February 8, 2023

Thanks for the hearts...

Woke up to check DU and do the wordle, quordle, and octordle to get the brain going and found I had hearts.

Thank you.

February 8, 2023

Like watching a stand up comedian humiliate a heckler SOTU

Watching Biden elicit boos from the MAGAts and make them then have to stand to protect social security was like watching a masterful standup comedian responding to a drunk heckler.

The Koch, Mercer, etc. had to be watching at home and thinking, holy shit, we knew they were stupid when we bought them. But we didn't know they were THAT STUPID!!!

They had one job. Just sit stoically for the speech and then let Faux news spin and lie. But they couldn't do it.

Because you can't fix stupid.

January 6, 2023

Bengals getting screwed hard by NFL..

Now that we know that Damar is ok. Can we talk about the screw job the league just gave the Bengals?

Had the Bengals won a HOME game that they scored first were winning and about to go up by two scores...(which all point to actually winning the game, unless of course you are the Raiders) , the Bengals would be the #2 seed right now. With tie breaker of head to head wins over both the Chiefs and Bills. Chiefs would be 13-3 ahead of the other two at 12-4. Bengals #2 based on head to head win.

So, you would think that any potential game between the Bills and Bengals in the playoffs would be a neutral site (assuming both win this weekend) or a coin flip...nope Bengals you will play on the road.

To add insult to injury. The league is assuming the Bengals lose so that they can try to give the Ravens a home playoff game.

Not sure what dirt the Bills and Ravens have on Goodell but this is BS.

October 28, 2022

Early voted in Iowa City today..steady long line

I hope that the long steady line of people at the early voting location is good news for the good guys and bad news for the fascists like Grassley, covid Kimmy. And milker-meeks who claims to be a doctor and voted against insulin, negotiate bdtug prices, and veterans.

I know Iowa City runs blue, so hopefully all those women in line behind were getting an early start on Roevember.

October 5, 2022

Judge good but Ruth was great

Judge's season is very good, but let's not get ahead of ourselves with recency bias.

Judge is looking at a OPS+ of around 210 which would be Ruth's ninth or tenth best season. (2.10 times the average MLB player)

This year judge may win the triple crown hitting .311 with 131 rbi and 135 runs. OPS of 1.111 with 175 strikeouts. With a juiced ball relative to the 1920s in smaller ballparks, Which helps with HR but hurts batting average.

Ruth's 1927, 60 hr season, which had an ops+ of 225 was his fifth best season. Ruth hit .356 and didn't win the batting title. 165 RBI wasn't enough that year to win the rbi title (some guy named Gehrig beat him, courtesy of 137 walks that year). 158 runs. OPS of 1.258. 89 strikeouts. FYI Ruth had 8 triples that year and one more double than judge has this year.
How many MVP could Ruth have won if you were allowed to win in back to back years?

Ruth's 1920&21 seasons were even more ridiculous with 255 & 239 as OPS+.

Judge is having a great season in this era of launch angles and ultimate outcomes of hr, strikeouts, and walks, but not the greatest season of all time.

April 15, 2022

Suggestions for first primaries

I'll start by saying the state must be big enough to have at least 9 electoral votes -- less than that is too small and likely not as representative of the country as a whole. I would also lop off CA, NY, and TX because we will win CA and NY with any competent democratic candidate in the general. TX is too large to go first from a geography stand point. Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee and Indiana will go to a dead Republican over any Democrat so they can be eliminated. Eliminate states that are more than 75% white (national average is 61.6%) so that eliminates Ohio, MN, WI. So anything not bolded is a possibility based on my quick criteria as someone who has lived mostly in Ohio and Iowa.

California 55
Texas 38
New York 29
Florida 29
Pennsylvania 20
Illinois 20
Ohio 18
Michigan 16
Georgia 16
North Carolina 15
New Jersey 14
Virginia 13
Washington 12
Tennessee 11
Massachusetts 11
Indiana 11
Arizona 11
Wisconsin 10
Missouri 10
Minnesota 10
Maryland 10
South Carolina 9
Colorado 9
Alabama 9

There is a list of 'swingy' states with a large and diverse enough population to go first. Ideally, there would be several that all go on the same day in different parts of the country.

