The table above has these entries. Post entries with just one line for Reach were not boosted. Boosted posts have two lines for Reach and several other items. The upper line reflects all interactions, the bottom line just those resulting from paid ads.
For the emoticon table only, Love Haha Wow Sad Angry are listed separately.
========== How badly do you want a job? In the face of all experience, people still sign up for these... https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/12/12/chief-staff-oscars-host-popchips-spokesperson-allure-doomed-job/ == topic other ===== impact 13 impactrate 0 likeimpress 3 negative 0 posted 2018-12-30 ratio 4 react 6 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 3 title How badly do you want a job? topic other wordrate 0 words 22 ID 779303505747504 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/779303505747504 audclicks 3 audreach 3 engaged 4 impress 56 likeclickusers 4 likeimpress 3 likeuimpress 38 likeusers 3 likeuusers 26 matchedlinkclicks 2 matchedotherclicks 1 oimpress 56 oreach 29 posted "12/30/2018 03:08:10 PM" postlinkclicks 2 postotherclicks 1 reach 29 type Link ========== The year in review You could read hundreds of posts, or you could just read this one. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2018/12/30/feature/dave-barrys-year-in-review-2018 == topic other ===== comments 1 impact 16 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-12-30 ratio 10 react 8 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 6 title The year in review topic other wordrate 0 words 20 ID 779062809104907 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/779062809104907 audclicks 6 audreach 3 commentsimpress 1 commentsusers 1 engaged 3 impress 128 likeclickusers 3 likeuimpress 79 likeuusers 56 matchedlinkclicks 5 matchedotherclicks 1 oimpress 128 oreach 81 posted "12/30/2018 05:59:45 AM" postlinkclicks 3 postotherclicks 1 reach 81 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Who's going to be our Voltaire? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/27/opinion/trump-voltaire-enlightenment.html == topic other ===== impact 21 impactrate 0 likeimpress 4 negative 0 posted 2018-12-28 ratio 4 react 23 reactrate 0 shares 3 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 16 title Who's going to be our Voltaire? topic other wordrate 0 words 9 ID 778263602518161 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/778263602518161 audclicks 16 audreach 14 engaged 17 impress 153 likeclickusers 15 likeimpress 4 likeuimpress 100 likeusers 4 likeuusers 81 matchedlinkclicks 9 matchedotherclicks 7 oimpress 153 oreach 110 posted "12/28/2018 08:48:33 PM" postlinkclicks 9 postotherclicks 5 reach 110 sharesimpress 3 sharesusers 3 type Link ========== A Christmas message https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-christmas-message-fear-not/2018/12/24/8642eff2-07b7-11e9-88e3-989a3e456820_story.html for one who desperately needs it but wouldn't take time to readi it - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-am-all-alone-an-isolated-trump-unleashes-a-storm-of-yuletide-gloom/2018/12/24/382fdd88-07a4-11e9-a3f0-71c95106d96a_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-incompetent-impulsive-and-amoral-heaven-help-us-all/2018/12/24/b78e25d2-07bb-11e9-a3f0-71c95106d96a_story.html == topic other ===== impact 8 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-12-24 ratio 21 react 4 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 3 title A Christmas message topic other wordrate 0 words 20 ID 775778379433350 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/775778379433350 audclicks 3 audreach 3 engaged 4 impress 116 likeclickusers 4 likeuimpress 66 likeuusers 59 matchedlinkclicks 3 oimpress 116 oreach 86 posted "12/24/2018 05:30:46 PM" postlinkclicks 3 reach 86 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Reviewing the Boston Massacre - through the lens of Black Lives Matter. John Adams wasn't out best president, but he was an able attorney. https://theamericanscholar.org/black-lives-and-the-boston-massacre == topic other ===== hide 1 impact 16 impactrate 0 likeimpress 2 negative 1 posted 2018-12-10 ratio 8 react 6 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 3 title Reviewing the Boston Massacre - topic other wordrate 0 words 27 ID 766892123655309 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/766892123655309 audclicks 3 audreach 2 engaged 3 hideclicks 1 hideclicksusers 1 impress 74 likeclickusers 3 likeimpress 2 likeuimpress 49 likeusers 2 likeuusers 46 matchedotherclicks 3 negclicks 1 negusers 1 oimpress 74 oreach 48 posted "12/10/2018 06:51:05 PM" postotherclicks 2 reach 48 type Link ========== What does quantum mechanics imply about the human world? Is there an objective external reality? Can it be measured? Can two different observers observe the same event and get the same result? Which aspects of quantum reality scale to the human world? https://www.quantamagazine.org/frauchiger-renner-paradox-clarifies-where-our-views-of-reality-go-wrong-20181203/ General relativity seemed relevant only at cosmic scales originally, but now it's built into daily life http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html Will there be similar discoveries about quantum mechanics? Is Trump's gut as good a measure of reality as any other? The philosophical argument is much older than quantum mechanics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism == topic other 1 ===== impact 218 impactrate 0 likeimpress 2 negative 0 posted 2018-12-09 priority 1 ratio 2 react 24 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 21 title What does quantum mechanics imply about the human world? topic other wordrate 0 words 91 ID 765944560416732 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/765944560416732 audclicks 21 audreach 4 engaged 5 impress 97 likeclickusers 5 likeimpress 2 likeuimpress 67 likeusers 2 likeuusers 57 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 20 oimpress 97 oreach 66 posted "12/09/2018 07:14:09 AM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 3 reach 66 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Can we escape our genetic programming? https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-real-roots-of-midlife-crisis-768224228 https://aeon.co/ideas/the-bad-news-on-human-nature-in-10-findings-from-psychology == topic other ===== negative 0 posted 2018-12-07 rate 11 title Can we escape our genetic programming? topic other words 9 ID 765137123830809 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/765137123830809 impress 50 likeuimpress 29 likeuusers 24 oimpress 50 oreach 27 posted "12/07/2018 10:04:03 PM" reach 27 type Link ========== They shall not grow old - contemporary echos of two wars The name of a Fathom event struck a bell - but it took a while to remember which bell. It was lines of a poem on a plaque honoring the war dead of Carleton College in a lounge in Willis Hall. The poem is better known in Commonwealth countries that celebrate Remembrance Day on November 11 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_of_Remembrance On the 100th anniversary of the armistice, a movie has been created about that war - https://www.fathomevents.com/events/they-shall-not-grow-old == When that bell rang, another echoed. Near that plaque was another commemorating a real American war hero, Frank Shigemura https://apps.carleton.edu/150/stories/?story_id=1422793 http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Frank%20Shigemura/ and the quieter sacrifices of his parents to honor his memory. And coincidentally, another Fathom event this month recalls that era - https://www.fathomevents.com/events/george-takeis-allegiance == That's why everybody needs to study some history and some people need to become experts. History repeats itself, but never exactly. Somebody needs to be able to accurately discern what's repetitious and what's unique about contemporary events. Nobody can be an expert in everything, so don't disparage the expertise of others. What have these events got to do with us today? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_balance_of_power#World_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans What have we learned - and what have we forgotten? They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. == topic other 1 ===== impact 71 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-12-05 priority 1 ratio 11 react 3 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 3 title They shall not grow old - contemporary echos of two wars topic other wordrate 0 words 238 ID 763671133977408 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/763671133977408 audclicks 3 audreach 2 engaged 2 impress 58 likeclickusers 1 likeuimpress 40 likeuusers 32 matchedotherclicks 3 oimpress 58 oreach 35 posted "12/05/2018 11:53:38 AM" postotherclicks 2 reach 35 type Link ========== What a heroic norm-breaker is like https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/opinion/sugihara-moral-heroism-refugees.html ===== comments 2 hide 2 impact 47 impactrate 0 likeimpress 30 negative 2 posted 2018-11-23 ratio 3 react 79 reactrate 0 shares 13 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 32 title What a heroic norm-breaker is like topic other wordrate 0 words 6 ID 756228121388376 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/756228121388376 audclicks 32 audreach 21 commentsimpress 2 commentsusers 2 engaged 40 hideclicks 2 hideclicksusers 2 impress 376 likeclickusers 32 likeimpress 30 likeuimpress 180 likeusers 29 likeuusers 140 matchedlinkclicks 13 matchedotherclicks 19 negclicks 2 negusers 2 oimpress 376 oreach 293 posted "11/23/2018 01:16:43 PM" postlinkclicks 13 postotherclicks 11 reach 293 sharesimpress 13 sharesusers 12 type Link ========== Measuring the triumph beyond globalization - universalization https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-inevitable-tragic--and-ultimately-necessary--death-of-the-kilogram/2018/11/16/5e8650ae-e90c-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html == topic other ===== impact 21 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-11-16 ratio 1 react 21 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 21 title Measuring the triumph beyond globalization - topic other wordrate 0 words 10 ID 752188538459001 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/752188538459001 audclicks 21 audreach 2 engaged 2 impress 58 likeclickusers 2 likeuimpress 43 likeuusers 36 matchedotherclicks 21 oimpress 58 oreach 39 posted "11/16/2018 10:08:49 PM" postotherclicks 2 reach 39 type Link ========== Pinter saw it all coming. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/opinion/culture/harold-pinter-death-play.html == topic other ===== impact 6 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-11-13 ratio 4 react 7 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 7 title Pinter saw it all coming. topic other wordrate 0 words 8 ID 749850368692818 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/749850368692818 audclicks 7 audreach 2 engaged 2 impress 43 likeclickusers 2 likeuimpress 32 likeuusers 30 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 6 oimpress 43 oreach 32 posted "11/13/2018 05:38:12 AM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 2 reach 32 type Link ========== Education pays off for centuries https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/09/years-after-jesuits-were-expelled-towns-near-their-missions-still-have-higher-education-incomes == topic other ===== negative 0 posted 2018-11-09 rate 17 title Education pays off for centuries topic other words 8 title Education pays off for centuries topic other ID 747979892213199 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/747979892213199 type Link posted "11/09/2018 09:09:30 PM" reach 27 oreach 27 impress 42 oimpress 42 likeuimpress 33 likeuusers 24 ========== Persecution and survival - it's such an old story. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/sunday/jews-pittsburgh-anti-semitism-prayer.html ===== impact 3 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2018-11-04 ratio 27 react 3 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 1 title Persecution and survival - topic other wordrate 0 words 9 ID 744934059184449 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/744934059184449 audclicks 1 audreach 1 engaged 2 impress 117 likeclickusers 1 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 41 likeusers 1 likeuusers 35 matchedlinkclicks 1 oimpress 117 oreach 82 posted "11/04/2018 05:32:20 PM" postlinkclicks 1 reach 82 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Evolution of the Republican Party - from liberation to identity politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy The Republican Party defeated the Confederacy, freed the slaves, and then got stuck in the House trying to decide the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876. So the Corrupt Bargain was struck - the Republican Hayes became President, and withdrew Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction and giving the unrepentant southern Democrats a free hand for 80 years - https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/317 until the Supreme Court finally struck down "separate but equal" and the Republican President Eisenhower enforced it with Federal troops - http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/eisenhower/aa_eisenhower_littlerock_1.html leading to founding of the John Birch Society with their "Impeach Earl Warren" campaign and claims that Eisenhower was a Communist traitor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society Goldwater and William Buckley and many other Republican leaders kept their distance from the Birchers, and in 1964 Goldwater lost by a landslide to LBJ. Goldwater was too far right, but of course the lunatic fringe thought he was not far right ENOUGH. But Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965 and that encouraged many Dixiecrats to abandon the Democratic Party, led by Strom Thurmond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Senators_who_switched_parties and Albert Watson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Representatives_who_switched_parties Their racism made many traditional Republicans nervous, but Richard Nixon had been rebuilding a political organization for another run for President. Nixon realized that, properly handled, the former Dixiecrats were an asset rather than a liability. According to Haldeman, "Nixon emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognized this while not appearing to." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Although the RNC chair apologized for the Southern Strategy in 2005, he was speaking too soon. In 2009, Obama was elected President, and the Tea Party was born https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement Since Obama's politics were not much different from Bill Clinton's, it's hard to escape the conclusion that racism was an important factor in the rise of the Tea Party. It was not explicitly racist, but it was part of the oppose-Obama-on-everything movement within the Republican party https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311 which certainly appealed to all the racists. Trump's great insight was that by signaling (subtly at first, blatantly later) to the racists and fascists, they'd stick with him forever, and by other means he could also attract the Obama voters who were hoping for a change for the better. Of course, the reason there hadn't been as much change for the better as hoped, is that the Republicans were blocking Obama on everything. Even so, Obamacare passed and the economy as a whole has been recovering since 2009. But the Republicans cleverly convinced enough voters that they were against Obamacare, even though polls asking about any specific aspect of Obamacare, but without mentioning "Obamacare", such as affordable coverage for pre-existing conditions, found quite widespread support. Trump could easily promise to repeal Obamacare and come up with better coverage for more people at lower cost. And while the economy as a whole has been recovering, the recovery has been uneven, especially in industries undone by technological advance or their environmental costs. Trump could easily promise to turn back the tide of technology and and the tide of rising oceans and environmental degradation. And that's how Trump barely won. Since then he has done a great job of keeping the racists and anti-intellectuals in his camp, but those who had voted for Obama and then Trump have noticed that he hasn't really done anything for them after all. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/trump.html#First%20Trump%20Constituency So now he has to create distractions of foreign menace of impoverished peasant invasions, and somehow avoid the distractions of domestic menace by his hard-core followers who took him too literally and too seriously. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/trump.html#Second%20Trump%20Constituency https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gop-presses-ahead-in-casting-soros-as-threat-amid-criticism-that-attacks-are-anti-semitic/2018/10/29/183d50fe-dba4-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/31/republican-mailer-depicts-jewish-candidate-gripping-cash-grinning-gop-is-defending-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-self-described-nationalist-turns-midterms-into-a-forum-on-american-identity/2018/10/30/dd3a418a-dc4b-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html But sticking too close to his white-identity-politics hard-core base may be his undoing. Cults of personality have not lasted long in American politics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality The Trumpist Party has no fixed ideology beyond the whims and prejudices of the leader, who owes nothing to the past or to the future, but mutually supports and abets other personality cults all over the world. A president who wants to build a legacy needs a tent large enough to weather various kinds of crises among sub-constituencies. Trump seems uninterested and unable to do so. He's indeed a great disrupter, as claimed, but not a great builder, which also was claimed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-grip-on-power-depends-on-splitting-the-nation-in-two/2018/10/28/c7ba9bca-d958-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691174199 The nation will recover eventually, as it has from other fundamental crises. The outlook for the Republican Party is not so certain, and recalls the fate of the Whigs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_Party_(United_States)#Decline The Republicans might split into a hard-core identitarian Trumpist party and one espousing more traditional Republican values. Hard to guess which one will retain the Republican name! Trump certainly likes to see his name in gold on everything he touches. It would be good for the Republicans to finally excise their cancer of racism, anti-semitism, and fascism. After years of berating the Democrats for identity politics, it's time for the Republicans to take the same medicine. The Democrats could go the same factional route if success went to their heads and they got too far ahead of the middle of the electorate. That might eventually lead to a new majority coalition in the middle for a while. If the Democrats are smart, they will become the new majority coalition somewhat left of the middle, far enough left to have ideals and goals, yet close enough to the middle and the left to keep both in the tent. No small task. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#conservative ===== comments 1 impact 2065 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-10-30 ratio 2 react 23 reactrate 0 shares 2 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 20 title Evolution of the Republican Party - topic other wordrate 0 words 898 ID 742028372808351 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/742028372808351 audclicks 20 audreach 8 commentsimpress 1 commentsusers 1 engaged 8 impress 90 likeclickusers 7 likeuimpress 54 likeuusers 42 matchedlinkclicks 6 matchedotherclicks 14 oimpress 90 oreach 53 posted "10/30/2018 04:09:50 PM" postlinkclicks 3 postotherclicks 6 reach 53 sharesimpress 2 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Sure enough, it's a new version of the (mythical) Dan White Twinkie Defense https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/30/pointing-trumps-rhetoric-attorneys-kansas-militiaman-convicted-mosque-bomb-plot-ask-more-lenient-sentence/ Just another example of a presidential role model - https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/737912276553294 == By the way, here's the real story on the Twinkie Defense - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie_defense https://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Myth-of-the-Twinkie-defense-The-verdict-in-2511152.php ===== comments 5 impact 1743 impactrate 0 likeimpress 6 negative 0 posted 2018-10-30 ratio 0 react 498 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 486 title Sure enough, it's a new version of the (mythical) Dan topic other wordrate 0 words 35 ID 741873636157158 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/741873636157158 audclicks 486 audreach 14 commentsimpress 5 commentsusers 3 engaged 18 impress 158 likeclickusers 16 likeimpress 6 likeuimpress 97 likeusers 6 likeuusers 72 matchedlinkclicks 10 matchedotherclicks 476 oimpress 158 oreach 85 posted "10/30/2018 08:41:53 AM" postlinkclicks 9 postotherclicks 8 reach 85 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Conversion of a party of ideas to a cult of personality - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality America was founded on ideas rather than personalities- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. A new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Traditional Republicans who think of themselves as part of the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt should think about what it means when a party of ideas becomes a personality cult - which is the tendency of populist and fascist movements. They might ask how it worked out for others - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bannon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm They all were fired, not for their ideology, but because they were potential popularity threats to Dear Fearless Leader. Their ideology didn't save them. The Republican Party has become the Trumpist Party with no fixed ideology but the whims and prejudices of the leader, who owes nothing to the past nor to the future, but mutually supports and abets other personality cults all over the world. The only reality is the inner reality of Dear Fearless Leader; any reference to other realities or failure to keep up with the twists and turns of the approved reality is hazardous to your career, or worse. Don't like it? The 2018 election is a national referendum on ideas vs personality cults. For this one specific moment in history, voters interested in ideas need to vote for ideas and against personality cults. That means in almost every instance, a vote for Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, independents, or staying home because it doesn't matter - is a vote for personality cults. An astonishing number of House and even Senate seats - and state governorships and legislature seats - are too close too call this year - meaning individual votes count as never before. No matter who wins control of the Senate or House, it will result in a majority of just a few votes, each decided by just a few votes. Turnout is everything. In almost every instance, at this specific moment, the only effective vote against personality cults is to vote Democratic. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#registration http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#political%20ideology%20for%20the%20masses As for the future, there are a lot of structural reforms needed - getting dark money out of politics, encouraging voter registration and turnout instead of suppressing, ending gerrymandering, adopting ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts, changing the way Congress runs itself - that will increase voter choices by making independent and ideological candidates more feasible. https://www.fairvote.org/ https://www.nolabels.org/ https://www.uniteamerica.org/ http://www.americanpromise.net/ But those efforts will take years to come to fruition. Now is the time for short-term action. == More at https://www.facebook.com/pg/politicalscrapbooknet/posts http://www.political-scrapbook.net/facebook.html http://www.political-theses.net/ http://www.political-scrapbook.net ===== comments 330 hideall 6 impact 79655 impactrate 3 likeimpress 316 negative 10 posted 2018-10-27 ratio 11 react 1790 reactrate 0 shares 146 sharesrate 0 spam 4 sumclicks 988 title Conversion of a party of ideas to a cult of personality - topic other wordrate 0 words 445 ID 740498216294700 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/740498216294700 audclicks 1023 audreach 883 bimpress 25098 blikeimpress 54 blikeusers 41 breach 18601 commentsimpress 330 commentsusers 148 engaged 1207 hideallclicks 6 hideallclicksusers 6 impress 29288 likeclickusers 15 likeimpress 316 likeuimpress 127 likeusers 306 likeuusers 95 matchedlinkclicks 718 matchedotherclicks 270 negclicks 10 negusers 10 oimpress 4190 oreach 3041 posted "10/27/2018 11:10:39 PM" postlinkclicks 664 postotherclicks 208 reach 21176 sharesimpress 146 sharesusers 140 spamclicks 4 spamclicksusers 4 type Link budget 400 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""Conversion of a party of ideas to a cult of...""" ccleantitle Conversion of a party of ideas to a cult of cclicksall 2714 cclickslink 694 ccpcall 0.14738394 ccpclink 0.57636888 cdelivery not_delivering cend 2018-12-31 cimpressions 25098 clicksunique 666 conversionrank "Below average - Bottom 20% of ads" cost 0.57636887608069 cpm 15.9375249 creach 18788 cstart 2018-10-01 ctrall 10.81361065 ctrlink 2.7651605705634 ecomments 79 ecpclink 0.57636888 ends 2018-11-06 engagedrank "Above average" ereact 206 eshares 97 frequency 1.3358526719182 indicator actions:link_click qualityrank "Below average - Bottom 20% of ads" results 694 spent 400 ========== Not News It's not fake, but it's not news. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kavanaugh-vote-hours-before-a-key-test-grassley-says-he-doesnt-know-how-it-will-go/2018/10/05/a71d92ba-c886-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html Let's summarize: * a woman fearfully comes forward with an accusation that, no matter what, will strongly affect the rest of her life, mostly negatively, and... ultimately nothing good comes of her pains * a man has a few bad moments and then goes on with his career pretty much as if nothing happened * probably not a single senator changed his or her mind from the time the Kavanaugh nomination was first announced until he gets confirmed And it doesn't really matter what did or didn't happen long ago - it seems to lead to the same result. That's such an old story, that none of it counts as news. It's not even news that this all seems to have helped the Republican senators running for re-election - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/politics/trump-kavanaugh-midterm-elections.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-races-move-right-house-races-move-left-in-political-fallout-from-kavanaugh-confirmation-fight/2018/10/05/74372af2-c811-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html What would have been news would be news like 1969 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/10/06/senate-has-lost-its-way/ == Instead some REAL news gets overlooked in the shuffle - * the New York Times publishes dates, names, and amounts of the tax frauds perpetrated by the Trump family (and many real and imaginary billionaires) and demolish the publicity fraud of "Donald Trump, successful self-made billionaire"; Trump representative do not dispute any specific factual allegation and the Times can safely call their bluff about going to court; the Trumps do not want their confederates testifying under penalty of perjury, especially with the NY tax authorities circling ominously, since Trump has seen that his confederates all flip eventually. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/politics/donald-trump-fred-trump-tax-schemes.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/opinion/donald-trump-fred-taxes-fraud.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-ducked-the-tax-code-the-irs-made-it-easy/2018/10/04/102409aa-c80b-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/opinion/trump-wealth-tax-evasion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-wealth-fred-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/trump-family-wealth.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/insider/donald-trump-fred-tax-schemes-wealth.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/politics/donald-trump-fred-trump-tax-schemes.html * Kavanaugh's positions about dark money and rights of corporations fit right in with the billionaires agenda. Dark money is the #1 problem of American politics - it funds #2, #3, .... #infinity. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/09/13/how-brett-kavanaugh-could-help-create-an-era-of-rampant-corruption/ * Pence announces some serious intentions about China, which will be very consequential unless China mollifies Trump with some token concessions and a big red carpet for him to accept them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-trump-administration-just-reset-the-us-china-relationship/2018/10/04/c727266e-c810-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies == So is the suffering of Christine Blasey Ford and the other women that have come forward - since time immemorial - and gotten nothing but grief, all for nought? It didn't change any senators' minds. But can it change the minds of people who voted for Trump and now think better of it? Can it change the minds of people who don't vote because they don't think it makes a difference? The committed and involved and activist people have made up their minds. There's one month to get the uncommitted, uninvolved, and passive to act. Midterm elections are all about turnout. == Knowing that sooner or later he's going to be minority leader again, McConnell keeps his eye on the prize of packing the Supreme Court to protect dark money and gerrymandering, to keep Congress and the state legislatures full of uncompromising ideologues, so even Constitutional amendments can't be passed to undo his handiwork. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitch-mcconnell-is-winning-the-long-game/2018/05/30/99b81818-6371-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc_story.html https://www.amazon.com/Long-Game-Memoir-Mitch-McConnell/dp/0399564101 ===== comments 17 impact 4008 impactrate 0 likeimpress 28 negative 0 posted 2018-10-05 ratio 1 react 86 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 40 title Not News topic other wordrate 0 words 466 ID 728256594185529 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/728256594185529 audclicks 40 audreach 15 commentsimpress 17 commentsusers 9 engaged 37 impress 246 likeclickusers 37 likeimpress 28 likeuimpress 222 likeusers 27 likeuusers 167 matchedotherclicks 40 oimpress 246 oreach 170 posted "10/05/2018 09:51:37 AM" postotherclicks 15 reach 170 sharesimpress 1 type Link ========== Do you excel at your hobbies? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opinion/sunday/in-praise-of-mediocrity.html Words of comfort for political hobbyists! Another point of view - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/opinion/tips-for-aspiring-op-ed-writers.html http://www.political-scrapbook.net/ ===== impact 2 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-09-29 ratio 47 react 1 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 1 title Do you excel at your hobbies? topic other wordrate 0 words 17 ID 725359354475253 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/725359354475253 audclicks 1 audreach 1 engaged 1 impress 80 likeclickusers 1 likeuimpress 49 likeuusers 44 matchedotherclicks 1 oimpress 80 oreach 47 posted "09/29/2018 10:50:18 PM" postotherclicks 1 reach 47 type Link ========== No package deals https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opinion/sunday/christians-politics-belief.html ===== comments 1 impact 7 impactrate 0 likeimpress 2 negative 0 posted 2018-09-29 ratio 4 react 23 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 19 title No package deals topic other wordrate 0 words 3 ID 725356444475544 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/725356444475544 audclicks 19 audreach 10 commentsimpress 1 commentsusers 1 engaged 10 impress 147 likeclickusers 9 likeimpress 2 likeuimpress 104 likeusers 2 likeuusers 89 matchedlinkclicks 7 matchedotherclicks 12 oimpress 147 oreach 113 posted "09/29/2018 10:39:54 PM" postlinkclicks 6 postotherclicks 6 reach 113 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Time to catch up with the rest of the civilized world https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/abolish-the-death-penalty/2018/09/28/830ad282-c27a-11e8-97a5-ab1e46bb3bc7_story.html ===== impact 14 impactrate 0 likeimpress 5 negative 0 posted 2018-09-28 ratio 6 react 13 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 7 title Time to catch up with the rest of the civilized world topic other wordrate 0 words 11 ID 724860057858516 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/724860057858516 audclicks 7 audreach 5 engaged 8 impress 115 likeclickusers 6 likeimpress 5 likeuimpress 76 likeusers 5 likeuusers 61 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 6 oimpress 115 oreach 82 posted "09/28/2018 06:58:31 PM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 4 reach 82 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Another guilty plea, another cooperator This seemed to get lost in the other news of the day - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/washington-consultant-for-ukraine-party-set-to-plead-guilty-to-violating-lobbyist-disclosure-law/2018/08/31/172cf2c8-ad23-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html Or maybe collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia just isn't news any more. One question is why Trump campaigners were so eager to collaborate - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/09/18/what-everyones-forgetting-about-paul-manafort/ The other question is what did Trump know and when did he know it. What did he do about it - that's not collusion, that's obstruction of justice. ===== Side note: as of 20 Sep 2018, this posting was the most popular unboosted (no paid advertising) post on this Facebook page, generating more Reach, Likes, Shares, and Clicks than the previous most popular - https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/697406243937231 But Jimmy Carter got way more Loves. ===== comments 4 hide 1 impact 4025 impactrate 0 likeimpress 69 negative 1 posted 2018-09-18 ratio 2 react 350 reactrate 0 shares 31 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 245 title Another guilty plea, another cooperator topic other wordrate 0 words 115 ID 719514541726401 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/719514541726401 audclicks 245 audreach 76 commentsimpress 4 commentsusers 4 engaged 130 hideclicks 1 hideclicksusers 1 impress 1286 likeclickusers 50 likeimpress 69 likeuimpress 179 likeusers 68 likeuusers 132 matchedlinkclicks 47 matchedotherclicks 198 negclicks 1 negusers 1 oimpress 1286 oreach 918 posted "09/18/2018 02:17:59 PM" postlinkclicks 41 postotherclicks 41 reach 918 sharesimpress 31 sharesusers 30 type Link ========== If at first you don't succeed - repeat the same dumb idea. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/11/house-gop-is-pushing-new-round-tax-cuts-that-could-cost-trillion-over-years/ The essence of this proposal is in what they don't talk about in their press release - pass-through taxation, alternative minimum tax, estate tax. None of which applies to the average W-2 wage slave. But the billionaires hear it loud and clear. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/13/new-estimate-gops-second-tax-cuts-would-add-trillion-deficit/ Ever wonder where the last tax cut went? https://justcapital.com/reports/the-just-capital-rankings-on-corporate-tax-reform/ We've never been in this situation before - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/government-borrowing-soars-despite-robust-economy/2018/09/11/09a85554-b5eb-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html Even Romney can't take it any more - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-have-become-silent-on-deficit-reduction-romney-says/2018/09/10/aad7589e-b528-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html But his principles are a little uncertain, since he decided to oppose Obamacare even though it was modeled on Romney's own popular Masscare. Perhaps it's all just a publicity stunt - "Privately they admit they’re doing this to score political points against Democrats in an election year. They know that there won’t be support in the Senate to make last year’s reductions of individual rates permanent because there won’t be 60 votes." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/09/12/daily-202-west-wing-intrigue-distracts-from-what-the-trump-administration-is-and-isn-t-doing/5b98042d1b326b47ec959559/ Or maybe not. William Jennings Bryan again: "There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them. ... You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." http://www.one-flat-tax.net/ ===== comments 15 impact 5953 impactrate 0 likeimpress 33 negative 0 posted 2018-09-11 ratio 2 react 247 reactrate 0 shares 21 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 178 title If at first you don't succeed - topic other wordrate 0 words 241 ID 715678712109984 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/715678712109984 audclicks 178 audreach 51 commentsimpress 15 commentsusers 13 engaged 73 impress 819 likeclickusers 53 likeimpress 33 likeuimpress 197 likeusers 33 likeuusers 154 matchedlinkclicks 8 matchedotherclicks 170 oimpress 819 oreach 547 posted "09/11/2018 10:20:01 AM" postlinkclicks 8 postotherclicks 46 reach 547 sharesimpress 21 sharesusers 21 type Link ========== Florence Foster Jenkins, Donald Trump, and Don Juan in Hell After seeing a production of "Souvenir," a play about Florence Foster Jenkins, the question arises - What does an academic discussion about postmodernism and deconstructionism have to do with the hell of current American politics and a hell of a bad singer and the hell of Don Juan? https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/postmodernism-didnt-cause-trump-it-explains-him/2018/08/30/0939f7c4-9b12-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins https://www.bartleby.com/157/3.html lines 148-545 It's all about what is ultimately real. Right-wing supporters of Trump's fantasies argue that the moral relativism began in left-wing academic philosophy circles so that they have no basis for complaining about Trump. But as Hanlon says, "the real enemy of truth is not postmodernism but propaganda, the active distortion of truth for political purposes," and there's nothing new about that. It is true that, for any individual person, his reality only exists inside his own head, and it is shaped by everything that happened to him and his ancestors - all the way back to protozoa. So no two persons perceive exactly the same reality. So, the argument goes, one person's reality is as good as another's. So why shouldn't Trump talk about the reality that's in his head? https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/715193368825185 Why shouldn't Florence Foster Jenkins believe the reality in her own head? Shaw was a dramatist, rather than a theologian or philosopher, but in the Don Juan in Hell dream sequence - part of the enormous play Man and Superman - he imagines heaven and hell in a much more convincing way than most theologians. Heaven is the place for those who wish to master reality, while hell is the place for those who wish to master illusion. Where would Donald Trump and Florence Foster Jenkins choose to go? Shaw attributed a line to an imaginary poet - "Hell is a city, much like Seville" since the characters in his play derived from Mozart's Don Giovanni, which is set in Seville - but if he had been writing a century later, he might have suggested "Hell is a city, much like Las Vegas" or "Hell is a city of reality TV." The observations of Don Juan in Hell - before he leaves for heaven - cover a vast scope of human experience, in Shaw's usual entertaining style, because Don Juan is of course a personification of Shaw himself. Well worth reading! By the way, if you read the rest of Act III, before and after the Don Juan in Hell dream sequence, you'll see how little effect a century has had on left-wing factionalism. Although academic philosophy is above the pay grade and competence level of most of us, people who have studied physical science understand that there is some absolute objective reality operating in the universe, whether or not there are any pundits to blog about it or philosophers to deconstruct it. That objective reality operated before any living things existed and will continue to operate after all living things have disappeared. It's not as easy to be sure about human reality as it is to be sure about physical reality, but the basis of much Western tradition back to the Greeks is that we can understand better and get closer to something like objective truth if we try - and that it is worthwhile, and essential, to try. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/journalism.html#primary%20sources The Eastern understanding, that external reality is an illusion and the only true reality is internal, might be helpful to individuals coping with impossible objective circumstances, but it's not so helpful for improving those objective circumstances. Something to remember on 9-11. Something real happened. It was an objective fact, not an illusion. ===== impact 59 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-09-11 priority 1 ratio 39 react 1 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 1 title Florence Foster Jenkins, Donald Trump, and Don Juan in Hell topic other wordrate 0 words 590 ID 715638752113980 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/715638752113980 audclicks 1 audreach 1 engaged 1 impress 71 likeclickusers 1 likeuimpress 35 likeuusers 33 matchedotherclicks 1 oimpress 71 oreach 39 posted "09/11/2018 08:28:13 AM" postotherclicks 1 reach 39 type Link ========== Protecting the iGens considered harmful https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/books/review/splintering-william-egginton-coddling-greg-lukianoff-jonathan-haidt.html ===== likeimpress 2 negative 0 posted 2018-08-27 rate 7 ratio 25 react 2 title Protecting the iGens considered harmful topic other words 5 ID 707436696267519 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/707436696267519 engaged 2 impress 82 likeclickusers 2 likeimpress 2 likeuimpress 79 likeusers 2 likeuusers 49 oimpress 82 oreach 50 posted "08/27/2018 06:17:10 PM" reach 50 type Link ========== Trump might be right about one thing https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/safest-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-none-worldwide-study-shows/2018/08/23/823a6bec-a62d-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html But if teetotalers become Trumpists, it's time for a beer. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/non-political.html#beer ===== comments 9 impact 100 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2018-08-23 ratio 3 react 59 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 48 title Trump might be right about one thing topic other wordrate 0 words 17 ID 704583239886198 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/704583239886198 audclicks 48 audreach 35 commentsimpress 9 commentsusers 7 engaged 36 impress 470 likeclickusers 11 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 114 likeusers 1 likeuusers 72 matchedlinkclicks 22 matchedotherclicks 26 oimpress 470 oreach 226 posted "08/23/2018 06:48:54 PM" postlinkclicks 20 postotherclicks 21 reach 226 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== When it's all over Sooner or later the Trump era will be history. If you find, as seems likely, that many more bad expectations were met than good ones, don't expect to be complimented on your foresight by the hardcore Trump base. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/23/by-a-3-to-1-margin-trump-supporters-embrace-his-personality-over-his-policies/ http://www.political-scrapbook.net/trump.html#Second%20Trump%20Constituency They will all believe they got what they were promised, whether coal billionaire, pious housewife, or racist moron. Thus it's a waste of time to explain to this constituency that Trump's policies are actually working against their interests. They don't care - he's addressing their dreams, hopes, and fears, not their realities. They even understand that his tax and tariff policies are not in their interest - but they don't mind https://apnews.com/f9cc2156eef0458da7347d9608deef95 Save your energy for the much larger group of persuadables who voted for Obama and then for Trump - http://www.political-scrapbook.net/trump.html#First%20Trump%20Constituency And here's how to apply that energy - https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/696958633981992 ===== Trump's favorite president is Andrew Jackson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson whose supporters celebrated his inauguration by trashing the White House, breaking previous norms. Jackson broke other norms too, ignoring the Supreme Court when it suited him, inventing partisan politics as we know it today, persecuting Indians at every opportunity, and understanding very little about money. He held grudges all his life. Still his identification with the common man was based on his own real experience growing up with the poverty and danger of frontier life; he knew the light of Freemasonry; he was a real war hero; he paid off the national debt; he held the union together through its first secession crisis - over tariffs! - and maybe that last accomplishment is why Jackson is on the $20. So conservatives can argue that norm-breaking is part of democracy - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/opinion/trump-democracy-norm-breaking.html However nobody ever suspected or accused Jackson of collaboration with foreign enemies. ===== Isn't there a pivotal moment in Another Roadside Attraction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9570.Another_Roadside_Attraction when a principal character remembered a quotation from a philosopher along the lines of If you disprove people's religion, they won't thank you, they'll kill you. A point to keep in mind. Likewise if your own heroes turn out to have clay feet or even a few clay toes, remember that's part of the human condition too. We all have the difficult task of judging both our heroes and villains by their good and bad works together. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/non-political.html#famous http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#originalsin ===== comments 5 impact 2451 impactrate 0 likeimpress 9 negative 0 posted 2018-08-23 ratio 2 react 65 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 50 title When it's all over topic other wordrate 0 words 377 ID 704542196556969 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/704542196556969 audclicks 50 audreach 21 commentsimpress 5 commentsusers 4 engaged 27 impress 242 likeclickusers 23 likeimpress 9 likeuimpress 146 likeusers 9 likeuusers 100 matchedlinkclicks 6 matchedotherclicks 44 oimpress 242 oreach 163 posted "08/23/2018 06:06:10 PM" postlinkclicks 6 postotherclicks 16 reach 163 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== If nobody ever had to die... then children would never have to grow up... and we wouldn't need to have children... women wouldn't need to worry about their biological clocks.... and we wouldn't even need to have sex https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/opinion/life-is-short-thats-the-point.html ===== impact 30 impactrate 0 likeimpress 3 negative 0 posted 2018-08-18 ratio 6 react 8 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 4 title If nobody ever had to die... then children would topic other wordrate 0 words 38 ID 698722033805652 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/698722033805652 audclicks 4 audreach 4 engaged 5 impress 68 likeclickusers 5 likeimpress 3 likeuimpress 55 likeusers 3 likeuusers 43 matchedotherclicks 4 oimpress 68 oreach 53 posted "08/18/2018 01:07:07 PM" postotherclicks 4 reach 53 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Our ancient instincts survive beneath a veneer of civilization https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/opinion/the-beast-in-me.html The difference is that now we have the technology to multiply the consequences of our animal panic instincts. http://www.liberty-and-justice.net/ ===== negative 0 posted 2018-08-17 rate 3 title Our ancient instincts survive beneath a veneer of topic other words 27 title Our ancient instincts survive beneath a veneer of ID 697485807262608 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/697485807262608 type Link posted "08/17/2018 09:35:36 AM" reach 28 oreach 28 impress 44 oimpress 44 likeuimpress 40 likeuusers 26 ========== The World Ends in San Francisco Real smoke and ashes from real wildfires fell outside as the old order went up in flames inside at the conclusion of the final cycle of San Francisco Opera's Ring. Not only the old order, but the new order that the old order thought it had established. A supposed hero, raised in a moral and historical vacuum, ignorant, impatient, impulsive, yet indecisive, was easy prey for a crafty flattering manipulator. Likewise a supposed heroine made the fatal mistake of confusing the symbol of love for love itself. So what happens now? Thus this Goetterdaemmerung production ends much like every other, but this time there's a new topical twist: instead of cringing on the sidelines, Gutrune and the Gibichung women seize the men's weapons of war and throw them on the funeral pyre of Siegfried and Brunnhile. Will they be able to create a better world than the men? https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/25/san-francisco-opera-brings-wagners-ring-to-a-roaring-conclusion/ https://www.sfgate.com/music/article/With-a-fiery-inferno-SF-Opera-s-13004542.php http://www.operatoday.com/content/2018/06/gotterdammerung.php https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/638330403178149 http://californiasmokeinfo.blogspot.com/ ===== impact 139 impactrate 0 likeimpress 3 negative 0 posted 2018-07-02 ratio 5 react 9 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 6 title The World Ends in San Francisco topic other wordrate 0 words 154 ID 649892492021940 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/649892492021940 audclicks 6 audreach 6 engaged 9 impress 88 likeclickusers 9 likeimpress 3 likeuimpress 79 likeusers 3 likeuusers 46 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 5 oimpress 88 oreach 51 posted "07/02/2018 06:17:27 AM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 5 reach 51 type Link ========== Wagner's Ring continues in San Francisco Der Ring des Nibelungen continues at San Francisco Opera. The second cycle began last night and continues through Sunday; the third and final cycle begins next Tuesday. Measured by its influence on subsequent generations of creative artists, the Ring remains one of the monuments of Western civilization, both intensely mythologically archetypal and intensely topical, especially in the current SF production. A performance demands a lot of the performers and a lot of the audience, although English-language supertitles make it vastly more accessible to modern audiences. Richard Wagner wasn't much liked as a person when he was alive and afterward, but he was recognized as an artistic genius in his own lifetime and afterward. Ringheads who have the means to do so, attend Ring cycles all over the world; others have to content themselves with DVD's until there's a production nearby. The last one in San Francisco was in 2011. https://sfopera.com/ring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen Reviews: http://www.sfexaminer.com/san-francisco-opera-completes-triumphant-ring/ https://www.sfgate.com/music/article/With-a-fiery-inferno-SF-Opera-s-13004542.php https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/14/wagners-mighty-ring-rocks-the-house-at-san-franciscos-war-memorial/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanrabimov/2018/06/17/the-ring-of-the-nibelung-at-san-francisco-opera-the-150-years-of-urgency/ ===== negative 0 posted 2018-06-20 rate 2 title Wagner's Ring continues in San Francisco topic other words 156 title Wagner's Ring continues in San Francisco ID 638330403178149 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/638330403178149 posted "06/20/2018 08:11:41 AM" reach 31 oreach 31 impress 48 oimpress 48 likeuimpress 42 likeuusers 27 ========== This is what exponential change looks like... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/06/13/antarctic-ice-loss-has-tripled-in-a-decade-if-that-continues-we-are-in-serious-trouble/ But it also might not be the beginning of exponential change, and even if it is, it will end eventually - exponential change in finite systems can't go on forever, or even for very long once it's noticeable to casual observers. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#exponentials But just because it will end eventually doesn't mean we will be around to see it. It might be part of a much larger picture: http://www.liberty-and-justice.net/ ===== impact 95 impactrate 0 likeimpress 3 negative 0 posted 2018-06-13 ratio 8 react 13 reactrate 0 shares 3 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 7 title This is what exponential change looks like... topic other wordrate 0 words 73 ID 632665100411346 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/632665100411346 audclicks 7 audreach 4 engaged 7 impress 160 likeclickusers 3 likeimpress 3 likeuimpress 55 likeusers 3 likeuusers 34 matchedlinkclicks 3 matchedotherclicks 4 oimpress 160 oreach 113 posted "06/13/2018 10:32:07 AM" postlinkclicks 3 postotherclicks 3 reach 113 sharesimpress 3 sharesusers 3 type Link ========== Could President Pence be impeached? With no sex or money scandals, and lacking foreign entanglements, Pence seems unlikely to commit Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors; any minor screw-ups that come to light might seem very small after the Trump administration. So he won't be impeachable. Lacking any sign of mental or emotional instability or other medical issues, he won't be subject to the 25th amendment. So whatever leverage that Congress might have against Trump on those grounds, wouldn't apply to Pence. There's no constitutional provision for removing a president for merely being unsavory or incompetent or unpopular, which could be viewed as a bug if the president were never elected but succeeded an elected president. It appears that Pence is organizing a staff that can work together effectively to promote his reactionary legislative agenda - one that could actually govern should the need arise. They are bound together by a common ideology, completely unlike Trump's staff of self-serving opportunists and kleptocrats . Whereas Trump doesn't have to worry about his lieutenants turning against him on ideological principle, he does have to worry about what happens if they sense a better opportunity elsewhere. In contrast, Pence doesn't have to worry so much about opportunism as about making sure his staff is ideologically compatible. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/pence-trump-midterms.html Trump can be easily satisfied with flattery, news releases, photo-ops, a TV ratings boost, and other superficial rewards, as Pence and other political leaders, and Kim and other foreign leaders, have discerned. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/george-will-mike-pence-replaces-trump-as-the-worst-person-in-government Pence's team might insist on real substantive accomplishments. If Trump is impeached and convicted, Pence becomes President. That's something that Democrats should consider carefully before talking about impeachment, which is still unpopular among the uncommitted middle of the electorate that might vote either way. According to an NPR/PBS/Marist poll: 47 percent of registered voters would definitely vote against a candidate who wanted to remove Trump from office, while 42 percent would definitely vote for a candidate who would make such a promise. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/22/opinion/trump-impeachement-america.html And the Republicans are planning to use impeachment talk to rally their demoralized base: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/385367-trump-if-dems-win-in-2018-theyll-impeach-me https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/08/us/politics/trump-impeachment-midterms.html But according to Dionne: "The top three issues on voters' minds in battleground states and districts are gun policy (23 percent), the economy and jobs (20 percent) and health care (also 20 percent)... All elections involve a mix of mobilization and persuasion. The intense dislike of Trump means that mobilization will play an especially large role this year. But few Democrats - in swing areas and among would-be presidents - are counting on animosity to the president to do all their work for them." https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/17/ej-dionne-politicians-arent-as-dumb-as-we-think/ So to win control of Congress in 2018, it's perhaps best for Democratic candidates to say as little as possible about impeachment, and focus on the issues that matter in contestable districts. Leave it to Trump to keep the Democratic base energized with his imprudent responses to the Mueller investigation. And if the Democrats win control of Congress in 2018, a possible strategy would be to say no more about impeachment until the next recession is definitely under way, then quickly remove Trump and let Pence take the economic blame. Ideally that would occur early in 2020 to maximize the impact on the 2020 election, but economic cycles run on their own unpredictable and opaque mass-psychology dynamics: as the joke goes, economists have successfully predicted nine of the last five recessions. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#cycle As for replacing an unsavory or incompetent or unpopular president, a mechanism could be part of electoral college reform: http://www.political-scrapbook.net/democracy.html#electoral%20college ===== comments 92 hide 1 impact 48930 impactrate 2 likeimpress 211 negative 1 posted 2018-05-18 ratio 2 react 848 reactrate 0 shares 56 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 488 title Could President Pence be impeached? topic other wordrate 0 words 577 ID 619932365017953 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/619932365017953 audclicks 489 audreach 402 bimpress 1117 blikeimpress 14 blikeusers 11 breach 1073 commentsimpress 92 commentsusers 67 engaged 580 hideclicks 1 hideclicksusers 1 impress 2674 likeclickusers 32 likeimpress 211 likeuimpress 97 likeusers 190 likeuusers 61 matchedlinkclicks 83 matchedotherclicks 405 negclicks 1 negusers 1 oimpress 1557 oreach 1140 posted "05/18/2018 07:30:04 AM" postlinkclicks 66 postotherclicks 355 reach 2181 sharesimpress 56 sharesusers 44 type Link budget 16 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""Could President Pence be impeached?""" ccleantitle Could President Pence be impeached? cclicksall 370 cclickslink 49 ccpcall 0.04324324 ccpclink 0.32653061 cdelivery rejected cend 2018-06-30 cimpressions 1117 clicksunique 47 conversionrank - cost 0.10322580645161 cpm 14.32408236 creach 1064 cstart 2018-04-01 ctrall 33.12444047 ctrlink 4.3867502238138 ecomments 24 ecpclink 0.32653061 ends 2018-06-03 engagedrank - ereact 68 eshares 14 frequency 1.0498120300752 indicator actions:post_engagement qualityrank - results 155 spent 16 ========== What did Jesus really teach about women? "Jesus violated the mores of his time in every single encounter with women recorded in the four Gospels. The equality of men and women was a thing so shocking in the patriarchal society of Jesus' time that his own male followers could not understand it." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/12/opinion/sunday/the-great-metoo-awakening.html What did Paul really say about women? There's a whole book about that, too, by John Bristow: What Paul Really Said About Women: The Apostle's Liberating Views on Equality in Marriage, Leadership, and Love The early church was doing OK until it became official. As always, when church and state prostitute themselves together, neither is better for it, and thus it was with Constantine, who dreamed that Christianity led to a military victory, and so the Roman church adopted the outlook and organization of a male military hierarchy: https://faithlessfeminist.com/blog-posts/the-chalice-and-the-blade/ and that outlook persists to this day, endemically in some groups. ===== impact 121 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-05-15 ratio 6 react 8 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 7 title What did Jesus really teach about women? topic other wordrate 0 words 151 ID 618869715124218 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/618869715124218 audclicks 7 audreach 5 engaged 5 impress 83 likeclickusers 5 likeuimpress 61 likeuusers 34 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 6 oimpress 83 oreach 55 posted "05/15/2018 05:47:33 PM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 5 reach 55 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Why pay $100 and more for a theater ticket if you sleep during the performance? https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/why-pay-100-and-more-for-a-theater-ticket-if-you-sleep-during-the-performance/2018/05/10/8235ad18-5214-11e8-b00a-17f9fda3859b_story.html Perhaps the problem is adrenalin crash - it could happen at home, work, or church, as well as at shows, in morning, afternoon, and evening, and before and after meals. And even during very long traffic light cycles - but falling short of narcolepsy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcolepsy What can happen is that if you are under ACTIVE pressure-pressure-pressure: deadlines, traffic, parking, etc, trying to do something about them, and then you shift into a new PASSIVE situation in which it is not possible to do anything about anything - then your body quits pumping adrenaline and after a few minutes you do a reset. A few minutes of unconsciousness or semi-consciousness often helps get to a better point. The worst is early afternoon after lunch. Many people can't stay awake at 3pm and can't stay asleep at 3am. Maybe it's due to climate change! https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/climate/bears-not-hibernating.html ===== impact 16 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-05-15 ratio 29 react 1 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 1 title Why pay $100 and more for a theater ticket if you sleep topic other wordrate 0 words 156 ID 618831495128040 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/618831495128040 audclicks 1 audreach 1 engaged 1 impress 56 likeclickusers 1 likeuimpress 51 likeuusers 24 matchedotherclicks 1 oimpress 56 oreach 29 posted "05/15/2018 03:08:59 PM" postotherclicks 1 reach 29 type Link ========== Register and vote in the primary election! Everybody with an interest in politics is wondering how the 2018 general election will turn out - probably the most momentous mid-term in decades. And everybody with an intense interest in politics will probably register and vote in the primary. Will the primaries select candidates tending toward uncompromising ideological extremes? Their supporters tend to turn out more faithfully for primaries. Or will this be a year when a wider diversity of voters select a wider diversity of candidates, more tending toward compromise and gradual progress? What about everybody withOUT an intense interest in politics? Often people who are qualified to vote but not terribly interested in politics look at the candidates in the general election - selected by a primary process that they didn't vote in. And they don't like any of the candidates, and stay home. Certainly 99% of the political advertising in the mail, newspapers, radio, television, internet - seems to be calculated to turn off people who aren't intensely interested - and is rightly mostly ignored by those folks. But staying home is a vote too - and giving up the right to vote implies giving up the right to complain about the result. But the primary is a chance for less political voters to make a difference by voting for candidates who can make a difference - who are electable and willing to do whatever is necessary to deliver results. And even if your local midterm election is a snoozer for Federal legislators - your state legislators and officers are important too. Probably the biggest political and legal issue of the next two years is redistricting. Whether you think redistricting should be as fair as possible or as advantageous as possible, or you have never thought about it at all... it affects everything else at Federal and state levels. And that makes it important to find out what's going on in your state and vote accordingly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redistricting Here are some primary dates: 15 May: ID, NB, OR, PA 22 May: AR, GA, KY, TX 5 Jun: CA, MS, AL, IA, MT, NJ, NM, SD 12 Jun: NV, ME, ND, SC, VA 26 Jun: NY, MD, UT, CO, OK In California and other open primary states, anybody can vote for any candidate regardless of party affiliation of lack thereof. So that's no excuse to stay home. Register and vote! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/us/elections/calendar-primary-results.html Here are some sources of information recommended by AARP: https://www.factcheck.org/ http://www.politifact.com/ https://ballotpedia.org/ ===== comments 115 impact 85307 impactrate 3 likeimpress 533 negative 0 posted 2018-05-06 ratio 5 react 2096 reactrate 0 shares 429 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 1019 title Register and vote in the primary election! topic other wordrate 0 words 407 ID 614740898870433 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/614740898870433 audclicks 1033 audreach 690 bimpress 9575 blikeimpress 141 blikeusers 67 breach 6567 commentsimpress 115 commentsusers 61 engaged 1005 impress 18284 likeclickusers 37 likeimpress 533 likeuimpress 455 likeusers 503 likeuusers 120 matchedlinkclicks 276 matchedotherclicks 743 oimpress 8709 oreach 6380 posted "05/06/2018 02:52:01 PM" postlinkclicks 243 postotherclicks 512 reach 12238 sharesimpress 429 sharesusers 316 type Link budget 100 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""Register and vote in the primary election!""" ccleantitle Register and vote in the primary election! cclicksall 1207 cclickslink 188 ccpcall 0.08285004 ccpclink 0.53191489 cdelivery rejected cend 2018-06-30 cimpressions 9591 clicksunique 178 conversionrank - cost 0.10060362173038 cpm 10.42644146 creach 6555 cstart 2018-04-01 ctrall 12.58471484 ctrlink 1.9601709936399 ecomments 40 ecpclink 0.53191489 ends 2018-06-03 engagedrank - epagelikes 18 ereact 432 eshares 334 frequency 1.4631578947368 indicator actions:post_engagement qualityrank - results 994 spent 100 ========== Typography: a debate worth having For those of us who actually took typing class: if we can't preserve traditional standards... let's at least find out what they were and whether they were worth preserving. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/04/one-space-between-each-sentence-they-said-science-just-proved-them-wrong-2/ ===== comments 6 hide 1 impact 343 impactrate 0 likeimpress 12 negative 1 posted 2018-05-05 ratio 2 react 101 reactrate 0 shares 5 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 77 title Typography: a debate worth having topic other wordrate 0 words 34 ID 614092348935288 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/614092348935288 audclicks 77 audreach 38 commentsimpress 6 commentsusers 3 engaged 39 hideclicks 1 hideclicksusers 1 impress 523 likeclickusers 18 likeimpress 12 likeuimpress 228 likeusers 11 likeuusers 115 matchedlinkclicks 25 matchedotherclicks 52 negclicks 1 negusers 1 oimpress 523 oreach 301 posted "05/05/2018 05:17:04 AM" postlinkclicks 21 postotherclicks 28 reach 301 sharesimpress 5 sharesusers 4 type Link ========== California Primary June 5 ! Register by May 21 at http://registertovote.ca.gov/ Vote by mail May 7-29 Vote in person June 5 0700-2000 ! It's important for everybody to vote. Staying home is also a vote for "I don't care". Is that really your first choice? Finding trustworthy information is difficult. There are basically no restrictions on what candidates and PACs can say in print or electronic media. Here's some non-partisan information sources recommended by AARP: https://www.factcheck.org/ http://www.politifact.com/ https://ballotpedia.org/ Here's another non-partisan source: https://lwvc.org/vote/elections/ballot-recommendations Want something partisan? If you think that California should be run more like Mississippi or West Virginia or Wyoming, vote for the most extreme Trumpists you can find. This holds especially for the current Republican congressional districts, and above all for the districts held by Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy and the California 7: https://www.ca7project.com/ Everybody else, vote for the most effective Democrat you can find. This is no time for self-indulgences like voting for third-party or other candidates who don't have a chance or staying home out of spite. ===== comments 91 hideall 2 impact 15763 impactrate 0 likeimpress 297 negative 2 posted 2018-05-03 ratio 6 react 973 reactrate 0 shares 186 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 397 title California Primary June 5 ! topic other wordrate 0 words 162 ID 613494002328456 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/613494002328456 audclicks 397 audreach 243 bimpress 6825 blikeimpress 344 blikeusers 81 breach 3941 commentsimpress 91 commentsusers 48 engaged 469 hideallclicks 2 hideallclicksusers 2 impress 11611 likeclickusers 20 likeimpress 297 likeuimpress 476 likeusers 279 likeuusers 108 matchedlinkclicks 36 matchedotherclicks 361 negclicks 2 negusers 2 oimpress 4786 oreach 2689 posted "05/03/2018 07:45:53 PM" postlinkclicks 25 postotherclicks 227 reach 6781 sharesimpress 