It’s that time again! And the weather is gonna make it more interesting than usual. Live coverage will be underway before you read this. Enjoy.
YES!
Now on to the other, less important, news of the day.
A sober and dispassionate analysis of what’s going on in Syria is called for. And it looks like we finally have one.
The Chinese Premier Xi Linping is headed to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Trump. Or according to the left, Trump is taking yet another vacation and shirking his duties while coincidentally being at the same place as the Chinese leader. Also, Russia.
What’s the real political scandal involving Russia, Rice and a lot of retardation in the media coverage? Maybe there are actually two of them.
Berkeley goes further up its own asshole. (No teaser…the story is short enough)
Hard Working Woman!
Good thing she had all that help on her way to the top. And by “help”, I mean a killer work ethic and a really big brain for the job, not a bunch of set asides and quotas.
Oh, sweet Jesus on the cross. This seems like a load of bullshit.
“Berkeley becomes 2nd city to ban fur clothing”
Golden Bears hardest hit?
Just to be clear, they banned the sales of fur clothing in the city. I had visions of them actually trying to arrest people for wearing fur. But can that day be far off?
Leather is next.
Skip leather and ban pleather.
Please. It’s a lot easier to harass rich women coming out of high end department stores than it is bikers wearing leather.
Healthier, too.
Of the random small incidents that occur every day, I very clearly remember getting off the Metro one morning and getting yelled at by a middle aged woman “protesting” about animal rights because I was wearing a leather jacket. She was chain smoking and had a young (4ish) child with her. I would never wish CPS on someone, but I came close that day…
I wonder what she supposes happens to the pelts that come off all those butchered cows. Or what should happen to them.
There tends to be overlap between anti-leather zealots and anti-meat zealots.
I wonder if militant vegans think about what happens to the existing livestock when there’s no longer a reason to keep large numbers of them happy and healthy for consumption?
Here’s the beauty of it – the jacket I was wearing was made from sheep leather from a sheep that was killed during Kurban Bayram. I don’t think the left had gone whole hog on “religious tolerance” back then (mid-1990’s), but now it tickles me that anti-leather people and pro-tolerance people would be at loggerheads over a jacket created out of a religious festival.
“Meat is murder!”
“Let religious groups do whatever the fuck they want!”
Oh, so you’re appropriating religious artifacts from an indigenous group?
I bet you’ll want to wear a headdress next.
Nice. New SJW slur.
“Cultural Appropriatrix”
Or are the Turks appropriating American culture by making bike jackets out of sacrificed sheep? Hmmmm??
Eh, they’re probably wearing our jeans already. I give it a pass.
1) I wonder if there’ll come a point in the next few years when the Republicans and/or Democrats spilt into two parties. I can picture a scenario where Trump and the
Republican leadership try to punish the Liberty Caucus, and in disgust the members leave the party to form their own.
Would we then look more like a typical European system, with a center-right Republican party essentially equivalent to one of Europe’s Christian Democrat parties, a leftist Democrat party equivalent to a Social Democrat party, and a business/liberty party something like Germany’s FDP? Maybe some of the Sanders Democrats would even split off and join the US Green Party.
My worry in such a system is that the Liberty Caucus would be the only grouping pushing for small government. The Republican/Christian Democratic and Democrat/Social Democratic parties would soon have spending and taxation at European levels, with the usual European style argument of whether government spending should be only 40% or as high as 50% of the national economy.
Or is there some other way such a party break up could play out?
Too many first past the post geographic districts for a multiparty system to flourish. People will scream “Spoiler vote” every time the other end of the spectrum gets a seat, and it will congeal back into the bipolar system we have.
“..it will congeal back into the bipolar system we have.”
Kind of like AT&T did.
Funding and ballot access make it virtually impossible for a third major national party to emerge. You might get more local parties that piggyback off the majors though, like the DFL in Minnesota.
But if the Liberty Caucus split off, it wouldn’t be “emerging.” It would be a party with nearly two dozen candidates already elected, and presumably those folks would bring some amount of donors and organization with them.
Maybe. Bear in mind they got elected with access to a national party apparatus though. Without it, would they still be competitive, even with the benefit of incumbency? I’m not so sure.
Yeah with 1st past the post and the way our system is set up, the primaries are where the real action is. Dave Brat is no libertarian, but he’s a damn sight more principled and thoughtful then that slimy fuck Eric Cantor.
My worry in such a system is that the Liberty Caucus would be the only grouping pushing for small government.
As opposed to now, where no significant party is pushing for smaller government.
I’ve predicted such a split many times at the old place and here. If the Democrats continue to blast leftward into obscurity, it’s inevitable that the GOP will split into a blue-dog center-left party and truly conservative libertarianish party.
I’ve given up on libertarians (note the small l) making any headway in elected office. I am convinced the best way forward for the small-l ideology to affect real change is in the judicial branch, via litigation.
She’s no Daryl Hannah
Woman found wet and nearly naked, claiming to be a mermaid
“with no identity”
What a shitlord. She identifies as a mermaid called Joanna. I thought that was supposed to be good enough these days
Probing the Wanderer.
STEVE SMITH ALBUM TITLE
Dion and the Bigfoots
STEVE SMITH LYFE!
So she’s been mostly residing on a CA campus the last few years. Makes sense.
“…social media users worldwide alike are scratching their heads over the incident, many debating whether or not Joanna is really a mermaid.
“There are some strange things that happen up here,” said neighbor Karon Renwick. “We’re in the mountains.”
“How do we know she isn’t a mermaid???,” chimed in a Daily Mail reader. “Until something is proved wrong or impossible, it is still a possibility.”
She is going to get help from these people?
She’s fucked.
A mermaid from a lake? Everyone knows mermaids live in salt water. Geesh.
Was she lobbing scimitars?
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate of the masses, not because some watery tart threw a sword at you!
These links need a laugh track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjP_IoxCHU
A Federal Court Rewrites the Civil Rights Act
“It is neither here nor there that the Congress that enacted the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and chose to include sex as a prohibited basis for employment discrimination (no matter why it did so) may not have realized or understood the full scope of the words it chose.”
We were so unsophisticated in 1964. We just didn’t know what words mean.
Parses comment through SJW dictionary
So you want all LBGT….. people dead?
Why didn’t she just cite the FYTW clause? That is what it comes down to.
So “sex” used to mean sex.
Then Title IX rewriters said it means gender…even though SJWs have gone a million miles out of their way for quite some time to say that gender and sex aren’t the same thing.
And now they’re saying it also means sexual orientation as well as pre-op trannies?
Makes me think of this.
Sexual orientation is about weather you need are gay or straight.
A certain writer for a certain publication was selling-out hard on this ruling, insisting that if we have ‘protected classes’ then it should apply to more people. Made no sense, but I’m sure it was delightful cocktail conversation
To be sure…
attempting to divine what that devilishly complex word “sex” means
So if I fuck a woman during a job interview they can’t factor that into their decision?
Chart of the Day: Four Drug Epidemics
Four moral panics?
The only one I noticed was the second order effects of initial Crack proliferation.
I’m especially loving the comments from ‘animallivesmatter’ in the Berkeley article.
When crazy cat ladies comment online.
I liked this person’s comment: Won’t be long until the city council requires all citizen to wear the government issued tunic..
