March 9, 2019

NOVA Memory Hackers

March 8, 2019

paul manafort's "largely blameless life"

I guess "judge" ellis isn't much of a news junkie and/or he doesn't have Google. If ellis has Google and can figure out how to use it, he should Google "manafort operation sea breeze" and such.

Or maybe ellis is just another fucking repubican traitor - oh, that's right, no distinction there anymore - if they're a repubican they're a traitor.

But all of them are blameless in their own eyes. Just like manafort. And trump. And all the rest.

What Did Ex-Trump Aide Paul Manafort Really Do in Ukraine?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-did-ex-trump-aide-paul-manafort-really-do-ukraine-n775431

UKRAINE: OPPOSITION CREATES TEMPEST OVER "SEA BREEZE" IN CRIMEA
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/21/1789921/-UKR-Party-of-Regions-that-Manafort-advised-attacked-our-US-MARINES-here-s-the-Russian-connection

Russia threatens ‘negative consequences’ over Marine exercise with Ukraine in the Black Sea
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/07/19/russia-threatens-negative-consequences-over-marine-exercise-with-ukraine-in-the-black-sea/

Trump Aide Connected To 2006 Overseas Attack On US Marines
https://taskandpurpose.com/manafort-connected-ukraine-attack-marines-trump

For fuck's sake, even wikileaks has it!

UKRAINE: OPPOSITION CREATES TEMPEST OVER "SEA BREEZE" IN CRIMEA
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06KIEV2190_a.html

We've been overthrown from within. Just like manafort tried in the Ukraine. Thanks very much "judge" ellis for your invaluable contribution to the overthrow - letting everyone involved know they're safe to continue.

March 8, 2019

Here are some people Judge Ellis was harder on than Paul Manafort.

Here are some people Judge Ellis was harder on than Paul Manafort.
by Eric Pfeiffer
March 7, 2017 17:25

"President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday for charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Feder Judge T.S. Ellis technically sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison, far shorter than the recommended sentence of more than 20 years that came from Mueller and his team. Even more surprising, Ellis is giving Manafort credit for the nine months he’s already been behind bars, meaning he will likely be out of prison in just over three years if not sooner.

And it’s unlikely Manafort will be serving “hard time” compared to your typical incarcerated individual. His lawyer is already pushing for Manafort to serve his remaining time in a minimum security “labor camp” in Maryland.

But Judge Ellis is rarely so lenient with his other sentences."

I'm too pissed to make a comment.

Read on:
https://www.good.is/articles/paul-manafort-sentencing-judge-ellis

March 7, 2019

Re-reading Thoreau's Civil Disobedience in today's trumpfucked world

I had an appointment at service center today for an unusual noise in my car. It's 12 years old but it only has 95,000 on the odometer and has been serviced no schedule since I purchased it new. I maintain it like a space shuttle. Unusual noises disturb me. So I thought it best to bring a book with me until at least the diagnosis was done.

I realized I needed some Thoreau more than ever right about now. I re-read Civil Disobedience while the technician put the car up on the lift. I've read Civil Disobedience many times over the years but not for the past three years, since the traitor was "elected".

Reading Civil Disobedience in the age of trump was like reading it for the first time. The prescience of Thoreau is stunning. I wanted to post excerpts I found the most appropriate to our current quandary but I realized I'd have to post most of the essay so I'm linking it for your required reading.

Read it again for yourself, read it as if pertinent sections were written contemporaneously and I believe you'll be as stunned as I was.

Civil Disobedience
By Henry David Thoreau

1849
or 2016?

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper2/thoreau/civil.html

March 2, 2019

Watch 'CNN Christie' vs. 'Fox News Christie'!

Watch ‘CNN Christie’ vs. ‘Fox News Christie’! First Gov. bashes Trump as a liar on CNN, then defends him on Fox

By Claude Brodesser-Akner | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

"Go pop some corn, because whatever your politics, this is some amazing TV."

https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/03/watch-cnn-christie-vs-fox-news-christie-first-gov-bashes-trump-as-a-liar-on-cnn-then-defends-him-on-fox.html

New Jersey will be decades recovering from chris christie. America may never recover from donald trump. Both are prime examples of people who should NEVER be allowed near the reins of power - any power - even as parking lot attendants, IMO.

February 27, 2019

The really bad things that would happen if a Hudson River rail tunnel closed

The new Hudson River ARC tunnel would have been completed next year, the digging had already begun, and at half the proposed cost of the "will it ever be built" tunnel they're discussing the initial stages of right now.

As my mom used to say, "2+2=4". This is a case of 1+1=2 because the two stories below add up. chris christie strikes again. I sure hope Mueller has something indictable on this useless sack of blubber. chris christie was New Jersey's donald trump. It will take us decades to recover from his criminal abuse of office.

If one of these 108 year old Sandy damaged Hudson River rail tunnels has to close we're in for a transit and economic nightmare.

Thank you chris christie. He stole the $3 billion in funding to plug a hole in his transportation fund because he didn't want to raise taxes and risk his chances in the 2016 presidential race.

