Home » Open thread 8/3/24

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Open thread 8/3/24 — 96 Comments

  1. This happened 41 years ago today (i.e 8-3-83)

    We only lived together for a few weeks when we decided to get married. We got married in the middle of summer, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day. I wore a suit to work and while walking over to see Flying By, I was stopped by someone I knew who asked “Wearing a suit huh. Got a job interview?”
    “No.” I replied “I’m getting married at lunch.”

  2. Wonderful chase eagles

    Since so much of the earth surface is water there should be more blue

  3. Mike Benz points out that the issue of SS complicity in the Trump assassination in Butler, PA is easily resolved.

    A whistleblower has come forward to say that they were given “stand down” orders then, from the top.

    Now, says Benz, we need to examine the whistleblower’s communications that day and identify who they are. Let the prosecution of evil within the SS begin there

    Two minutes https://rumble.com/v59j8d0-secret-service-whistleblower-says-they-were-ordered-to-stand-down.html

  4. That was really interesting, Mike Plaiss. For those who can’t read the WSJ, it’s about a top skeet shooter for the USA who originally was training to be a professional ballerina. One point she makes about the two endeavors is that when she was dancing, she felt judges were always judging not only her dance but her appearance and choice of music. Skeet shooting, she says, is as objective as it comes. You either hit the target or you don’t.

  5. (Note: Several WSJ articles coming up—if they won’t open in your usual browser then try the Epic browser)

    Hard to believe that the actual Presidential Race hasn’t even started yet. The REPs already have their All-White Male ticket set, but the DEMs convention hasn’t happened yet, and Harris still needs to name her VP—rumored to be Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Kamala Harris looks set—unless something unexpected happens during the convention.

    I voted for Trump twice, even though thinking he was a terrible leader after his first term. Was probably going to ‘Hold my Nose’ and vote for him a third time—until he selected JD Vance as his VP. BTW, am a No Party Affiliation (NPA) voter in Florida.

    I understand Vance’s concept of not sending US taxpayers money to other countries, but don’t care for the hypocrisy involved in still wanting to send money to other countries—like to Israel and the Palestinians West Bank & Gaza. For me to accept Vance’s concept, then *ALL* money being sent to foreign countries needs to be stopped. Also, no more funding the UN – let it be moved to China, Russia, Iran or some other country, but get it out of the US. Should probably also quit NATO.

    Since Trump/Vance are not going to be ‘Fair and Balanced’ in the way they spend taxpayers money – I don’t trust them to continue helping Ukraine in their war against Russia, and will skip the President vote – and use down-ballot voting from there.

    DEMs and their puppets in MSM have tossed their full force behind Kamala Harris – quickly pivoting, seemingly not losing a step but gaining steps in the process, and have literally placed her in the league of JFK’s infamous ‘Camelot’ – an impossible task just a couple of months ago.

    It’s not only the DEMs puppets in MSM who moved quickly to promote Harris as our next President, powerful groups of women had been waiting for years to throw their force behind a Woman candidate for President.

    American Women Are Unapologetically Wielding Political Power

    It isn’t just Kamala Harris. Nikki Haley, Nancy Pelosi and female voters are all exhibiting outsize influence in 2024.

    Democrats Bet America Is Ready to Elect a Black Woman President

    Gender and race move to the center of the campaign with Kamala Harris expected to lead the party’s ticket

    Hundreds of Thousands of Demonstrators Attend Women’s March on Washington

    Marchers push a litany of progressive causes, while White House disputes D.C. participant numbers – January 21, 2017

    Both sides are in ‘Super Shrill’ mode right now – so ‘Fair and Balanced’ was tossed out the window…tossed out the window a long time ago. That makes it a tad difficult to get a true picture of what is going on.
    Trump might have lost a step or two in the sudden switch from Biden to Harris – unusual for him, IMHO.

    Harris is a ‘Stack’ of major mistakes waiting to happen—can DEMs and their MSM puppets, and these powerful American Women groups keep Kamala Harris on course long enough to get her across the finish-line first?

  6. Chases Eagles:

    Lovely story and happy life!

    But tell me, were you and your beloved going for the 8383 (08-03-83)? 🙂

  7. We became energy independent under trump we began to repatriate industry we had no new wars putin stayed in his lane we build up the border wall no thanks to the gope

    You wonder why some times look you with a gimlet eye well garbage like that

  8. Re: React videos

    I believe the react video is a new artform born of internet video technology. So, as new art movements usually go, we are now in a golden age.

    Get it while you can!

  9. From William Jacobson at LegalInsurrection
    Don’t Fall For ‘Operation Demoralize’

    Have you ever heard of Operation Demoralize? If you have been a reader here for a while, you may know what I’m talking about.

