"All the Best Numbers."

This is too funny.

Days until achieving MAJORITY disapproval from @Gallup

Reagan: 727
Bush I: 1336
Clinton: 573
Bush II: 1205
Obama: 936

Trump: 8. days. pic.twitter.com/kv2fy0Qsbp

— Will Jordan (@williamjordann) January 29, 2017

5 Thoughts for January 29, 2017

1. Shields at Maximum: There are dozens of large protests all around the country, two federal judges have already ruled against him, and everyone is mocking his administration's sophomoric acts of his first 10 days in office. Rather than face the media and work for the American public, The Emperor has gone into hiding in the White House and is screening, "Finding Dory". The defensive posture started on Day 1, and remains in full force. Like I said, if you want to accelerate the meltdown, keep antagonizing him by any and all means. 
2. Bannon, the News Media, and Irony: Steve Bannon is not nearly the bright strategist everyone makes him out to be. Everything they've done has been to either appeal to their base or to disembowel the enthusiasm of the opposition. But their base is limited and continually shrinking as many people who crossed over to vote have now come to realize that you have to take The Emperor literally and seriously, and are appalled at the guy they've voted for. Then there's the lack of negative information (emails) to cut into the enthusiasm of the opposition. Then, just the other day Bannon told the media straight up to "shut up". Yeah, that'll work to shut them up. Not. Bannon is now motivating the opposition, including the press, to step up and fight back.
3. The Disarray: The Emperor's EO on foreign entry wasn't clear, so DHS first interpreted it as to mean that green card holders (lawful, permanent residents) were excluded from the EO. Steve Bannon then came out and said that they were included in the ban. Priebus later contradicted Bannon and said that they weren't included in the ban. Four federal judges ruled that green card holders weren't in the ban. DHS is currently interpreting the ban as including green cards, going against judicial rulings. In response, Priebus now says, "It is better to be safe than sorry," which is obviously not a defense of a violation of the US Constitution and federal laws. Welcome to the disarray brought on by The Emperor's Team and the second constitutional crisis (the first is the continued violation of the emoluments clause) in their first 10 days.
4. The Emperor's "Radical Islamic Terrorist" Moment: The Emperor and conservatives had spent all of last year criticizing Hillary and President Obama over their avoidance to use the term, "radical Islamic terrorists". The reason why they avoided this term was to isolate terrorism from Islam. Now, The Emperor has found his own "radical Islamic terrorist" moment, when his office released a three-paragraph statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, excluding any reference to Jews. Their excuse for not mentioning Jews in relation to the Holocaust: Inclusion for all people who suffered. Hmm. So, when it comes to terrorism, they don't mind if all of Islam is either mistakenly or intentionally included, but when it comes to the Holocaust, they don't want anyone left out, so much so that they'll exclude any reference to the Jews who died in concentration camps. Okay then.
5. The Straw Man and Other Rhetorical Fallacies: I have only recently taken notice that The Emperor routinely uses a rhetorical fallacy -- the straw man argument (among many others) -- to avoid facts or criticisms. For instance, in response to criticism from Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham over his EO on foreign entry, The Emperor took to Twitter to say that they, "should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III." Now, I don't think these two men need to be defended, but the Press should take it upon themselves to highlight the routine usage of such rhetorical fallacies by The Emperor. I would start by issuing Face Palms. This particular one is deserving of three Face Palms for moderate misuse of rhetorical fallacies. 🤦🤦🤦

5 Thoughts for January 28, 2017

1. Chaos: Literally, one cannot go a single day without an eruption of problems or controversies caused by The Emperor. The litany of grievances of un-American actions by our so-called President grows by the hour, with every utterance and stroke of the pen. I have never personally seen anything like this, where such incompetence and willful deception has been either exuberantly celebrated or completely ignored by the cognitively-challenged.
2. Don't Save The Republicans: I plead with Democrats and others, do not attempt to save the Republicans from themselves; please, let them sink their own ship by the hands of their chosen captain. That is not to say that we should not oppose them -- we should obviously RESIST -- but do not get suckered into helping out Republicans resolve their own problems. If they wish to promote unqualified Michael Browns, let them. If they refuse to impeach The Emperor, let them take that path.
3. Obamacare: Seven years, and they still haven't figured out the obvious, that the ACA is the market solution they seek. This is why, behind closed doors, we have leaked audio showing that the GOP do not know what they want. Confronted by one's cognitive dissonance is a rather difficult event to come out of without looking like a total fool.
4. Muslim Ban: Only Republicans could come up with a Muslim ban that they publicly refer to as both a Muslim ban and not-a-Muslim ban. There are several levels of stupid involved here, but none more important than the one that invokes irony. The ban involves seven countries: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Somalia. So let's look at a short list of terrorists:
   
   • Shoe Bomber, Richard Reid -- Born in UK, white mother, mixed-race (Jamaican) father.
   • Underwear Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab -- Nigerian.
   • Ft Hood Shooter, Nidal Hasan -- Born in the US, Palestinian parents.
   • 9/11 -- Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.
   • Boston Marathon Bombers, Tsarnaevs -- Kyrgyzstan.
   • Dirty Bomb, Jose Padilla -- Born in the US, Puerto Rican heritage.
   This is a very short list, but in the long list of attempted and successful terrorist attacks, just a couple of terrorists come from the list of seven countries in The Emperor's EO. That's just the first level of stupid.
   