A nice comfortable unisex pantsuit?
Like a Rusty Venture cosplay convention.
Speedsuit.
Bigfoot Enthusiast to Offer New Spring Class at Centralia College
STEVE SMITH HAPPY TO DO DATA ANAL-YSIS
I see a rock. This guy might want to take a geology class and mineralogy class. But you know, it seems entirely consistent to teach such non-sense at a college, as that seems to be what they teach at colleges today, non-sense.
Bigfoot believer finds evidence of bigfoot confirming his belief but that hasn’t yet been verified or dated but claims is 20k years old from a site he will not disclose. Hmmmmm.
After this is forgotten he can switch to studying global warming. He is eminently qualified.
Dustin Johnson. WTF, dude.
More: ESPN news: Sage Steele is out. Supposedly she’s a conservative.
I read yesterday the reason for the ESPN thing is Iger, Disney’s chief, is gonna run for President as a Democrat in 2020.
Disney is running the risk of becoming too politicized. Combined with their proggie leanings in their movies, etc… this may be too much for a lot of their customers.
If I were on the board, I’d shut him down on that idea.
Iger is also on the Apple board with that genius of tech, Al Gore.
Look, if Al Gore had not invented the intertoobz, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
Yeah, I’ve been on highly polished wood floors in socks. You feel like you’re ice skating. But damn, I don’t think I ever went tumbling down a flight of stairs.
….Interesting analogy? Parable?
My brain may be pickled right now…but that just took me aback by how much I didn’t understand what it was referring to.
Iger is skating around, ok…and you think he’s going to proverbially “fall down the stairs” if he runs for Prez?
I thought about canceling this post because how trivial it is. But I read what you wrote again and confirmed by confusion (BAND NAME!), I decide to idiotically continue.
It was in response to this:
Dustin Johnson. WTF, dude.
Context
According to a few sources reporting on it, he was wearing socks.
I like Evan’s conspiracy better.
It would have been a pretty decent euphemism as well.
And watching Risky Business
I have. Socks on carpeted stairs can be worse than hardwood too.
Had hardwood stairs from 1st to 2nd floor in old house. Carpet stairs from 1st to basement. I fell down both, socks on carpet caused that one.
At least carpeted stairs provide some padding.
More Jemele Hill!
Makes sense. Get rid of the attractive girl and replace her with another middle aged ‘woke’ guy. Sports!
Correction: she is being replaced by a ‘woke’ hot blonde. There is a reason why ‘mute’ buttons exist and ESPN just showed us a good use for them.
‘Hate Spaces’ documentary exposes rampant anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses
I blame the Jews, really.
Considering many are probably leading the charge, you’re not far off.
Self-hating Jews aren’t some wacky gentile myth here.
Sometimes it’s the reverse.
Oh what a…surprise.
verbally assaulted their Jewish peers recently, hurling a variety of insults
meh
get back to me when the Cal State education system passes a ban on anti-Palestine speech.
Well, finally another source on Bannon. But it’s Politico. So read this and be sure that whatever it says, the opposite is probably the truth.
The Trumpite Warz
Hunt for Why We Exist Turns to Weird Atomic Decay
In case any of the ladies need some tips.
Chelsea Clinton Gives Advice on How Millennial Women Can Be as Successful as Her
Step 1 – be born to influence peddler parents with no morals
Step 2 – ride their coattails
Step 3 – Profit!
Stories like this are always considered gauche when offered by self-made millionaires, but somehow reek of pure authenticity when offered by the sainted children of multi-millionaire politicians.
multi-millionaire politicians
*ahem*
That’s “selfless civil servants.”
“we need to change the social norms and cultures within employers so that women are equally valued”
Ah, so that’s it. I wonder if this is based on her personal experiences? For some reason, Chelsea Clinton hasn’t found herself to be equally valued with the other employees at the places she’s worked.
Well she was severely underpaid when she tried a career in the media
Matt Welch was pretty funny the other day when he compared himself to Chelsea. They both worked for NBC and apparently she made $26,724 per minute more than Matt.
THAT’S DIFFERENT!
Either she’s incredibly arrogant and thinks people are too stupid to see how she has done so well, or she’s an idiot who believes her own bullshit.
She’s a Clinton. She’s lived in a bubble her entire life. She understands people and communicates with them even less so than her mother.
Sometimes I wonder what is the staying power of vapid individuals. And then I think of the Kardashians and Chelsea Handler and realize it can be for an eternity.
‘A night of erotic freedom’ at NYC’s most exclusive sex party
Snctm, an elite erotic club based in Los Angeles that counts Gwyneth Paltrow and Bill Maher among its fans.
If you ever want to bring a little reality downer into your fantasies, imagine showing up to an orgy and half the people there are Bill Maher.
All I see there are victims. Patriarchy to blame.
…in Speedos.
Rufus, you’re thinking about that too hard.
/Phrasing
LOL. And he brings along Bai Ling and Coco Johnson
How do you read “Snctm”?
“Sanctum” I thought. I think I’ll go write an Urban Dictionary entry for “Snctm Santorum”
Sanctimonius
Scrotum.
Snack Time
I choose to read it as “snacktime”
It works in Japan.
That interview is hilarious “It’s not about sex….”
“Katie certainly lets loose. By 3 a.m., she’s had sex with six people, including a threesome with a 50-something sugar daddy who possesses an enviable six-pack and his beautiful Latina “baby.”
Excellent.
I am about the only person on the planet that finds this as my version of hell. Unless every young hottie came up to me and IN PRIVATE fucked me many times. But that doesn’t happen to me. I am not one of Those Guys.
There’s a reason I am regarded as the Costanza in my circle of friends. Drugs, jokes, conversations, I can do better than anyone. But I’ve never gotten the experimental sex thing, though I’ve tried. Sex is great. Why do I need to have an elaborate rape fantasy to spice it up? It’s already spicy!
Also–Pretty sure that this doesn’t exist. Riven will assuredly correct me. It seems way over-the-top and I can’t imagine naming individual celebs who have to deal with PR. Or maybe that’s their plan. I’m an idiot. It is known.
I’m not that enthused about it either. Mostly because I don’t want Herpes Simplex 47.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSPehKy4mUc
I’m sure it exists in some form, there’s already been articles about journalists getting into high class sex clubs. In terms of name-dropping Maher and Paltrow, Maher has pretty consistently not given a fuck about people ripping on his lifestyle choices (mostly due to extreme arrogance) and isn’t Paltrow the one who’s been talking about how great anal is lately? Yeah I don’t think they’re concerned.
Yeah, I don’t have a lot of time for that kind of shit, frankly. I’m mostly into sex that doesn’t require special equipment or method acting.
And as for “elite sex clubs”, you can keep ’em. Strippers are a waste of money, and I didn’t escape my 20s without any STDs just to pick up the clap from some strange. Never mind that I’d have to explain that shit to my wife, which would be awkward as all get-out. Besides, even if I weren’t married, I’m too sentimental for stuff like that. As Big Pun once said, I’m not a player, I just crush a lot. I’m way, way too jealous for anything less than serial monogamy.
“A sober and dispassionate analysis of what’s going on in Syria is called for. And it looks like we finally have one.”
Look, we have to help the good terrorists, who also happen to be the bad terrorists, to depose the current leader of country, so that the now bad terrorists can set up a caliphate so that we can then invade and fight against the bad terrorists.
