Need a special screw? Amazon's Part Finder might help you someday (hands-on) - CNET

Need a special screw? Amazon's Part Finder might help you someday (hands-on) - CNET
"I really wish Amazon's new Part Finder worked better, because it's a great idea in theory -- just take a picture of that oddball screw, with the Amazon Shopping app (on iOS) and it'll theoretically show you a matching fastener you can order on the spot.

But when I tried it today:
I had to go get a white piece of paper and a penny (who still carries coins in 2018?) to start the measuring process.
The iPhone camera had a tough time focusing on the screw -- I had to take a bunch of pictures before one was crisp.
So yeah, it clearly needs a lot of work before it's better than a trip to the hardware store. 
But I'll totally use it once it's a little more fleshed out..."
Read all.

Donald Trump's Vladimir Putin charm offensive aims to detach Russia from China, experts say - Washington Times

Donald Trump's Vladimir Putin charm offensive aims to detach Russia from China, experts say - Washington Times:

For 18 months, the Trump administration has taken numerous firm actions against the Kremlin, and foreign policy analysts say President Trump’s charm offensive toward Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday shouldn’t overshadow that.
Hundreds of Russian businesses, power brokers and influential oligarchs remain under tough U.S. economic sanctions, and the administration is considering even harsher penalties against Russian officials if Moscow moves ahead with its controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which would funnel Russian natural gas through the Baltic Sea to Germany.

“Following former Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan on Twitter, we see …

Instapundit � Blog Archive � SCOTT JOHNSON: “Following former Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan on Twitter, we see …
"SCOTT JOHNSON: “Following former Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan on Twitter, we see his animus nakedly on display. 
He is demented by hatred. Is this really the public role a former Director of the CIA is to be playing?”

"One of the things the Trump presidency has done is to reveal how rotten our institutions have become."--Posted by Glenn Reynolds

Get a Grip, America - Reason.com

Get a Grip, America - Reason.com

• "This week, The Washington Post published an op-ed headlined "It's not wrong to compare Trump's America to the Holocaust." As with similar examples of this genre, it's a sickening display of moral relativism that belittles the suffering and murder of millions in the service of some shortsighted and crass partisan fearmongering.
• Elsewhere, Politico published an opinion piece headlined "Putin's Attack on the U.S. Is Our Pearl Harbor," which demeaned the sacrifice of American service members by likening a military attack on American soil that brought us into the bloodiest war mankind has ever experienced to phishing.
• On MSNBC, where illiterate histrionic analogies litter coverage every day, a contributor compared Donald Trump's meeting in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin to Pearl Harbor and Kristallnacht, just to be safe.

Social media are teeming with similar hyperbole—"treason," "traitor," etc.—and not just from anonymous trolls. 
It's difficult to accept that people with working brains actually believe this rhetoric, and they certainly don't act like it..."
Read all!

Lunch video-----Do Americans Want Socialism? With Will Witt

Noon-toon

House expresses support for ICE, denounces calls to abolish agency - Washington Times

House expresses support for ICE, denounces calls to abolish agency - Washington Times:

The GOP-controlled House passed a resolution Wednesday putting the chamber on record in supporting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which, they say, has become a scapegoat for the left wing of the Democratic Party.
The non-binding resolution by Rep. Clay Higgins, Louisiana Republican, celebrated the work of an agency that still has the support of most Americans, but has recently come under heavy fire from Democrats over the role it plays in enforcing federal immigration laws.

SF registers non-citizens to vote in school election | The Sacramento Bee

SF registers non-citizens to vote in school election | The Sacramento Bee:
"San Francisco began registering non-citizens, including undocumented immigrants, to register to vote Monday in the November election for the city school board, reported The San Francisco Chronicle.
The move follows passage of a 2016 ballot measure by San Francisco voters opening school elections to non-citizens who are over the age of 18, city residents and have children under age 19, reported the publication.
“This is no-brainer legislation,” Hillary Ronen, a San Francisco supervisor, told the Chronicle.
“Why would we not want our parents invested in the education of their children?”
“We want to give immigrants the right to vote,” Norman Yee, also a county supervisor, told KGO..."
Read on.