5. The Downward Spiral: We have multiple lawsuits underway, literally, millions protesting around the world and in the US, with many more planned -- May Day will be utter chaos if The Emperor is still in office. Imagine, a man who needs his own cheering section whenever he speaks publicly and has no ability to contain himself. Here's the simple tactic to nudge him further into his downward spiral: Antagonize him. He is incapable of restraining himself from responding. Antagonize him publicly and loudly, then wait to see him devolve into incoherent rants. Are you afraid that he will target you? Do not forget that the US Constitution contains the Equal Protection Clause (Due Process); when he violates it, he provides you the room to sue the US Government to further embarrass The Emperor.

A Little Bit More History

I'm in the process of going through thousands of my father's photos, negatives, and slides. Here's another part of history, this time it's about Japanese-Americans in baseball and the Mo'ili'ili neighborhood.

My father played for the Mo'ili'ili Tigers (the AJA --Americans of Japanese Ancestry -- League), back when the old Honolulu Stadium was still standing, in the early 50s. He would often talk about how he'd never struck out -- that the day he struck out, he quit baseball -- as he critiqued modern baseball players who'd rather attempt to hit the home run than reach first base through bunting.

Mo'ili'ili Tigers (AJA League) Team, Dad, top row, second to left

Members of the Mo'ili'ili Tigers, left is Dad

A Little Bit of History

Courtesy of my father's photo collection, here are two historically significant photos from John (Jack) F. Kennedy's visit to Hawai'i in 1963. We do not have the original negatives; all that we have are the darkroom prints which were scanned.

It is highly likely that my father's employer has already digitized and archived these images, even if inaccessible to the public. These two images (and the rest that are in my father's collection) are not publicly available anywhere on the internet -- up until this point, that is.

It is perfectly acceptable to reuse these images non-commercially, but you may not take credit for them or misrepresent them as your content. As they are original prints, I have placed unique "watermarks" that cannot be distinguished without a reference overlay.

JFK speaking at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, 1963

Chair of the JCS, Maxwell Taylor, in Hawaii, 1963

Dear Rachel

I think one of these days you'll find this post, curious to see where the "unfinished symphony" stands. To this day, I really don't know who you are; you're a figment of someone else's associations, a shopping cart of traits packaged into who you wanted to be and not who you were.

And yet, your actions told me everything about you -- your incurable shyness, your fears of rejection, your need to stay within your safety zone -- and I respected you for who you were. I couldn't jump in when you wanted me to and at a very deep level I regret it mightily -- yet another "what might have been" forks in life that I chose a different path. When I look at images of your eyes I dare to dream of silly lives of fanciful times in uncharted adventures. Your eyes seemingly speak to me in soft lullabies with a tender voice that supplicates my fantasies to carry on with endless dreams romanticized.

But then I wake up to the reality that this is all just a construct of my imagination and we were never closer than 50 feet away on that fateful night. My choice was made.

Was that my regret, or was that yours?

Maybe some day you'll tell me, Rachel?

Putin, Expert on Prostitutes.

Today, Putin remarked, when commenting about the dossier highlighting The Emperor's use of prostitutes, that Russian prostitutes were "the best in the world". Here's the full quote:

"This is an adult and, moreover, a man who for many years has organised beauty contests. He socialized with the most beautiful women in the world. I can hardly imagine he rushed to the hotel to meet our girls of lower social responsibility -even though they are the best in the world, of course."

So let's unpack this whopper.

"This is an adult"

First non sequitur. Kids hiring prostitutes isn't a problem, now is it? Or maybe it is a problem in Russia?

"and, moreover, a man who for many years has organised beauty contests. He socialized with the most beautiful women in the world."

Second non sequitur. Child molesters seek out opportunities to work with children, after all.

"I can hardly imagine he rushed to the hotel"

An admission. Apparently, Putin knows what the Ritz-Carlton (where The Emperor stayed) in Moscow is known for -- girl-friendly hotel (link is NSFW). That is, escorts station themselves in the lobby and wait for customers, and customers come rushing to the hotel to seek them out.

"to meet our girls of lower social responsibility"

Insult and irony. What a great guy, huh? But think about it for a moment. He's just distinguished himself as a Marxist bourgeoisie and prostitutes as Marxist proletariats. Karl Marx would be offended at Putin's conception of Russia.

"-even though they are the best in the world, of course."

He says, proudly.

What a guy, huh?

Portland's South Waterfront + Melting Ice + Rain = ?

This is just a reminder, that Portland's South Waterfront area was flooded out back in 1996 when we last had a deep freeze followed by copious amounts of rain. Over the next several days, something very similar is going to occur, with an expected 3" of rain falling in Portland over a couple of days. With the built-up ice and snow still on the ground, I'm kind of thinking that we might see a repeat of 1996.

The lower photographic view is roughly aligned to this Street View from this past summer.

By superimposing the current Google Earth topo view with the 1996 flood stage, this is roughly what it looked like back then. (Ah, the wonders of SketchUp Pro.) SW Moody was under water, or rather, water was bubbling up from the sewer into the street and flooding. I don't think it'll get this bad, but the thing is, all of the new development down there has underground parking and there's going to be a lot of hydrostatic pressure.