    It happens every election cycle, particularly presidential elections. I’ve written about it since 2011, we even have a tag for it, named, you guessed it, Operation Demoralize. The phenomenon describes how a swarming hostile dishonest media is able to create a narrative of doom for Republicans, that all hope is lost, to demoralize Republicans into giving up weeks and months before an election.

    Don’t fall for it.

    What is the antidote for Operation Demoralize?
    It’s working harder, unemotionally analyzing what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong, correcting course where needed, but not throwing up your hands and commencing a circular firing squad.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/08/dont-fall-for-operation-demoralize-2/

  10. So my latest react video fave is … Virgin Rock. She’s a classical harpist, pianist, music teacher, who is turning her ear and skills to rock music.
    _____________________________________________

    I love challenges. It’s always good to step out of the comfort zone, and this channel documents one such journey. Rock music is not young and new anymore, so we can say it is enduring the test of time. If it has any significant value it deserves more than mere casual listening. Often, what is not instantly relatable holds the deepest meaning and value, so I decided to put time and effort into looking deeply to see what Rock offers us. I’m making this journey public and hope you enjoy it and are inspired to take a new challenge, too!
    _____________________________________________

    So I’m immediately on her side as a once-young kid defending Rock before my dismissive elders. The best Rock has indeed passed the test of time.

    Virgin Rock brings her full armamentarium as a classical musician to bear upon Rock and merging it with the lyrics. I’ve never seen it done so well.

    I’ve read the best poetry critics who can take the reader on a line-by-line journey through a poem, but I’ve never found that scrutiny applied to rock songs with such love and honesty.

  11. The only shrill harpie was rachel scott and well the myna birds on cnn and msnbc now you want the truth or ‘you can’t handle the truth’

  12. Here’s VIrgin Rock, encountering Janis Joplin. I suddenly realize I may have been hearing this song wrong since 1970.

    Janis is not telling off her bad boy lover. She is speaking tenderly as a middle-aged mother to her 20ish child who has hit a bad patch. She’s telling the kid that she can’t rescue him/her.

    The singer admits she is no wiser now than when she was as a young mother. Then she blazes forth:
    __________________________________

    Don’t expect any answers, dear,
    For I know that they don’t come with age, no, no.
    Well, ain’t never gonna love you any better, babe.
    And I’m never gonna love you right,
    So you’d better take it now, right now.

    Oh! But it don’t make no difference, babe, hey,
    And I know that I could always try.
    There’s a fire inside everyone of us,
    You’d better need it now,
    I got to hold it, yeah,
    I better use it till the day I die.

    –Virgin Rock, “Janis Joplin, Kozmic Blues – A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADcB0w1t7L4

  13. Watching the complexity in creating the color blue in creatures just reinforces the notion there was a Designer.
    I noticed that the narrator credits the process of evolution to some intelligence in the process itself. “It was much easier for evolution to change their bodies ever so slightly at the microscopic level and create blues using physics. They solved a biology problem using engineering…”

  14. Did DEMs just trick Trump into letting Kamala escape from debating him?

    Looks like now it’s a ‘He’s backing out’ vs ‘She’s backing out’ situation—at this point anyway.

    Surely Kamala ‘n her handlers don’t want her on TV in a debate with Trump…

    Trump: Harris Debate Sept. 4 or Never

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wants to debate Kamala Harris, but this time “with a full arena audience,” and he now suggests he won’t debate the vice president if she doesn’t agree to the Fox debate he has proposed.

    “Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out” … “He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on Sept 10.”

    “The Debate was previously scheduled against Sleepy Joe Biden on ABC, but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant, and I am in litigation against ABC Network and George Slopadopoulos, thereby creating a conflict of interest,” Trump’s Truth Social post added.

    Not looking good for a debate…but I like Trump forcing the change—even if she uses it to escape debating him.

  15. why those were debates scheduled under the other candidate, you think there is some cleverness there,

  16. In my metro area, last night was just about to catch of good movie worth sharing.

    The summer Rom-com “Fly Me To The Moon.”
    (Apple Studios, so a streaming option is soon to come.)

    A hard charging Madison Avenue PR fixer gets recruited to do a makeover for NASA.

    Why? The Nixon White House is convinced that after the annus horribleness of 1968, this mission to the moon cannot fail!

    It’s a fun and smart nostalgia trip as Scarlett Johansson strives to win over Channing Tatum, playing the NASA Mission Director. His role is largely based on the life of Deke Slaton (who is worthy of a Wiki trip if you don’t recall who that was.)

    And later in the film, a certain 1967 hit bythe Bee Gees makes an appropriate aural appearance! It’s a sweet moment for fans like our host here.

    The most startling historical anachronism is the almost complete absence of cigarette smoking, especially by a large group of deadline driven engineers slated to sowhats hever been done before.

    Ah! The Space Race climax.

