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Saturday, April 30, 2016

Closed Sundays

  The blog is closed on Sundays. See you bright and early Monday morning.

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee - The Wrong Guy

Nihilists

Salon: Stop calling them conservatives! The new GOP of Trump & Cruz is the party of nihilism - Even as unattractive a label as "conservative" is too good for the extremism of today's leading Republicans by Conor Lynch

Thanks And No Thanks

NYT: Run on a Ticket With Donald Trump? No, Thanks, Many Republicans Say By PATRICK HEALY and ASHLEY PARKER
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, as well as Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, said in interviews that they would consider joining the ticket if Mr. Trump offered. Two governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, have also told allies that they were open to being Mr. Trump’s running mate.

Have An Excellent Saturday

work by Imran Qureshi

The Onion - Crops Begin Emerging From Farmlands Across Nation As Monsanto CEO Slowly Raises Arms

The Onion: Crops Begin Emerging From Farmlands Across Nation As Monsanto CEO Slowly Raises Arms

Nicotinamide Riboside

Science Daily: Vitamin stops the aging process of organs - Nicotinamide riboside rejuvenates stem cells, allowing better regeneration processes in aged mice
summary - By administering nicotinamide riboside to elderly mice, researchers restored their organs' ability to regenerate and prolonged their lives. This method has potential for treating a number of degenerative diseases.

TRNN - A Tale Of Two Police Shootings

California

MSNBC: Trump’s California campaign shows how he could doom the GOP
During campaign stops, Trump has frequently invited Steinle’s family, and the handfuls of others who’ve experienced similar tragedies, to join him onstage to highlight the hazards of illegal immigration. For many conservatives, the image of grieving families onstage alongside Trump perfectly captures the injustices of immigration – undocumented criminals shouldn’t be in the U.S. in the first place. Had those convicts not been here, maybe those victims would still be alive.

Glimpses Of A Trump Administration

Guardian UK: Donald Trump forced from his motorcade amid chaotic protests at California convention - Hundreds stormed area where frontrunner went to address Republicans - With entrance blocked, Trump was forced to exit vehicle to access hotel
Some protesters managed to get inside the Hyatt Regency by booking rooms in advance. When inside they unfurled two large Stop Hate banners from the upper floors that could be seen from outside, where protesters hurled eggs, clashed with baton-wielding police, and blocked roads.

Bad Apple

Guardian UK: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn sells entire stake in Apple - Icahn has sold his shares in the company because of concerns over China’s influence on its stock price

Global Warming - 'The Madness Of King Al'

  The article is decidedly in the 'denier' category, as the fact that more and more conservatives are understanding that there is in fact global warming significantly disturbs the author.

Investor's Business Daily: The Madness Of King Al: More Republicans Believing In Global Warming

Oopsie

AlterNet: Oops! No One Told Ted Cruz That Delegates Pick the VP at a Contested Convention (Video) Cruz/Fiorina is an even bigger disaster than you thought. By Alexandra Rosenmann

Friday, April 29, 2016

The Wiz

WBRC: KKK leader disavows violent past, declares Trump 'best' for president
"He has been a very good recruiting tool for this organization,” said the Imperial Wizard of President Barack Obama. “And it's not because he's black. We are more political than racial."

“I think Donald Trump would be best for the job,” said the Imperial Wizard. "The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in. We want our country to be safe."

The Protests Continue

KTLA5: Donald Trump Greeted by Protesters, Supporters at California GOP Convention in Bay Area

Shunned

FiveThirtyEight: Republicans In Competitive Races Have Shunned Trump - And Pence is one of the first to back Cruz. By Nate Silver
With the exception of a single congressman from Western New York, no Republican who faces a competitive gubernatorial, Senate or House election this November has endorsed Trump.

Have An Excellent Friday

work by Imran Qureshi

The Onion - Officials Starting To Think School Just Not Nation’s Thing

The Onion: Officials Starting To Think School Just Not Nation’s Thing

Intestinal Bacteria, Health

Science Daily: Lifestyle has a strong impact on intestinal bacteria, which has a strong impact on health
summary - Everything you eat or drink affects your intestinal bacteria, and is likely to have an impact on your health. That is the finding of a large-scale study into the effect of food and medicine on the bacterial diversity in the human gut.