5 Thoughts for January 16, 2017

1. MLK Day: Some people make great sacrifices for the benefit and welfare of others -- that's who Martin Luther King Jr was. When we celebrate MLK Day, we remember a civil rights leader who was considered a subversive by the FBI, and despite being arrested multiple times and violence all around him, held his head high and maintained his ideology of non-violent resistance. Were he alive today, he would be both proud that we have a black President and shocked that people have nonchalantly accepted the rebirth of Racism.
2. USC Competition: I don't know if (S) Bubba Bolden and (S) Isaiah Pola-Mao are going to both end up at USC, but Bolden said, "If he comes to SC he’s going to have to work just like I’m going to have to work. In my eyes, I’m going to get on the field." I love that. They're both obviously extremely competitive guys and one of the things that had been lacking at USC, as a result of the sanctions, was competitiveness. Just by being on the same team, they'll make each other better.
3. Snowflakes: Of late, conservatives have taken to the internets to ridicule liberals by calling them "snowflakes". Seems a bit odd, in particular, that this insult has profligated on Oregonlive, given that a lot of people have totaled their vehicles these past several days, with 10" of snowflakes on the ground. With no small irony, snowflakes have collectively shut down capitalism.
4. Amazon: I mentioned the other week that I'm pretty much the only person I know who doesn't have Amazon Prime. I guess you could say that I'm trying to fight off the notion that I need stuff. In fact, I just cleared out a bunch of stuff that I was price tracking in my Saved for Later Cart. This video makes me laugh when I think about how everyone else has Amazon Prime:
   
   
5. Green Day: Their new video just released, "Troubled Times", is spot on. T'is a good day -- MLK -- to release it, but I think The Emperor's inauguration would have been the perfect day.
   
   

No, The Emperor is Not My President

First off, you need to know that I do not come from the far-left. Yes, I am liberal, but I believe in capitalism and trade even as I also support parity and progressivism. Therefore, I do not automatically reject support for a Republican simply because they're Republican. I have no problems working with people who have different opinions from me; in fact, I enjoy trying to find a compromise.

Had President George H. W. Bush activated the selective service draft, I would not have run away from my obligation to serve this country. When his son, George W. Bush, became POTUS, I disagreed with what happened and felt strongly that he did not deserve the right to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Despite all my mocking of his lack of foresight and wisdom, nonetheless, I supported him as my President and seriously contemplated my options of volunteering -- despite my age -- for military service following 9/11.

The Emperor is different; he is unlike anyone else in the history of American presidents.

When he insults people, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.
When he threatens people, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.
When he bullies people, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.
When he demands people apologize to him, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.
When he lies, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.
When he boasts about his wealth, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.
When he openly urges people to commit crimes, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT.

Seeing as these are the very things The Emperor is constantly engaged in, therefore, he is NOT MY PRESIDENT and I will never defend him, ever.

No, We Don't Need to Wait and See How The Emperor Rules

A lot of Americans appear to be under the illusion of what The Emperor is. He is an autocratic, arm-twisting (and breaking) bully.

-- oh, but let's see whether or not he's effective in governing --

I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. Of course he's going to be effective -- that's the entire point of bypassing democracy for an autocratic bully after all.

This also happens to be why there's a risk that Congress under Republican rule may ignore multiple clear cases of impeachment; if The Emperor is effective in getting conservative priorities enacted, they'll simply ignore the violations of the US Constitution they reflexively now consider to be fluff. See: Polls showing sudden changes in registered Republicans' opinions on Russia.

He is going to shut down Planned Parenthood, even if doing so is illegal. He is going to criminalize abortions. He is going to cut taxes for himself and those in his cabinet who are all part of the 1%. He is going to fire people in government who oppose him. He is going to politicize civil service.

But won't his cabinet picks, as shown in confirmation hearings, push back against The Emperor? Kids, the Trump Corporation is, and always will be, top-down management. People who trust others don't appoint their own kids to manage the company under his direction. When The Emperor gets pushback from his cabinet, he'll tell them to STFU and do what he says.

And by the time you realize just how effective he is at changing America, democracy will be dead.

Is Pence worse? Ideologically, he is substantially more conservative than The Emperor, but he is not a threat to democracy. Like George Bush, he will produce some positive policies in-between mostly failing ones, and when push comes to shove, will understand what mistakes he's made, but he understands democracy and won't threaten it.

So no, we don't need to wait and see how The Emperor rules; we know exactly how he'll rule and the odds are, you'll be in the cheering section supporting the destruction of democracy. See: Russia's descent into Putinism.

NYT: What Got Better or Worse During Obama’s Presidency

The NYT has a fun little interactive that allows you to draw the chart as to how you think seven different statistics changed during President Obama's years. I profess, I completely flubbed on two of them, but got very close to the other five.

Try it out first, then see how I did after the break.

I'll wager that if you're Republican, you'll probably get all seven completely wrong. 😏

5 Thoughts for January 12, 2017

1. Snow Week?: The snow showers have stopped, but the temperatures aren't supposed to get above freezing until Saturday. Does that make it a snow week in the Portland Metro area? We've got 10" of snow and it ain't going anywhere anytime soon. Trees coming down every other block. At least it's now sunny and bright!
   

   

   See the tree that fell from heavy snow?
2. The Emperor's Shift: Today, the Emperor conducted his first press conference in over two months. When faced with the leaks of Russian hacking, he finally acknowledged, "I think it was Russia." Progress! In another year, he'll acknowledge that the phone in his hand is a computer.
3. Jeff Sessions: There are many reasons to hate his appointment (racism, gender equality, etc.). In Oregon, Washington, and many other states, his threat of increasing marijuana criminal enforcement is probably the biggest reason to hate Sessions. I don't partake so it doesn't affect me, but it should be noted that this is yet another showing of the differences between a Hillary Administration and The Emperor's. I'm going to keep bashing this into your brains, Bernie supporters who said that The Emperor and Hillary were the same.
4. The Emperor's Cheering Section: This. When you need a cheering section during a press conference, you've got some serious problems and you're going to be in deep psychological funk when shit hits the fan. Being President is pretty darn tough -- just look at the explosion of gray hairs on every guy who has assumed office -- but if you can't handle the press without a cheering section, oh man.
5. The Republic of Plagiarists: Wow. Intellectual fraud, much? First, we had Melania Trump doing it, then it was Monica Crowley, and now it's Ben Carson. No wait, it's weirdly quite fitting of the incoming administration to be full of intellectual fraud.