And we would already be doing so if Hillary had won the election.
White House Plan Virtually Eliminates Funding for EPA Emissions Testing
It is of course impossible for the EPA to make cuts in other areas in order to continue performing the work.
Nothing left to cut. The cupboards are bare. And now the Trumputins are taking down the cupboards and burning them.
Since carmakers have apparently simply gamed the emissions tests anyway, would this make any difference whatsoever to actual air quality?
No, you’ll still be breathing in chinese coal soot.
I’m starting to not feel bad about defending Trump.
He’ll probably cut OSHA as well. However, that’s going to have a slightly different effect. OSHA gets a large portion of its operating budget from fines. They’re going to get much more aggressive in the near future.
Golf is even more boring to watch than baseball.
Almost as bad as soccer. Baseball is the finest sport in the world.
I’m with Ted.
Me too. Baseball for me is impossibly boring to watch.
Final round of the Masters. Going to the back 9 with three players in contention. Those are awesome to watch.
You guys are all crazy.
Or did you not see the Speith meltdown last year at Amen Corner? Golf isn’t an amazingly relaxing sport to watch.
Who? Where? *puts on his Red Wings jersey*
I’m going to assume you didn’t refresh. Or I’m just invisible.
Pretty sure we typed those at about the same time. Even though they’re different enough.
I watch a shit ton of golf. I like the US Open when they make it super difficult, and all the players bitch because they’re not 10 under par. BTW the Masters website with the different live feeds is a thing of beauty. With so many shitty websites, it’s amazing to visit one that works the way it’s supposed to.
I love it when the US Open decides to let Torqemada choose the pin placement. I’ve seen them put the hole in places even STEVE SMITH couldn’t find. My favorite is the British Open, though. Golfing in a wheat field with WW1 bunkers.
Bethpage for the US Open is an absolute beast.
I love watching someone hit a drive dead down the center of the fairway and watch it roll into a bunker with a basically unplayable lie.
Congratulations! Your prize for perfection is a double bogey!
Note: While it might come off that way, I wasn’t being sarcastic.
It’s relaxing when you don’t give a shit who wins.
Cabrera versus Adam Scott was a fantastic watch. Age versus youth, two completely different styles.
Remember when Tom Watson made a serious charge for the US Open 6 or 7 years back only to let it slip away? That was incredible.
I thought that was the British Open?
Both, I think. But British he went to the playoff.
You’re right. Turnberry 2009.
Curling is relaxation personified. The gentle sound of a rock gliding up the ice defying physics (it is the orchestral sound of earth, wind and fire with the sad wail of a wolf (whatever) – until it hits another rock – pock! – is the sound you hear just before you die.
Watching the Bears lose, now that’s a relaxing game.
RIP Jay, you were a lot of fun to watch.
*narrows gaze*
Some fine drunken sex with my cheesehead ex after shooting tequila whenever Cutler threw a pick. Good times.
Shut your whore mouth.
In all seriousness, I think you have to have played baseball to really get it and find it enjoyable on TV. You have to know what it’s like to have a ball come inches away from your face to get the physical component of the game.
However, physically going to ballgames is the most sublime mass-social activity on earth. People that HATE baseball love going to games. Here in Korea it’s like the Wild West. Beer is sold at 7-11 prices, you can bring in any food or drink you want, no fucking metal detectors…
Such a great atmosphere. (Still doesn’t beat Wrigley)
Baseball is the best. Baseball appears boring. But there’s so much going on mentally every single pitch.
When you see a game like Cubs-Cards two nights ago, or Orioles-Blue Jays last night, you really get a sense of why the game is so wonderful. FWIW, SP never played but loves seeing great baseball on TV.
Me, I was a remarkably shitty second baseman, but got a good appreciation of the deep-thinking strategy that changes with every play, every pitch. I loved doing it despite being terrible.
Exactly. A seemingly endless amount of waiting, preparing, anticipating, followed by one or two heartbeats of sheer excitement in which a thousand calculations are made at once, plans are executed or abandoned, and victory or defeat is decided by a matter of inches. Sublime.
As a side note, it’s EXACTLY like my sex life, in that sense.
I also love the purity of the one-on-one duel that is pitcher v. hitter. Yeah you get it in tennis and boxing, but it’s the only team sport (yes…cricket….yes….) that has such an aspect.
Everything’s about the team but when you get in that box it’s just pitcher, hitter, catcher.
It’s so easy to mathematize, which is also lovely. Such a large sample size.
So much going on. I also absolutely love the physics (Magnus force) going on. People who aren’t the know just assume that a curveball is somehow lobbed up there. No, the ball is still going 80 mph over 66.5 feet….it’s *physically* being moved in that way.
My first quasi-GF and I watched the Red Sox-Yankees 2003 ALCS together. Single-handedly turned her on to baseball during Game 7.
I also fingered her under the covers while my best friend was also converting his first GF. Good times.
Re: girlfriends and sports…I am a die hard Ohio State football fan. I attended the university, as did my mother (who is an even more fervent sports fan than i could ever be), and my uncle played baseball there and played, and later coached, football under Woody Hayes. I had scarlet and gray swaddling blankets in my crib. To the chagrin of my entire family, I once dated a die hard Michigan fan. The fights were intense, passionate, and explosive. This led to some very excellent make up sex. I’m also a die hard Cleveland Indians fan (same uncle was drafted by the Indians, played triple A, but got hurt before he made it to the bigs). I also once dated a Yankees fan. There were no fights, there was no make up sex. It was more of a resentment bordering on hatred. Down the stretch in September we couldn’t even be in the same room during games. With the Michigan girl, even during The Week leaving up to The Game against That School Up North, it never got that bad. The enmity was more explosive over football, but over baseball, it was…. deeper, if that makes any sense.
Football will always be my favorite sport. I was pretty good at it (all county and all conference, in high school at least, as opposed to being no more than a respectable batter and catcher and a middling pitcher, even by the soft standards of small town Ohio high school ball), it’s more viscerally fun to watch, and it’s once a week, as opposed to almost daily (scarcity, and all that). But baseball has a special place in my heart that is hard to compete with.
Sorry for the essay. April and opening week makes me sentimental, I guess.
People who aren’t the know just assume that a curveball is somehow lobbed up there.
They were right when Doug Jones was pitching.
He was amazing, his K numbers look like he was a power pitcher. His fastball barely broke 80. In his career (checking baseball-reference) he had 7.3 K/9 IP. 303 saves, 3.30 ERA.
Not a HoFer by any means, but fun to watch.
Have to agree with this. I’m not a huge fan of sports, but even going to podunk local minor league games in my old hometown was always a good time. it’s a nice vibe.
I work with a guy who plays on a vintage baseball team – ala late 1800s? Anyway – no gloves.
Fucking hipsters taking real sports now?
Conan goes to an old timey baseball game. Hilarious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkSZGXmuvIo
Rewatching this for the first time in a long while.
Girl in pink dress/bonnet who’s super into the 1864 gig…..WOULD with a fiery passion.
I feel all a-flutter.
