Rebane's Ruminations
March 2017
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[I and several readers have noticed that mud-slinging bouts in the sandbox occur in waves, but recently these have come at an increasing pace and with longer durations.  The resulting comment streams are difficult to parse for those readers who don't give a crap about the kindergarten tit-for-tat antics; it just makes it harder for everyone to find the substantive comments that contribute to an interesting topic thread.  In the past I've had some success stopping these episodes by just excising the offending comments.  The problem is extra work for me because sometimes a comment starts out with a thoughtful/substantive proposition and then ends with a mudball, or vice versa.  I will solve this problem by just eliminating the entire comment and let the writer determine the profit in reposting a more civil version of the removed.  gjr]

Posted in

355 responses to “Sandbox – 30mar17”

  1. Russ Avatar
    Russ

    Elections have consequences:
    WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are taking aim at the Environmental Protection Agency, targeting the way officials use science to develop new regulations.
    A bill approved Wednesday by the GOP-controlled House would require that data used to support new regulations to protect human health and the environment be released to the public.
    Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said “the days of ‘trust me’ science are over,” adding that the House bill would restore confidence in the EPA’s decision-making process.

    Now if we can get NOAA and NASA/GISS to explain the science behind how the historical temperature data was “adjusted” to create global warming, we will get some more insight.

    Like

  2. fish Avatar
    fish

    Wow…..life imitates art!
    Man-eating shark on road in Oz affter cyclone…
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/huge-man-eating-shark-washes-10125146
    Sharknado……?

    Like

  3. Russ Avatar
    Russ

    We will soon know who the Congressional Porn viewers are.
    โ€˜Cards Against Humanityโ€™ Creator Vows To Buy And Publish Congressโ€™s Internet History.
    Temkin vowed on Twitter that if the anti-net neutrality bill was passed that he would personally buy the private browsing history of each and every Congress person and Congressional aide who voted for the bill and publish it online for the entire world to see. You know, so they would know what it feels like to have their personal data auctioned off like that.
    Now that the bill has passed, Temkin promised people heโ€™ll use his personal wealth to do it and warns against crowdfunding campaigns.

    http://www.distractify.com/trending/2017/03/29/ZOXB29/temkin-buying-congress-data
    According to some recent studies of porn users, women are some of the most active viewers. It will be interesting to see what our Senators and there staffs are searching for on the Internet.

    Like

  4. George Rebane Avatar

    Russ 759am – Where can we read what the bill actually says about the legality of releasing personal ID data? I still believe that only data that cannot be related to a specific individual is allowed to be released, primarily for the sake of developing aggregate stats.

    Like

  5. fish Avatar
    fish

    Oh “jon”….er…..umm……ScottM…….hows that “integration’ going?

    As American Thinkerโ€™s Alex Alexiev informs, โ€œDenk is as radical as [Turkish president] Erdoganโ€™s AKP, of which Denk claims to be an affiliate. It openly rejects integration, the worn-out mantra of the Left, which it sees as a form of racism, and instead advocates acceptance of Muslims and their culture as they are. Aiming to take advantage of the migrantsโ€™ youth, it urges voting at 16 and control of local government by the local majority, thus solidifying existing Muslim-dominated parallel societies in Dutch cities with large Muslim populations like Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht.โ€
    This is just another step toward balkanization-born destruction, and it is not unprecedented. Consider how itโ€™s already the case in Sweden that โ€œโ€˜[a]ssimilation is completely out of the question,โ€™โ€ CBN News reported in 2014, quoting Danish journalist Mikael Jalving. โ€œโ€˜All mainstream political parties would laugh [at the word โ€˜assimilationโ€™]. [To them] the word โ€˜assimilationโ€™ is a Nazi word.โ€™โ€
    Denk advances this mentality in Holland, and it โ€œwants imams to be present in all schools, hospitals, and the military, whose education is to be paid by the state, but without any state interference in the curriculum,โ€ according to Alexiev.
    This is a recipe for a Dutch version of the British education scandals of recent years, in which some schools were caught teaching a curriculum so aggressively Islamist that students didnโ€™t know whether English or Sharia law was more important or which one they should follow. Of course, Denk aims to avoid similar scandals by having such education officially sanctioned.