Yes, it's Snow Week in Portland.

We haven't seen this much snow since 2008, but that year was a dry powder snow and this one was a wet, big flake snow. That's why, unlike previous snow events, this one's been taking down trees on everyone's block as the snow is sticking to tree branches. With the sunlight in full force but still below freezing, icicles are forming everywhere. I saw some that were over a foot long. Spreading salt won't help; you physically need to shovel the snow off the sidewalks to clear it.

The Emperor Had Quid Pro Quo With Russia

If you haven't heard by now, Buzzfeed News has posted the appendix section of the classified briefing given to both President Obama and The Emperor. The hashtag #goldenshowers is blowing up on social media as a direct result. This is not the most important part of the report.

Yes, the Kremlin has dirt on The Emperor involving sexual acts that were recorded on video, therefore fully capable of blackmailing him, but the reports contain far more critical points. Specifically, there are sections in the report that indicate multiple criminal violations by The Emperor (citation below is verbatim):

• Further evidence of extensive conspiracy between TRUMP's campaign team and Kremlin, sanctioned at highest levels and involving Russian diplomatic staff based in the US.
• TRUMP associate admits Kremlin behind recent appearance of DNC emails on WikiLeaks, as means of maintaining plausible deniability.
• Agreed exchange of information established in both directions. TRUMP's team using moles within DNC and hackers in the US as well as outside in Russia. PUTIN motivated by fear and hatred of Hillary CLINTON. Russians receiving intel from TRUMP's team on Russian oligarchs and their families in US.
• Mechanism for transmitting this intelligence involves "pension" disbursements to Russian emigres living in US as cover, using consular officials in New York, DC and Miami.
• Suggestion from source close to TRUMP and MANAFORT that Republican campaign team happy to have Russia as media bogeyman to mask more extensive corrupt business ties to China and other emerging countries.

These are classified reports. Yes, someone leaked it because of political motives, but they were directed towards debriefing The Emperor and the President, not for public release. In other words, the intention was to make The Emperor aware of what USINT knew. While the leaker's intention was surely meant to weaken The Emperor, the people who compiled and wrote these reports had entirely different motivations.

Contrary to the disinformation being spread, the report has multiple sources -- at least 7 -- and they partially corroborate each other. The FBI is, for its part, engaged in an investigation; this is being painted as the FBI attempting to corroborate the information, but this could also highlight the possibility that The Emperor is himself under investigation.

It is very Nixonian that The Emperor employed moles inside of the DNC. It is also treasonous that he had a quid pro quo agreement with Putin to hack the DNC and leak information.

There is more. A lot more. 

I'm just completely blown away that USINT kept all this secret even while James Comey broke protocol and publicly chased Hillary's emails on Weiner's laptop. The Emperor is not just an illegitimate President, but a serial criminal.

Republicans No Longer Hiding Hypocrisy

This excerpt from HuffPo's article is self-explanatory:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who signed Cruz’s letter and defended Cruz’s attacks against Hagel during a committee vote on the nomination, made no attempt to hide the hypocrisy. 

When The Huffington Post asked Inhofe on Monday night if this same standard of disclosing foreign payments should apply to Trump’s Cabinet nominees, he said it shouldn’t. 

“So it’s different now because it’s Trump?” we asked. 

“That’s just right,” Inhofe said. 

“That’s right?” we asked to clarify. 

“Yeah,” he said.

It's like I said, a Republican Congress will not act as a check or balance against a Republican White House.

You can look throughout the last 60 years and see that it's been Democrats who've enacted protocols and laws to keep corruption in Congress and the White House in check. Anti-nepotism? Office of Congressional Ethics? 1978 Ethics in Government Act establishing public disclosure rules for political appointees? 1962 anti-bribery and conflict of interest laws? All established with Democrats in majority control.

Republicans gave us...Nixon, Bush, and now, The Emperor.

5 Thoughts for January 10, 2017

1. Confirmation Process: I totally get why Democrats want to put a cog in the machine to slow the process down, but you see, the process' intention isn't to allow the minority to block nominees, even though that's where we're at; the process was meant to find egregious problems and weed those candidates out. The way I see it, if The Emperor wants his cabinet to be filled by a bunch of Michael Browns that's entirely his prerogative to set the fire to his own Administration; if Republicans want to push these nominees through, they get to completely own the confirmation of these nominees. Let The Emperor burn down his own House. Pointing out the faults of his nominees are perfectly fine, but don't block them! Putin wanted the world to see Democracy's chaos, so let him take the blame for The Emperor's Administration, too! Only then, can some Americans open their eyes and realize they've made a grave error.
2. Obamacare Repeal Status: I'm not shocked to hear that there are defections from the GOP camp in the Senate on the plan to repeal Obamacare. The fact of the matter is, Republicans were lying to themselves if they thought that they could easily and rapidly come up with a plan that sufficiently replaced the ACA without causing mass chaos in the market. But they've put themselves into the corner and they must repeal the ACA, which means that they must have a plan to replace it, immediately. They don't have weeks to figure out the replacement part, because contrary to what Republicans are suggesting, the moment they repeal the ACA, the subsidies will disappear and people will immediately drop coverage. Likewise, once they repeal, the Medicaid expansion will cease to exist and states will either have to expand their own spending or drop coverage immediately. The longer they wait, the higher 2018 prices will shoot up, too! This will not end well for Republicans but especially for the White Working Class.
3. Fake News: Breitbart and other proprietors of fake news are apparently trying to expand into Europe. I have just one piece of advice: Free Speech is not the same over there. America has no federal-level law against defamation/libel but European nations do. In Europe, defamation/libel usually has a much lower burden of proof standard, whether civil or criminal, making some fake news purveyors highly susceptible to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. Breitbart is stepping on dangerous territory.
4. Clemson Wins NC 35-31: Overcoming two turnovers in their territory and playing from behind nearly the entire game, Clemson had gained momentum in the fourth quarter and Alabama couldn't stop them. They dominated the clock and dominated on offense, gaining 511 yards -- 420 in the air from Deshaun Watson -- to Alabama's 376 yards. Newly appointed offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian did not accomplish what head coach Nick Saban had singled out as a critical goal -- improving Jalen Hurts' confidence in the throwing game -- as Hurts finished the game completing just 42% of his pass attempts (13 for 31), his worst performance this season. Karma -- what you reap from having sown your seeds -- apparently hit back at Saban after releasing offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin a week before the game. Ultimately, it was Clemson's high-powered passing offense matched up against the Alabama defense's weak spot, that proved to be the key to this game -- as the saying goes, hit em where it hurts. While Deshaun Watson didn't get the Heisman, he got the CFP NC trophy and closed out his career (he's announced that he's leaving for the NFL) as a winner.
5. USC Finishes #3 in AP: That's what you call respect. USC is the first team with three losses to rank this high, according to the AP. On top of that, Sam Darnold collected the Archie Griffin Award as MVP of the season and Clay Helton was co-awarded (along with VT's Justin Fuente) FWAA's top first-year coach honors. The system in place at USC is certainly working well. Clancy Pendergast had the defense doing all sorts of twists and stunts by the time they were playing Penn State and USC's total defense ranking jumped from 65th to 36th. The Tyson Helton - Tee Martin offense has pushed USC's total offense from 38th to 20th. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about 2017!

