WKRLEM: April faves!

You know what this is about right?

The Protocols of Opus Dei

Protocol One- The Basic Doctrine: Right Lies in Might

You must know that you are the Mighty One. That you are in the right at all times. Never apologize as it is a sign of weakness.

Never admit to weakness. Never display your small hands to the mockery of the crowd.

But most of all never submit to the foul butchery of circumcision. It is the mark of the beast. Most importantly it is a racial signifier. It means that you always want 10% off.

First Ladies on the Stump

It is generally agreed that the first lady with the most dangerous bosom was Barbara Bush the wife of George Herbert Walker Bush. Although her bountiful bosom was to be expected with her matronly figure this was not the source of peril to her unsuspecting victims. Rather it was her unfortunate habit of clasping the unwary to her copious bosom in a hug and holding there while they feebly struggled to free themselves from her embrace. This lead to an unfortunate diplomatic incident when her husband was the envoy to China when she clasped the diminutive Prime Minister Cho En Lai to her chest for so long that she smothered him and he had to be revived by medical personal who were luckily on the scene. As a consequence she became know in China as 怪物 乳房 which means Godzilla tits which was a reference to the lovable monster that was a wonder and delight to all Asians as immortalized in a movie starring Raymond Burr.
(First Ladies on the Stump, Doris Kearns Goodwin Playboy Press 2007)

Intersectional Feminism: What is it?

If you were confused, as I was yesterday, over the post exposing "cultural appropriation", this video explains the situation at colleges and universities, beautifully.

I know it's a little long, but it will be worth it.

Melania Trump's Diary

On Wisconsin. Or more correctly “In Wisconsin.” We are here in Cheeseland for the Wisconsin primary to try and get these people to vote for us. And it is not going well.

You see the people in this state are very strange. Almost retarded. They sure talk funny and are obsessed with cheese. Not even tasty cheese. Not Gruyère or Brie or Gouda. Cheddar. Plain government cheddar cheese. They love to wear plastic hats shaped into cheese wedges and cheer for some baseball team called the Fudge Packers or something. It is all very confusing for a girl from Europe.

I have been going to a few events on my own based on the advice of Laura Bush. She told me I could be a great advocate for Donald and get people to vote for him by charming them just the way Laura did. I mean some First Ladies couldn’t do it. Pat Nixon and Betty Ford were always drunk so that didn’t work. Roslynn Carter only attracted serial killers like John Wayne Gacy. Lady Bird was too ladylike and couldn’t mix with the common people. Nancy Reagan was too aloof and pretentious. Believe it or not the First Lady who was the best at is was Bug Eyed old Barbara Bush. She would go into an American Legion Hall and eat some wings down a beer and wipe her mouth on her sleeve and fart. The rubes loved it. And she loved Wrestling just like Donald. Funny what people latch on to you know?

Steve Eisman: breaking up the banks not the solution

"It’s no longer accurate to say that the large banks pose a systemic danger to the American economy. Some argue that they should be broken up solely because they are too politically powerful. Perhaps so, although that power hasn’t managed to prevent regulators from dismantling bank leverage and risk. Furthermore, no advocate of a breakup has come forward with a plan on how to do it. Large banks are global, complex, integrated institutions. Breaking them apart would be incredibly difficult, long and disruptive, and the banks might have to freeze loan growth during the process, slowing our economy even further. 

Now that we have a new bank regulatory regime that seems to be working, we should not complicate it with breakup proposals whose ultimate implications are unclear at best. But it is absolutely crucial that the new regulations not be rolled back. The Federal Reserve should continue its annual stress tests of the large banks. Calls for restricting the power of the consumer protection board should be rejected outright.

The central economic problem of our time is income inequality, especially the lack of personal income growth for most Americans, which was one of the underlying causes of the financial crisis. In lieu of rising incomes, credit was allowed to be democratized. Living standards were maintained only because increased credit supplemented deteriorating incomes. That helps explain, post-crisis, why United States growth is slow: Without easy credit, consumers cannot increase spending, because their incomes have fallen since 2007.

If we want a stronger economy, improving the distribution and growth of personal income should be our focus. Breaking up the big banks will not help, and might even hurt."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/opinion/dont-break-up-the-banks-theyre-not-our-real-problem.html?_r=1

"Why Did People Wear Powdered Wigs?"

Mental Floss: For nearly two centuries, powdered wigs—called perukes—were all the rage. The chic hairpiece would have never become popular, however, if it hadn't been for a venereal disease, a pair of self-conscious kings, and poor hair hygiene.

The peruke’s story begins like many others—with syphilis. By 1580, the STD had become the worst epidemic to strike Europe since the Black Death.
According to William Clowes, an “infinite multitude” of syphilis patients clogged London’s hospitals, and more filtered in each day. Without antibiotics, victims faced the full brunt of the disease: open sores, nasty rashes, blindness, dementia, and patchy hair loss. Baldness swept the land.