    It turne out that I was correct to see by last night. Fandango tells me that it’s only playing in one screen in my metro area until next Thursday.

    So, do see it — soon or later. It’s over two hours long and deserves it.

  17. FOAF:

    I don’t recall blueberries coming up. He wasn’t big on fruit beyond raisin bread and mango lassi.

    Not me. I’ve decided to make blueberry clafoutis tonight! It’s a French crustless custard with fruit. Quite delicious and is noticeably better when served lukewarm.

    Clafoutis (claw-foo-TEE) is from Occitan, a Romance language spoken in Southern France and extending into both Spain and Italy. I hadn’t heard of it until today when I looked it up. French speakers can’t understand Occitan well. Most Occitan speakers are bilingual in both languages.

    Here’s the recipe I use with a little less sugar and a little more vanilla.

    https://www.food.com/recipe/julia-childs-cherry-clafoutis-239454

  18. Who is Kamala Harris? That is the question.

    Kameleon Kamala might be a better nickname. Glen Greenwald talks with Lee Fang who has looked into the California political culture that spawned her career and what, if any, are her core beliefs. Corporatism seems to be the answer. She may not be as leftist as she’s being painted.

    Kamala’s Revealing Corporate Ties, Personnel Choices, and Prosecutor Past with Journalist Lee Fang
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v039fj46i7U

    This re-alignment of the Republican party capitalizing on the traditional family as the lynchpin to our society, protecting and building the success of the working class/middle class with a strong dose of sovereignty is the key to success going forward.

  19. @huxley, that sounds tasty. My interest is piqued, particularly since they just happened to have blueberries on sale here today and I got 2 pints. That was before reading about your clafoutis. I had supposed that I’d probably use them in yogurt and fruit salad and stuff, but now you have me pondering this alternative. Well, I guess I’ll have to mark it for after the Fast. (Is it just a straight substitution against the cherries?)

    Putting this here so as to avoid hijacking the Shapiro thread…
    @Richard F Cook, hello! Interesting about the Bulgarian Diocese. I was puzzled why not part of the OCA, but at the same time, it’s neat to see that you have three parishes in MI there, including one tucked away over by Benton Harbor.

  20. Re: Clafoutis — blueberry substitution

    Philip Sells:

    I’ve been doing a straight substitution of blueberries for cherries.

    However, consulting my dead tree copy of Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume One” in the section on “Fruit Flans” I see that she recommends for Claufouti aux Myrtilles:
    ____________________________________

    Substitute [blueberries] for cherries and, because, berries are very juicy, increase the flour for your batter from 2/3 to 1 1/4 cups.
    ____________________________________

    I see that in the web version it recommends 1/2 cup flour.

    Hmm… Frankly I like it eggier than cakey. Also, since I’m kind of paleo, I use 1 cup of heavy cream rather than 1 1/4 cups milk, so I don’t need so much flour to soak up the liquid.

    Also I multiple by 2/3 for a 2 egg version of the recipe and then bake it in a 9″ cast iron skillet, where it all fits beautifully.

    I’m not that much of a cook, but even I can improvise successfully.

  21. Re: “Fly Me to the Moon”

    T J:

    Thanks. Will see it when it comes to a streaming service nearby!

    I love to hear passionate reviews about what people like or love.

  22. Let’s talk some more about peace — meanwhile…

    ISW August 3, 2024

    The Kremlin reportedly planned to transfer unspecified missiles and other military equipment to the Houthis in Yemen but did not transfer the materiel following diplomatic pressure. Russia’s reported plan highlights its growing military partnership with Iran and suggests that Russia likely aims to leverage Iranian proxies to indirectly confront the West and shape Western decision making.

  23. You haven’t lived (some exxaggeration) until you’ve had blue/purple mashed potatoes. The little purple potatoes are available, and after six minutes in the InstaPot it’s mashing time!

    The wife says, “The’re all yours, I’ll pass.”

    They should be marginally more nutricious, bioflavinoids?

  24. Ina recent interview Elon Musk was asked if the “American Empire” would last.

    Musk pointed out that civilizations on Earth go through a life cycle–they rise, flourish for a time, and, then, they fall.

    Asked what the greatest threat to our “Empire” was, he said that, presuming that we don’t destroy ourselves in a nuclear war, the greatest threat to us–and to all current nations/civilizations–was that of declining populations.

    (So, for instance, from what I have read, it is already too late for China, Japan, South Korea, or Russia to reverse their demographic death spirals, which will, in the next few decades–one by one–take them off the world stage as major players.)

  25. OMG. The US, UK and Russia are telling their citizens in Lebanon to Get The Puck Out:
    ___________________________________

    …”immediately” and buy “any available ticket” to escape while they can.

    Clearly, intel has been received indicating that something horrific is about to happen.

    https://instapundit.com/664903/
    ___________________________________

    Will 2024 ever be over?