Epson's Dust Removal Algorithm.

This is what happens when you turn on the dust-removal function inside of Epson's scanning software. Kowaii, one eye missing!

There are other quirks, pretty much making dust-removal a non-option on negative / positive film scans.

Pioneer Cabin Tree is No More

The Pioneer Cabin Tree was felled by this weekend's storms on the west coast. In tribute to the historic giant sequoia tree, that was tunneled through in the 1880s so that people could drive through it as part of a tourist attraction, here's a photo my father took of that tree, back in 1959.

Rose Bowl Refs

As promised, here's one instance -- from early in the game -- where the refs appeared to deliberately ignore fouls on one side of the ball.

In Penn State's second series of the game, (9) McSorely threw a pass behind (3) Thompkins who deflected it into the hands of (2) Adoree Jackson. As he ran the interception back, (77) Wright first grabs Jackson by the collar and the waist, partially lifts him up (Jackson is a little light at ~ 185#) and tackles him, hand still on the collar.

See the three screen grabs:

You don't just accidentally miss a call that's right in front of your eyes, do you? I'm not trying to throw shade at Penn State or the B1G Conference in any way; the point here is that the ACC's refs seemed deliberate in their "missed" calls.

5 Thoughts for January 9, 2017

1. Death Follows: Another friend lost a family member yesterday -- a terminal illness diagnosed in the middle of December -- so that pretty much completes the tragedy that was 2016. The coincidence of these disparate deaths bothers me. Yes, death always follows life, but I've never experienced a cluster of deaths like this before. There is a sense of helplessness about it, and yet, life is something that is absolutely beautiful and amazing, such that I also feel thankful that we've had the opportunity to partake in this corporeal world, warts and all.
2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Remember him? A little bit crazy, a lot of hot rhetoric, a fiery conservative who sometimes angered conservatives even though he was a conservative, whose first election involved allegations of widespread fraud, and had difficult relations with the foreign press. That sounds just like The Emperor! His name came up as a result of the recent death of Iran's former President, Rafsanjani; in retrospect, it was Ahmadinejad who stood at opposite sides of Rafsanjani's efforts to moderate Iran in his later years. So here's what I don't get: Why are Trumpians so bent on establishing good relations with Russia while demonizing both Cuba and Iran when we've got a foot in the door with both Cuba and Iran with bilateral agreements that have eased tensions considerably? In the mirror, The Emperor's supporters sound and act exactly like Ahmadinejad's supporters.
3. Bibi in Deep Trouble?: I find it curious that Bibi Netanyahu would even attempt to negotiate a quid pro quo with the owner of Y-Net / Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. The US equivalent would be if The Emperor negotiated a peace treaty with the NYT to have Breitbart shut down, in agreement for favorable coverage from the NYT. It would be a pointless endeavor because too many people on both sides of the aisle would know what was going on, and in a fit of moral outrage, someone would eventually and surreptitiously record these negotiations to hijack them.
4. Football Refs: I don't get them. Their judgment is so subjective as to be objectively bad for the sport. Take for instance the targeting rule -- launching at a player with the crown of the helmet. On Sunday I saw a Steelers player hit the Dolphins QB near his neck / jaw, launching from several feet away directly with his helmet. The refs were right on the side and back and saw the entire episode but didn't even call a roughing the passer foul. Player safety is something of a joke in the NFL. There are entire highlight reels of opposing players launching their helmets into Cam Newton -- a guy I love to hate -- and not a single call. In the Rose Bowl, it was so bad, even the sports journalists were noting how terrible the officiating was -- I'll separately post one instance that should embarrass the ACC. We ought to use robotics and AI to replace refs, as humans seem to be a lousy bunch of arbiters on the rules.
5. Samsung Chromebook Plus: It's officially here and up for preorders with delivery in the first part of February. It's relatively expensive for a Chromebook, but with its (palm-rejecting) stylus and touch screen along with the all-aluminum build, it compares favorably to Google's Pixel C tablet running Android. That is to say, that because new Chromebooks with touchscreens will be able to run apps from the Google Play Store, the Chromebook Plus is a better option at a lower price. There's also a Samsung Chromebook Pro, but there are no prices and the only spec highlighted is that it will run on an Intel Core-3 CPU. With its tremendous flexibility and especially because of the stylus, this will be my next device.

