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Open Thread 2/4

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– Sorry this is so late. I was out probably too late on Sunday and had to get up early to head down to Olympia on Monday (for this, no report on it since I went as an activist not as a writer). And then I overslept and forgot my computer this morning. Basically, what I’m saying is boo, Carl.

– One thing that I did pick up is that Rodney Tom is a coward. Also, yay there’s someone running against him (Seattle Times link).

– The SNAP cuts, the pathetic minimum wage increase…these are the primary result of over half a century of race-baiting by a small group of well-funded, paranoid, white bigots, hellbent on destroying the one thing that stands in the way of their ability to trample all over the rights of whomever they damned well please: the American government.

– Apparently the Superbowl transit was a mess, and quite avoidable.

– Always nice when a local place gets recognition in a national magazine. Well done Central Cinema (they also had some other NW theaters for food lovers, but CC was the only one I’ve been to).

– I’m not sure exactly what a city needs to buy to have Amazon classify it as romantic, but I’m pretty sure this list is flawed.

Comments

  1. 1

    More proof that businesses are dishonest: A hotel management firm didn’t disclose that customers’ credit card numbers were stolen. A blogger made it public. Now people are talking about laws to FORCE businesses to reveal that they have allowed thieves to get customers’ personal and financial information — because dishonest businessmen who care more about not losing business than the welfare of their customers won’t do it unless they’re FORCED to do it.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/101388340

  2. 2

    There’s no ethics in American business anymore, and hasn’t been for many years. The only thing they care about is profits, the customers be damned.

  3. 3

    Hmmm, I checked out that SNAP link, and there’s 30 corporate logos on that flag, representing America’s worst corporate “welfare queens.” I own the stocks of only 8 of them, so I’d better get busy. I invest in the fattest corporate pigs I can find, because they make the most money.

  4. 4

    In South Carolina, a 94-year-old retired teacher who had worked with special needs kids, lived in a modest home, and drove a 1980s-vintage Cadillac, left $8.4 million to charity, half of which will go to a no-kill animal shelter. Nobody knew she was rich.
    Her hobby was investing in stocks.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....d=webmail1

  6. 6

    1-800-FUCK-YOU Is No Joke

    The latest rightwing “joke” making the rounds is that the Obamacare hotline help number spells “1-800-FUCK-YOU.” In fact, it doesn’t; according to Snopes, that number belongs to a phone sex service. The righties can’t even make up a joke without lying about it.

  7. 7

    Roger are there any ethics in government? How about in religion? What about in the press?

  8. 8

    @7 Yes, there are many ethical people working in government, ministries, and media, and I’ve been privileged to know some of them.

    On the other hand, I brought a frozen pizza home from the supermarket a couple nights ago, and when I opened it, the pizza was much smaller than the box it came in. The packaging was deliberately designed to make the pizza look bigger than it is, and conceal how small it actually is. That’s typical of how business is done today.

  9. 9

    @5 Thanks for the link! It takes almost 3 hours to watch the debate, but it’s worth the time. About 36 minutes in, Ken Ham, the creationist, runs into what I consider to be a serious logical problem.

    Basically, he tries to bifurcate “science” into two categories: Observational and historical. He says “observational” science is what we can directly observe, for example a laboratory experiment, or looking at bacteria with a microscope. “Historical” science is things that happened in the past which we can’t verify from direct observation because we weren’t there to observe them.

    His argument, as I understand it, is that we can only know for sure those things we can directly observe ourselves. This sounds awfully like a restatement of the old freshman philosophy question: “If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to see it fall, does it exist?”

    Of course it does; the existence of something doesn’t depend on whether any of you stupid humans are aware of its existence or are there to observe it. The notion that something that happened before you stupid humans existed (e.g., the Big Bang) is open to question because there were no humans to observe it is absurd logic. The Big Bang may be open to questions for other reasons, but not for that reason. This is so self-evident it shouldn’t need any discussion.