    …and all this time I thought you proggie nitwits loved the European model. Instead you were really hoping to kill it!
    http://observer.com/2017/03/netherlands-denk-party-immigration-assimilation/

    Like

  6. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Concerning the first comment, I am all for transparency. Let the chips fall where they may. I never bought into ‘the science is settled’ line. I particularly become suspicious and do not buy into the settled agrument when I see who is saying it.
    https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1056084254525611/?type=3&theater

    Like

  7. Russ Avatar
    Russ

    George @08:12AM
    This is the paper the Obama Privacy Rules are based on. http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=jpc
    The ISP server log files record IP address of the user activity. Anyone with access to the database can type in the IP address and see the site the user was viewing. Given the power of big data search tools available in would not be hard for someone to find all the IP addresses that a specific IP address had visited. That said, there are a lot of complex issues involving dynamic IP address assignment. This is best discussed over a few brews.

    Like

  8. George Rebane Avatar

    Russ 926am – Yes, I do understand dynamic IP addressing, and if source IP data is to be shared then that is a concern because there are ways to map that back to specific computers, hence users. Thanks, and keep us posted on the ‘progress’ of this latest incursion into the remaining shards of our privacy. (This response does not negate the anticipation of future brew-based discussion of this and other matters.)

    Like

  9. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    The very latest outburst of “We’re All Going To Die” –
    https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3591
    Once again we see the false narrative of CO2 = dirty air.
    “Trumpโ€™s war on clean air will potentially kill tens of thousands of people annually and have health costs in the ten of billions of dollars each year.”
    There is no war on clean air. Fake news.

    Like

  10. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    For your reading pleasure Trump now down an unprecedented 11.6 average from all polls according to RCP. Obama was up 20 at the same time. Historic lows.
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
    Fish will write Still President Paul..ho hum
    Bessee is too busy fighting it out with his neighbors to comment

    Like

  11. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    …and Hillary is still not POTUS. Works for me.

    Like

  12. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    Trump derangement syndrome strikes again!
    ‘In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if the Republican president does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU.’
    Ohio? Yeah, you go, Jean-Claude! How about California? Please?
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/785813/European-Union-EU-boss-threatens-break-up-US-retaliation-Trump-Brexit-support

    Like

  13. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 30 March 2017 at 10:43 AM
    For your reading pleasure Trump now down an unprecedented 11.6 average from all polls according to RCP. Obama was up 20 at the same time. Historic lows.
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
    Fish will write Still President Paul..ho hum
    Bessee is too busy fighting it out with his neighbors to comment

    Paul will post popularity contest numbers generated by talking to various representatives of a nation of fools and then act surprised that nobody here really cares.
    …..ho hum indeed.

    Like

  14. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    I got turned on to a very cutting German comedy, shocking really, titled (in English), “Look Who’s Back” (Er Ist Weider Da) 2015
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4176826/
    In German, English subtitles.
    Is on Netflix, about two hours long. A brilliant mix of “Jay Walking” out among people on outings (folks taking Selfies with Hitler with the Brandenburg Gate as the backdrop) and more traditional moviemaking. Not everyone gave them releases to use them in the video, lots of those blacked out rectangles obscuring eyes of the sort Candid Camera used to use to protect them from lawsuits.
    Hitler magically reappears very near where he checked out in ’45, and soon becomes a reality TV comedy star saying the same sorts of things he said in the 30’s. Seriously, not tongue in cheek.
    There is also a great parody scene of the of Hitler Bunker rant from Downfall… only rather than Hitler speaking and the Downfall video (which has spawned perhaps hundreds of variants on a wide range of topics), it’s newly staged with the realty TV producer going off on his subordinates who had let him down.
    Hint for Greens… Adolf quickly focuses on Green Party activists as the only ones who show promise in helping him to bring in the Fourth Reich, and his ratings plunge come not from his anti small d democratic philosophy but from his, umm, politically incorrect correction to a small dog that bit him after being provoked after the video of the deed was broadcast The Dog Whisperer would not approve.

    Like

  15. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall
  16. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Stop everything! Video has been found of President Obama actually wiretapping Trump tower!
    Ooops, never mind. It was a clip of actor Greg Morris in a Mission Impossible episode. Sorry.
    In 2018, I expect the unwashed masses will accept a wiretapping allegation of wiretapping if there were transcripts illegally floating around… just remember this laugh line in The Aviator:
    Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale): You listened to my phone calls?
    Howard Hughes (DiCaprio): No! No! No! Honey I would never do that! I’d never do that! I… I just read the transcripts, that’s all.
    Distinctions without differences will be ignored by swing voters.

    Like

  17. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Gregory | 30 March 2017 at 01:43 PM
    Stop everything! Video has been found of President Obama actually wiretapping Trump tower!
    Ooops, never mind. It was a clip of actor Greg Morris in a Mission Impossible episode. Sorry.

    That was Tozer like…..! Nicely done!