To My Friend Ying-Ling From Decades Ago.

You're the one person I regret not keeping in touch with after graduating from college. We had some fun, didn't we? I still remember oversleeping and you trying desperately to wake me up from outside my window so that we wouldn't miss our architectural history exam, then trying to fast-walk to class only to have shin splints halfway to class.

I don't know if you noticed, but I pretty much coasted through school, barely paying attention to subjects that weren't interesting to me -- like structures, professional practice, architectural history, etc. -- so that I could enjoy thinking about design, music, photography, and furniture design. I suppose I've never changed in this regard. I even secretly harbored desires to transfer to the Art Center or Sci-Arc.

I screwed up a lot of things after graduation. I didn't take my interview with Coop Himmelblau seriously enough, and I didn't communicate effectively with Michael Rotondi's office, resulting in a missed interview. Neil Denari was very nice, but my timing was off. I guess I was a Gen X slacker before it was made popular by Douglas Coupland.

Anyway, I was going through my box of negatives and slides looking for photos of my father when I came across this photo I took of you when we were driving to Arizona and immediately started reminiscing about the fun we had. I miss you, my friend.

5 Thoughts for January 8, 2017

1. Russia Hacking Report: I pored through it -- it wasn't very long at all -- and IDK, all of these "revelations" were things that we already knew about. Contrary to popular belief, we knew by summer that Putin was involved, but we also learned nearly a month ago the USINT had made the determination that Putin had ordered the campaign against the US (to support The Emperor and to destroy Hillary). We've known for a very long time that conservative media has been seizing on fake news coming out of the propaganda outlets of RT and Sputnik. But what I've learned through this whole process is that cognitive bias is difficult to break through, especially for those who cannot admit when they are wrong. The dissonance between truth and reality forces these people to construct implausible explanations with incoherent or ambiguous reasoning, often relying on the citation of fake stories themselves, as if the attribution itself provides credence to their ideas.
2. The Wall, Jobs Exportation, and Tariffs: This is an oversimplification (nonetheless, useful I hope). Jobs are exported because of lower labor costs abroad. People illegally immigrate to the US because the US has higher paying jobs, even at the bottom. According to The Emperor's Simplified Rules of Sovereignty, you build The Wall which is supposed to block all human traffic. You now have downward pressure on labor prices across the border and upward pressure on labor prices domestically, leading to the faster exportation of jobs. The Emperor's Simplified Rules of Economics dictates that the US will have a large import tariff to stop the exportation of jobs. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Now you've raised prices across the board and inflation will explode. By experience, wages lag prices aka sticky wages. With prices going up, people buy less if their wages aren't keeping up. You have...Stagflation?
3. This Seems About Right: Mark Hamill as the Joker, reading The Emperor's tweets.
   
   
   
4. Portland's Citywide Ice Rink: There wasn't much snow or ice, but even a little ice makes life screwy when you try to drive around. This was early in the morning. It's a lot worse right now with freezing rain coming down.
   
   
   
5. Seattle Seahawks: For the first time this season the running game looked right and that's mostly attributable to Thomas Rawls being completely healthy. The offensive line can run block fairly good but remains terrible in pass protection -- when Haloti Ngata just blows past you, with a swipe of the arm, you really don't have your technique down. Other than that, the difference between Seattle and Detroit was that the Seahawks playmakers made plays while Detroit's playmakers fell flat on their faces. Next up is Atlanta on Saturday, and while Atlanta is a 3.5~4 point favorite, this one has that feel of a Super Bowl run. The key to Seattle's success, whether on offense or defense, is to establish their running game, otherwise, the offense goes through a pathetic run of 3-and-out series and the defense looks bad. The good news is that they beat Atlanta at Centurylink Field back when Russell Wilson was hobbled by a bad knee and ankle.

Imbecile of the Day, January 6, 2017

There isn't a day that goes by, that some politician says something stupid. Today, we have Representative Chris Collins from NY telling us that The Emperor has all the leverage he needs to force Mexico to repay us for The Wall, or rather, make that The Fence Upgrade:

"When you understand that Mexico's economy is dependent upon US consumers, Donald Trump has all the cards he needs to play...On the trade negotiation side, I don't think it's that difficult for Donald Trump to convince Mexico that it's in their best interest to reimburse us for building the wall."

Ha!

Here's a sampling -- at your grocery store -- of all the things  which will suddenly go up by as much as 35%, according to The Emperor's threats of tariffs:

But that's not where the tariff ends. American farmers will see prices increase on tractor equipment, too. Even your local bakery, whose commercial supply of chocolate and sugar from Mexico, will have to raise prices. The supply chain is global and slapping a tariff on imports will require American manufacturers to raise their own prices.

Right now, the Mexican government (and others, of course) is probably laughing their asses off at the thought that America would tempt stagflation even as their own trade with China picks up steam.

The Emperor is like Maduro or Rousseff, except that he is our special brand of stupid.