*pulls Nature Valley granola bar from pocket*
*wrenched screaming back into 1980*
I appreciate that every ball park is a little different so you must play to the park. I really appreciate that the NYY’s changing their new stadium has not helped them into post season. They angled the park slightly (so the prevailing winds help the hit), dropped the right field fence to favor right field and they still lose. They two most beautiful things in the world of sport is watching a linebacker smash Brady into the turf and the Yankees losing at home.
Even when I was a kid playing little league in the early 1970’s in southern AZ, the god damn LL team copped the same attitude as their MLB namesakes. As a suffering Cubs fan (and on the LL Cubs) it was aggravating.
Only baseball game I ever went to was in Korea (two teams apparently sharing the old Olympic stadium) – 4th of July weekend 2007. Cheerleaders! For baseball! And I still have some inflateable noisemakers too. That was a good night out with the squad (just beat the curfew).
*Falls asleep watching.
NOT YOUR AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPION CLEVELAND INDIANS!!!
Funny, I can watch golf all day, but baseball kills me dead. On tv, that is, going to actual games can be pretty entertaining.
I noticed a few of the regulars around here were trying to pick up some programming skills and getting a little assistance from some of our more experienced devs.
In that vein, I was wondering: is there actually any money to be made if you don’t have a CS credential? I’ve been a computer enthusiast since adolescence and thought about trying to pick up some Python and webdev type of skills, but i heard it really wasn’t worth the investment of time because most of that shit was being automated or outsourced and nobody who isn’t a CS major with good fundamentals is getting paid.
My educational background is business management, but I really haven’t done jack shit with it and would rather sit in front of a screen all day than what I’m doing now. I’m not a total neophyte about computing. I’ve been building PCs since I was 14. Been running desktop linux as a primary OS since around 2005. I know some basic XHTML and CSS (enough to build a real simple storefront website for myself). I’ve done a tiny bit of basic bash scripting. But I’ve never done any type of serious programming or have any real fundamentals of computer science. I’m 30, which is pretty decrepit in industry terms, but let’s say I started learning tomorrow. Would there be any real possibility I could be doing sophisticated enough work to make a living at it in 1-2 years?
Database skills and business accounting will get you a job. ERP systems are highly complex and almost everybody’s got one.
Hard to say – depends on how committed you are. btw, some of the best programmers I know don’t have CS degrees.
This sounds terrible but I say: People can program, or they can’t. No amount of school can change that.
ie – I knew a guy who graduated the same time I did. He had a CS degree but had no idea how to visualize how an entire program should come together. But he was a smooth talker. He got a job at one of the big local coding houses. And tried to do the same thing he did in college – get other people to do the work for him. He was fired in a few weeks. Last I heard he was a salesman. which was a better fit for someone of his social skills.
I’d been programming for 5 years before I got my degree, taught myself. But I didn’t have a dev job and no one would hire me. So I decided to get a degree. Worked out well.
guess it depends on the era and the area.
My best friend growing up has a failed Masters degree in Neurology. He’s been programming professionally since the early 90s – started at Bank of Chicago, and a few gigs later is now working for Microsoft. Or another HS friend who has a math degree but ended up being an IT director. He retired at the age of 45, only doing web development for himself.
I don’t know about the programming side of the house, working on the sysadmin side. But the backgrounds of one particularly well-running shop were : Math degree, Bus Driver, Car Mechanic, Software Engineering, Computer Science, and “Been in the business since the first green screens were attached to the mainframes”.
The former bus driver was not the most inventive problem solver, but he was quite happy to handle boring, routine work and free up the problem solvers to tackle the conundrums. We were sad when he retired. The mechanic was very good at troubleshooting (gee, I wonder what crossover skills exist there). And so on. In all it was a very good synergy of talents.
The era definitely matters. I’ve been doing this for 20 years now. Back when I started, it was very difficult to get a job without a degree. Now it’s much easier because there’s a lot more demand.
I knew a guy who started his own dev company and he was hiring 18 year old kids right out of high school. For cheap of course. One day he called me up and asked if I’d come work for him because he didn’t have anyone who could talk to clients. I asked him if he’s still hiring high school kids. I liked the guy but couldn’t work for him because he couldn’t pay, he had lost his best devs and was losing clients like crazy. He was a good programmer, not so great businessman.
You can. If you have aptitude for programming teaching you the basics won’t be hard. What will get you in the door will either be a degree or a portfolio of programs to show you have some skill, or contributions to open source projects if you don’t want to stay from scratch.
What will keep you employed and eventually making a large amount of money is understanding a problem domain. Is easy to find a programmer, it’s a lot harder to find one that actually understands logistics, or ERP, or financial instruments, etc. Learn programming by all means, but also do a deep dive in something else as well.
It’s also very important to be able to talk to clients and be able to visualize a solution from gathering requirements. Sometimes clients don’t seem to even understand exactly what they want and so you have to actually figure out what they want and put together an idea to present to them. Logic and problem solving skills are really the foundation, but it’s like you said, someone either has the aptitude, or they don’t. I started an advanced C++ class with 18 students total and only 5 finished the class. It was during this time that the rest of them decided that this is not for them. But actual coding is only one part of the job.
Sometimes clients don’t know what they want? You’ve got better clients than I do, mine are always uncertain. Fortunately I’ve got a very good business analyst to work with, but yeah, client skills are definitely something that will make you stand out in a positive way amongst programmers. Most of us are not people persons.
If you can’t visualize the entire program, it isn’t a death knell, especially early on. Good architects are rarer than hen’s teeth. But you should have a good idea of how everything fits together, and at least learn to avoid common pitfalls.
I do all of my own business analysis, part of my job. But I do work with a couple of really good project managers. I’m not exactly a people person, but I can fake the hell out of it when I need to. Then I go right back to hating people in general as soon as the work day is over.
I used to function as my own BA. My clients loved me, but everyone in the office thought I was an ass. Now that I someone else to deal with client stresses I can spend my energy being agreeable with my co-workers. I only have so many fake give a damns to go around per day.
What qualifications do you look for when picking project managers?
I don’t pick project managers. They’re employees of my clients.
Well, what do you like to see when the client-picked project manager walks in the door and what makes you accidentally face-palm too hard?
30 is not too late to get into IT. I started my CompSci degree when I was 30. Got my first IT job before graduation and have not been out of work for even a day since then. It would definitely help you a lot if you have a degree. But maybe a cert or two could get you in somewhere if you’re really persistent, or if you know someone already in. If you really want to do IT, I’d highly recommend getting a degree, but you can get an associate in 2 years. You won’t need a masters to work in IT. The issue is getting that first job. Once you’ve got experience, you’ll always have work if you’re good. I’d recommend .NET C# and SQL. If you don’t like coding you can always go down the network path or even security. But on average, you would make less money that a dev.
With a bit of a push from me, HR stopped screening our potential hires based on whether they had a CS qualification and/or industry credentials. If you have some business-related expertise in non-computing, and you can demonstrate competency in technology, then you can find a job. Business management, if you have a track record of managing people, projects and budgets is something many tech departments value, if the candidate has a solid grounding in what tech teams actually do, rather than what the C-levels *think* tech teams do.
One of my hires from 2 years ago was an accountant who had a very solid grasp of fixed income trading, who had about 2 years of “dicking around with code” credentials, and he’s doing great. If his personal interaction skills were better, he’d be running that team now. Oh, and he’s in his 40s, so by your standards, he’s Nosferatu.