At the time, hair loss was a one-way ticket to public embarrassment. Long hair was a trendy status symbol, and a bald dome could stain any reputation. When Samuel Pepys’s brother acquired syphilis, the diarist wrote, “If [my brother] lives, he will not be able to show his head—which will be a very great shame to me.” Hair was that big of a deal.

And so, the syphilis outbreak sparked a surge in wigmaking. Victims hid their baldness, as well as the bloody sores that scoured their faces, with wigs made of horse, goat, or human hair. Perukes were also coated with powder—scented with lavender or orange—to hide any funky aromas. Although common, wigs were not exactly stylish. They were just a shameful necessity. That changed in 1655, when the King of France started losing his hair.

Louis XIV was only 17 when his mop started thinning. Worried that baldness would hurt his reputation, Louis hired 48 wigmakers to save his image. Five years later, the King of England—Louis’s cousin, Charles II—did the same thing when his hair started to gray (both men likely had syphilis). Courtiers and other aristocrats immediately copied the two kings. They sported wigs, and the style trickled down to the upper-middle class. Europe’s newest fad was born.

The cost of wigs increased, and perukes became a scheme for flaunting wealth. An everyday wig cost about 25 shillings—a week’s pay for a common Londoner. The bill for large, elaborate perukes ballooned to as high as 800 shillings. The word “bigwig” was coined to describe snobs who could afford big, poufy perukes.

When Louis and Charles died, wigs stayed around. (read the whole thing)

What's your favorite "Holy Shit" fact?

Reddit top voted comments...

At the height of his success, Pablo Escobar was spending $2500 a month on rubber bands to hold the money he was making.

If a female kangaroo is being chased by a predator and she has a joey in her pouch, she will throw the joey away to distract the pursuer. For this reason, kangaroos typically produce two fertilized eggs but hold one in reserve.

Despite what you read on the news, the average human on this planet has never been less likely to be raped, enslaved, murdered, assaulted or robbed.
So smile more!

The majority of Canada's population lives south of Seattle

The whole objective of the game golf, is to play the least golf.

Crime rates in Mexico drop significantly everytime Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez plays in a match of football (soccer).

Saudi Arabia's sand is such terrible quality, they cannot use it to make glass or anything of the sort, so they have to import it from other places. Like Australia specifically.

Donald Trump: 'Some Form of Punishment' for Women Having Abortion

Later Trump would amend his abortion stand. 

Who's Challenging Paul Ryan? Meet Paul Nehlen

This is an article on Right Wisconsin. He is described as a wealthy businessman with Tea Party ties who has promised his run will shake up the establishment in a profound way.

He supported Ryan and feels betrayed by the Ryan's omnibus deal.

Paul Nehlen wrote the piece on American Thinker that stakes out his position. It boils down to Washington has developed into an elite class that considers themselves separate and distinct from the people they are meant to represent. He describes how Ryan's speech indicates that Ryan considers himself ruler whose job it is to rally the ruled and unite them. Soaring rhetoric with roles of master and servant reversed.

This was linked on Drudge, presently only 102 comments, so far they all follow this same line. The key word throughout "representation." I don't know why this is so difficult to internalize. One commenter said that this is what he had been trying to explain to his relatives and friends without much success.

Whose that good egg?

Today it's his birthday. I hope it is full of all the things he likes best. Playing with chemicals, making plastic drinks and mocking the Lawnboy.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Hillary Clinton Emails.....released today

To: Jeffrey Epstein
From: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
CC: William Jefferson Clinton, WNBC To Catch a Predator, Shouting Thomas

Dear Mr. Epstein,

I must ask you to cease and desist in your attempts to contact President Clinton to invite him to parties on your own private island. As much as he enjoyed those trips in the past....he must decline because of the obvious reasons that I do not need to detail here. I know you are disappointed as you and Bill had some good times in the past but that is in the past and can never be repeated.

As a small recompense I have arranged for George Stephanopoulos to dress in a tuxedo and stand on the tarmac of your private airstrip to shout "The Plane...the Plane" before your next party. Perhaps that will suffice.

We have already planned our vacation for this year before the run up to the 2016 presidential race. Bill and I will be staying at our good friend Shouting Thomas's camp for wayward Filipino school girls in Woodstock New York. I would appreciate if you do not contact Bill in the future.

If this is a problem then I suggest that we meet in person to discuss. We can meet next Thursday at Fort Marcy Park near the cannons at 3 am as this is the only time I have available. Oh and please wear clean underwear. Your family will thank me later.

Toodles,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Bet you didn't know.......

That Ted Williams was a fighter pilot in both World War 2 and Korea. In Korea he flew 39 combat missions with John Glenn in his squadron.