5 Thoughts for January 5, 2017

1. The Disappearing Federal Government: Contrary to the popular narrative, the US government's employment had been declining (excluding the one-time bump for the US Census) since the Great Recession of 2008, until it bottomed out in May 2014. Since then, it's been growing very slowly. In comparison to the start of Obama's presidency, federal jobs as a percentage of total non-farm have decreased from 2.1% to 1.94%. Now, with Republicans attempting to revive a rule that would allow Congress to directly set civil service wages at the individual employee level, there will be a mass exodus from federal civil service. One year from now, you will feel this effect, whether from a slow-responding FEMA to lengthy waits for responses from EPA, etc. Even if they don't go forward with their rule enforcement, the threat alone of a political litmus test on lifelong civil servants will cause the mass exodus. You're probably thinking, "but won't conservative people rush to fill those jobs?" I'm sure they will so long as they can pass the civil service exam, but the bigger problem is the loss of expertise up and down the government, which can't be replaced so easily. 
2. The Boy Who Cried Wolf: I often point out that one of the most plausible scenarios to play out in the Emperor Donodus Administration is one where his intemperate personality (and tweeting) bumps into some despotic leader who is himself (or herself) narcissistic and ego-driven; the butting heads escalate until that despotic leader throws the switch and we have a serious war, possibly nuclear. But, there is also the exact opposite problem: Emperor Donodus' threats are ultimately viewed as empty rhetoric and the world -- particularly our adversaries -- ignores him; as a narcissist, this would enrage him, forcing him to act with...intemperate force. Either way, I think the odds are very high that we'll be in at least one very serious war, soon. Sooner or later, even a madman has to use force to show that he's crazy enough to use force.
3. Obamacare: It's almost comical how Republicans don't get Obamacare at all, so much so, that they're threatening mass chaos within the healthcare system but don't realize it. I'll have a lengthier post on this later, but suffice to say, when the ACA was passed it set off a series of dominoes within the healthcare industry that required a lot of money; repealing Obamacare will have extreme consequences, possibly creating a recession. Just the slashing of spending, alone, is worth over $250B and that's not taking into account private investment to accommodate the influx of the newly insured. This will not end well.
4. Chicago Torture Video: I refuse to watch a second of someone being tortured. That anyone could treat a vulnerable person this way is disgusting, but to live-stream the video for their friends to see is so vile, they do not deserve any consideration of leniency, whether from the judicial system or from God. Such bullying has, from when I was a little kid, always pissed me off. 
5. The Emperor's Intelligence Apparatus: At various times in our nation's history, there have been some leaders who've used the nation's intelligence apparatus to gather intel on personal enemies. I fully expect that once The Emperor gains the keys to the office, he's going to make full use of it and spy on his enemies and work to undermine them; The Emperor will directly engage in corporate espionage and hand off inside information to his enemy's enemies. This is why we needed the red tape bureaucracy of the courts to be firmly attached to all those Patriot Act-related laws, and why it's now too late to do anything about it, as the Republicans have barely any regard to such civil rights, with the exception of a couple of senators, Rand Paul and Mike Lee. This is why there's a sudden rush to warn about the threat of The Emperor and to get the word out on privacy best practices. This is where multifactor authentication does you no good; the gov't can get at your data if the host company has the encryption keys to your data. Journalists and political operatives have to ditch the convenience of their Gmail accounts in lieu of end-to-end encryption tools -- I'm sorry, but that's where this nation is headed.

The Corrupt Thinking of Republicans

Yesterday I wrote about the corruption brewing within Republican ranks. Today, we have the corrupt -- read dishonest -- thinking of Republicans, when Rep. Steve King suggested that Congress could write laws to bar the Supreme Court from citing past cases covering Obamacare.

I'm being generous, of course, to suggest that King has corrupt thinking because the less generous description is that he's flat out stupid:

The bill claims that "Under Article 3, Section 2" Congress is allowed to "to provide exceptions and regulations for Supreme Court consideration of cases and controversies."

Uh, no, that's not what it says. This is what Article 3, Section 2 of the US Constitution actually says:

The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;--to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;--to controversies between two or more states;--between a state and citizens of another state;--between citizens of different states;--between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

Section 2 specifically states that judicial power extends to all cases; the second paragraph delineates in which cases the Supreme Court has original or appellate jurisdiction. The particular quote that King's bill uses refers to the ability of Congress to establish specific rules to provide SCOTUS with original jurisdiction where it would have ordinarily been appellate jurisdiction.

I'm no rocket scientist nor am I law professor, but I'm quite certain that I'm slightly smarter than your average bear, and this bear says King is full of shit, specifically bull shit but also a clump or two of some horse shit mixed in there. Of course, I'm no connoisseur of shit, so don't hold me to that, please, as King could very well be 100% dumb shit.

This is How Corrupt Republicans Are.

Dozens of investigations spanning two decades going after Hillary have found nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. A big, fat zero. But now that they're in charge of the entire government -- and let's be clear here, they will control all three branches of the "checks and balances" system -- many of them no longer feel constrained to hold to any sort of ethical standard.

In fact, they're now attempting to create a system by which they'll be able to fully apply separate ethical standards on their own members. I wish I were making this up, but it's completely true and it's in writing, directly from the Republican House, a proposed amendment to HR 5.

You can read BuzzFeed News for the details.

Essentially, Republicans would like to...

• Take full control of an independent investigatory arm -- the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) -- of Congress so that they can...
• Shut down OCE investigations at their whim...
• Hide OCE reports from becoming public...
• Stop the OCE from accepting whistleblower tips...
• Prevent the OCE from investigating any potential violations prior to January 3, 2011...
• Stop the OCE from directly forwarding any criminal information to law enforcement.

It is breathtaking at how corrupt these guys are, and while both Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy opposed this amendment, it's pretty clear that there's little in the way of stopping Republicans from corrupting all of government.

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Update: Hard to believe that despite all the wringing of hands these past two months, the media continued with its old ways and reported that, as a result of Emperor Donodus' tweets critical of the GOP move, House Republicans have "reversed" their plans.

