Posts Made By: James Brown

I've been reading some about Obama's refusal to veto the UN Resolution condemning Israeli settlements (since 1968) in the Jewish heart of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. My initial support lies with pundits like Alan Dershowitz, who argue that this is a really big failure to support an ally.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/12/27/the-consequences-not-vetoing-resolution-against-israel/E06kgDJUrPrXeSmp06umCL/story.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-12-27/obama-s-betrayal-of-israel-at-the-un-must-not-stand

I'm curious what Rod thinks of course, since he generally supports the Obama administration but is very pro-Israel as well. I'm curious what a lot of you think, since this is not a subject I've studied that much.

Jim

Well, the Trump rally pushed the Dow above 20,000 today for the first time in history. Gotta like that!

Another thing - during lunch banter yesterday, the notion was raised that Trump tweets outrageous things intentionally to distract and enrage the press and left with "issues" that don't have a whole lot to do with governance; issues that thereby overwhelm and blunt any opposition to the more real and important aspects of his agenda. The news coverage arguably bears this out. So does the nature of the threads here on A-mart recently. I'm not sure I'm willing to buy into this theory yet, but still....

Jim

Colorado environmentalists (me included) have opposed famed artist Christo's plan to drape fabric over the Arkansas River in Bighorn Sheep Canyon for more than a decade. Numerous Court cases have been litigated, with "Big Art" pretty much stomping the local environmentalists into the ground. But wait - Christo has decided to abandon the project, now that Trump is president. He has apparently lost his mojo in view of the disappointing election results.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/arts/design/christo-protest-donald-trump-colorado-artwork.html?_r=1

Not surprisingly, the New York Times focuses on this as a big "protest" statement made by an influential artist. they completely overlook that fact that Christo's decision is manna from Heaven to those of us who love Colorado and the Arkansas. I don't believe that the NYT identifies the opposition to Christo's project as being spearheaded by environmental activists at all.

How ironic that Trump's election hands our local environmental activists a huge win. How unsurprising that the NYT buries this aspect of the story.

Jim

Glance at these headlines and compare it to reality. Trump appears to simply "own" the activist/blogger elites. These pundits would have known, assuming they had an ounce of intelligence, that Trump has certainly, indisputably, been a longer-term supporter LBGQT rights than Clinton, Obama or Warren.

Paranoid Headlines:

https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/prepare-fight-donald-trump-preparing-sweeping-anti-lgbt-executive-order/1274/

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/possible-trump-executive-order-could-allow-fed-employees-to-refuse-service-to-lgbt-people-report-says/

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/01/sources-report-trump-executive-order-lgbtq-community-coming-soon/

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2017/01/30/trump-endorse-anti-lgbt-bias-new-exec-order-report/

Reality:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/obama-trump-protections-lgbt-workers.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/31/politics/lgbt-protections-trump-continues-obama-policy-federal-workers/


"President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community," the White House said in a statement. "The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact."

"Donald Trump campaigned promising to be a 'real friend' to the LGBT community, and now President Trump is delivering on that commitment," said Gregory Angelo, president of the Republican LGBT advocacy group. "Log Cabin Republicans is proud to have directly lobbied for this important preservation of LGBT equality in the federal workforce."

It is amazing how irrational discourse has become.

Jim

Politico ran an article this morning about the reaction to Trump's speech. The initial premise is that Trump behaving presidentially might change the electoral landscape in 2018. I thought the article was reasonably balanced, especially for Politico, with quotes for D and R political operatives.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-speech-congress-midterms-235589

Obviously the D's are freaking out, and they should be - if Trump and the R Congress are successful in governing notwithstanding the blind and furious obstructionism mandated by the lefty-base, the Ds are facing a short term existential crisis. Alternatively, if the Ds work with Trump to forward what are some fairly liberal aspects of his agenda, they'll lose the support of the press and those lefty activists and again face at least a short term existential crisis. Either way, the D's are in trouble unless Trump fails spectacularly, and during the speech Tuesday night he did not look like a president who was going to fail spectacularly. No wonder the Ds are freaking out.

Anyway, all of the above is not why I am making this post...