In all of those missions fighting dogfights over the frozen Chosin....he never....I mean never...he never lost his head.

So to speak.

Happy birthday, chick!

And many happy returns of the day.

First Ladies on the Stump

Campaigning for President did really commence until after the Administration of James Monroe. The founding fathers felt that campaign for office was vulgar and unseemly and should not be encouraged. Thus first ladies did not lower themselves to campaign and were famous for other more important things. The first lady with the most generous and toothsome of bosoms was of course Dolly Madison who was a widow and a “woman of the world” before her marriage to future President James Madison. Her décolletage was so spectacular that the President often used it confuse and distract political and diplomatic opponents during tough negotiations. It has been speculated that it was the display of her bounteous bosom during the negotiations with France during the Jefferson Administration that led to the Louisianan Purchase having been made at such a cheap price. Her breasts were immortalized in the naming of the city of Madison, Wisconsin which is generally considered to have the biggest collection of boobs resident in North America. Dolly's heaving bussoms inspired a line of ice cream and diary products that is sold to this day. Everyone agrees that Dolly Madison’s breasts remained a wonder and delight to all Americans not least due to the fact that they were as big as the bald head of Aaron Burr.
(First Ladies on the Stump, Doris Kearns Goodwin Playboy Press 2007)

"Hamilton" Broadway Hottest Show where White Performers Need Not Apply

One critic said “Hamilton” takes a story that “valorizes dead white guys” and replaces it with black, Latino and multi-ethnic performers playing America’s founding fathers.

But as the blockbuster musical looks to expand to other cities, the casting notice with its call for “non-white” performers looks problematic to civil rights attorney Randolph McLaughlin.

“What if they put an ad out that said, ‘Whites only need apply?’” said McLaughlin, of the Newman Ferrara Law Firm. “Why, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians would be outraged.”

McLaughlin believes the ad violates the New York City Human Rights Law, which makes it unlawful “for an employer… because of the actual written or perceived… race of any person, to discriminate.”

“You cannot advertise showing that you have a preference for one racial group over another,” McLaughlin said. “As an artistic question – sure, he can cast whomever he wants to cast, but he has to give every actor eligible for the role an opportunity to try.”

Israel hacks San Bernardino shooter phone

"The Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite helped the FBI hack into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, NBC reports, citing industry sources. 

 The firm has been rumored to be behind the FBI’s newfound ability to access the device, thanks to a previous and unconfirmed report from an Israeli newspaper. Neither Cellebrite nor the Department of Justice has confirmed the reports. 

 The FBI has routinely contracted Cellebrite over the last five years. The company, which publicly boasts of its ability to hack into Apple devices, has received over $2 million in purchase orders from the agency since 2012. 

 The DOJ on Monday withdrew its case against Apple, telling a federal court it was able to unlock the device without the tech giant's help." 

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/274619-israeli-firm-behind-iphone-hack-report

A walk for the president

h/t AllenS

Is that an iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

College Chronicles

"[W]hite student was... accused of 'cultural appropriation' for having dreadlocks"

The 47-second clip shows a woman physically stopping a white boy with dreadlocked hair and confronting him for 'appropriating her culture'.

SF Weekly has identified the man with the dreadlocks as Cory Goldstein.

Both the woman and Goldstein are San Francisco State University students and the confrontation is believed to have happened on the school's campus.

In the video another male student, who is also black, defends the woman.

Elsewhere... "University Cancels ‘Vagina Monologues’ Because a White Lady Wrote It"

“I felt that limiting women to only Eve Ensler’s work was doing a disservice to both the women performing and to the audience at large,” Rachel Arco, the sophomore who organized the performance, told the Megaphone. “This performance will largely be done with works by women of color,” she continued. “In doing so, it will be more representative of the experience of women, rather than only offering the white woman’s experience.”

But wait, that's not all... "Atheist group targets Muslim prayer rooms at University of Iowa"

“The presence of such religious venues on a public campus raises a number of issues,” the group argued. “By instituting areas that are exclusively used by specific religious groups such as Christians and Muslims, the University of Iowa is violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. … The organization is also concerned that the university is facilitating the discriminatory practice of gender segregation practiced in the Muslim prayer rooms.”

Melissa Young, Trump

Melissa Young is onetime Miss Wisconsin. Gravely ill, dying, she delivered an emotional statement of gratitude to Trump for something he did that lifted her spirit at a critical time. She appeared at the town hall to say this when he showed up in Wisconsin for his campaign.

I caught this moment by chance on YouTube. I didn't see much, but I did see this.  The comments picked up and spun by far too fast to read. Women cried. A lot. Others commenters were using emoji symbols of bricks to form walls, A wall being their comment. A lot of energized nonsense.

Comments to this Daily Mail piece are uncharacteristically compassionate and reasonable. Women say they cried. 