The Most Difficult Languages To Learn For English Speakers | Statista

• Chart: The Most Difficult Languages To Learn For English Speakers | Statista
"Some languages are more difficult to learn than others, especially for native English speakers.
...Category V is the most difficult for English speakers with Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean all taking at least 88 weeks.
Given that this list was formulated by the FSI, it is important to note that some language students or experts may disagree with the ranking.

#1 This day 1950-----Nat King Cole - Mona Lisa

Very worthy read-----Sultan Knish: Did the Russians Hack the DNC to Help the Left Take Over the Democrats?

Sultan Knish: Did the Russians Hack the DNC to Help the Left Take Over the Democrats?
"The Russia conspiracy theory hinges on the single creaky claim that the Democratic National Committee hacks were a Russian plot to elect Trump. 
The theory and all its illegitimate stepchildren, including Robert Mueller and his infinitely expanding corps of prosecutors, lives or dies by the DNC hacks.
Trying to elect Trump by releasing damaging insider information from the DNC never made any sense. 
The DNC was already a dysfunctional organization that was being run by the Clinton campaign. Undermining its leadership had little impact on the election, but a great deal on control of the DNC.
There has never been any evidence that the DNC hacks swung the election. 
The vast majority of people never even heard of them. 
Only a handful of political insiders and watchers, already deeply and unpersuadably committed to one side or another, could name the contents of a single email.
When you want to understand the motive of a crime, follow the money. 
See who benefited from it, not casually, but deeply and significantly enough to justify the effort and risk of undertaking it.
The hacks targeted Clinton allies and sought to undermine their influence within the Democrat Party..."
Read on!

Chicago police union fights state's 'bizarre' proposed consent decree after Obama-era DOJ investigation | Fox News

Chicago police union fights state's 'bizarre' proposed consent decree after Obama-era DOJ investigation | Fox News:

The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is fighting to get a pending consent decree it considers heavily anti-police tossed out before the document is enacted and potentially brings a dramatic overhaul to the city’s police policy.
“The consent decree will make the simplest police duties and actions rife with ambiguity, and set up officers for discipline no matter how professional or appropriate their conduct,” Chicago FOP Vice President Martin Preib wrote in a statement to Fox News.

More Americans are drinking themselves to death, study suggests - CBS News

More Americans are drinking themselves to death, study suggests - CBS News
"The Great Recession continues to take a grim toll: 
Since 2009, a growing number of Americans have died from liver disease and liver cancer.

The increase among 25- to 34-year-olds is especially troubling because the deaths are due to cirrhosis, a disease caused by excessive drinking, the authors of a new study said. 
The researchers suspect the economic downturn in 2008 prompted people to comfort themselves with alcohol.
"These are deaths of despair," said lead researcher Dr. Elliot Tapper, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan...

 a...deaths from cirrhosis increased by 65 percent (from about 20,600 in 1999 to nearly 34,200 in 2016). 
Deaths from liver cancer doubled (from more than 5,100 to nearly 11,100) during the same time period..."
Read all.

AM Fruitcake

History for July 20

History for July 20 - On-This-Day.com
Francesco Petrarch 1304, Sir Edmund Hillary 1919 - Explorer, first to climb Mt. Everest, Mike Ilitch 1929 - Founder of Little Caesar's Pizza franchises, owner of Detroit Red Wings


Chuck Daly 1933, Diana Rigg 1938 - Actress (Medea, King Lear, The Avengers), Natalie Wood (Natasha Nikolaevna Gurdin) 1938 - Actress (From Here to Eternity, West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause)


1881 - Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops. (Montana)


1942 - The first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.


1944 - An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.


1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.


1976 - America's Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.


1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of comprehensive test ban negotiations indefinitely.


1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship sank in 1622 40 miles of the coast of Key West, FL.


1998 - Russia won a $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.

Sleeping Giants Founder Matt Rivitz Unmasked

Sleeping Giants Founder Matt Rivitz Unmasked:

The group’s modus operandi is consistent throughout its campaigns: use social media in cooperation with other well-funded left-wing groups like Media Matters for America and Think Progress to urge their followers to contact advertisers en masse – expressing their outrage that companies dare advertise with conservatives – until the companies relent and pull their ads. Equally consistent is their goal in organizing these social media mobs: pressure corporate America to blacklist conservative audiences.

The way we were-----Jan & Dean - Dead Man's Curve

Boob-tube-----Welcome to Television (1956)

Radio Host Fired for Comparing Transgender People to Actors | pluralist

Radio Host Fired for Comparing Transgender People to Actors | pluralist
"People act and pretend to be different things. Kinda like what you're doing!"