  26. Fun French culinary adventures, huxley! And thank you for your shoutout.

    Here’s the short trailer for “Fly Me To The Moon.” https://vimeo.com/932064545

    The unstated plot premise is that President Nixon was a control freak. But was he an effective one? The later Watergate saga tells us that this conceit is exaggerated. Yet it lives on.

    But I say…go with it! And you’ll have a good time.

  27. Earlier today, Hezbollah struck Galilee. Israel responded in kind.

    The advice to leave Lebanon now includes all foreign nationals.

    The Israeli cabinet has the IDF girding for all-out war, and possibly war with new combatant nations.

    Here is a resource rich roundup of events today and the situation now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg1IK1yMjQQ

  28. Just saw a very recent Youtube short (frustratingly, I can’t find it again) of Tommy Robinson–right over the target, and carpet bombing the current UK government with a whole lotta truth bombs about the causes of the current riots, and he’s dead on.

    No wonder the government wants to jail him, and shut him down.

    He’s right, this entire situation in the UK is the fault of the government, brought about entirely by it’s immigration policies, and how it is managing police forces, their application, and the application of the law.

    I fear, though, that developments in the UK have just gone too far for the native British to be able to regain their country.

  29. Open Thread Sunday – Defense weapons stuff:

    The Race for Next Generation Submarines – Ageing Fleets, Innovation, & Undersea Dominance – Perun

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPd_AL004mE

    00:00:00 — Opening Words
    00:00:42 — What Am I Talking About?
    00:03:05 — The Push For A New Generation
    00:07:43 — Next Generation Technologies
    00:18:34 — The US Submarine Fleet
    00:35:22 — The Russian Federation
    00:55:14 — Japan
    01:03:53 — Risk & Drawbacks
    01:06:01 — Channel Update

  30. Whilst Trump & Vance are looking for ways to help Russia defeat Ukraine – Russia is looking for ways to help Iran defeat Israel. Had posted another link on this yesterday, but more is starting to come out on it.

    “Unusual Stop” By Moscow’s Ships In Red Sea Raises Eyebrows, Russian Military “Advising” Houthis?:

    Russian military intelligence operatives have been advising Iran-backed Houthis inside Yemen, as per a Middle East Eye report. The report citing a US official said that Russia’s GRU officers have been operating in Yemen for “several months.”

    They have been assisting the Houthis in their targeting of Red Sea shipping, which the armed group says is in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The sensitive deployment comes as Russia has been eyeing ways to step up its support for the Houthis, the MEE report adds.

    CNN has also also reported on this Russian ships activity in the Red Sea – Russia pulled back weapons shipment to Houthis amid US and Saudi pressure:

    Russia was preparing to deliver missiles and other military equipment to the Houthi rebels in Yemen late last month … The Saudis, who were locked in a brutal war with the Houthis for years before the US helped to negotiate a fragile truce in 2022, warned Russia against arming one of their biggest adversaries upon learning of the plans

  31. RE: Mass immigration, diversity, and the growing Riots in the UK.

    Here is an extremely well-argued and documented presentation about the evidence for diversity leading not to an increase in strength and social cohesion, but to it’s breakdown and to weakness.*

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86LAcXm5V-U

  32. T J:

    I can’t find much in our news on the latest with Israel and Hezbollah/Lebanon with Iran pulling the strings.

    I am encouraged that Prezzy-C’mon-Man Joe Biden is on the case:
    _________________________________

    As Iran continues to threaten a retaliatory strike against Israel, the US president was asked if he thought there was a chance they would stand down.

    Mr Biden said in response: “I hope so. I don’t know.”

    https://news.sky.com/story/president-biden-hopes-iran-backs-down-from-conflict-with-israel-after-hezbollah-fires-barrage-of-rockets-from-lebanon-13190440
    _________________________________

    Just wait until he issues a Statement of Strong Concern!

  33. that was pretty brutal round robin from beirut to gaza to iran, this months, even doing us a favor with fuad shakr, as they did with mugniyeh and mahreddine, (checks notes)

    the top floor of hezbollah has a lot of turnover, although they have passed the buck with operative or irgc official was responsible for the Beirut bombings,

  34. Seriously, though, this is one of the ways the world ends.

    Iran strikes Israel. Israel strikes back and attempts to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities as it has wanted to do for decades. Iran’s allies, Russia and/or China strike Israel. Etc.

    Soon it goes nuclear. Once that starts, it doesn’t stop until the nukes are exhausted. That’s the way the majority of simulations go.

    Bummer.

  35. Can’t see either Russia or China with sufficient interest to cause any strike on Israel. Russia, indeed, has far too much to lose within Israel’s direct reach. Wouldn’t be good for them.