I’ve sat in on lots of interviews with clients. When you go in to an interview for a dev job, you’ll have a group of devs sitting there with lots of real world questions on everyday problems that come up. If you can convince them you know what you’re doing, you can get a job. My experience has been that ‘experience’ will get you a job much more likely than only a degree. I’ve seen people with masters who could talk theory, but could not answer the simplest question that they would need to know to get through even a day in the dev world.
Also, on age. I work with different groups of coders for different clients, and the avg age is probably mid 40s. I don’t know even one in their 20s. A few are in their 30s, but most are older. 30 is not old to start down the dev path.
I’m in my twenties, but I’m also the youngest dev at my work by more than a decade, so starting at thirty is more than doable.
Oh, and I’m in my 50’s, so I’m like, older than dirt, man.
Well, I don’t think there’s any easy way to connect me on here to any career related or professional sites, so I might as well be honest: When I say I didn’t really do shit with my degree, I really didn’t. Ended up running a single-person sole proprietorship making and selling ultra niche products within an ultra niche industry for what amounts when you average it out to part time wages. So my resume pretty much looks like shit, although I guess there’s probably some positive way to spin it (something along the lines of “ran the accounting, human resources, sales, and manufacturing divisions for an industry-leading US-based manufacturer = I filed my paperwork, did my spreadsheets, soldered electronic components together, and sold them for more than I paid). Anyway, my niche and the niche within which it exists are rapidly dying and I need to either get a real job or make one for myself. Even if I could afford it, I’m not sure if I really see myself going back to school. Who knows though. It’s worth considering. I had just heard some pretty abysmal things about trying to get into the industry without a lot of good credentials and a really strong advanced math background and it got me discouraged from really considering it more carefully, even though I think it might be something I’d enjoy.
Thanks for the info everybody. Definitely something to chew on.
Small-scale manufacturing, soup to nuts isn’t bad experience.
A strong math background could even be an impediment. It’s a mistake lots of people make. Back in the 80’s, the British government decided Computer Literacy was where it was at, and they gutted the Math departments of staff trying to turn them into (really lousy) CS teachers. The skill sets are totally different. 99.9% of the work undertaken by computer programmers (which of course is only one path within ‘computing’) is basic arithmetic at worst.
When you assembled those components and soldered them together, you were doing something similar to programming in many ways. You were integrating ‘black boxes’, although you had control over the flows into and out of them. Most of programming today consists of bolting pre-written functionality together. less than 5% of the programmers I’ve met have been capable of building a competent floating-point code library. Why should they need to? They can buy a very good one for a few dollars and be confident to work. Their job is to blend that into their custom code,
So don’t fall into the trap of believing you need something *like* advanced math. That’s not where the industry is.
Interesting. That’s actually encouraging to hear.
When I was younger I was also a live audio technician (set up and ran small FOH sound systems for a church and a small-venue production company owned by the guy who ran sound for the church). As I mentioned, I’ve been a PC builder since ye olden days. I’m actually a pretty good problem solver. A 48 channel PA system with 6 aux mixes, 4 or 5 compressors and effects processors, and matched amps and loudspeakers makes lots of intuitive sense to me. Enough so that I was running and maintaining one myself at 15 or 16. It sounds like that’s kind of along the same lines. I did just fine in maths in school, but was kind of intimidated by it and didn’t retain it all that well. The only math I ever took that made perfect intuitive sense to me from the first lesson was probability. I don’t remember much of that either, but I could pick it up again a lot more easily than, say, trigonometry or even advanced algebra, where I’d basically be starting from zero again.
Frankly, what I think you need is an overview of computational techniques, if you have the time to do it. back in the bad old days, the way you’d get a feel for the *process* of programming was to read Donald Knuth’s “The Art of Computer Programming” that basically maps out the landscape of what a theoretical omnicompetent programming language should be able to do, and the techniques that someone would use to integrate them.
In many ways, program design at a high level is like designing an electronic project. You have inputs, you have outputs. You need entities within the program to divert data down predetermined paths, based on conditions elsewhere in the program.
I’d strongly recommend getting a grounding in what’s involved in ‘building a complex program’ – maybe even before you worry about a language. You might find your competencies are in design or architecture rather than programming – and they’re also an excellent way to earn a living.
I’ll definitely do some more research and reading on that. Thanks.
My first job out of college was doing software support – as a temp worker – for a small ERP package. But that low paying job, once I was hired and learned the ropes, opened a lot of doors – EDI, programming changes to existing code, talking to customers to figure out their issues, and project management. A few years there and I was hired by a manufacturing company that could pay me at a much better rate (and a whole lot more perks) to support their ERP package.
As other have said, project management and figuring out the needs of the customer is the most difficult part. Doing the actual coding? Not so much.
One of the old coots (he’s in his 70s) can’t program at all. But he understands the ins and outs of the ERP package so much that they won’t let him go. So we end up hashing things out and I end up doing the coding.
*cough*SalesForce*cough*
*cough*Service Now*cough*
Shit, that cough must be contagious.
Dude, it’s like being Mike Rowe on a community TV station with no viewers.
It’s shit work, but it pays reasonably well, you’re on a career path, building a resume. If you’re halfway good, you’re an asset to the company you work for, and the skill set you learn wrangling SalesForce or ServiceNow helps leverage you into better roles.
Incidentally, I looked under the hood at ServiceNow. You were right, it’s hell in there.
I know it’s Hell in there, that’s my personal Hell five days a week.
But the pay is fantastic because I actually know how to keep it manageable. Another year or two and I’m doing something else though. I didn’t have much of a soul to begin with, and this is killing it.
Worse, that last one almost upended by stomach.
Have you considered changing your product line up to fit into today’s market? The reason I’m asking is because I’ve known a few business owners who that is all they ever did. And when they made the switch to being an employee, they all seemed to struggle with it to some degree.
Well, I’ve heard that also. And it seems to me that people who cannot get a job in IT despite credentials and experience, it’s always the same thing. They haven’t kept their skills up to date. I remember back in the day when a lot of companies were updating their systems and going from Cobol programming to modern object oriented programming. There were a lot of programmers who found themselves suddenly out of work because they couldn’t make the leap in technology. So it’s always that or they just suck at interviews. No one who has credentials, experience, and up to date skills is ever out of work, unless they want to be.
Also, math skills are not important in IT, unless you are working with some specifically math intensive applications. For every day business programming, you do not need high level math skills. Logic, you need, math not so much.
Yeah, to be honest, the reason I ended up doing this instead of looking for something better in the first place is because I’m less well suited to being an employee. But you know, such is life. In the niche I’m currently in, there’s really not any expansion or shifting in the product line that I can do. Most of the OEMs do what I do themselves in-house. I make stuff that works with a particular manufacturer and particular product lines. The manufacturer is no longer in business, so there’s a fixed market of old stock, and quite frankly, I’ve already saturated probably 90% or more of it. I was fortunate that my market is comprised primarily of savagely loyal enthusiasts who keep their old equipment running. But they don’t need multiples of what I sell and there’s fewer and fewer of them with each passing year anyway. Trying to wiggle into some other part of the broader industry would be my only real move, and the industry itself is contracting and consolidating. I’m also not really the enthusiast I once was about it, so I’d rather get into something else anyway for the long term.
I appreciate you all taking the time and disabusing me of some incorrect notions I seem to have gotten hold of.