TRNN - Lucifer, Trump And Who’s Behind The GOP Factions?

No Comment

MSNBC: Is Indiana the last hope for #NeverTrump?

'Believe Me'

Guardian UK: Protesters clash with Trump supporters at California rally - Republican frontrunner restates plans for US-Mexican wall at Orange County event as large crowd demonstrates outside venue
Little of the drama on the streets permeated the rally itself, where security was ferocious and Trump repeatedly expressed disappointment not to be able to face down protesters himself. Apparently unaware of the growing chaos outside, he even boasted: “Our rallies are the safest place to be on Earth, believe me.”

The Nastier The Better

  This will be the dirtiest election ever.

Guardian UK: Trump, Cruz aides advised Guatemalan candidate vowing televised executions - Exclusive: Tim Clark and Ron Nehring, running California campaigns for Trump and Cruz respectively, advised rightwing tycoon Manuel Baldízon’s campaign
Clark and Nehring, the Guardian can reveal, spent six weeks in Guatemala in 2011 working as advisers to Manuel Baldízon, a rightwing populist and business tycoon who campaigned on the promise of broadcasting the executions of criminals on TV.

Global Warming - The Oceans, Another Take

WaPo: Global warming could deplete the oceans’ oxygen – with severe consequences By Chris Mooney
The oceans are getting warmer — they are, after all, where 90 percent of global warming actually ends up. And when they warm up they expand, because that’s what warm water does. This raises our sea levels, but it also has another effect — it reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. That’s simply physics: Warmer water contains less oxygen.

The Drone Wars

AlterNet: Drone Wars Produce PTSD Victims on Both Sides - In Washington’s drone wars, collateral damage comes home. By Pratap Chatterjee
In addition to those they kill, Washington’s drones turn out to wound (in ways both physical and psychological) their own operators and the populations who live under their constant surveillance. They leave behind very real victims with all-too-real damage, often in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder on opposite sides of the globe.

The Market On Friday

  Good morning. It is 47 degrees and it is sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. The forecast predicts a sunny day with temperatures in the low 60s this afternoon. Well another week has flown by once again, and on CNN the big headline is how Trump is trying to sway Bernie Sanders supporters. Let the head shaking begin; a Bernie Sanders supporter who switches to Trump needs to do some deep deep deep soul searching, because you are one confused puppy.

  At 9:00 a.m. ET futures are modestly lower and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open lower.

  Quickly glancing around at this morning's market data, we see that oil has reached a level not seen in over 6 months. Oil is now trading in the $46.50 area and besides Amazon seems to be one of the few gainers this morning. Of course it's a long day and the market can potentially swing over a 7 hour period.

CNN: Stocks: 5 things to know before the open by Ivana Kottasova
Crude futures are edging up nearly 1%. Oil hit another 2016 high on Thursday, surpassing $46 per barrel, levels last seen since November 2015.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

'Comfortably Numb'

David Gilmour

Attacking Trump

Donald Who

Politico: GOP senators in denial about Trump - Republican lawmakers refuse to acknowledge the business baron as their standard bearer even as he closes in on the nomination. By Burgess Everett

Split

Gallup: Americans Split on Idea of Withdrawing From Trade Treaties

Incoherent Tradition

The Atlantic: Donald Trump and the GOP Tradition of Foreign-Policy Incoherence - It's easy to mock the Republican front-runner. But the “more serious” candidates he toppled don’t make a lot more sense.

Resolution

WaPo: The end is near: Clinton and Sanders camps quietly signal resolution
... it wouldn’t be that hard to work out some kind of solution, in which Clinton redoubles her vow to prioritize areas in which they agree (such as campaign finance and voting access reform) and firms up her commitments to broad goals in areas where they still differ (somewhat), such as the $15 minimum wage and efforts to combat climate change....