Antitrumpites recall a story about ghost of Trump Past denying, some say withdrawing, his own nephew's medication or healthcare or insurance or pulled the plug on his life support, depending on the version. 

New Zealand PSA

Hell needs a new PA Announcer.

(Lucifer strides into Hell in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt smoking a cigar and scratching his balls. He does that a lot. That's why they call him old sratch)
Lucifer: How the Hell are you  Forcas? Ah who am I kidding I don't give a shit. I'm back from vacation so let's get to work.

Forcas Did you enjoy your cruise on the River Styx my Dread Lord?

Lucifer: Yeah it was kind of cool. I had Katherine Hepburn there dressed up like she was on the African Queen to blow me while we were drifting. She hated that because she is big time Lesbo. Whitney Houston sang from underwater and Fred Astaire danced and Lenny Bruce told some jokes. And shot smack. Just like the old days.

Anyhoo do we have any candidates to be the New PA Announcer.  I had to throw Cosell back into the fiery depths. He was getting on my nerves. Who you got?

First Ladies on the Stump

The practice of wives campaigning fell out of fashion until it was revived by Ida McKinley who was sent out on the campaign trail by Mark Hanna the Karl Rove of his day. Mr. Hanna devised the “front porch campaign” where Governor McKinley rested on his porch and bantered once a day with reporters while surrogates went out to campaign among the masses. Ida McKinley loved to meet the people and enjoyed campaigning swings throughout most of the United States. The best part about these trips was the return sex she would get from the Governor who was a somewhat indolent man but was a great reader, scholar and a cunning linguist. In a strange twist of fate, President McKinley was also assassinated at the Pan-American World’s Fair in Buffalo, New York by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz. The police of the day were very much in favor of profiling and were watching all immigrants with beards and more than six consonants in the their names but missed Mr. Czolgosz as he traveled under his mother’s maiden name of Nieman. In fact the last reported words of President McKinley when he expired on his deathbed was “Nieman.”
(First Ladies on the Stump by Doris Kearns Goodwin, St. Martins Press).

WKRLEM: Never Apologize

Observations from a photograph

Above, a photo showing some people walking to reach the final objective, to live in a European country.

Even if this photo is making it around the world, only 1% of the people will notice the truth.

In the photo, there are 7 men and 1 woman. Up to this point – nothing special.

But in observing a bit closer, you will notice that the woman is bare footed, accompanied by 3 children, and of the 3, she is carrying 2.

There is the problem, none of the men are helping her, because in their culture the woman represents nothing. She is only good to be a slave to the men.

Do you really believe that these particular individuals could integrate into our societies and countries and respect our customs and traditions?

via AllenS email.

"Trump campaign manager charged with battery of reporter"

Reuters:  The report from the Jupiter Police Department said Corey Lewandowski, 42, was charged for intentionally grabbing and bruising the arm of Michelle Fields, a reporter at the time for the conservative news outlet Breitbart, against her will at a Trump campaign event on March 8.

"Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge," Trump's campaign said in a statement. "He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated."

Simultaneously, the police department released a video showing the incident between Fields and Lewandowski. Unlike previous videos released by news networks which were at the news conference, the new video is not obscured by people.

The video shows Fields walking alongside Trump and then Lewandowski grabbing her arm and pulling her backward.

Then there is this, from a woman claiming to have been inside the Trump train from the beguining...

It pains me to say, but he [Trump] is the presidential equivalent of Sanjaya on American Idol. President Trump would be President Sanjaya in terms of legitimacy and authority.

And I am now taking full responsibility for helping create this monster — and reaching out directly to those voters who, like me, wanted Trump to be the real deal.

What makes absolutely 0% sense to you?

Reddit "best" answers....

How we are able to talk to ourselves silently.

Scientology.

The outrageous money we spend on weddings and funerals. Look, if you're rich, go for it, but people routinely spend money they really shouldn't be spending on what essentially is either a party or putting someone in the ground.

What blind people 'see'. You'd think it's black... it's not black. I've heard it would be the same as describing what you see out of your elbow. It makes my head want to explode.

Viruses.
Weird little genetic shits. Just floating around, infecting people with their weird shit. Giving people weird shits. It's all shit.
I mean, what the fuck virus? Where did you come from? How did you get here? When did you evolve? And why do you hate us?

Flat Earthers

Astrology. What part of space was your part of the earth facing when you left your mothers vagina... Because this is clearly going to have an effect on your life. PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THIS! GENUINELY!

EgyptAir hijacked plane: "He's not a terrorist, he's an idiot"

The Telegraph:  An EgyptAir plane was hijacked on Tuesday by an man who threatened to blow himself up before demanding he was reunited with his estranged Cypriot wife.