​Canadian radio host Dave Wheeler was fired Wednesday after comparing transgender people to actors who "pretend to be different things" during a broadcast earlier this week, CBC News ​reported.

"There have been multiple disciplinary incidents, and in spite of numerous conversations, he has continued to offend our audiences," a Rogers Media spokesperson confirmed to CBC News. 
"As a result, we have ended our relationship with him and he is no longer with the company, effective immediately."​

...The "Wheeler in the Morning" host commented on Scarlett Johansson's decision to drop out of a role playing a transgender massage parlor owner in the upcoming film "Rub and Tug" after facing backlash from the trans community. 

"I am so confused! I am so confused by the whole transgender community. 
I mean literally, there is nothing you can do to make them happy," he said. 

"Nothing! 

Not a goddamn thing! 

Yeah. 

Nothing! 

People act and pretend to be different things. 
Kinda like what you're doing! 
Really! 

In the grand scheme of things."

The transgender community's response: "Radio, people listen every morning on their drives to work, right? 

If that's their first touch with trans people or the queer community, that is derogatory and hateful, then that's what we're going to get from them eventually," Xavier Raddysh, who is transgender, told CBC News in reaction to Wheeler's comments..."

Read all.

Europe’s Flawed Addiction to Rail | Economics21

Europe’s Flawed Addiction to Rail | Economics21
"...Europe is hailed as the holy grail of transportation for its widespread use of trains instead of cars, while the United States is criticized for its reliance on cars and trucks.
However, Europeans have achieved this by spending much more on subsidies than Americans, leading to many unintended consequences.
Germany spends more than six times U.S. levels on its sponsored railway company, Deutsche Bahn.
...While the U.S. spends approximately $6 per person per year, Germany spends more than $160 since its population is much smaller.
Despite the subsidies, Deutsche Bahn has kept accumulating debt over the past decade, and it is now more than $20 billion (€17.6 billion). 
Conversely, Amtrak has decreased its debt by more than half since 2008, to reach only $1.2 billion last year.
Germany is not an outlier, as subsidized trains in France and Italy are in a worse financial position and spend even more per person.
...On the other hand, airplanes are more environmentally friendly than trains. 
Even the European Union has acknowledged the superiority of airplanes and is puzzled at the nonsensical preference of national politicians for trains.
...As Milton Friedman would have said it “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as wisely as he spends his own."
Read all.

Obama admin. sent taxpayer money to campaign to oust Netanyahu - Washington Times

Obama admin. sent taxpayer money to campaign to oust Netanyahu - Washington Times:

The State Department paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers grants to an Israeli group that used the money to build a campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last year’s Israeli parliamentary elections, a congressional investigation concluded Tuesday.

Global warming creates desperate media lies

Global warming creates desperate media lies
The New York Times has published a misleading article claiming global warming is largely responsible for unauthorized immigrants entering the U.S. from Central America. 
The article, titled “A Warming World Creates Desperate People,” alleges global warming is causing crop failures in Central America, which in turn has forced people to flee north to the U.S. In reality, global and Central American crop production is at record levels.
The true lesson from The New York Times’ article is a beneficial climate creates desperate media lies.
According to the Times, “Drought and rising temperatures in Guatemala are making it harder for people to make a living or even survive, thus compounding the already tenuous political situation for the 16.6 million people who live there.” 
The article focuses specifically on coffee production, quoting “one young farmer” who said, “We can’t make a living purely off coffee anymore.”
The article then asserts global warming is causing coffee crop failures that are inducing people to enter the U.S. without authorization.
Objective facts obliterate this fictitious narrative.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s June 2018 publication "Coffee: World Markets and Trade," the 2017–18 coffee season produced the second highest global coffee crop on record and narrowly fell short of the record 2016–17 season.
And the 2016–17 season will likely not remain in the record books for long.
“World coffee production for 2018/19 is forecast 11.4 million bags higher than the previous year at a record 171.2 million,” according to the USDA report.
The current forecast is a full 6 percent above the previous record yield.
That will make 2016–18 the three years with the largest coffee production in recorded history.
It’s also important to note Central America and South America are producing record global coffee yields..."
Read all.