what am I, chopped liver?

What the hell?? I sure hope those are coffee beans!

That's my take also. Trump is an authoritarian leader and there are more waiting in the wings when his time has passed - always have been, always will be. Our problem, in my opinion, is authoritarian followers. Rather than comparing Trump and Hitler, I've long been more interested in comparing Weimar Germans with today's U. S. citizenry. And it's pretty clear that, like a sizable portion of Third Reich Germans, our citizens today are willing to follow someone who does their thinking for them and will promise them protection from outside forces: the "other". The more their fears of the "other" are stoked, the more tightly they'll cleave to their "leader". And they will act - and vote - against their own interests. You can see this pattern repeated under Hitler, who had loyal followers even as firestorms swirled around them. You can see it in the bodies on the ground in Jim Jones' Guyana. And you can see it in the Trump followers voting to do away with their own health insurance. As far as I can tell, there's a genetic component to authoritarianism, in addition to learned behavior. I believe this because of its historical persistence in the human race, and its appearance in many other social species. And I believe that there are times in the evolution of the human species when human survival may depend on the willingness of large parts of the species to blindly follow an authoritarian "leader". From what I've read, there's a persistent 30% - 40% of humans who are hard-wired to be unquestioning followers. And I believe that's why Trump has such a persistent base. His authoritarian followers want things made simple, they want to be protected from the "other", they want to "believe", and they will sacrifice their own interests to do so. I also believe that, while the Republican party, as currently constituted, may attract more than its share of authoritarian followers, the Democratic party has some too. My bet is that some of Sanders' most loyal supporters fit the mold, in particular the ones who would rather vote for Trump than for Biden or Warren. I've posted about some of these beliefs elsewhere, and I'm still trying to learn everything I can about these folks. I think that, while authoritarian "followers" may be necessary at certain times in human evolution and the gene will persist, this is not one of those times. There are more important human qualities that are needed now - some also with genetic components - such as altruism, empathy and compassion. How to help bring these qualities forward, while pushing authoritarian obedience to the background, is what takes up much of my attention these days. Sorry for the rant, yet thanks for the opportunity to do so.

Has anyone seen RockHard? He left early this morning In a little dinghy And with two of the cabin boys He said he was homesick for his villa David better check the silverware I'll go tell AdamSmith Where is he? Up on the poop deck, where else?

Just so! Seems like 90+ percent of the comments on weight issues have to do with food and very little with burning off what we eat through physical activity. As far as I know, they're two sides of the same coin and I wonder why we don't talk more about ramping up exercise instead of cutting down on what we eat. Maybe it has to do with time commitments. It would take me less than a minute to avoid that Big Mac, medium fries and medium Coke. But, if I ate it, it might take me three hours and ten miles to walk it off. That's if I burned 100 calories a mile, which I think is about average. But I don't think it would take that long in practice. Every few months, I go to A&W on a Tuesday when the special is two huge Papa Burgers, two orders of fries and two big root beers. I think that's pretty close to two thousand calories and, theoretically, I'd have to walk twenty miles to burn that off. I'm good for two or three miles most days and it seems like the weight falls off in a few days. So, as @AdamSmith says, I think exercise is as fruitful a way to control weight as dieting, which has rarely been successful for me. Even a small amount of dieting makes me feel deprived whereas a modest amount of exercise doesn't. If I do ever diet again, I'd wait till I hit the lottery and indulge my long-held fantasy of a personal chef. As luck would have it, I came across this guy (so to speak) a couple weeks ago. If I could afford him, I could take care of my diet and exercise in one fell swoop. In fact, I'm feeling a bit exercised right now.

Happy landing! No one will ever find you over here. Even Jimmy Hoffa posts once in a while.

Not to mention a fundamental lack of support.

They'll get a push if Prop D passes. Under Proposition D, storefronts that remain empty for six months or longer will face a tax of $250 per linear foot the first year, increasing to $500 in year two, and $1,000 every year after. The tiered scale is designed to encourage landlords to fill the spaces with new tenants faster.

No wonder I've been getting all those coupons.

He entered the contest emboldened and proud And he gave it no less than his best Yet he earned the support of just half of the crowd While he urned the support of the rest

And perhaps with one more recess to look forward to.