    Like

  18. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    This Trump, he’s got the finesse of a bouncer in a biker bar. Today he tweets
    โ€œThe Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they donโ€™t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!โ€ Trump wrote.
    Rep. Thomas Massie hits President Trump with facts after his accusatory tweet about the House Freedom Caucus
    Shortly after Trumpโ€™s tweet, Amash responded to the president.
    โ€œI ran on a set of principles, and it doesnโ€™t really matter which party is in charge or who the president is; Iโ€™m going to stick by my principles,โ€ Amash said.
    โ€œIt didnโ€™t take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishmentโ€ Amash wrote on Twitter.
    http://rare.us/rare-news/across-the-u-s-a/president-trump-identifies-his-new-republican-targets-in-his-latest-tweet/

    Like

  19. fish Avatar
    fish

    You practically taste the schadenfreude!

    Nuke โ€˜Em โ€˜Til They Glow


    “The Democrats must learn through pain, specifically the agony of watching Neil Gorsuch take the seat that they stompy-feet insist belongs to Merrick Garland. For too long, theyโ€™ve packed the bench with liberal partisans committed to exercising raw power as an end-run around democracy and the Constitution. Well, if raw power is the rule, then they need to choke on it. And we should laugh at their pain even as we amplify it via the Nuclear Option.
    Thank you, Harry Reid! You’ll never know how much we appreciate you taking time away from your bizarre relationship with your NordicTrack dominatrix to instigate the glorious Reid Rule and thereby surrender the one tool Chuck Schumer and his band of merry losers had to derail the oncoming train that is a yugely conservative SCOTUS. Oh Harry, your corruption and general unpleasantness make it so much sweeter knowing that you will only be remembered, if at all, for allowing Republicans to repopulate the Supreme Court with right-wing justices. Thanks to you, the liberals have squandered their best chance to fundamentally transform America from a constitutional republic into a huggy, libfascist dictatorship.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/03/30/nuke-em-til-they-glow-n2305926

    Like

  20. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Schadenfreude Gรถtterfunken,
    Tochter aus Elysium,
    wir betreten feuertrunken,
    Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
    Deine Zauber binden wieder,
    was die Mode streng geteilt,
    alle Menschen werden Brรผder,
    wo dein sanfter Flรผgel weilt.
    (with apologies to all)

    Like

  21. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Could an aggrieved party explain why McConnell and the rest of the forces of evil in the Senate treated Garland horribly and not Obama and friends who, in the face of a GOP Senate who had already advised them that, following past Democratic, GOP and Whig Senate precedent going back to the 1840’s, no action would be taken until the people have spoken in November?
    Obama and Senate DEMs tried to force the issue. Good plan, didn’t work. Rank and file DEMs, complain to your party elders who were lying to you.

    Like

  22. ScenesFromTheApocalypse Avatar
    ScenesFromTheApocalypse

    re: Gregory @ 1:43PM
    What comes to my mind is that scene from Day of the Jackal.
    There is one thing.
    How did you know whose telephone to tap?
    I didn’t,
    so I tapped all of them.

    Like

  23. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Gregory | 30 March 2017 at 02:44 PM
    Well Google can translate that (I can’t attest to its accuracy however) but Google can’t seem to narrow down the reference.
    Help a brother out Greg!

    Like

  24. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So it begins. Flynn willing to testify in exchange for immunity. Where have we heard this before?
    From Fox News
    “WASHINGTON โ€“ Mike Flynn, President Donald Trumpโ€™s former national security adviser, has told the Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional officials investigating the Trump campaignโ€™s potential ties to Russia that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.
    As an adviser to Mr. Trumpโ€™s presidential campaign, and later one of Mr. Trumpโ€™s top aides in the White House, Mr. Flynn was privy to some of the most sensitive foreign-policy deliberations of the new administration and was directly involved in discussions about the possible lifting of sanctions on Russia imposed by the Obama administration.
    He has made the offer to the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence committees though his lawyer but has so far found no takers, the officials said.
    http://www.wgmd.com/flynn-offers-to-testify-in-trump-russia-probe-in-exchange-for-immunity/

    Like

  25. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    In case anyone forgot
    October 19, 1973: Dean Pleads Guilty, Accepts Subsequent Immunity in Exchange for Testimony’

    Like

  26. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    ghoti, It’s eye-dentical to the following, with the exception of the first two words,”Freude, schoene” changed to “Schadenfreude”. Fits perfectly.
    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Ode_to_Joy

    Like

  27. ScenesFromTheApocalypse Avatar
    ScenesFromTheApocalypse

    re: Fish @ 3:16
    It’s a kind of Schiller joke I think, I’m not certain.
    Like another German historian said:
    “One day the last portrait of Rembrandt and the last bar of Mozart will have ceased to be โ€” though possibly a colored canvas and a sheet of notes will remain โ€” because the last eye and the last ear accessible to their message will have gone.”