  36. huxley, that could be. We hope not. If Iran tells Hezbollah to unleash all its missiles, overwhelming Israel’s Iron Dome, it would well end up that way.

  37. I think Vance’s use of childless cat lady as a metaphor for the kind of nihilism of a society that has rejected it’s most basic understanding of where happiness, love and meaning are found and leads to bizarre and destructive outcomes is being attacked because when examined it exposes the utter emptiness of going down that road and masks the false virtue where saving gaia by not bearing children is really just selfish narcissism.

    “Childless cat woman” is an insult, but it was used as just a place holder for the larger issue of where the family and children fit into the left’s vision of going “forward”.

    Since insults are now off limits post assassination attempt, “childless cat lady” is officially verboten, which isn’t a problem, since the speech Vance made that used such “demeaning” language happened several years ago.\

    Events have also put Trump as Hitler off limits– at least in the short run, the Dems are trying out alternative insults. They’re starting small. It doesn’t have the same cache as “existential threat to democracy” or “Hitler”, so it’s probably only being used as the media/Dem programmers cast Kamala as the “girl next door.”

  38. of course Russell moore has long since shown he might as well be druid,

  39. According to the Christianity Today story (and I’ve read this elsewhere), Harris has a longstanding black Baptist pastor in SF. Her Christianity appears to be political rather than theologically solid, as far as I can see. Her Jamaican father was baptized and raised Anglican in Jamaica; whether Kamala would then have been raised in a black Baptist church in San Francisco sounds unlikely. And of course, living with her mother, she observed Hindu traditions.

    https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/august/kamala-harris-democrats-president-black-church.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=article

    Sad to see Christianity Today fail to look at this honestly.

  40. “Childless cat woman” reminds me of Farley Mowat’s book, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. Farley had a dog named Mutt during his childhood. According to the book- fact or fiction?- Mutt could climb ladders. Farley had a “childless cat woman” neighbor who had an estimated 4-5 dozen cats. During the night, the cat lady let her cats out on a flat roof, to get some exercise. She didn’t dare let her cats loose in the neighborhood. Farley and his friends put a ladder against the cat lady’s flat roof, enabling Mutt to climb on the roof. In the mayhem that ensued, all the cats fled the roof and inundated the neighborhood. In a matter of days, the neighborhood dogs killed off the cat lady’s cats. The cat lady called the police about the intruder on the roof, but the police found out nothing. Neighbors knew nothing. Several days later, a neighbor gave Farley a good quality hunting rifle, knowing that Farley and his father hunted.

  41. I’m reading various X feeds (Kurt Schlicter, Visegrád 24) about the riots all over England today. PM Starmer says that all mosques will receive government protection. Synagogues and churches will not. Some English protesters have been photographed being beaten in the streets; at least one immigrant-filled hotel has been burned.

  42. Karmi @2:13

    Looks like Byron Donalds is the real deal. Definitely has a future in the America First party.

    Trump is correct to call ABC fake news. Stephanopoulos is just a Dem hack masquerading as a talking head.

  43. no they are on a central server, she can’t be this stupid its not possible,

  44. An event that may take over the election— recession!

    All-in Podcast talks about recession fears beginning at 33:09. Sacks points out that government spending is now 6% of GDP. Even with that GDP growth is only 2% in 2024. Were the government to balance the budget we would have a -4% GDP growth.

    Inflation is still at 2.9% and purchasing power decline is higher than that. The market (which is at this point totally disconnected from the economy) is very volitile hoping for a .5% interest rate decline in September– which would run counter to the feds mandate to control inflation.

    Friedberg points out that 30% of employment is now from direct government or indirect government payments through third party. The proposed 2025 budget of $7.3 trillion is about 30% of the US GDP.

    The government has been lying about the health of the economy for some time– where initial reports from the government whether about jobs or economic growth will show a rosy picture and then sometime later be revised down.

    It’s likely the fed will prop up the economy with a large interest rate reduction in September which could affect the election in Harris’ favor or follow their mandate to keep inflation at 2% or below.

    I’m not sure the economy can be fixed in the short term, but Trump’s proposals to massively increase energy production coupled with targeted tariffs to increase job growth immediately can possibly stave off what could be a massive economic event. That event would cause a massive loss of phantom wealth and some very tough times globally.

    Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj71DPhvpiE

  45. Another effect of a massive stimulus of energy production, which is Trump’s #1 priority, will have positive foreign policy effects. Lowering energy costs here will also affect Russia and Iran oil profits, which will reduce their ability to create chaos in their areas of influence.

  46. Re: Kamala / Cloud

    For funsies I’m reminded of this quote:
    ________________________________

    We seek him here, we seek him there,
    Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
    Is he in heaven? — Is he in hell?
    That damned, elusive Pimpernel

    –Baroness Orczy, “The Scarlet Pimpernel”
    ________________________________

    Kamala seeks her data everywhere!