I don’t see that at all, at least in the DC area. There are literal craptons of tech jobs around here, from DBA to Sys Admin. You can practically write your own ticket, and you really only need a decent resume and portfolio if you’re a dev. I was a web “developer” (I didn’t do much beyond basic PHP & JS) for 10 years with a degree in International Relations. Most of my colleagues eitehr didn’t have any degree, or a degree from so long ago that it isn’t even relevant anymore.
I never took a single class in computers and was making about $55k as a mid-20s programmer w/ 5 years experience when I went back to school 10 years ago. I got a ChemE credential which I have twice tried to use and couldn’t break in. Make almost twice that. But yes, if you learn SQL and/or javascript you can break in. It will be tough and you’ll probably have an extended audition at shit pay, but once you get that first year on the books, you can ask for a bunch more money or walk to someone else.
It will be tough and you’ll probably have an extended audition at shit pay, but once you get that first year on the books, you can ask for a bunch more money .
6 months for me, back in 1997. Got a 23% raise at 6 months and another 20% at 2 years.
As a frame of reference, in my current living situation I really only need about 1500 bucks a month to skate by on. If I could make that much out the gates and then double it within a couple years I’d be like scrooge mcduck in his pool full of gold coins. My expectations and standards are pretty low.
Net or Gross?
Hmmm. I’d have to calculate my withholding. Net would be better. Gross would probably be *just* doable.
Around here, a starting level dev job would pay at least 50k, so a lot more than you’re talking about. But it’s going to depend on where you are. In the Midwest USA, that same job might only pay 30k. But still a lot more than you’re talking about. Most experienced devs I know are making 6 figures.
I’m currently in southern Nevada – I could theoretically commute to Las Vegas if I wanted to rack up a lot of highway miles (it’s an hour or so drive). I don’t really like it here all that much though. Lot of bad experiences and bad memories. I hate the cold, but I find as I get older I tolerate the heat less well than I used to. I might end up moving back up to eastern Washington at some point if I can afford it. Wages in either place are probably just a bit below average.
Fuck. I dream of a one hour each way commute.
Hey, not in Lake Havasu City? If so, I want a word with you!
Pahrump. About 60 miles west of Vegas. Famous only as the nearest town to Clark County with legal prostitution.
It’s OK. I got ripped off on Monday with an Amazon vendor scam. My purchase allegedly ended up in Lake Havasu City.
I’m like “Where dafuq is that?”
Ahh, bummer. Yeah, that’s a ways south of me. My parents were actually looking into moving there a few years back.
“it’s an hour or so drive”
That’s probably an average commute around here. For people 10 mile from their job, the traffic can be terrible. I know plenty of IT folks who drive 2 hours to work. Fortunately, if you’re a dev, most employers will let you work from home at least part of the week.
It also depends on what you want to do. I picked up programming, but mostly use it for data analysis and business Intel. I have an econ degree, but it hasn’t stopped me.
Story time.
When my wife and I moved to a new town a few years ago we were both IT consultants. She’s a dev for a financial tool. I did more program/proj. management type activities. We had a party in our apartment which was on an upper floor with an amazing view of the city. We had invited our friends, including our side pieces. Hers was this 20something with both a Bachelors and Masters in philosophy from a notable private university. Guy was working as a barista and a busker as you might imagine. He’s standing at the corner of the two glass walls and looking out. Really quiet, just sort of gawking.
I make some comment about how awesome the view is, and he turns to both of us and says, “How’d you get this? This apartment, everything.”
I laughed and we both said, “We sold out!” Then explained about being consultants, how well dev work can pay, getting our MBAs, etc.
He looked kind of deflated. Realizing he’d wasted 6 years and probably 200k of his parents money getting him a degree that qualified him to do…well, exactly what he was doing. “I can’t go back to college again.”
We advised him to try one of the programming boot camps and learn database stuff. He’d have to start out at a fairly low wage, but get two years of experience and those skills + his degrees would open lots of doors for him.
He did as we advised, and within 18 moths started working for a major web company in the bar area and is making six figures. Admitedly, six figures in the bay area is poverty line, but he’s on a path doing work he enjoys and making a decent living
So, no, you do not have to have a CS degree. Having the skills plus a degree will do it if you’re willing to do the work and have the aptitude. Pretty much what others are saying.
Good luck
Did he seriously think this was going to earn him the Big Bucks?
I think it was more he never really thought about how to make good money until he a) wasn’t and b) encountered people who were that he knew and spent time around.
There’s already been a lot of good advice, but I’ll throw mine in too.
Everyone I know who works in IT, be it web development, database administration, project management, whatever, they either don’t have a CS degree or got it after they’d already started working in the field. The one person I know with an actual Computer Science degree sells private jets.
I’m 38, and I make decent money as a web dev for a university. If I went into the private sector I could make sick money–and I probably will in the next year–but I get a ton of leave and great benefits, both of which come in really handy with a toddler and hopefully another baby on the horizon. I’ve got the better part of a BS in Political Science, but I never finished and probably won’t bother. I’ve always worked, and while I was taking classes part time I switched majors a bunch as I was trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to do with my life after the line cook thing got old.
No bragging intended, but I’ve classically been a strong writer, and I started off doing technical writing and training as a subcontractor for some companies in the area. Like you, I’ve always been technically inclined, built my own PCs exclusively, dabbled in code, and so I found during the period where I was basically just looking for any job that would hire me to not smell like sweat and food at the end of the day that employers were less interested in the writing bit (writers are literally a dime a dozen as long as you hire from the subcontinent) but more in the technical angle. My first IT job, in fact, was writing documentation for a company’s SAP installation.
From there, I moved from place to place edging closer to actual development and away from the softer, admin-type stuff. On the side I put together a portfolio of sites, learned a lot about HTML, CSS, JS, SQL, the usual stuff, and pitched my resume everywhere. It was tough, definitely, and it didn’t happen over night, but I eventually got a job making a pittance doing PHP. From there, I had actual professional dev experience to point to, and that made subsequent moves much easier. Now I get calls weekly from headhunters and companies looking to hire me.
So the answer to your last question is yes. Having a background in another discipline will help you if you spin it well. Learn as much as you can, particularly about programming concepts but also stuff like user experience, design, and testing. Develop a portfolio, because developers interviewing you will want to see well-written code.
Technical writing is a strong field – about 90% of the recruitment emails I get are for tech writer jobs.
I trust Lindsay Graham. Why wouldn’t I?
I freely admit that I have no idea what’s going on in Syria. I doubted that the chemical weapons used were nerve-agents because the medics were touching victims with their bare hands and not becoming ill themselves.
Otherwise, I have no idea if Assad’s guys did or other terrorists. Here is a completely different spin to keep you confused.
Cui bono. I don’t see any benefit to Assad for intentionally doing that.
He’s pretty well won the war at this point. Why bother?
You’re talking about one of the most savvy tyrants out there. Assad has managed to walk a tightrope for 2 years as the US and its allies, ISIS and various other countries have tried to get him out. Yet here he still is. He’s going to gas a bunch of kids just for some sadistic kick? I don’t buy it for a second.
I don’t think we need to invoke the malign influence of George Soros here, but it’s entirely possible (and maybe even probable) that one of the anti-Assad groups perpetrated this. It’s not like any of them seem to have any sympathy for non-coms.
