This is a perfect poem.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The room is
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn't.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there's no
room to talk
about it.

And that's the problem! When word clouds from the primaries for Trump and Clinton were compared, Trump had no really large words. Too much nonsense to focus. Hillary's largest was, of course, "e-mail."

p.s. I couldn't figure out how to make a link to the tweet. It was a re-tweet by Clive Thompson @pomeranian99. Can someone tell me how to capture a tweet link? I kept getting links to Amazon for the book.

In the last week or so, I have heard indirectly about the exact methods the Russians used to try to influence the election. I don't have links, but I understood it to be very finely targeted messages to vulnerable people. Vulnerable people were identified using big data and the kind of techniques employed by Analytica in Cambridge.

If this is true, then is anyone writing algorithms to identify THOSE SAME PEOPLE to flood them with counter arguments? Obviously they're not primed to believe the counter arguments, but it can't be OK just to cede the media to fake news.

Is anyone talking about this?

Yesterday we attended the Wellesley graduation and were flabbergasted at the proportion of minority students. I was sure women of European background represented less than half of the class. So I counted the European sounding names in the program. They were 47% of the total. AND add to that the fact that African Americans are not necessarily identifiable by name and the proportion would be noticeably lower. We're well globalized in at least one top tier school. When I walk through Harvard yard, I'm always struck by the number of Asian faces I see.

I suppose I wasn't thinking straight when I was surprised to find globalization so thoroughly represented among the most educated group. It does make some sense.

Well, hubby and I, and Huma Abedin hovering in a far corner.

We knew Hillary at Wellesley, but had not spoken more than a minute after rallies since then. As expected, just as comfortable and genuine as she appears (to me, anyway) in the media. A treasured delight.

p.s. - The future has come to Wellesley. The minorities are now very clearly in the majority!

I couldn't see Trump and Melania's hands as they descended from the plane in the latest report. Are cameras now confined to the side so we won't talk about their relationship and compare it to that GREAT snapshot of Barack and Michelle????

Today on NPR, Tamryn Keith explained that the member NATO countries had all pledged to increase their OWN DEFENSE BUDGETs to 2% of their GDP OVER THE COURSE OF TEN YEARS. They're 3 years into that project!!!! Right now The Newshour is also explaining that.

Until today I and my hubby both had assumed that the NATO countries were in arrears with some sort of dues to NATO. Huh????

We pay attention. We're pretty smart. NATO wasn't at the top of our interests. We didn't investigate. Do other people feel let down by the MSM???? Way back through the primaries??????????

... for a President to be indicted for obstruction of justice? Legally? I know congress can impeach a president for things that are not technically illegal (and the time has long passed when they should), but what technical, legal thing prevents a president from shutting down investigations, since he is the top dog in the executive branch?

TIA
LAS

One can get one's mind around the idea that people who have lost their place in society might be irrationally angry. But if it's just hate-filled, educated "haves" who voted for him, what do we do about it?

https://www.thenation.com/article/trumpism-its-coming-from-the-suburbs/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-fired-timeline.html

Are Collins, Graham and McCain the only GOP senators who occasionally vote based on conscience/intellect??



https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/us/politics/regulations-methane-climate-change.html?_r=0