186 sharesusers 130 type Link budget 100 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""California Primary June 5 !""" ccleantitle California Primary June 5 ! cclicksall 536 cclickslink 22 ccpcall 0.18656716 ccpclink 4.54545455 cdelivery not_delivering cend 2018-06-30 cimpressions 6830 clicksunique 20 conversionrank - cost 0.20283975659229 cpm 14.64128843 creach 3858 cstart 2018-04-01 ctrall 7.8477306 ctrlink 0.32210834553441 ecomments 33 ecpclink 4.54545455 ends 2018-06-03 engagedrank - epagelikes 6 ereact 257 eshares 181 frequency 1.7703473302229 indicator actions:post_engagement qualityrank - results 493 spent 100 ========== President Pence? It used to be that one could look forward somehow to President Pence succeeding President Trump, the sooner the better. Pence published his tax returns a long time ago, didn't have any foreign investments or shady real estate deals, didn't disparage America's allies or praise foreign dictators. Sure, Pence would be more effective at getting reactionary legislation through Congress, but it might be less of a risk than WW III. But that was then. Now: https://www.redstate.com/sarahquinlan/2018/05/01/vice-president-pence-calling-joe-arpaio-a-tireless-champion-of-rule-of-law-ignores-arpaios-record/ Joe Arpaio? Really? https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/gods-plan-for-mike-pence/546569/ All of a sudden, impeaching Trump seems less attractive. It's not so clear that there would be a fundamental improvement. There's another school of thought, that while professing ultra-Trumpian loyalty, Pence is craftily building an independent legislative and governing team in order to hit the ground running whenever that might be needed, in 2024, 2020, or sooner: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/pence-trump-midterms.html Studying politics can make you sick: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/09/navarrette-mike-pence-goes-to-arizona-and-loses-his-way/ == It all does make W look better in retrospect, as he likes to remind people: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376909-bush-says-trump-makes-me-look-pretty-good-by-comparison-report Though it doesn't do anything to improve the reputation of President Cheney. One can hope that the day will never arrive when ordinary people look back fondly on the Trump administration. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#registration ===== comments 16 hide 1 hideall 2 impact 18791 impactrate 1 likeimpress 15 negative 3 posted 2018-05-02 ratio 3 react 989 reactrate 0 shares 2 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 953 title President Pence? topic other wordrate 0 words 190 ID 612830772394779 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/612830772394779 audclicks 957 audreach 713 bimpress 4137 blikeimpress 4 blikeusers 4 breach 3672 commentsimpress 16 commentsusers 14 engaged 728 hideallclicks 2 hideallclicksusers 2 hideclicks 1 hideclicksusers 1 impress 4403 likeclickusers 17 likeimpress 15 likeuimpress 170 likeusers 15 likeuusers 93 matchedlinkclicks 306 matchedotherclicks 647 negclicks 3 negusers 3 oimpress 266 oreach 177 posted "05/02/2018 09:14:57 AM" postlinkclicks 253 postotherclicks 518 reach 3815 sharesimpress 2 sharesusers 2 type Link budget 134 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""President Pence?""" ccleantitle President Pence? cclicksall 2672 cclickslink 729 ccpcall 0.0535743 ccpclink 0.177643 cdelivery rejected cend 2019-11-22+2018-06-30 cimpressions 12095 clicksunique 415+276 conversionrank "Below average - Bottom 10% of ads"+- cost 0.177643 cpm 10.4309 creach 9703 cstart 2019-09-01+2018-04-01 ctrall 22.6123 ctrlink 6.07978 ecomments 49 ecpclink 0.330651 ends 2019-11-08 engagedrank "Below average - Bottom 10% of ads"+- ereact 68 esaves 1 eshares 5 frequency 1.24652 indicator actions:link_click qualityrank Average+- results 729 spent ========== Angels in America still matters https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/20/the-bay-area-show-that-launched-a-movement-why-angels-in-america-still-matters/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/30/epic-angels-in-america-revived-at-berkeley-rep-and-its-as-powerful-as-ever/ Berkeley Rep's artistic director comments: "Kushner is so prescient it's scary. Many of the issues explored in the play, the threat to the environment, the threat to our democracy, the corruption of the political system, all of that is much more terrifying now." This very large work covers a lot of ground. What's particularly relevant to this page is the interaction between the dying Roy Cohn and the ghosts of the Rosenbergs. During his lifetime, Roy Cohn was considered a distasteful outlier, who finally got the disbarment he deserved, was remembered as an "ice-cold sleaze" in the National Review, and little mourned; Trump didn't even return Cohn's calls after Trump didn't need him any more. "Unequal distribution doesn't bother me" - Roy Cohn Who knew that a greedy self-serving opportunist like that could be elected President! Equal opportunity at last! And at least, if one has a family, then maybe somebody will attend your dying hours besides the ghosts of your victims. But equal opportunity works both ways. At least in France, it's still possible for sincerely inspiring politicians to become President: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/french-president-macron-charms-both-parties-in-an-impassioned-speech-to-congress/2018/04/25/bbd600ba-4894-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html ===== impact 112 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2018-04-25 ratio 9 react 6 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 4 title Angels in America still matters topic other wordrate 0 words 187 ID 609875809356942 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/609875809356942 audclicks 4 audreach 2 engaged 2 impress 111 likeclickusers 2 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 74 likeusers 1 likeuusers 26 matchedotherclicks 4 oimpress 111 oreach 57 posted "04/25/2018 04:18:48 PM" postotherclicks 2 reach 57 sharesimpress 1 sharesusers 1 type Link ========== Dunning-Kruger: is this why women tend to be more self-critical than men? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/smarter-living/how-to-spot-and-overcome-your-hidden-weaknesses.html Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with hunters and gatherers after all. ===== impact 5 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2018-04-23 ratio 17 react 2 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 2 title Dunning-Kruger: is this why women tend to be more topic other wordrate 0 words 25 ID 608826169461906 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/608826169461906 audclicks 2 audreach 2 engaged 2 impress 82 likeclickusers 2 likeuimpress 74 likeuusers 29 matchedlinkclicks 2 oimpress 82 oreach 35 posted "04/23/2018 06:45:31 AM" postlinkclicks 2 reach 35 type Link ========== Did you need to file Form 1040-EL ? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/opinion/taxes-1040-emotional.html You file 1040-EL in case 2017 politics made you sad: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/opinion/depressed-by-politics-just-let-go.html or sick: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/02/15/americans-are-seriously-stressed-out-about-the-future-of-the-country-survey-finds/ But you are out of luck if the IRS computers are still down: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/irs-electronic-filing-system-breaks-down-hours-before-tax-deadline/2018/04/17/4c05ecae-4255-11e8-ad8f-27a8c409298b_story.html ===== impact 13 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2018-04-17 ratio 7 react 4 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 3 title Did you need to file Form 1040-EL ? topic other wordrate 0 words 33 ID 606269516384238 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/606269516384238 audclicks 3 audreach 2 engaged 2 impress 86 likeclickusers 2 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 79 likeusers 1 likeuusers 25 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 2 oimpress 86 oreach 30 posted "04/17/2018 01:09:20 PM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 2 reach 30 type Link ========== Challenging the Duopoly - tackling do-nothing politics There are many obstacles facing third-party and independent candidates that most Republican and Democratic candidates are unaware of: https://www.uniteamerica.org/independents_feel_secure_despite_ballot_access_hurdles_ahead But that's just part of a much bigger picture: https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2017/09/13/harvard-business-schools-latest-case-study-looks-at-american-politics-and-finds-a-rigged-system/ refers to Gehl and Porter: https://www.hbs.edu/competitiveness/Documents/why-competition-in-the-politics-industry-is-failing-america.pdf In 2011, Harvard Business School launched a U. S. Competitiveness Project to understand why the American economy has been so sluggish lately. They soon discovered that a lot of the problem was politics. No surprise! Looking at the American "political industry" from the point of view of industrial competition, it quickly became clear that the political industry was showing all the signs to be expected of any other industry that had become a duopoly that effectively blocked any new entrants. The http://www.americanpromise.net/ discussion group mentions the work of Gehl and Porter, linked above. They attempt to get past obsessing over symptoms in order to discern root causes and potential treatments: PART I sets the stage by assessing the outcomes that politics is delivering, revealing a broken system that has become the major barrier to progress in America. PART II shows how the political system is not a public institution but a private industry that sets its own rules. In the process, it has fundamentally diminished our democracy. PART III describes the essential outcomes we should expect from a well-functioning political system, but are not achieving. PART IV uses the Five Forces framework to analyze how the evolving structure of the politics industry has led to the failure of political competition to serve the average citizen - and to the antithesis of the outcomes we need to achieve. PART V explores the deliberate changes that have undermined our political system beginning in the early 20th century. PART VI puts forth a strategy for reinvigorating our democracy by addressing the root causes of the political dysfunction we are experiencing. This will require action by our fellow citizens, because our political system will not be self-correcting. We must change it. Just a few examples: * their description rang a bell from freshman political science; the regulator and regulated tend to become one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture * the Hastert rule means a majority of the House can't even bring a bill to the floor for a vote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule * sore-loser laws promote extremism and discourage centrist and independent candidates from running in the primary and the general election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sore-loser_law * abolition of earmarks and open-meeting rules have had the unintended side effects of making compromise much more difficult. The report mentions a number of interesting organizations working for change on various aspects of the problems: https://www.uniteamerica.org/ https://www.nolabels.org/ http://www.independentvoterproject.org/ https://www.openprimaries.org/ http://www.rcvmaine.com/ https://represent.us/ http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/ http://www.changetherule.org/ http://www.blueprintsfordemocracy.org/ https://www.issueone.org/ https://independentvoting.org/ https://www.governforcalifornia.org/ Some of these may be