    Damned elusive.

  47. It appears that Israel is not only preparing to take ground in southern Lebanon (there’s a high likelihood of this occuring soon, I believe), but is also considering preemptive measures against Iran itself, should clear indications of imminent attack arise. This seems to me a change in stance on Israel’s part, so must be viewed with some skepticism until more evidence should emerge. Still, I think it’s worth noting as something to mull over.

  48. Perhaps I give Harris too much credit, but she did pass the bar exam, albeit on the second try, and her parents were both quite bright.

    So I don’t think she’s stupid qua stupid.

    However, I do think she is lazy and incurious. She has skated by on her looks, black identity, connections and a certain moral flexibility.

    Clearly a person can go a long way in 21C America on that basis.

  49. In Kamala’s defense, I never liked calling data and software residing on servers accessible via the Internet backbone “The Cloud.” Nor did I understand the structuring of the message as if it was something new, or different.

    When it started reaching the public as the latest, hot IT trend and people would ask me what it was I would reply, “It’s the Internet.*” They’d look at me confusedly, thinking maybe I didn’t understand the question, then I’d explain, “Look, a company that sells merchandise through Amazon keeps data about their product; pricing, available colors, sizes, etc. on Amazon’s servers and you can access that information via your Internet Service Provider. This is the same thing, but it will be your personal data on Amazon’s servers. And even that’s not new because there had been distributed computing and data access in IT since the 1960s**.” And then they’d still look at me confusedly and insist I must not have heard of “The Cloud” or understand their question because it’s “THE CLOUD!!!” and all the media outlets and software companies were super excited about it because it’s an entirely new thing.

    *I intentionally used that term because I knew whatever understanding they had of how they did, whatever it was they did on the Internet, at least they understood that concept.
    **It goes back to the Mainframe TSO days; where many dumb terminals were connected to a single computer that ran the programs and stored the data. THE CLOUD!!! just makes your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop a dumb terminal.

  50. Still, I think it’s worth noting as something to mull over.

    sdferr:

    I’m mulling. I’m mulling!

    More seriously:
    _________________________________

    Israelis hunkered down Thursday night and braced for Iran’s promised retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas terror masters Fuad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh. As they did so, Channel 14 broadcast the results of a Direct Polls survey of the public’s perspective on Israel’s strategic condition and imperatives. The results were stunning.

    The poll included three questions. The first related to the public’s staying power in the current war, asking, “How long are you willing to live with the war situation?”

    Some 22% of Israelis said they have had enough and want the war to end. Another 14% said they are willing to keep the war going for a few more weeks or months. And 64% of Israelis said they would support fighting the war “for as long as it takes.”

    –Caroline Glick, “Israelis accept the breach in relations with the Biden administration”
    https://www.jns.org/israelis-accept-the-breach-in-relations-with-the-biden-administration/

    _________________________________

    Whole new ball game.

  51. huxley,

    I’d bet money Kamala does below the top quintile on standardized tests like the LSATs, ACTs and SATs. Wouldn’t be surprised if she performs below the top two. Not, necessarily an indication of a lack of intelligence. I know some intelligent people who underperform on standardized tests.

    But with her parents’ academic pedigrees it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have pushed her to go somewhere other than Howard or UC Hastings Law if she had the test scores.

  52. Days ago, Brian E noted (and he was the only one to seem to comment on the video at top):

    I noticed that the narrator credits the process of evolution to some intelligence in the process itself. “It was much easier for evolution to change their bodies ever so slightly at the microscopic level and create blues using physics. They solved a biology problem using engineering…”

    That is true. The question of why such fine structure is needed at all, what the selection pressure would have been, didn’t get a word there. Why was the supposed lack of blue a problem at all? All the other non-blue life forms seemed to do okay without it, after all.
    Furthermore… hmm… no discussion of flowers?! The presenter had a whole seven minutes in which to bring it up, and nothing. 🙂

  53. But with her parents’ academic pedigrees it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have pushed her to go somewhere other than Howard or UC Hastings Law if she had the test scores.

    Rufus T. Firefly:

    That might make Harris unimpressive, but not stupid, which is the low bar I’m arguing for.

    One can be reasonably smart, but if you’re lazy in high school, you still aren’t getting into Stanford — where her father taught.

    Nonetheless, it’s not easy to pass the California Bar, even on the second try.

  54. Huxley, this either an AI spoof of Kamala or she is that stupid.

    It has to be an AI spoof generated video, because the consequences otherwise are unthinkable.

  55. huxley,

    According to this article in the Daily Mail (that I think I got from someone posting here at neo’s earlier), https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13673817/Kamala-Harris-Montreal-canada-high-school.html

    Kamala Harris was very driven in High School and spent the bulk of her free time on academics.