    Like

  28. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    “The resulting comment streams are difficult to parse for those readers who don’t give a crap about the kindergarten tit-for-tat antics…” GR di capo
    George, while I missed the latest round, I’ve noticed in the past you were much more attuned to the actual aggressors, not to mention quick to take action, in comment streams when you were the target.

    Like

  29. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Aha! A pair of handcuffs is a good way to drain the Swamp. One down, hundreds to go.
    http://linkis.com/freebeacon.com/natio/IeHxK

    Like

  30. George Rebane Avatar

    Scenes 443pm – that will happen when a giant asteroid strikes the earth or when the sun expands beyond the orbit of Venus. Until then we can rest easy.

    Like

  31. George Rebane Avatar

    Gregory 535pm – Yeah Greg, fancy that, being more attuned to attacks against yourself than those directed at others. Are you among the survivors of the clan that still thinks I am trying to run a ‘fair and balanced’ forum here? As Saint Kenneth of Arrow informed us from the mountain, my ‘fair’ ain’t necessarily your ‘fair’, and most certainly not the other guy’s ‘fair’.

    Like

  32. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    George
    Looks like Watergate but moving much faster. The first to flop usually gets to walk. Flynn owes Trump nothing since Trump threw him under the bus. John Dean will likely make a round on the yap shows by tomorrow on the joys of immunity.

    Like

  33. George Rebane Avatar

    PaulE 558pm – Paul, lay out for us a likely Flynn testimony and what kind of subsequent legal melee it will launch.

    Like

  34. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    So after a long day toiling in the vast right wing conspiracy I sit to catch up on my news feeds and what gems awaited.
    We now know that Nunes was shown docs found in the NSC and the White House Counsels office closed systems. None about Russia. So 0 had all the unmasked data and those offices may be the source of the FISA warrant.
    Madam liar liar pant suits on fire and 6 of her staff improperly kept the highest security clearances long after she was a candidate and the FBI said she had been reckless in her handling of secrets.
    So the new 0gate question of the day is did team 0 share unmasked surveillance during the election with the pantsuits gang of 7? 0gate, I like the ring of that. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Like

  35. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    “Are you among the survivors of the clan that still thinks I am trying to run a ‘fair and balanced’ forum here?”
    Not at all George, but there’s that other adage… people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at other Kindergartens.

    Like

  36. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Who knows George. Why do you thine he’s willing to talk under conditions of immunity? He must think he’s vulnerable about something. Innocent people don’t ask for immunity as a rule. He probably thinks someone is ready to flop on the whole deal and he wants to get out of the way. the FBI has no love for Trump. Look what they did to Nixon with Deep Throat. The whole scene has more leaks than my roof this winter. Could be his relationship with Manifort or that he was instructed by Trump to swing a deal for reduced sancti0ons.
    I’m interested in your ideas.

    Like

  37. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    What po’ ol’ PE @558 fails to recognize is that Flynn may have already seen the unmasked materials that Nunes just saw. He would require transactional immunity to talk about what he knows about the felonious unmasking of his and others names. 0gate! What fun! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Like

  38. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Why would he need immunity to testify on that Don?

    Like

  39. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Actually didn’t totally work for John Dean though who plead guilty for obstruction of justice, Did four months I believe.

    Like

  40. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Read, think, comprehend ya po’ ol’ pollhead. Its a 10 year felony to talk about unmasked FISA material. That’s why Nunes had to go to the old executive office building to view it in the secure room. President O , do you affirm your testimony will be the……. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Like

  41. George Rebane Avatar

    Gregory 265pm – to each man his own adage(s). Take your best shots.

    Like

  42. Walt Avatar

    Hay Paul.. how many of “O”‘s minions took the 5TH? An admission of guilt if there ever was one.
    Nevermind the fact that plenty of Obamabots were and still are acting as subversives.
    Which you should know is illegal and violations of the Hatch Act. Not that you would care about that.

    Like

  43. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    I’m more into whats happening now Walt. Don’t know much about what you’re talking about. Didn’t vote for Obama second time around.
    Don, you actually may be right about your scenario (6:33) but I doubt it . We’ll see. The buckets got a hole in it and the rats are looking for dry land.

    Like

  44. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    I believe the real rats got 0 to convert them from appointees to GS status. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Like

  45. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 30 March 2017 at 07:33 PM
    I’m more into whats happening now Walt.

    Which is why you’re dropping all the Watergate references….

    Like