Author Archives: Jeff Porten

In the words of the immortal James Kirk in Star Trek V, “I need my pain.” Buddhist Extremist Cell Vows To Unleash Tranquility On West

Just came across this post from March 7, and coming to the extremely unpleasant conclusion that I read this, wrote this, posted this, and then forgot this. Jeff

This week, it’s nice to know Americans turn to a major news source and affirm what’s really important.

Nicole Cliffe on Twitter

This. “You know where blame rests. If the nation is tearing itself apart, it’s because conservatives, including the Republican Party, have decided to tear it apart…. Time after time, the policies of the right, the actions of the right, the beliefs of the right have sought to divide us, by race, by gender, by sexual identity, by religion because the power of the right comes from division.”

http://ift.tt/29OX98i The Rude Pundit: The Big Part Missing From All Your “Is the United States Collapsing?” Think Pieces

I don’t know what terrifies me more: 22.5% percent chance of Trump winning, or 4.7% chance he wins electoral without popular. 1/20 is *astonishingly* high.

I saw what happened to my country last time. If it happens again, I’m taking to the streets.

http://ift.tt/2931S3Q 2016 Election Forecast

Catching you up on the story:

Facebook bans gun sales.

Many people skirt this by posting pictures of guns and something else, saying, “For sale, Sharpie marker, $400, everything else pictured included free.”

Mike Monteiro has been running a campaign to report the people as violators of Facebook’s TOS and shut them down.

Monteiro has had his own account suspended four times, thirty days each, with no explanation.

Then this, ten minutes ago:

Mike Monteiro on Twitter

Oh, what a load of compete and utter horseshit. As if SCOTUS politics and points of view aren’t completely predictable 90% of the time. And the utterly corrupt and ethically bankrupt Bush v. Gore decision was the worst example.

In bashing Donald Trump, some say Ruth Bader Ginsburg just crossed a very important line

More analysis of the NYT article I posted earlier.

A Big New Study Says Police Officers Are No More Likely to Shoot Black Suspects. Should You…

This. Unless Newt starts his VP acceptance speech with, “Donald Trump is reprehensible, and I’m joining his campaign to steer him to sanity,” I’m not buying this bullshit for a minute.

http://ift.tt/29yOINW Meet the new Newt, same as the old Newt: Don’t be fooled by his comments about racism after the…

More grist for the mill. I don’t know how to reconcile this with other known statistics, unless lethal shootings are rare enough that they show up as noise in this data? Seems like a stretch to me unless we have a *lot* of non-lethal shootings. Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings

If you’re not totally flabbergasted by the Baton Rouge Police Department yet, they’re really trying to win you over… to the side of being flabbergasted.

Alton Sterling Witness: Cops Took My Phone, My Surveillance Video, Locked Me Up

Dumb question about Texas, Suzanne Jackowski: are elected officials required to get a lobotomy before they enter public service, or is this done with IV doses of hallucinogenic drugs?

Texas Lt. Gov.: Dallas BLM Protesters ‘Hypocrites’ For Running From Gunfire

Did someone mention illegal email practices?

50-60 million emails sent, 79% spam filtered, to rented lists, cut off because the “email in question has raised serious security and legal concerns among Adestra and other industry leaders.”

Oh Noes! Trump Cut Off By Bulk Email Vendor for Epic Spamming