    ‘No boyfriends! She was a total academic,’ he said. ‘She and her sister came here to go to school.’

    Her classmates say a lot of nice things about her. Sounds like a nice, young woman.

    Looks like the CA Bar pass rate was about 50% in the mid-80s.

  56. Rufus T. Firefly:

    OK. She wasn’t as smart as her hyper-smart parents. I can imagine the pressure to live up to that — and failing — then finding solace in the black student world of Howard and UC Hastings.

    She still managed to pass the CA Bar, which gives her some credibility. I can also imagine her deciding that smartness is not her thing and finding success via other means.

    Good god! She might be President of the United States in six months.

    I’m arguing that she isn’t stupid. What are you arguing?

  57. Maybe she was high on ‘shrooms when that video was shot.

    It would explain the video and she could still be normally smart.

  58. Philip Sells, I’ve notice evolutionists endowing evolution with intelligence going back to Carl Sagan.

    In the case of the butterfly, it is incredible engineering!

  59. The great evolutionary biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, was once asked what his study of nature had revealed about God.

    Haldane is reported to have said that God has “an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

    There are over 350,000 species of beetles. 🙂

  60. That little demonstration he did with the alcohol was interesting, but I had expected he might have gone with something in vapor phase instead. It’s what I would have done, I think.

    However, checking R(i) values of typical gases shows that the effect would have been harder for viewers to see – the R(i) of air varying on the order of 0.005%, maybe, over a reasonable temperature band, would result in a very slight change indeed. But it might have been interesting to see a little bit of tuning of the blue had the presenter taken that same butterfly wing, put it in a little chamber, and fed in increasing concentrations of acetone vapor, for example. Well, interesting to chemistry nerds, maybe. (Intellectual exercise: given the delta in R(i), predict the lambda-max shift in nm!)

  61. Here is the Tommy Robinson clip I couldn’t find yesterday, as he forcefully and correctly points out that the current rioting in the UK is in reaction to government immigration policies, as the indigenous British have finally had enough.*

    (I see the “authorities” are promising to crack down on protestors–who they label as being “rightist”–but they won’t do anything to address the issue these supposed rightists are protesting about, as they announce that they are going to protect mosques, but not churches or synagogues.)

    I.E. the government facilitating the movement of hundreds of thousands of Muslims–many hostile to Western civilization and to British culture– into, and, in on the native British, and these Muslim’s escalating physical attacks on the natives, in an attempt to force the British to conform to the dictates of Islam.

    The government, meanwhile, treating these Muslim “immigrants” better–putting them up in hotels, and giving them all sorts of cash, and other benefits–than the native British.

    Moreover, ignoring, not prosecuting crimes committed by many Muslims.

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRowUp_2mYY

  62. Looks like Debby moved from Tropical Storm to a Cat 1 Hurricane just as it hit. Am about 7 miles north of Old Town, FL and this may be the wettest Storm/Hurricane I’ve been in from southern Mississippi (Camp Shelby) to Homestead in south FL. Some say it came in thru Steinhatchee (southwest of me) which I am actually closer to than Suwanee (south of me).

    Could be 24+++ hours of rain before it’s over. Fiber internet is amazing – like same steady speeds until electricity blinks and goes out briefly. Normally have my generator setup, but didn’t think it would be this rainy and windy/gusty. My house/cabin/hut is 600 sq feet under roof, main living area is 320 sq feet and finished with drywall & tile. Other 280 sq feet has a washer/dryer area and my workshop – no drywall and dirt floor with Concrete Block Solid Chkoff for wash/dry and temp wood floor in small walking area. Power goes out I shut main breaker at power pole and plug generator into the dryer outlet for almost full hut electricity. Shut the hot water off until needed, so pretty much run AC, well and lgts/recps as they are.

    Normally full daylight at this time, but pretty dark out still. May do a quick property check when winds slow down…

  63. Here’s Nigel Farage on the threat from radical Islam.*

    Unfortunately, for the UK, I think it’s just too late.

    P.S. Did you know that acid attacks–throwing acid in people’s faces–once only a delightful feature of Muslim cultures–are now so common in the UK that there are public service announcements about how to dilute the acid, acid dilution kits are reportedly sold in grocery stores, and police now routinely carry kits to wash off and to reduce the effects of such corrosive liquids, which can blind someone, and essentially “melt” their face–don’t ask me how I know.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhUM8Lw-eac

  64. huxley,

    I don’t think we are arguing. I was just helping fill in information you appeared not to have. This is speculation, but with her parents’ background and what her High School classmates said about her, it seems likely Kamala Harris would have been motivated, and pushed in an academic direction. Howard and UC Hastings are not where academically gifted students choose to go.

    If you read about a kid whose father and mother played professional soccer and his classmates say he was super focused on soccer in High School and you read he attended Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma it’s a reasonable guess he’s not a soccer standout.