    It sounds awfully like Ham is advocating the same kind of human-centric worldview that used to lead people to believe the sun and planets and everything else in the cosmos orbited around the earth; that earth is the center of the universe because it’s where humans are. Of course, many of you stupid humans’ ancestors actually did believe this nonsense, but that doesn’t mean you stupid humans were even dumber then; this belief system was a product and phenomenon of the culture that existed at the time.

  10. 10

    Seems like the 787 is having production issues again. The machinists having to fix issues on fuselage sections that had arrived in Everett.
    http://seattletimes.com/html/b.....onxml.html

    Trouble on assembly line

    The plane now at the back of the Everett line —the fourth of the new, larger 787-9 models, being built for Air New Zealand — is “a freaking nightmare … in horrible shape,” the senior Everett employee said.

    Coaxial and fiber optic cables used for radio communications and data transmission are missing from the mid-fuselage section, which is much less complete than the corresponding sections on the two prior 787-9 models that came down the line.

    Ahead of the Air New Zealand jet on the line, work on a 787-8 for Polish airline LOT was delayed many hours as Everett employees tried to discover why an electrical system wasn’t working.

    It turned out that six wires in a bundle of about 50 in the mid-fuselage were not connected, even though the paperwork from Charleston showed the work complete. The loose connectors were still hanging with zip-tied plastic bags around them.

    Although a Charleston quality inspector signed off on the mechanic’s work, “it was not done,” the senior Everett employee said. “Fifty connectors were supposedly hooked up and six were not even taken out of the bags.”

    And ahead of the LOT plane on the line, on a 787-8 destined for Aeromexico, an electronics unit was damaged and had to be replaced after installation in Everett because Charleston mechanics had inadvertently left the plastic caps on some connectors — an issue that on several previous occasions had been reported back to South Carolina.

    The Boeing employees cited in this story — whether in Everett or North Charleston — cannot be named because they spoke without company authorization.

    The company declined to respond to any of the specific problems they cited. Instead it offered a general assurance that the “challenges” in Charleston are temporary and that management “has a solid plan to continue to implement improvements as we go forward.”

  11. 11

    @10 Yep, build it in South Carolina with cheap non-union labor; fix it in Everett with skilled union labor.

    You get what you pay for.

  12. 12

    Responding to criticism that his Super Bowl interview was a re-hashing of Partisan ‘scandal’, Bill “The Clown” O’Reilly:

    “These aren’t questions that all Americans should be interested in? No. Just Republicans should be.”

    Bill, I don’ think you know what media bias is? I’ll deal with the IRS ‘Scandal.” Because most non-Republicans understand that after Darryl Issa’s biased investigation we still know that the IRS was scrutinizing groups who’s names suggested they were engaging in politics and thus ineligible for the tax status to which they applied AND that scrutinized groups consisted of both left and right groups and ONLY far right partisans are unable to accept the quite obvious evidence of such, Americans should be interested in this question.

    In other words, because I Bill O’Reilly and Fox News are still claiming this is a scandal, this is a scandal. In other words, I Bill O’Reilly have come to a conclusion and so you must listen to my conclusion. In other words, I, Bill O’Reilly have inserted my biased views into my news gathering.

  14. 14

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....31846.html

    Double shared Toilets. Vicious Anti Gay Bigotry. Hotels not finished. And now the reality that every single visitor will be hacked by criminals within 24 hours. The Russians are putting on a terrible Olympics.

    P.S. Yes, I know the NSA is spying on us, but the NSA is not using my credit cards.

  15. 15

    RR @9,

    You’re welcome.

    I haven’t had a chance to get all the way through the debate, but what I haven’t heard yet was the Evolutionary Biology argument which I think is the strongest argument Nye could use.

    Current biological research uses the theory of evolution to make predictions and to direct their research. Why? Because it is a tool that speeds up their research. Or stated another way, IT WORKS.