The Democratic Party Chair in Nevada, Ms. Roberta Lange, is quoted at the end of the Politico piece as follows:

[COLOR="Blue"]"Every day in our newspapers there are at least two editorials supporting the Affordable Care Act. He could do all these things to try to get to people's emotions like he did last night, and people forget the reality," said Lange. "But he's a businessman. Businessmen say things people like to hear." [/COLOR]

(Emphasis mine)

I love the use of "our" to describe the newspapers. No doubt she would argue that she is using "our" as in "We the People" but seriously, us voters know that she means "our" to mean the "Democratic Party's" newspapers. In other words, most all of them.

I especially love the completely tone-deaf last line. No Roberta, it is politicians, not business people who exist merely' "to say things people like to hear." this "greedy lying businessman" vs. "noble politician" snobbery is so 1904. It is concisely representative of the elitist views that cost the Democrats control of every aspect of government over 8 short years. They simply don't get it.

Jim

Anthony Scaramucci was here and gone so quickly, I never got around to figuring out what Freddie Mercury meant and whether there was any connection....

[COLOR="Blue"]I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright'ning me
(Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo figaro magnifico
(I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me)
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go) Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mamma mia, mamma mia) Mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me
[/COLOR]

The lyrics of this classic seem oddly appropriate to Washington DC, 2017

https://www.google.com/search?q=Bohemian+Rhapsody+lyrics&oq=Bohemian+Rhapsody+lyrics&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.9827j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Anyway, Scaramouche is a "stock clown character" of Italian literature. I didn't know that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaramouche

RCP has a link to a neat recent-history article, dated August 17, 2007, about the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Pike Place opened 110 years ago today, this ten-year-old article commemorated the centennial of this institution. If you've never visited the Market, plan to do so next time you're in Seattle, it's a very cool and historic place.

Anyway, the article included this link to the front page of the 8/17/1907 Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2007/05/22/2003718096.pdf

Look at the headlines below the big photo. So many of the headlines could have been written today. "Moors threaten to massacre Europeans" Kind of timely, given the bad news from Barcelona. "California asks for exclusion of Orientals" Well, I guess CA lost that fight, but the same sentiment motivates so many today. Only the demographics have changed. It's eerie how the fundamentals stay the same, no matter how much superficial stuff changes.

Jim

These are unprocessed, hot off the memory card and aggressively downsized. I think they look pretty good in the rough! I should have some really fine totality shots when I merge the images shot at different f stops. I had the camera pre-programmed to shoot 7 bracketed images at 1 f-stop intervals, so I could just stand there gawking at the sky while I pressed the remote over and over again. What a great experience! My first total eclipse.

Our group was on the center line north of Torrington WY. We set up on some State-owned ranch land. It was marked "No Trespassing" but a genuinely cool Wyoming State Trooper invited anyone who asked in through the gate.

Canon EOS 6D
Astro-Physics Traveler
Astro-Physics 1100 GTO.

Jim

Hi Gang:

We must have passed a dozen MAGA billboards on ranches! They take their politics seriously up here in cattle country. These are unprocessed, hot off the memory card and aggressively downsized. I think they look pretty good in the rough! I should have some really fine totality shots when I merge the images shot at different f stops. I had the camera pre-programmed to shoot 7 bracketed images at 1 f-stop intervals, so I could just stand there gawking at the sky while I pressed the remote over and over again. What a great experience! My first total eclipse.

Our group was on the center line north of Torrington WY. We set up on some State-owned ranch land. It was marked "No Trespassing" but a genuinely cool Wyoming State Trooper invited anyone who asked in through the gate.

Canon EOS 6D
Astro-Physics Traveler
Astro-Physics 1100 GTO.

Jim

These are unprocessed, hot off the memory card and aggressively downsized. I think they look pretty good in the rough! I should have some really fine totality shots when I merge the images shot at different f stops. I had the camera pre-programmed to shoot 7 bracketed images at 1 f-stop intervals, so I could just stand there gawking at the sky while I pressed the remote over and over again. What a great experience! My first total eclipse.

Our group was on the center line north of Torrington WY. We set up on some State-owned ranch land. It was marked "No Trespassing" but a genuinely cool Wyoming State Trooper invited anyone who asked in through the gate.

Canon EOS 6D
Astro-Physics Traveler
Astro-Physics 1100 GTO.

Jim