That sounds like some episode of Seinfeld right about now. How can anyone so corpulent be so empty? It's easy. He's chris christie.

https://www.nj.com/traffic/2019/02/the-really-bad-things-that-would-happen-if-a-hudson-river-rail-tunnel-closed-even-if-you-dont-use-nj-transit.html

The really bad things that would happen if a Hudson River rail tunnel closed (even if you don’t use NJ Transit)

By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

"Even if you don’t take the train to a job in New York, your life will be affected - from your commute to the value of your home - if one of the 108-year old Hudson River rail tunnels has to close down to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Even the national economy could see a multi-billion dollar hit, according to an analysis conducted by the Regional Plan Association, an independent, non-profit civic and planning organization in the New York metropolitan area.
The problem

Amtrak officials sounded the alarm in October 2014 that damage from salt water and chemicals in flood waters driven by Hurricane Sandy would mean closing one tunnel at a time for rehabilitation. Shutting down a tunnel for repair will cut rail capacity of Amtrak and NJ Transit trains by 75 percent. Here are seven effects RPA said will cascade if a tunnel closes. Each weekday the Hudson River Tunnel carries 150,000 people traveling in 330 NJ Transit commuter trains."

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/02/what-was-christies-worst-mistake-hint-its-not-bridgegate.html

What was Christie’s worst mistake? Hint: It’s not Bridgegate.

By Tom Moran | Star-Ledger Editorial Board

"Chris Christie will always be remembered for the Bridgegate scandal, for the stupidity of the stunt and for the lies he told that were definitively exposed during the federal trial.

But that wasn’t his worst mistake. Save that honor for his decision to halt construction of a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, to spend the money set aside for the project, and to turn back $3 billion in federal aid earmarked for it.

That stunt enabled Christie to avoid raising the gas tax until after his 2016 presidential run. But it left us with two rickety old tubes that are now so decrepit we should all be terrified. Engineers rush to slap on band-aids at night and on weekends, but they warn that time is running out. At some point, the two tubes will have to be shut down, gutted, and rebuilt, one at a time.

Now, a fresh report from the Regional Plan Association spells out what will happen when that day comes. It could be tomorrow, or a year from now, or several years down the road."

February 27, 2019

When trump and all his childen are sentenced to long prison terms

Will trump be allowed conjugal visits with ivanka?

Enquiring minds want to know.

February 23, 2019

Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

Hidden in the NY Times Business section, the story of one smart phone addict's attempt at recovery.

Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

By Kevin Roose

Feb. 23, 2019

"I’ve been a heavy phone user for my entire adult life. But sometime last year, I crossed the invisible line into problem territory. My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube k-holes) weren’t helping. I tried various tricks to curb my usage, like deleting Twitter every weekend, turning my screen grayscale and installing app-blockers. But I always relapsed."

...

"When we started, I sent her my screen time statistics, which showed that I had spent 5 hours and 37 minutes on my phone that day, and picked it up 101 times — roughly twice as many as the average American."

...

"Allow me a bit of bragging: Over the course of 30 days, my average daily phone time, as measured by the iPhone’s built-in screen time tracker, has dwindled from around five hours to just over an hour. I now pick up my phone only about 20 times a day, down from more than 100. I still use my phone for email and texting — and I’m still using my laptop plenty — but I don’t itch for social media, and I often go hours without so much as a peek at any screen."

...

"But there is a way out. I haven’t taken an M.R.I. or undergone a psychiatric evaluation, but I’d bet that something fundamental has shifted inside my brain in the past month. A few weeks ago, the world on my phone seemed more compelling than the offline world — more colorful, faster-moving and with a bigger scope of rewards."

When I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania in the 1950s, some days I used to just lay in the tall grass on a hill and watch the clouds pass by for hours. I'd imagine shapes in the clouds and just let my mind wander, there's a pirate ship, an angel, a bear, a castle. Children would run the hills all day, assembling teams for baseball or football, building igloos, or just wandering aimlessly alive.

We were learning important social and life skills. We were learning to deal with people one on one and in groups. We were connecting with the natural world around us. We were mapping our entire environment in our heads.

Today, people are sacrificing much more than they realize with their addictive dependence on smart phones losing those critical mental and social skills while occupying a solitary confinement cell of their own making. Technology, like just about everything else, has its positive and negative sides. Information at your fingertips is an incredibly powerful tool but when the tool takes over for your brain, becoming in effect an "exo-brain", who is the user and who is the tool?

I truly believe smart phones are a huge cause of many of the problems we face today. They've fundamentally changed the way our brains work, how we process information, use (or more accurately no longer use) our short and long term memory, are losing our brains' critical ability to map our environment, shortening our attention spans to milliseconds, etc. They are constant companions surreptitiously changing our brains and the way we view and understand our world. They can and are being used to manipulate our minds, including during elections, the effect of which alone should be cautionary tale enough to shock people back into reality. But so far, it hasn't.

I don't need a smart phone. I'm smart. So is everyone else. Until they become addicted to their smart phone.

Now put down that damn smart phone and read on:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/business/cell-phone-addiction.html

February 20, 2019

80 years ago, New York hosted a chilling Nazi rally. Watch N.J. director's Oscar-nominated short fil

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN

80 years ago, New York hosted a chilling Nazi rally. Watch N.J. director’s Oscar-nominated short film

https://vimeo.com/237489146

We defeated the nazis in WWII. Or so we thought. Today, in magat land, we're facing them again. This time led by the same person in dyed orange and on our side of the Atlantic.

Read more:
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2019/02/80-years-ago-new-york-hosted-a-chilling-nazi-rally-watch-nj-directors-oscar-nominated-short-film.html

BTW - do you believe in reincarnation? I do. adolf hitler died, reportedly, in a bunker in Berlin in 1945.

donald j trump was born in 1946.

Just sayin'.

February 20, 2019

What I'd love to see Judge Amy Berman Jackson do to roger stone on Thursday

I'd love to see Judge Jackson order roger stone to stand and do his best nixon impersonation.

You know, like this:



Then order him to put his hands behind his back, order the bailiff to handcuff him and LOCK HIM UP!