Using tiny and virtually all white Iowa (84.5%) that votes normally for (R) candidates like Grassley or NH (88.3% white) that always votes for (D) is not helping us getting a candidate that appeals across the country. Just imagine if Joe Biden did not have enough money to make it to SC.

Just one man's ramblings on how to pick the best candidate for the general election rather than some tradition that makes the Iowa State fair an important political stump for Democrats

April 14, 2022

Why terrorism for some (black guy on subway) and not others (whites storming the capitol)

From the fbi website

Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.

Since they had not mentioned what ideological goals the NY subway gunman was trying to further. I wonder why -- this person of color -- with no obvious political affiliations when they arrested him according to the news outlets that I saw was arrested for terrorism.

Yet, the coup crowd which was overwhelmingly white and were definitely committing crimes to further ideological goals of a white nationalist state have had no defendant charged with terrorism.

Is it impossible in this country to be a terrorist without brown or black skin? Muslims, native americans, and blacks have been charged but not Bundy and his group. Not the January 6 coup.

The subway gunman may have been acting as a terrorist and not just a whack job who wanted to kill a lot of people. But -- it seems odd that this particular charge dropped so quickly on a black man and that the DOJ and FBI have been completely unwilling to use that charge against white supremacists.

March 18, 2022

Ohio Republicans discussing impeachment of Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor after map ruling

Source: Columbus Dispatch

House Republicans are discussing whether to impeach Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor after the Ohio Supreme Court rejected a third set of legislative maps and effectively ended all hope of a full May 3rd primary.

The court struck down the maps on Wednesday with O'Connor as the deciding vote, sending the Ohio Redistricting Commission back to the drawing board for the fourth time. A ruling on the latest congressional maps is expected any day.

O'Connor, a Republican, is seen as an independent voice on the court and sided with Democrat justices to throw out multiple sets of maps, arguing they did not comply with constitutional rules for redistricting. That's increasingly made her a target of fellow party members who contend she's shirking her responsibilities.

Read more: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/03/18/ohio-republicans-want-impeach-maureen-oconnor-over-redistricting/7088996001/?utm_source=dispatch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alerts&utm_term=news_alert&utm_content=OHIO-COLUMBUS-NLETTER01

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So -- let me get this straight. No allegations of a crime. No misdemeanor. No ethics violations. She just ruled according to the laws of the state of Ohio and the US Constitution and legal precedent.

And the party of 'law and order' wants her thrown out.

She won't let them gerrymander democrats and minorities completely out of the power structure and they want her gone.

These are of course the same folks who supported all of Ohio's national Rethugs who refused to impeach and remove someone who committed ACTUAL CRIMES -- not once but twice.

The hypocrisy makes me want to vomit even though I am not at all surprised by it.

March 7, 2022

Possible war crime penalties?

After listening to a report of a little town with no military targets or industry being shelled in Ukraine last night on radio news. They mentioned the possibility of war crimes charges. How realistic and powerful is that in today's situation?

Asking the experts at DU -- what is the worst punishment that Putin and the generals who are deliberately attacking civilians could face?

Is it actually possible to convict them?

Would any of that be a deterrent ?

October 13, 2021

Eve of destruction lyrics and today

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'
I'm sittin' here just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of Senators don't pass legislation

And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Was listening to music while I was working and these lyrics from Barry McGuire's Eve of destruction really struck me as so fitting for today.

Manchin and Sinema (handful of senators) don't pass legislation
Post Floyd marches by so many people -- and we have even more rising white supremacists storming the Capitol

I truly fear that unless those handful of Senators get on board ... we are truly on the eve of destruction -- first of our democracy and then the world because hate will spurn more wars to fuel the military-industrial complex as it has since Reagan because it is a great way to profiteer.

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