Firstly, The Emperor's critique was directed at the prioritization of squeezing the blood out of OCE ahead of corporate -- read giveaway -- reform; he wasn't against it at all. Secondly, he said in his tweet that OCE deserved to be gutted. Thirdly, the GOP didn't reverse anything; they tabled the amendment to be studied and rescheduled for an August review, which basically means that they'll try to likely slide it into the 2018 appropriations bill or some continuing resolution.

We have a lot of very sloppy thinkers in America, and these are the ones who accidentally gave us The Emperor. Therefore, everyone, prostrate and repeat after me, "I have sinned, through my own fault, in my thoughts, and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do."

USC WINS THE 2017 ROSE BOWL!

Just like that, this year is already better than last year.

Eleven years ago, USC lost to Texas in what became known as a classic Rose Bowl match. Tonight, the circle is complete and USC won in a new Rose Bowl classic that will be remembered for decades to come.

Between the end of the second quarter and five minutes into the third quarter, Penn State had scored 28 straight points, leaving even some USC players stunned at the turn of events. That's been the Nittany Lions' modus operandi this season, including a near-parallel win over Wisconsin in the B1G Championship where they outscored the Badgers 31 - 3 in the final 31 minutes of the game -- you could forgive USC fans if they thought that the wheels were coming off.

But the Trojans held to the motto, "Fight On", and in a stunner, outscored Penn State 25 - 7 from midway in the third quarter to win the game, 52 - 49. When it counted most, the USC defense stiffened up and stopped the prolific Nittany Lions who'd previously outscored their opponents by 111 points in the fourth quarter this year. Instead of seeing Penn State run away with the game, we saw senior safety Leon McQuay come through with a key play in the game when he read the pass and stepped in front of the receiver to intercept the ball and return it to Penn State's 33 with 27 seconds left in the game.

Gone are the ghosts of that 2006 Rose Bowl, the collapse against Alabama in the first game of the season, and the talk of how Clay Helton was a bad hire. It's officially a new era in Trojan football and Helton's got the Trojans on a 9-game winning streak. 

As I wrote previously, Penn State and USC were better than Ohio State and Washington, and I think this game puts a stamp on that. Even though the Nittany Lions lost, they showed why they were the best team in the B1G, and USC is without a doubt the best team in the PAC-12. It's just a shame that both teams were kept out by a CFP committee that couldn't figure out that Penn State and USC were two of the best teams in the country, otherwise we might be talking about a classic CFP Championship game of the two best teams in the country.

One more thing. Redshirt freshman Sam Darnold set two Rose Bowl records -- most TDs (5) and most combined offensive yards (473) -- and nearly set a third, falling four yards short of breaking Oregon Ducks alum Danny O'Neil's record of 456 passing yards against...Penn State in 1995. That's probably why he was named the Rose Bowl's offensive MVP. Sam Darnold for Heisman?

FIGHT ON!

First 5 Thoughts of 2017!

1. Happy New Year: Or so we tell ourselves, right? 2016 was downright awful but as bad as 2016 was, I suspect 2017 might prove worse. 
2. USC - Penn State: Will it be a tight game? First of all, I think the CFP committee got it completely wrong and frankly, USC and Penn State should have been in the CFP instead of Washington and Ohio State -- the blowout losses by these two teams highlights why they weren't the best of their respective conference. Having said that, I think there is just one team in the country that had a reasonable chance at beating Alabama and that would be USC. The only thing that has been able to stop USC's offense under Sam Darnold is USC. On defense, USC's secondary is the most talented in the country, and again, the only thing that beats USC's defense is USC -- under Clancy Pendergast the defense has dramatically improved each week but especially from last year. If all of the cylinders are firing, this game will be a blowout on the order of 45 - 17, if it isn't, the game could end up being 24 - 21. I think USC commits a handful of mental errors, but overcomes them and wins 35 - 21.
3. Emperor Donodus Boxed Himself In: The guy hates it when people delegitimize his win, thus, he recently announced that he has inside knowledge about the hacks that would disprove Russia as the source of hacking on the US elections process. Firstly, if that inside knowledge comes from confidential government info, he can't reveal it without violating federal law. Secondly, the only other source that he could point to is foreign, and that would highlight his collusion to the hacks. He is dumb as shit. He might get impeached in the first 100 days at this rate. What did you expect from a guy who claims to be a billionaire but can't raise the money to fund his own transition team? Expect more of this in 2017, which by the way, is one reason why his instability and ego present an existential threat to the US: In a tit-for-tat war of words with Kim Jong-Un following an expected, upcoming ICBM test, Emperor Donodus will not be able to contain himself from escalating the threat of a real war, leading to a nuclear war with NK.
4. Electric Cars: I was surprised to find out that 5-year old Nissan Leafs were widely available for under $7500. I realize that the limited ~60 miles range of a used battery in a Leaf makes it highly undesirable, but there are charging stations everywhere in Oregon and, so long as you had a charger at home and at work, this would make an exceptional commuter car, even if butt ugly. There are many other used electric cars that are well under $10,000, including the Fiat 500e, and I'd probably get a used electric vehicle if I owned a house such that I could install a 240v outlet to plug in.
5. Federal Debt Ceiling and Budget: Very soon, the media will start talking quite a lot about the federal debt ceiling. On March 15, the suspension of the debt ceiling will expire and the debt ceiling number will be reset. In just over a month, the current budget continuing resolution will expire on April 28. As all control of government now resides within the GOP, their actions to address both issues means they will now fully own the federal budget and debt. The low-risk path would be to keep at roughly the same spending rate increase rates and to suspend the debt ceiling indefinitely. Instead, we're likely to get what Emperor Donodus' supporters have called for: high risk.