The symptoms that those victims were displaying were consistent with nerve agents, and it’s hard to tell how effectively the victims were being hosed down, but that’s a decontamination step. Nerve agents are often deployed as mists, but (for example) Sarin (GB) vapor is dense so if that footage was taken where the deployment took place, everyone unaffected is likely to have been walking around in an area where ground-level concentrations would have been troublesome. Tabun (GA), a closely related nerve agent (synthesis of GA really is ‘bucket chemistry’ in comparison to GB) is deployed in the same way and has similar symptoms.
While GB and GA are both water soluble, the appropriate mitigation for GA is sodium hypochlorite, and not simply water. GB’s complicated synthesis would argue that whoever deployed it either had those kinds of facilities (i.e. Syrian Military) or – more easily, it was stolen from in-country stockpiles (either Syrian, or the Iraqi supplies which I think we can assume ended up here). I find it hard to imagine that getting GA or GB into Syria from external sources.
When I initially watched that footage, it presented an almost text-book montage of a CBN drill I once attended. So I’m starting to wonder if it might not be an elaborate hoax. I’m prepared to walk that back when new evidence appears one way or the other, but I’m really starting to doubt the story.
Someone like Groovus or someone with SF training would be the go to guy on this.
You did a pretty good job breaking it down.
Well, there’s been plenty of evidence that the Syrians have been dropping Chlorine barrel bombs repeatedly over the last few years (helicopters, etc) – I’m not sure why you’d rule out a similar attack with a little more HE included.
“DR. Burn on THE TEETOTALLERS.—Before concluding this paper I will briefly allude to the principles of total abstinence. Doubtless they, and their advocates have, in their time, done much good; still I cannot believe that their application is altogether unaccompanied with evil. Their votaries eschew drinking alcohol, but they find their grog — as it is vulgarly expressed — in doing other things which are not always innoccuous to society, Thus I have often observed that some teetotallers are great scandalmongers ; that others in virtue of the abstinence which they practise are vain of and ostentatious about their superior goodness; and others, again, are excessively libidinous — pickpockets are so, and they are exceedingly temperate. I have found natural teetotallers as a whole to be selfish, uncharitable, and badly qualified for the offices of friendship. But there are various classes of them, and the majority are teetotallers only in name; for when they are not great smokers, they are, most probably, great tea-drinkers, great swillers of ginger-beer, or great gluttons. I hope to live to see Great Britain more temperate than at present, but never teetotal. It we possess a faculty which discovers and appreciates alcoholic beverages, and other stimulating substances, it is but right that it should be temperately exercised.—Physiological Essays.”
“Brewers’ Guardian, vol. 1, 1869”, July 1871, page 316.
“I distrust a man who says “when.” If he’s got to be careful not to drink too much, it’s because he’s not to be trusted when he does. “
My mother has never drank alcohol. Not even a sip. In the culture that I grew up in, this was common. Lots of Puritanical folks who believed that alcohol is a sin.
My mother gets violently ill whenever she even looks at alcohol. I think it’s psychological – her dad was a hopeless alcoholic who shot her brother and then blew his own brains out in front of her when she was 14. She doesn’t mind other people drinking though. In fact, she says it makes me a much nicer person.
So Ben Carson had HUD audited.
The total amounts of errors corrected in HUD’s notes and consolidated financial statements were$516.4 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively.
That doesn’t sound good.
Better than I expected, though.
Next time the IRS audits me, I’m going to round my income to the nearest billion.
OMB Circular A-136 requires the highest level of rounding to be at the nearest
million.
I will just stick to the standard.
Well, it’s no surprise that when I go to DC, everyone seems to be driving a 100k+ automobile.
Actually it sounds great. Now he can call for massive firings of incompetent employees and leave their vacancies unfilled.
Should’ve let SugarFree write the “What We Recommend” section.
I’m gonna be guessing that ol Ben is the most hated negro in DC about right now.
If you think Clarence Thomas is giving up the belt that easily, you’ve got another thing coming.
Damn Uncle Toms be takin over the place!
Nothing like a broken web site to start the day. Invigorating.
(bright side? it doesn’t appear to be broken til you actually try to login)
Try a hurried crisis meeting on why last night’s trades for a multi-billion dollar family of funds cane in on a feed and every record violated at least 3 database constraints as all 1,700 rows failed, and if we can shortcut the remediation policy to get the data in by open of trading.
Good news? Yesterday was a quiet trading day.
Extra good news? I just got an email saying the import was completed with no errors.
You’re the new Reason.com hire?
Puhleeze…TSTSNBN can’t possible afford me!
To be fair I don’t think they can actually afford anyone, they just have the board first the difference.
The interesting part of Eli’s article is the politicization of foreign intelligence by the Obama administration did not start with Trump. There is evidence the Obama administration did the same thing against their opponents on the Iran deal.
It also bears repeating that the shit Russia dug up on HRC was undisputed and none of this has anything to do with altering vote totals.
Progs have suddenly discovered something called eminent domain and decided they don’t like it. You see, the border wall will require the acquisition of lots of property.
You know who else acquired a lot of property?
BLM?
Thomas Jefferson?
For founding fathers, the serious answer is John Adams. Whenever he had spare cash, he bought property.
I was making a loiusiana purchase reference. I don’t know much about their personal finances.
Nice. That would have been funny if I had got it.
I thought you were making a tasteless slave owner joke.
Jefferson’s personal finances were a mess, but at the national level he was fantastic.
He did have a really nice spread down there at Monticello.
Bjorn Halvard Knappskog?
Genghis Khan?
Poor guy had miserable estate planning though.
When .5% of the world is your descendents, estates are gonna get messy.
Donald Trump?
But what about their Roads!!!
Naughty by Nature?
Well done, sir
oh yay – it is snowing. But the temp is supposed to hit 70F on Sunday. WTF?
Hey! Long time lurker and refugee from (ominous tones)TSTSNBN, been lurking here for a bit since the exodus, and just thought I’d say I have never before gone anywhere just for the comments.
Normally I avoid them like a bad neighborhood, but you guys are some of the most insightful and interesting people around, not blowing sunshine up any anus’s just stating an observation of fact.
I’ve learned a lot since following the previous site starting about 5 years back.
keep it up, and I’ll try do a little more than lurk like usual!
Comment more!
SUCK UP!
*kicks pebble*
Well, we already know that. No need to inflate our giant egos further. Welcome.
Speak for yourself! I need all the ego stroking I can get!!!
What’s the deal with the name?
I smell lawyer (pun intended)
Add yet another one to the long list of people sick and tired of fake libertarians, broken commenting, and idiots who talk to themselves under multiple screen names. Welcome!
“As numerous experts have since said, unmasking is pretty common. Even if Rice did not break the law (and it appears she did not), the scandal is that what she did was most likely legal. It is not outrageous that a national security adviser can discover the names of Americans caught up in legal surveillance of others when there is a threat of a terrorist or cyber attack. It is outrageous that it’s so easy to do this in the absence of such a rationale.”
It’s disheartening how many journalists are failing to even mention this point, let alone understand that it is really the crux of the whole story.
Not to mention admins rarely do analysis work. So if she was acting with good intentions, there ought to be several paper trails of analysts bringing her the transcripts for her review and subsequent requests for her to unmask.