Seif Eldin Mustafa was branded an "idiot" by the Egyptian foreign ministry after he seized control of the Alexandra-Cairo flight and had it diverted to Cyprus, where he issued a string of bizarre demands...

Initial reports had raised fears the passengers of flight MS181 were about to become the latest victim of a terrorist attack, but it later emerged the hijacking was carried out by an "unstable" man said to have posed for "selfie" photos with some of the people he had taken hostage.

More than 80 people were on the plane, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said, three of them reportedly British citizens.

The hijacker initially allowed women and children to leave the plane, releasing Egyptian citizens shortly after.

But for a tense five hours he kept four unidentified foreign citizens on the plane as he issued his demands.

In a bizarre twist one of the passengers was seen apparently escaping by climbing out of the plane's cockpit and falling onto the runway.

Minutes later images were widely circulated on social media which appeared to show Mustafa - who was wearing what he claimed was a suicide vest - posing for a "selfie" photo with an unnamed passenger.

The Egyptian government has since confirmed the suicide belt was fake.

He was eventually captured and seen being led away from the airport by Cypriot police.

CBO: ObamaCare may force employers to pull the plug on millions

Fox News: [T]he Congressional Budget Office projects millions of workers will leave employer-sponsored health plans over the next decade because of ObamaCare. 

Some will opt to go on Medicaid, but others will be kicked off their company plans by employers who decide not to offer coverage anymore, according to a new CBO report titled,  "Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2016 to 2026."

"As a result of the ACA, between 4 million and 9 million fewer people are projected to have employment-based coverage each year from 2017 through 2026 than would have had such coverage if the ACA had never been enacted,” the report, released Thursday, said.

Employers now cover some 155 million people, about 57 percent of those under 65. That's expected to decline to 152 million people in 2019. Ten years from now, employers will be covering about 54 percent of those under 65.

CBO said part of the shrinkage is attributable to the health care law: some workers may qualify for Medicaid, which is virtually free to them, and certain employers may decide not to offer coverage because a government-subsidized alternative is available. 

Larger employers would face fines if they take that route. 

Light and airy

http://tinyhouseswoon.com/contemporary-shepherds-hut/

How About A Nice Warm Wisconsin Welcome For Donald Trump?

Trump is scheduled to appear at the Holiday Inn Express on Tuesday. An organizer told The Gazette earlier that the Monday protest is a last-ditch effort to convince the hotel and/or the city to cancel Trump's appearance in order to prevent violence.

Protesters Occupy Janesville Hotel Lobby

UPDATE: Protesters occupy Janesville Holiday Inn

Share on Facebook  248  25 Print

Frank Schultz

Monday, March 28, 2016

Nick Crow

Dozens of protesters arrived at the Holiday Inn Express on Monday evening as part of an anti-Donald Trump protest

1

 of 

2

Related Stories

Police set rules for Trump event Tuesday  Monday, March 28, 2016

Time changed for Trump's rally in Janesville  Sunday, March 27, 2016

Trump in Janesville: Police, protesters prepare  Sunday, March 27, 2016

Donald Trump coming to Janesville on Tuesday  Thursday, March 24, 2016

UPDATE: Dozens of protesters entered the Holiday Inn Express on Monday evening as part of an anti-Donald Trump protest, according to Gazette reporter Nick Crow, who was on the scene.

A state Assembly representative is among the 60 or so protesters who occupied the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in Janesville.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Janesville police on the scene had not moved to remove the protesters, who were chanting and refusing to leave, Crow said.

Hotel staff was not allowing anyone else in the hotel unless they were guests, Crow said.

About 20 more protesters did not go in the hotel and remain outside.

The protest was set to start at 6 p.m. Protesters entered the hotel and then left when asked to, Crow said.

But after some speeches, they returned to the hotel, Crow said.

Some inside sat with legs crossed and hands joined. Others stood. Their chants included “No hope for hate.”

Melissa Sargent, a Democratic representative to the state Assembly from the Madison area, was among those inside.  

“We're here to keep hate out of our state,” Sargent said.

Most of the protesters had left by 7:15 p.m., but six stayed and were using PVC pipe to link their arms, Crow reported.

Police locked the entrance and are not letting anyone into the hotel.

Crow remains on the scene. This report will be updated.

***

Trump is scheduled to appear at the Holiday Inn Express on Tuesday.
An organizer told The Gazette earlier that the Monday protest is a last-ditch effort to convince the hotel and/or the city to cancel Trump's appearance in order to prevent violence.

- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/20160328/protest_set_for_monday_night_at_janesville_holiday_inn#sthash.i7WWxWEy.dpuf

UPDATE: Protesters occupy Janesville Holiday Inn

Share on Facebook  248  25 Print

Frank Schultz

Monday, March 28, 2016

Nick Crow

Dozens of protesters arrived at the Holiday Inn Express on Monday evening as part of an anti-Donald Trump protest

1

 of 

2

Related Stories

Police set rules for Trump event Tuesday  Monday, March 28, 2016

Time changed for Trump's rally in Janesville  Sunday, March 27, 2016

Trump in Janesville: Police, protesters prepare  Sunday, March 27, 2016

Donald Trump coming to Janesville on Tuesday  Thursday, March 24, 2016

UPDATE: Dozens of protesters entered the Holiday Inn Express on Monday evening as part of an anti-Donald Trump protest, according to Gazette reporter Nick Crow, who was on the scene.

A state Assembly representative is among the 60 or so protesters who occupied the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in Janesville.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Janesville police on the scene had not moved to remove the protesters, who were chanting and refusing to leave, Crow said.

Hotel staff was not allowing anyone else in the hotel unless they were guests, Crow said.

About 20 more protesters did not go in the hotel and remain outside.

The protest was set to start at 6 p.m. Protesters entered the hotel and then left when asked to, Crow said.

But after some speeches, they returned to the hotel, Crow said.

Some inside sat with legs crossed and hands joined. Others stood. Their chants included “No hope for hate.”

Melissa Sargent, a Democratic representative to the state Assembly from the Madison area, was among those inside.  

“We're here to keep hate out of our state,” Sargent said.

Most of the protesters had left by 7:15 p.m., but six stayed and were using PVC pipe to link their arms, Crow reported.

Police locked the entrance and are not letting anyone into the hotel.

Crow remains on the scene. This report will be updated.

***

Trump is scheduled to appear at the Holiday Inn Express on Tuesday.
An organizer told The Gazette earlier that the Monday protest is a last-ditch effort to convince the hotel and/or the city to cancel Trump's appearance in order to prevent violence.

- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/20160328/protest_set_for_monday_night_at_janesville_holiday_inn#sthash.i7WWxWEy.dpuf

The story is still developing. To me, it sounds like something that FIBs out of Chicago would do -- a repeat of earlier this month.

Harry Bosch.....rocking good yarn.

I just finished season Two of Harry Bosch which is an Amazon original series. Amazon has started producing it's own content in much the same way as Netflicks. This is the second season of the dramatization of some of the novels of Michael Connelly featuring LA homicide Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. Season One was excellent and the second season keeps up the standard. Great production values and a gritty LA milieu add up to superior entertainment.

The key element to Harry's pysche is that his Mom was a prostitute who was murdered when he was a kid. Something he shares with real life author James Ellroy who is the definitive LA nior writer. I don't know if Connelly stole his life story but he got a lot of mileage out of it. Twenty excellent novels that will leave Amazon a lot of room to develop new series.

Amazon Prime is a great deal. For a nominal fee you get expedited shipping and tons of free streaming video. I heartily recommend it as well as this excellent detective series.

First Ladies on the Stump

The first wife of a president to campaign for her husband was Lucretia Garfield who campaigned for her husband James. It was considered vulgar and low class for women to engage in politics but Mrs. Garfield was a free spirit who delighted in mocking convention. This was because of her prior life in a geek show where she was a star performer because of the fact she had two vaginas. Young Colonel Garfield met her in New York when he was in charge of the troops that were sent to suppress the Draft Riots during the dark days of the civil war. They were introduced by Tom Thumb the world’s smallest man who owed a great debt to Lucretia as she had sheltered him in her vestigial vagina when he was trying to avoid an angry mob of rioters. Mrs. Garfield toured twenty states and was particularly popular in Wisconsin because of her love of cheese. Which she also stored in her vestigial vagina and began a practice that endures to this very day.  The Garfield’s had a legendary love story that is much neglected today because of the fact the details are so outré. It of course ended tragically when President Garfield was assassinated by a disappointed orifice seeker.
(First Ladies on the Stump by Doris Kearns Goodwin, St. Martins Press).

"Cities Are Paying Criminals $1000 Per Month "Not To Kill""

Zero Hedge:  It is widely known that in the past 6 months there has been a loud debate about helicopter money, i.e., giving out ordinary people (bypassing the banks) money directly printed by the Fed. What is less known is that when it comes to the most despicable underbelly of American society, cash to the tune of $1000 per month is already being "helicoptered" to some of the most brazen criminals living in the US today with one simple condition: "don't kill people."

* * *

Take the case of Lonnie Holmes, 21, who lives in Richmond, a working-class suburb north of San Francisco and whose four his cousins had died in shootings. He was a passenger in a car involved in a drive-by shooting, police said. And he was arrested for carrying a loaded gun. When Holmes was released from prison last year, officials in this city offered something unusual to try to keep him alive: money. They began paying Holmes as much as $1,000 a month not to commit another gun crime.

This is not just appeasement: it's sheer idiocy pure and simple, and it's only just starting.