Have A Great Thursday

work by Imran Qureshi

The Onion - Brita Unveils New In-Throat Water Filters

The Onion: Brita Unveils New In-Throat Water Filters

Driveway Sealcoats

Science Daily: Coal-tar based sealcoats on driveways, parking lots far more toxic than suspected
summary - The pavement sealcoat products used widely around the nation on thousands of asphalt driveways and parking lots are significantly more toxic and mutagenic than previously suspected, according to a new article.

TRNN - The All-Volunteer Military And American National Security

Battle Plan

MSNBC: Hillary Clinton’s five-step plan to beat Trump’s personal attacks
Nearly a quarter of Republicans who voted in Tuesday’s primaries say they won’t vote Trump in November, according to NBC News exit polls. Sitting senators and conservative leaders have made similar promises, while none other than Charles Koch left the door open to voting for Clinton.

Trump Contradicts Himself On Every Single Issue

  Someone who fails to recognize that they are continuously contradicting themselves, is not a smart person.

Guardian UK: Ten inconsistencies in Donald Trump's big foreign policy address - How closely the Republican frontrunner’s first big foreign policy speech stands up to detailed scrutiny is already the subject of fierce political debate
Perhaps Trump is just trying to live up to his maxim of keeping the world guessing. “We have to be unpredictable and we have to be unpredictable starting now,” he argued at the start of the speech. Except, by the end, he argued for the virtues of a more transparent and principled approach: “The best way to achieve those goals is through a disciplined, deliberate and consistent foreign policy.”

ISIS Destabilized

  It's rather repulsive listening to Trump go on about ISIS when the world community is doing the job of taking the group apart piece by piece, right now. The only thing that continues to come to mind is how utterly out of touch Trump's supporters are. These people clearly don't read and don't care to read, they prefer to operate on a pile of lies and deliberate disinformation.

Guardian UK: Isis has been financially weakened, claim UK and US military figures - Group resorting to arbitrary fines, extortion and gangsterism in face of airstrikes and recapturing of territory, say commanders
...airstrikes on Islamic State-controlled oilfields, recapture of Isis-held territory and destruction of the group’s cash storage sites containing up to $800m (£550m) may have destabilised the self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq...

Global Warming - Oceans

Science Daily: Deep-sea biodiversity impacted by climate change's triple threat - Researchers find a key effect of oxygen loss and that climate change impacts vary by region
summary - A new study found that vulnerability of deep-sea biodiversity to climate change's triple threat -- rising water temperatures, and decreased oxygen, and pH levels -- is not uniform across the world's oceans.

A World Gone Nuts

AlterNet: Teenage Girls Increasingly Requesting Labiaplasty to Get the Perfect Designer Vagina - Very young women are going under the knife to sculpt parts that are still growing and changing. By Kali Holloway
"One theory is that girls these days are seeing images of 'idealized' bodies," Julie Strickland, chair of ACOG’s Adolescent Health Care Committee tells WebMD. "There have also been cultural changes, with more girls grooming their pubic hair. That may make them more self-conscious about the appearance of their genitals."

The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 47 degrees and it is sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley. The forecast has it going up near 60 degrees this afternoon and it will be sunny, I hope. Hey did you see Carly Fiorina, our new Vice President in waiting, yesterday at the Ted Cruz announcement? I saw it and couldn't help but be significantly amused. Here's what that great announcement means, Donald Trump, holding back the throat vomit here, will be the 2016 GOP presidential nominee. Yup the petulant bully child-man with the penchant for the sledge hammer school of subtlety will be vying for president and god help us if he wins, no really god help us, really.

  At 9:00 a.m. ET futures are significantly lower and the price of oil per barrel is up now trading in the $45.35 area. The market is poised to tank at the opening bell.

  Long story short, not a pretty day for stocks, maybe the market will rally later on and cut some losses but it's looking ugly. The Bank Of Japan has held back on more q.e. and that's a bummer. Then the US first quarter GDP came in at .5% growth, we barely gained a silly millimeter. That information does not make investors tingly happy.

CNN: Stocks: 5 things to know before the open by Ivana Kottasova
The Bank of Japan dashed investors' hopes for more economic stimulus on Thursday. The bank kept interest rates unchanged and held off from expanding its big asset purchase program, despite the Japanese economy falling back into deflation last month.