Those paper trails do not exist. And the first question that needs to be asked of her when put under oath before a congressional committee is “prior to 2016, and aside from people affiliated with President Trump, how many times did you unmask Americans without the request initiated by an analyst?”
Not to mention admins rarely do analysis work.
That is my understanding as well. Why is a political staffer analyzing intel? That is not her job. This supposedly became possible after 9/11 right? How many times did GWB’s National Security Advisor unmask American citizens who happened to be members of the opposing political party? I don’t even know who that was, but he/she needs to be sitting at the table next to Rice when she testifies to congress and asked that.
Stephen Hadley and Condoleezza Rice were Bush’s security advisors.
Yes, TY. I remember that now. If it is so common for the national security advisor to unmask Americans and Susan Rice was doing nothing out of the ordinary, there should be a long trail of requests from the previous administration as well. Let’s see them.
Don’t you understand? Making sure the right political side wins is a vital part of national security. Data gathered while spying on foreigners is useful for domestic political purposes, especially if political opponents can be unmasked and damaged politically as part of it.
You want car news? How about cars and Trump?
DISAPPOINTED!
President Donald Trump’s 2007 Ferrari F430 F1 Coupe left the sale block before meeting reserve at auction on Saturday in Florida. Bidding on the car stopped at $240,000, $10,000 below its low estimate. Hours later, the auction house issued a statement saying “we can confirm it exchanged hands just minutes after it left the podium” for a final sale price of $270,000.
The company did not say who purchased the vehicle and offered no further details about the off-the-record sale. Were it the hammer price, this would have been the most paid for an F430 Coupe with semi-automatic transmission at auction. It had been expected to take as much as $350,000.
The headlines on the articles I have looked at make it sound as if the price was terrible, when the car didn’t hit somebody’s absurd estimate.
I suppose I’d take one if somebody gave it to me, but the F430 is not high on my list of desirable cars. (If I had one, it’d get driven a lot more than 1000 miles a year.) I note with interest the paddle-shifter cars sell for less than the “stick shift” cars.
I’m still waiting for anyone to provide actual evidence that Russia hacked anything.
I also would be curious to find out why the DNC refused to grant the FBI access to their servers to investigate. Shame no journalists are even mildly curious about that one.
Meh. I’m fine with anyone’s “Fuck you, get a warrant” feelings, even if it is the DNC.
Dems: “Hey! Somebody vandalized my car, arrest that man!”
FBI: “Okay, let’s take a look at the car.”
Dems: “Fuck you, get a warrant!”
Even if they’re the ones making the accusation? That’s like calling the cops to report a burglary and then refusing to let them in when they show up to gather evidence.
Dammit, Drake!
They have their story, they don’t need to convolute it with facts.
Look I have evidence right here
Well, there you have it. The DNC SF’d the evidence.
I saw that after I posted but thought it was funnier than what I linked to originally.
We’ve known for a long time that Russian businessmen and politicians can be very sleazy. Three people involved in last year’s campaign seem to have had shady deals with those guys.
1. Manafort who worked for the Trump campaign and was fired last summer as soon as he sleazy deals came to light.
2, John Podesta – who hid all kinds of deals with a Russian businessman who was convicted of bribery.
3, Hillary Clinton – who along with her husband took millions in
bribesspeaking fees and “charitable” donations for the Uranium One deal.Dems have gone full-retard thinking this an investigation that will make them look good.
Dems, especially the Clintons, can safely assume their dirty laundry won’t be aired to nearly the same extent as their opponents’.
Christ, I’m still seeing accusations of Sessions lying to Congress lobbed in response to the Rice scandal. Hate the man all you want, I do plenty, but that nontroversy was such unremitting horseshit that only feckless media hacks could have ensured it survived.
I can understand why a political party wouldn’t want the FBI poking around their servers. Given that intelligence services have been surveilling Republicans, the Dems probably expected that the FBI would use the access nefariously against them too.
Things We Already Knew, ch. 738
While Dimon’s letter marked a shift in his typical tone, he said he remains optimistic about JPMorgan’s ability to expand and profit. And the bank’s leaders have confidence in the underlying growth of the U.S. and global economies, he said.
Still, the U.S. is paying the price for bad decisions, and “something has gone awry in the public’s understanding of business and free enterprise,” he said.
“We need trust and confidence in our institutions,” he concluded. “Confidence is the ‘secret sauce’ that, without spending any money, helps the economy grow.”
Jamie Dimon, master of understatement.
People who want to get involved in Syria because of pictures of dead children are stupid as shit. Do they think it would be so much better if those children were killed by American weapons instead?
White privilege
The predicament facing white conservatives is that after the enactment of civil rights laws, they have found it difficult, if not impossible, to structure programs to benefit the white working class and poor without also benefiting disadvantaged African-Americans and Hispanics.
Until now, the Tea Party-era Republican response has been to press for across the board cuts in safety net programs.
Casual racism and collectivisation of your political enemies is okay, when the right sort of people do it.
Yeah, tailoring benefits narrowly rather than broadly is a conservative goal. Mook.
I’m trying really hard to read that, but I can’t make any sense of it. It seems like a contradictory mess. Is the guy saying that Republicans have one goal, basically to cut safety net programs for the specific intention of hurting minorities, but that will hurt white people the most? WTF?
Yes, that appears (as far as I can tell), to be exactly what he is saying. And while it is certainly contradictory, nonsensical mess, in the authors defense, this is the essence of the political views of nearly every liberal Democrat I’ve encountered in about 20 years.
Well, they’re like the borg. They just repeat whatever talking point their leaders make up. I remember the first encounter I had with a Maryland Democrat. I mean the first encounter that got political.
It was in 2011 in the aftermath of hurricane Irene. Power was knocked out for a lot of people for 3-4 days. Everyone was driving around trying to find a gas station that still had gas, and buying all the ice they could find.
I found a station that had gas and I pulled in. There was one other car there. So this older angry looking guy comes up to me and starts complaining that the electric isn’t back on yet. Then he said something that sort of floored me. ‘The power company don’t care, damn capitalists is what they are!’. I said ‘Well, I think they care, they’re not making any money when the meters aren’t spinning and they have crews from out of state working 24/7’. He have me the sourest look you can imagine and stormed back to his car.
Oops, I didn’t mean ‘still had gas’, I mean that had backup power running so you could pump the gas.
Tommy Robinson tracks down troll.
The really stupid thing about that is that the kid says ‘free speech doesn’t mean inciting hatred’. But yet he thinks that asking for someone to be murdered is ok?
The kid is scared that the cops might actually do something if Tommy reports it. That is what cracked me up. Threatening a right winger is not going to get you anything worse than an invite on the BBC.
Berkeley goes further up its own asshole. (No teaser…the story is short enough)
Fur is speech.
Attire is speech, so choosing to wear fur is speech by extension.
Usually it’s “look at how much discretionary cash I can throw around” but that is still a statement.
Is fur still a thing in the US? Seems too pricy for the peasants and too gauche for nobility anymore.
I don’t know. You expect a shut-in curmudgeon to follow fashion?
I keep seeing ads for Gino’s and Malnati’s “pizzas” from Goldbely in my Facederp feed. I would be lying to say I wasn’t very, very tempted.
Also, LOL