According to the WaPo, "cities across the country, beginning with the District of Columbia, are moving to copy Richmond’s controversial approach because early indications show it has helped reduce homicide rates."

If readers are shocked by this "modest payment" it is for a good reason: the program requires governments to reject some basic tenets of law enforcement even as it challenges notions of appropriate ways to spend tax dollars. (more)

"LA City Council Considers Sending ‘Dear John’ Letters To Homes Of Men Who Solicit Prostitutes"

Los Angeles is considering sending “Dear John” letters to the homes of men who solicit prostitutes hoping the mail will be opened by mothers, girlfriends or wives.

Privacy advocates are slamming the idea. The plan would use automated license plate readers to generate the letters, which would be aimed at shaming “Johns,” the Los Angeles DailyNews reported.

The city council voted Wednesday to ask the City Attorney’s office to examine sending so-called “John Letters,” the Daily News reported.

Council member Nury Martinez, who represents a San Fernando Valley district that has a thriving street prostitution problem, introduced the plan.

Martinez has said many of the prostitutes are children, or women being exploited.

In a statement issued by her office Wednesday, Martinez said, “If you aren’t soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in your mailbox. But if you are, these letters will discourage you from returning. Soliciting for sex in our neighborhoods is not OK.”

Hope is the thing with feathers

"Casey Serin, a 24-year-old web programmer with no prior experience in real estate, owes banks 2.2 million dollars after lying on mortgage applications in order to simultaneously buy 8 different houses in different states.  He took cash out of the mortgage (applied for larger amounts than the price of the house) and spent the money on living expenses and real-estate seminars.  He was expecting the market to go up, it seems.

That's not even the sad part.  The sad part is that he still hasn't given up.  Casey Serin does not accept defeat.  He refuses to declare bankruptcy, or get a job; he still thinks he can make it big in real estate.  He went on spending money on seminars.  He tried to take out a mortgage on a 9th house.  He hasn't failed, you see, he's just had a learning experience.

That's what happens when you refuse to lose hope.

While this behavior may seem to be merely stupid, it also puts me in mind of two Nobel-Prize-winning economists...

...namely Merton and Scholes of Long-Term Capital Management.

While LTCM raked in giant profits over its first three years, in 1998 the inefficiences that LTCM were exploiting had started to vanish—other people knew about the trick, so it stopped working."

http://lesswrong.com/lw/gx/just_lose_hope_already/

"German train operator introduces women-only carriages amid fears over 'migrant sex attacks'"

Mirror:  The carriages will be next to the train conductor in a bid to make women feel more safe.

A spokesman for the railway said: “The local proximity to the customer service representative is chosen deliberately.”

In total more than 800 complaints were made to police and the incidents have sparked criticism over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to refuse to limit the number of refugees allowed into the country.

The idea of gender segregated carriages was suggested by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last year...

He said: “Some women have raised with me that a solution to the rise in assault and harassment on public transport could be to introduce women-only carriages.

“I would consult with women and open it up to hear their views on whether women-only carriages would be welcome – and if piloting this at times and on modes of transport where harassment is reported most frequently would be of interest.”

"Obama Admin to Waive Counter-Terror Measures to Aid Iran"

Free Beacon:  Congress last year tightened restrictions on the Visa Waiver Program, which facilitates travel between the United States and 38 other partner countries, to ensure that individuals from Iran and other countries with a terrorist footprint do not enter the United States without first obtaining a visa.

Top Iranian officials objected to the new counter-terror measures, saying that they would harm Iranian business interests and could force the Islamic Republic to walk away from the recently implemented nuclear agreement.

Secretary of State John Kerry wrote to Iranian leaders in December to assure them the Obama administration would waive the regulations, a move that was enforced by DHS earlier this week.

“The administration has the authority to waive” the counter-terrorism measures and will ensure they do not “interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran,” Kerry wrote to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Iran, according to the U.S. government, is the world's most active sponsor of state terrorism

"Keep yourself busy for a better chance of getting things done"

"People with a full schedule gain momentum and bounce back faster from missed deadlines."

If you want something done ask a busy person, goes the adage, but research suggests that this might well be true.

The busier you are, the more likely you are to complete tasks, particularly those whose deadlines have been missed, found Keith Wilcox of Columbia University and his team. Getting behind is demoralising, but Professor Wilcox discovered that busier people are better at bouncing back from a missed deadline and are more likely to get the task done — and more quickly. The theory is that while you may have missed one deadline, with other tasks completed and with others on the go, you feel that you are still winning the productivity war.

“Our research shows that being busy is one way to reduce the sense of failure,” he says.

