Occasional Reader 5/18/2020 6:50:54 AM

1

lucius septimius 5/18/2020 7:20:15 AM

2

Reply to Occasional Reader in 1: 

That's the second accident in less than a year.  I've seen them at the local airshow -- I wonder if those planes are getting a little long in the tooth.

lucius septimius 5/18/2020 7:21:44 AM

3

lucius septimius 5/18/2020 7:33:26 AM

4

Occasional Reader 5/18/2020 7:51:01 AM

5

In #3 lucius septimius said: the whole Flynn unmasking case.

What difference, at this point, does it make?  That's ancient history, a nontroversy, and we need to move on. 

Now: I'd like to turn to the breaking story that Donald Trump made fart jokes in sixth grade. 

JCM 5/18/2020 8:11:05 AM

6

Rantz: Seattle cop slammed for protecting free speech during racist incident

Releasing repeated offenders, not prosecuting crimes.

But this cop.... public enemy number ONE!

The incident reportedly began as a traffic argument, as Kert Lin was driving in the Home Depot parking lot in SoDo. There was a verbal altercation about being cut off. On Facebook, Lin says the man told him, “Chink open your eyes go back to China.”

Lin, a kindergarten teacher in Seattle, called 911 to report the incident. He said he was told by an officer who responded that “no crime was committed, that man was exercising his first amendment rights. No law broken, no report taken.”

A source tells me that the police report contradicts this claim by Lin. Initially, Lin did not reference the racial slur, bizarrely leaving it out of his complaint. Lin brought up the racial slur, I’m told, during a follow up a short time later.

vxbush 5/18/2020 8:28:47 AM

7

In #3 lucius septimius said: I'm glad to see that the WSJ is keeping up pressure on the whole Flynn unmasking case.  The other news outlets just want it to go away.  They invested so much in the Russian narrative that at this point they can't back down.

I am, too. But we really do need more "mainstream" organizations keeping up the pressure. It doesn't help that the various government agencies used the big-name media arms to leak the damaging news on Flynn and the others. They want to keep that access going (sort of like folks wanted access to Saddam Hussein, and China, and.... gee, I'm noticing a pattern here.)

Occasional Reader 5/18/2020 9:44:59 AM

8

doppelganglander 5/18/2020 9:45:31 AM

9

Reply to vxbush in 7:

If CBS had any sense, they would capitalize on Catherine Herridge's excellent work and take the lead on the story. They would be the top news outlet in no time, just as they were in the Walter Cronkite days. But they're terrified of being banished from the TDS cool kids' table.

vxbush 5/18/2020 9:52:15 AM

10

In #9 doppelganglander said: If CBS had any sense, they would capitalize on Catherine Herridge's excellent work and take the lead on the story. They would be the top news outlet in no time, just as they were in the Walter Cronkite days. But they're terrified of being banished from the TDS cool kids' table.

That's an excellent point, and in some ways shows you how timid the journalism industry has become. 

Occasional Reader 5/18/2020 9:55:46 AM

11

In #9 doppelganglander said: f CBS had any sense, they would capitalize on Catherine Herridge's excellent work and take the lead on the story. They would be the top news outlet in no time, just as they were in the Walter Cronkite days. But they're terrified of being banished from the TDS cool kids' table.

They're still resting on their laurels from the G.W. Bush/TANG Memo big scoop.

/

lucius septimius 5/18/2020 10:36:57 AM

12

Reply to vxbush in 7:

Reply to doppelganglander in 9:

One big problem with journalists is their almost limitless vanity.  Authoritarian regimes and dishonest politicians know how to play on that -- they offer "scoops" that make the journalist feel powerful and intelligent when in fact they're merely being fed a line and are too stupid/incurious to figure that out.  And once they've run the "scoop" their ego prevents them from every admitting they might have been wrong.  So they double-down and just keep repeating the original story, framing every counter-argument as "conspiracy" or "obfuscation" or "distraction" or whatever the term of the moment is.  And being good little narcissists, journalists will fight to the death to maintain that whatever they originally ran was morally justifiable even if proven false.

I'd love to see a personality profile of journalists, but I'd bet they'd show up as having absurdly inflated senses of self-worth.

doppelganglander 5/18/2020 10:48:39 AM

13

Reply to lucius septimius in 12:

I think you've nailed it. It's a common trait among business leaders, politicians, doctors, and dare I say academics - people who have been told all their lives they're smart. They are smart, but they can be wrong just like anyone else. Perhaps that's why, when they're challenged, they resort to ad hominem attacks. Clearly,  if you disagree with The Experts, you must be a moron and not worth debating. 

JCM 5/18/2020 11:06:32 AM

14

Reply to doppelganglander in 13:

That's also a demarcation I've observed between liberals and conservatives.

Liberals think they are smart, all the new trendy social ideas, and if you disagree they resort to ad hominem attacks.

Which helps explain the dominance of liberals in those areas. Areas which lend themselves to less consequences for being wrong.

If I get something wrong... it doesn't work. And if I have to fix what I got wrong. I can't say well the software is stupid and racist.

I have plenty of examples of the software being wrong, and me being right, but I have to prove it using data. Then someone has to replicate it.

lucius septimius 5/18/2020 11:55:19 AM

15

Reply to JCM in 14:

Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken. 

PaladinPhil 5/18/2020 12:35:22 PM

16

Saw something on facebook so I thought I would check it out.

Scroll down and let me know when you get it. :)

doppelganglander 5/18/2020 1:16:08 PM

17

Reply to JCM in 14:

My field, broadly speaking, is learning sciences. It's full of trendy theories, most of which are found to be badly flawed or outright false within 20 years. They tend to gain currency in K-12 and higher ed before being abandoned. Many theories are never attempted in the corporate world because business leaders demand proof of results before they throw money at a problem. Crazy, huh?

Occasional Reader 5/18/2020 1:42:40 PM

18

Reply to PaladinPhil in 16:

I've only fired a lever-action rifle once, at my range.  Hated it.  Then again, this was a rental gun, with the usual piss-poor maintenance. 

JCM 5/18/2020 1:47:14 PM

19

Reply to doppelganglander in 17:

Due to my kiddo's learning issues I've gotten a lot of time in dealing with school admin types.

Boy talk about an umimpressive lot. Peter Principle most of them, since they are union and hard to get rid of them promote them to admin to get them out of the class room. Not a one of they can think out side the policy manual and process book. The problem is solved if all the forms have been filled out correctly. Not a one of them would last a day in the corporate world. 

PaladinPhil 5/18/2020 1:49:03 PM

20

JCM 5/18/2020 1:58:53 PM

21

Reply to Occasional Reader in 18:

I've fired a butter smooth Henry. Absolutely a joy to fire.