    It’s also odd she doesn’t speak French. The Internet says she “knows some words” in Tamil and French. Her mother sent her to a French speaking school and she lived in Montreal for 6(?) years. Most people would pick up the local language, living that long in a foreign country. I know you can get around Montreal fine without speaking French, but why not? I know a guy who lives thousands of miles away, in New Mexico, who learned French in about a year.

  65. RE: Connect the dots.

    As I understand it,the nuclear family is the basis of all societies–and has been since time immemorial–destroy that family unit, and you weaken and finally destroy societies.

    (I note that one of the major reasons given for the high rate of black crime is the absence of two parents, and a father in the home.)

    Elon Musk says that–outside of a nuclear war–the greatest threat to our civilization and to our country is population decline.

    Women on Youtube (who may be outliers, who knows) are saying that they should be treated like “queens,” and complain that men want to take them on “cheap dates,” and not blow hundreds of dollars on a first date, or to take them to spectacular venues, or five star restaurants.

    You also see a lot of women on Youtube talking about how men are “trash.”

    Yet, on the other hand, many women are also seen on Youtube complaining about how men no longer/won’t approach them, and they decry the “men going their own way” movement.

    Reports about rising inflation point out that inflation is making it impossible for more and more young people to set out on building their own life—moving out of their parent’s home, buying a car, getting an apartment, and later a house, getting married, and having kids.

    Then, there is Miley Cyrus’ song, “Flowers,” which apparently might as well be the anthem for a lot of “modern” women.*

    Bottom line, less and less family formation, and fewer and fewer children being born.

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSC4TcLJfAg

  66. RE: Population decline

    Recognizing that they have a problem, government officials in several countries, for example, in Japan and in China, have tried all sorts of incentives–monetary, tax, and other incentives–to get people to have more children, and they haven’t worked.

    Apparently–if they don’t feel like it, if the right “atmosphere” isn’t there–you can’t just entice and/or force people to take on the whole expensive, messy, tiring, and long term project of having and raising children; a process which is apparently now being seen by some as “disruptive,” of their “lifestyle,” rather than as being a normal part of life.

  67. Rufus T. and Huxley:

    I see Kamala’s choice of Howard as indicative of extraordinary political ambition rather than severely limited options. Like Obama, Kamala had no real claim to an African American identity, either through her parents or her upbringing in tony Westmount in Montreal. As marrying Michelle Robinson gave Obama the political cover he needed, so attending Howard lent credibility to Kamala. And indeed she entered Hastings in the “Legal Education Opportunity Program” for students from “disadvantaged communities,” despite both parents having PhD.s from UC Berkeley and academic positions at top tier universities.

    I would guess Kamala targeted the Bay area for law school specifically to tie back into the radical Black power network her parents had been active in (per that Trevor Loudon video I linked to a few weeks back). We assume she didn’t have the test scores for Boalt Hall at Berkeley, but there may have specific networks active at Hastings that fed into local SF political positions that influenced her (?) choice. I know that in DC, George Washington U was at times (haven’t checked recently) the priciest college in the country, despite its mediocre rankings, because it was a feeder into DC area government and political internships, and later jobs.

    I know that there’s been some disagreement here between posters and Neo vis a vis Obama’s intelligence. And certainly the clips we’ve all seen of Kamala’s “word salads” make her look like an idiot. But perhaps she thinks it’s her audience who are the idiots.

    And sadly, she may be right….

    P.S. Vis a vis French in Montreal: Kamala grew up in the Anglo community, which until recent times took pride in refusing to speak French! Things have changed these days, with the language laws that all business communications, even in private emails, be conducted in French.

  68. well shes not wrong about her supporters,

    obama did seem to understand the bafflegab he spouted out, I guess the fact that she doesn’t even pretend to do the work, irks more, I guess if she was serious, I would be less aggravated, yet more alarmed,

  69. My impression of Kamala’s intelligence is that she’s lazy. Time and again I have seen stories about her staff giving her background material for an appearance, which she doesn’t read, and then she goes back and screams profanities at her staff for not preparing her.

  70. I don’t think anyone should underestimate her. She’s smart enough.
    The word opportunist is often used, but I think the proper description is cunning. Beneath the giddy, happy-face is a cunning opponent bordering on sociopath.
    Her laziness keeps her from achieving Obama level influence.

    The giddy, happy-face mask disarms her opponents, but behind the camera is the true Kamala shown by how she treats her staff.

    How smart does a politician need to be? Not that smart– but it does take a certain personality type that can probably be cultivated.

    Joe wasn’t that smart and it’s my understanding wasn’t all the liked during his years in the senate– but in politics, it mostly about leverage.

    Someone who knows Vance well said he will be the smartest person ever to hold the position of Vice-President.

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