We can remember Obama the way we remember FDR or JFK, he was dreamy, and he did the ACA, and dug us out of a depression, but in the end the US lost under Obama. We now know that for sure. Whoever leads us next, if we're lucky enough to have that be in 2021, that has to be someone who accepts the US as it is, not as it was. #Even if Biden were 30 years younger, even if he were a great candidate who inspired love and trust, the fact that he came from the Obama presidency means he could not get elected. #
35.3% said Klobuchar would finish third in New Hampshire. Not bad. The number one answer was fourth or lower, at 45.4%.#
Braintrust query: I have a JavaScript app running in the browser. I want it to quit when another copy of the same app is opened in another tab. I used to do this with a localStorage value. Set it to a random string of 25 characters. Periodically compare the string in localStorage with the one I set at startup. If it's different I know another copy of the app is running, and I (used to) exit via window.close. This no longer works. There's an error from the browser, "Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it." So is there no way for an app to quit on its own without a user interaction?#
- It may be time to disengage from the daily news a la Maddow et al. #
- I think they're plucking the strings when they're ready to, not when the news is happening.#
- I don't think it's malice, but there are certainly things happening we can't see that they don't talk about publicly.#
- I find I wish I could ask my grandparents what they did when their societies were going through this kind of transition. Stalin, Hitler, etc. #
- Yup this is depressing, but while this is going on, it's still the same planet and climate, more or less, as it was last year this time. And I'm feeling good so that's something. #
- Life is a challenge. It ain't over till it's over. Namaste y'all.#
- I've read that former NYC mayor Bloomberg killed NYC's soul. As a son of New York, born and raised there, and who recently spent nine years living there, this is a perennial story, told many times every generation, and so far, it has never been true. #
- They said it when my family came to the city in the 1940s. Refugees from Europe will destroy the soul of the city. I don't think so. We were just added to the melting pot. Before that it was the Irish, Italians, African Americans, Hispanics, every race, religion, you name it, they've all been accused of destroying the city.#
- Now they're replacing the great delis, diners and bodegas with ATM farms, the soul of the city is being destroyed they say, I agree, but read on.#
- I assume that Bloomberg did incentivize the obscene construction of residential skyscrapers in Manhattan, esp on the southern edge of Central Park, blocking out sunlight, to provide excellent views to Russian oligarchs and Saudi oil princes who are never there. But at the same time, Queens, the borough that raised me, that was a sleepy boring white bread place when I was growing up, has become the melting pot Manhattan used to be. People actually go to Flushing to eat the best Asian food in the city. If you had told me that when I was growing up there, I would have said it'll never happen. Flushing is an embarassment. It has a creek that smells like a sewer. And for crying out loud it's named Flushing. Geez. #
- The city is complex, huge, impossible to control. It's possible that some things Bloomberg did to the city may have lasting negative consequences, but he also made some things better. My favorite Bloomberg accomplishment were the bike lanes. I must have ridden five thousand miles in the city in the last decade. It's an excellent city for biking, but who would have thought that? Not me. #
- What's going on with the DoJ is serious, the news has captured that, but the reporting misses a few important things.#
- Why we don't want justice to be partisan. The reports assume people understand, but I think a lot of people may not put two and two together. If justice is applied not based on evidence but on whether you're in favor with the president, the inverse will happen too, people are prosecuted because they're enemies of the president. Expect Comey to be arrested soon, and perhaps Schiff, Pelosi, Romney and others who have crossed Trump in more powerful ways that poor Colonel Vindman. You may say, oh well, the president is just one person, how much damage can he do, but he is the top person, and people below will look for signals and will inevitably try please him. You end up with justice being bought and paid for in favors to the top guy and his capos. A government not of laws, but of organized crime. However cynical you may be about justice in the US, the system we've lived with has rules that limit abuse, but those rules appear to be slipping away now. #
- This isn't the first time "crony justice" has happened in the last few months, or even the biggest travesty. Recall that the DoJ refused to investigate the accusations of the Ukraine whistleblower that led to Trump's impeachment. So the House had to do its own investigating. The congressional Republicans made an issue of how the Democrats did the investigating, but the press for the most part overlooked that they shouldn't have had to do the investigating in the first place. That's why we have a DoJ. When the government is properly functioning it would have been routine, but Barr is acting as the president's attorney, not the US's attorney, therefore of course he didn't investigate.#
- The various departments may report to the president but they work for Congress as much as they do the president. No longer true. That's why the second article of impeachment, the one Romney didn't vote for, was so important. #
- Also while it's honorable for a DoJ lawyer to resign a case, or resign from the department, and something we should applaud (as opposed to standing by and accepting the malpractice), also note that it serves Barr's purposes to get rid of the ethical people who remain, and once gone they can no longer sound the alarm. #