According to the study, keeping yourself and your staff busy is a simple way to continue getting things done, even when deadlines have been missed. Rather than giving yourself or others more to do, you should instead break down larger tasks into smaller ones. This will make you feel busier without increasing your workload. But make sure you are busy with productive tasks and not simply those that occupy time, says Prof Wilcox. (more)

two sticks and a wheelchair

I walked a few blocks to visit friends. The midday bright and warm and beautiful and promising. A storm is a few days off so we're making the best of it while it lasts. Most people are inside, though, most likely enjoying Easter with family. There are a few well dressed pedestrians on Acoma and Bannock milling about to and from the museum. A samurai exhibition is advertised.

On my way on this block at this moment at a bright sunlit corner with nothing at all going on in that moment a small man is seated in wheelchair facing the sun. He looks like hell. His two front teeth are out. His feet are wrapped in new clean blue hospital feet protectors, the sort people wear when casts are removed and they're shuffling around on wounded feet. It is the sort of setup one hurries by to avoid and ignores whatever they say, most likely a request for a handout. As I walk toward his direction I arc closer to him sitting there instead of curve away from him as I pass by. He mumbles something to me about walking carefully. I don't hear him exactly but he's talking about me walking.

I'm already walking carefully as can be. I'm measuring every single step. A good 90% of my thoughts are devoted to processing each step. I'm having a good time. "Watch this" I say bragging. I lift my sticks and take three well placed steps, "See? Huh? What? I got this. I got this whole walking thing down." I turn back and show off my walking skill. To a guy in a wheelchair. "See?"

The man launches into a bitter tirade about how people are not taking care of him. How he needs help but the people who provide help don't provide it to him. He curses the city hospital nearby just  five or so blocks away out of sight. He complains about the nearby men's shelter not being a hospital that can care for his feet. I ask, "Can you walk usually?" "Not like this!" He complains his shelter tells him he must leave by 6:00 a.m. no matter what even if it's a blizzard. He curses the nearby courthouse (nice civic building they light up extravagantly all the time). He curses the Hospital, the nearby men's shelter, City Hall, the capitol building and the Veterans Association and tells me in hostile language how he wants to go full on Timothy McVeigh and blow up all those non-helping bastards all at the same time. Kaboom.

I agreed.

I told him a lot of people harbor the same sentiment. I commiserated. I told him I am aware of all those places he mentioned and he's right and sometimes it's even worse because they make rules that nobody can abide. I get him. He's right. I described my travails match his own in some details.

People are waiting, I must go.

He said automatically but still innocently and sincerely and sweetly, his tone changed as I'm leaving, "Have a happy Easter."

Realizing as he said it how incongruent his adieu was with the full content of his discourse that preceded it and realizing by having it mirrored that he's poisoning a stranger's mind and doing that on a holy holiday, he abruptly switched to preacher mode, to balance it,  and instructed me gravely to always forgive all who trespass against me as I am already forgiven my own sins and trespasses I've done against others. He delivered a portion of the Lord's prayer if not exactly in Christian canon form, recalling his teaching, in that moment of his automatic departing phrase. He fixed his own thoughts right there in his chair in the sun remembering we can forgive and we can heal.

It's not at all odd that he holds these two extreme opposites simultaneously and acts them out. He's human he doesn't have to make sense or be consistent.


"Yes, I will. Thank you for that." 

sad Affleck

This technique of delivering humor through some random and not very useful point is impressive. The source material is out there one has only to nick it, slow down the part that needs slowing and add music that's also public. The tools for this are free. Then snap back to real time and real sound for the punchline that isn't even a punch except for your snapback telescope technique. 

Tomi Lahren - Where are the Men?

Norm Macdonald on Minorities, Gays, and God

Rod Dreher: "Cheer Up, Conservatives"

The American Conservative:  Really good column by David Brooks today, in which he looks to the GOP’s future beyond Trump. Excerpts:

This is a moment for honesty. Valuably, Trump has exposed the rottenness of the consultant culture, and the squirrelly way politicians now talk to us. This is a moment for revived American nationalism. Trump’s closed, ethnic nationalism is dominant because Iraq, globalization and broken immigration policies have discredited the expansive open form of nationalism that usually dominates American culture.

And:

This is also a moment for sociology. Reaganism was very economic, built around tax policies, enterprise zones and the conception of the human being as a rational, utility-driven individual. The Adam Smith necktie was the emblem of that movement.

It might be time to invest in Émile Durkheim neckties, because today’s problems relate to binding a fragmenting society, reweaving family and social connections, relating across the diversity of a globalized world. Homo economicus is a myth and conservatism needs a worldview that is accurate about human nature.

Read the whole thing.  Brooks says that nobody knows what the next GOP will look like, but “it’s exciting to be present at the creation.” I agree. It’s about the only good news to come out of this wretched campaign: knowing that the old model is finally smashed, and the way forward is open for new ways of thinking on the Right. (more)

h/t Michael Haz

Who is Émile Durkheim?