5 Thoughts for August 9, 2015

1. Donald Trump has truly gotten under the skin of the professional commentariat and establishment. Following the first debate, they're disparaging his performance and what he said. On top of that, Erick Erickson disinvited Trump from his Red State confab by digging deep into his drawer of hypocrisy; no wonder he's facing a massive backlash by people who don't even like Trump. Fireworks in August -- who knew such a thing was possible? A fascinating political season, like no other in recent memory.
2. Speaking of Trump, an early poll (Friday - Saturday period) released by NBC / SurveyMonkey (online) showed that Trump had gained a point from last week. Flaws aside, the poll asked people if they'd vote for an independent Donald Trump, and 54% said they would -- this reflects my belief that the GOP are taking the wrong tack, only hurting themselves.
3. I admire Alan Dershowitz, but I have to wonder about his logic. In arguing against the Iran deal, he proposes that the deal relies on "bets", "rolls of the dice" and "faith", but then describes the only alternative aside from the deal: Use of force. It should be obvious that use of force also relies of bets, rolls of the dice and faith -- that Iran responds appropriately. To Dershowitz, Iran should appropriately respond to use of force by stopping nuclear development. And yet, the last time they were bombed, they did not stop -- which is why we're right here. By citing Tom Friedman he doesn't help his case; Friedman's idea of "improving" the deal by having Congress authorize the President to use force as a fall back support, is ludicrous -- rather than supporting the President, it signals to Iran that Congress intends to move one step closer to using force, rather than Iran's one step back from developing nuclear weapons. This is one of those times that I think Dershowitz ought to consider what he told Slate in 2010: "Oh, yeah. I think that lawyers are terrible at admitting that they're wrong. And not just admitting it; also realizing it."
4. After much experimentation, I've finally figured out what separates biscuits and scones from muffins: Baking Powder. No other ingredient mattered like changing the ratio of baking powder -- absent baking powder the outcome is biscuit and scone-like; the higher amount of baking powder the more cake-like your outcome is. Now, one could simply read about it to understand what baking powder is used for, but actually doing the experiment yourself helps you digest -- heh -- the ratios of different ingredients in any recipe made from scratch.
5. Not a week after Hurricane Guillermo was closely watched as it approached Hawaii, there is Hurricane Gilda in the offing. In 24 hours it jumped from category 1 to 4, but came down a bit, to cat 3 by Sunday morning. In this same period there have been two brush fires (one on O'ahu and one on Big Island), too. Rough summer.