    These same biologists when asked about “Creationism” respond with “show us how it can be used as a tool to speed our research and we will use it”.

  17. 17

    @15 Nye did make the evolutionary biology argument, and he also said creationism can’t predict anything whereas science can.

    Ham’s position on evolutionary biology basically was that while all different types of dogs evolved from a single type of dog, different “kinds” of animals were created, so dogs and cats don’t have a common biological ancestors; dogs were always dogs and cats were always cats. He also said all animals originally were vegetarians before original sin was committed, and that original sin turned some animals into flesh-eaters. Also, if Nye asked Ham what his evidence was for an assertion, Ham’s answer basically was “the Bible says so.”

  19. 19

    Ham’s answer basically was “the Bible says so.”

    Where’s my Bible…flip, flip, flip…
    Nothing on creationism.

    But what is this???!!! GOATBOY must be sacrificed or there won’t be a second coming of Christ or the Rapture. Anybody want to challenge my interpretation of the Bible?

  20. 20

    RR @18,

    We could borrow from the RETHUGS on that theme. Get the RETHUGS to donate to our secret PAC and we will work diligently to convert good Dems to the cause.

    What we don’t say is that we are the good Dems and the cause is us getting rich on their dime. Works for me.

  21. 21

    Heh I didn’t say it, they are saying what I’ve been telling you! Read it and weep

    AMERICA’S DEBT
    Interest on debt to nearly quadruple over decade – CBO
    By Jeanne Sahadi @CNNMoney February 4, 2014

    NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
    For the next few years, deficits are looking pretty good. But the interest owed on the country’s cumulative debt is set to nearly quadruple over the next decade.
    The Congressional Budget Office projects that interest will be $233 billion this year, or 1.3% as a share of the economy.

    By 2024, it will reach $880 billion, or 3.3% of GDP. That means interest will account for the lion’s share of the $1.1 trillion deficit projected for that year and will come close to what will be spent on Medicare.
    Interest costs will jump for two reasons. The first is the improving economy, which is expected to push what have been historically low interest rates to higher, more typical levels.
    The second reason is that the underlying debt will remain very large and continue to grow.
    Related: Deficit continues to drop sharply
    The CBO projects that under current policies, public debt will reach $21 trillion — or 79% of GDP — by 2024. That would be its highest level in more than 75 years and would leave debt at nearly double its long-term average of 40% of GDP.
    The thing about large and growing interest payments is that they consume tax revenue that could otherwise be spent on the country’s priorities.
    In contrast to the rapid growth of interest spending, outlays for defense programs and domestic programs — such as education, infrastructure, disaster relief and law enforcement — are on track to fall to their lowest levels since 1962.
    Barring policy changes that better align spending with incoming revenue, the debt — and the interest owed on it — will continue to grow faster than the economy in subsequent decades. That’s a trajectory the CBO describes as “unsustainable”

  22. 22

    Jumped under the bus @21,

    What do you expect after 34 years of Voodoo Reaganomics? We use to be #1 in the world. Since then it has been a long slow slide toward last place. On the other hand the 1% have been doing better than ever.

  23. 23

    If you set the minimum wage today to the equivalent buying power it had in 1980 it would be around $22/hour.

  24. 24

    China has a growing middle class.
    We have a shrinking middle class.
    And 1%ers like RMoney are getting richer.

  25. 25

    From Rasmussen Reports of all places…

    Obamacare Bad-News Report Not So Bad

    Rarely has a bad-news story offered so little real bad news. We refer to the Congressional Budget Office report that the Affordable Care Act may reduce the number of hours worked by the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time jobs. But to be precise, millions of workers will choose to cut their working hours. What’s bad about that if that’s what they want?

  27. 27

    26. PS I jumped under the bus spews:

    All I can say is I loves GOATBOY’S GOAT PARTIES!!!

    Now that I can believe.

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