worthy of your support. ===== comments 10 hideall 5 impact 9202 impactrate 0 likeimpress 50 negative 5 posted 2018-04-16 ratio 11 react 214 reactrate 0 shares 9 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 140 title Challenging the Duopoly - tackling do-nothing politics topic other wordrate 0 words 430 ID 605885506422639 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/605885506422639 audclicks 142 audreach 104 bimpress 2303 blikeimpress 35 blikeusers 28 breach 2170 commentsimpress 10 commentsusers 7 engaged 144 hideallclicks 5 hideallclicksusers 5 impress 2679 likeclickusers 8 likeimpress 50 likeuimpress 137 likeusers 50 likeuusers 61 matchedlinkclicks 104 matchedotherclicks 36 negclicks 5 negusers 5 oimpress 376 oreach 264 posted "04/16/2018 05:22:11 PM" postlinkclicks 81 postotherclicks 29 reach 2431 sharesimpress 9 sharesusers 9 type Link budget 39 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""Challenging the Duopoly - fixing do-nothing politics"""+"Post: ""Challenging the Duopoly - tackling do-nothing...""" ccleantitle Challenging the Duopoly - fixing do-nothing cclicksall 222 cclickslink 84 ccpcall 0.175639 ccpclink 0.559385 cdelivery rejected cend 2018-06-30 cimpressions 2303 clicksunique 60+21 conversionrank - cost 0.300119 cpm 16.9143 creach 2197 cstart 2018-04-01 ctrall 9.62826 ctrlink 3.65752 ecomments 2 ecpclink 1.22222 ends 2018-06-03 engagedrank - ereact 45 eshares 9 frequency 1.04825 indicator actions:link_click+actions:post_engagement qualityrank - results 132 spent 39 ========== Personal Change Leading to Social Change https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/self-help-gurus-like-tony-robbins-have-often-stood-in-the-way-of-social-change/2018/04/13/15340974-3e70-11e8-8d53-eba0ed2371cc_story.html Petrzela and Whelan report an interesting study of the interplay between self-help and social movements. They trace the "self-help" thread in American culture - "it's your fault but you can fix yourself" - had value as far as it went, but failed to recognize that sometimes it's society as a whole that's broken, not just the individuals in it. No amount of self-help for women will change the power structures that encourage sexual abuse. But social change sometimes has to start with personal change. http://www.political-scrapbook.net/trump.html#metoo ===== comments 2 impact 2025 impactrate 0 likeimpress 9 negative 0 posted 2018-04-13 ratio 9 react 225 reactrate 0 shares 3 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 211 title Personal Change Leading to Social Change topic other wordrate 0 words 90 ID 604617569882766 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/604617569882766 audclicks 213 audreach 176 bimpress 2041 blikeimpress 2 blikeusers 2 breach 1995 commentsimpress 2 commentsusers 2 engaged 182 impress 2376 likeclickusers 2 likeimpress 9 likeuimpress 115 likeusers 9 likeuusers 53 matchedlinkclicks 117 matchedotherclicks 94 oimpress 335 oreach 225 posted "04/13/2018 08:01:25 PM" postlinkclicks 107 postotherclicks 86 reach 2196 sharesimpress 3 sharesusers 3 type Link budget 20 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""Personal Change Leading to Social Change""" ccleantitle Personal Change Leading to Social Change cclicksall 229 cclickslink 109 ccpcall 0.08733624 ccpclink 0.18348624 cdelivery inactive cend 2018-06-30 cimpressions 2041 clicksunique 108 conversionrank - cost 0.18348623853211 cpm 9.79911808 creach 2005 cstart 2018-04-01 ctrall 11.2199902 ctrlink 5.3405193532582 ecpclink 0.18348624 ends 2018-04-14 engagedrank - epagelikes 1 ereact 6 eshares 3 frequency 1.0179551122195 indicator actions:link_click qualityrank - results 109 spent 20 ========== Unwritten Rules Is this about baseball or politics? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/baseballs-unwritten-rules.html ===== negative 0 posted 2018-04-07 rate 1 title Unwritten Rules topic other words 8 ID 601796543498202 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/601796543498202 impress 78 likeuimpress 69 likeuusers 19 oimpress 78 oreach 28 posted "04/07/2018 09:28:05 AM" reach 28 type Link ========== Civil Forfeiture - guilty until you are proven innocent Civil forfeiture is back in the news: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/grand-theft-auto--by-the-us-government/2018/04/04/6a079e94-3762-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html It's been eliminated in California, as far as I know, but there are still lots of states where rural sheriffs might seize any of your property if they think you are too poor to hire a lawyer to get it back: http://www.political-scrapbook.net/controversial.html#forfeiture ===== comments 4 hideall 1 impact 1984 impactrate 0 likeimpress 21 negative 1 posted 2018-04-05 ratio 8 react 348 reactrate 0 shares 19 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 303 title Civil Forfeiture - guilty until you are proven innocent topic other wordrate 0 words 57 ID 601050326906157 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/601050326906157 audclicks 303 audreach 216 bimpress 2358 blikeimpress 11 blikeusers 10 breach 2360 commentsimpress 4 commentsusers 3 engaged 232 hideallclicks 1 hideallclicksusers 1 impress 3231 likeclickusers 11 likeimpress 21 likeuimpress 173 likeusers 21 likeuusers 82 matchedlinkclicks 122 matchedotherclicks 181 negclicks 1 negusers 1 oimpress 873 oreach 632 posted "04/05/2018 07:00:04 PM" postlinkclicks 94 postotherclicks 151 reach 2971 sharesimpress 19 sharesusers 17 type Link budget 20 budgettype Lifetime cadname "Post: ""Civil Forfeiture - guilty until you are proven...""" ccleantitle Civil Forfeiture - guilty until you are proven cclicksall 300 cclickslink 86 ccpcall 0.06666667 ccpclink 0.23255814 cdelivery archived cend 2018-06-30 cimpressions 2358 clicksunique 86 conversionrank - cost 0.23255813953488 cpm 8.48176421 creach 2298 cstart 2018-04-01 ctrall 12.72264631 ctrlink 3.6471586089907 ecpclink 0.23255814 ends 2018-04-13 engagedrank - epagelikes 2 ereact 9 eshares 12 frequency 1.0261096605744 indicator actions:link_click qualityrank - results 86 spent 20 ========== Simple Retirement Investment Advice: Buy and Hold The hazard of market timing - buying low and selling high - is very well illustrated in an AAII article and web page on The Cost of Panicking: http://www.aaii.com/journal/article/the-cost-of-panicking The best book on retirement income planning is Bogle on Mutual Funds: https://www.amazon.com/Bogle-Mutual-Funds-Perspectives-Intelligent/dp/111908833X One of his key principles for retirement is buy-and-hold. In theory you could outperform buy-and-hold by market timing: buying low and selling high. But the problem is that you don't know whether any given day is a low or a high until some time in the future, and most investors who try market timing end up missing out on big-jump days when the market turns up... because at the time they look just like the big-jump days followed by bigger-drop days when the market continues down... and underperform buy-and-hold investors, who also benefit from lower transaction costs. It may be that the value contributed by retail social investors, who buy when their friends are buying and sell when their friends are selling, is a big part of the superior return enjoyed by buy-and-hold investors. Investment for most people can be very simple: invest directly - not through brokers - in no-load target-date mutual funds in equal amounts every month, then throw away the monthly statements. No-load to increase return, equal amounts each month to insure that you are buying more shares at low prices than high, and most important, target-date so the first decision you have to make is when you want the money, because that determines the acceptable risk, and that determines the maximum return. Throw away the statements when the target date is far away, so you don't panic yourself into selling at the bottom. You have to start being disciplined when you are young: if you are reaching retirement age without enough retirement assets, it is very hard to catch up. There's nothing like the power over time of compound interest, except truly exponential growth, but that's another topic: http://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#exponentials Investment strategy is nominally remote from politics - but it's actually relevant to the ongoing political arguments about defined-contribution retirement plans like 401k's and IRA's vs defined-benefit plans like Social Security and most public employee retirement plans: http://www.political-scrapbook.net/controversial.html#defined%20benefit ===== hide 3 hideall 1 impact 439 impactrate 0 negative 4 posted 2018-04-05 ratio 3 react 12 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 8 title Simple Retirement Investment Advice: Buy and Hold topic other wordrate 0 words 366 ID 600957953582061 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/600957953582061 audclicks 8 audreach 5 engaged 5 hideallclicks 1 hideallclicksusers 1 hideclicks 2 hideclicksusers 3 impress 100 likeclickusers 5 likeuimpress 88 likeuusers 32 matchedotherclicks 8 negclicks 4 negusers 3 oimpress 100 oreach 40 posted "04/05/2018 02:08:05 PM" postotherclicks 5 reach 40 type Status ========== Remembering REVEREND Dr. King https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/opinion/the-politically-progressive-faith-of-martin-luther-king.html ===== comments 1 impact 2 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2018-04-03 ratio 5 react 6 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 4 title Remembering REVEREND Dr. King topic other wordrate 0 words 4 ID 600119726999217 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/600119726999217 audclicks 4 audreach 3 commentsimpress 1 commentsusers 1 engaged 4 impress 103 likeclickusers 4 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 96 likeusers 1 likeuusers 30 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 3 oimpress 103 oreach 34 posted "04/03/2018 02:39:33 PM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 3 reach 34 type Link ========== The Eternal Business Cycle Our hope and despair is that no matter who's running the government and no matter what they do, the economy will wax, peak, wane, bottom, and repeat. Whoever is in charge will take the credit or get the blame for whatever was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. Government action or inaction can affect the timing and severity to only a limited extent. The current economic recovery is about 8 years old and will expire sometime in the next 8 years, no matter who is in the White House; the longest postwar recovery was 10 years. The current recovery has an expiration date on or before June, 2019. As always, the party in power will be blamed, even though nobody has been able to figure out how to defeat the business cycle. I think that's because it's ultimately a phenomenon of mass psychology rather than economics. The next two years might seem to coast along well enough economically. There's some truth in the old joke that economists have successfully predicted nine of the last five recessions. But * https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/27/the-easiest-way-to-tell-that-bitcoin-is-a-huge-bubble/ Bitcoin bubblemania might be a canary-in-a-coal-mine, reminiscent of the self-referential and self-leveraging peaks of the internet bubble of 2000 and the subprime mortgage bubble of 2008. But leverage works going down as well as going up. * https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beware-an-economic-boom-really/2017/12/03/3baddc2a-d6d7-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html Overstimulation has always led to recession. * Stock market p/e ratios are about as high as they ever sustainably get, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/business/dow-stock-markets.html Bilello and Yardeni cite signs that investors are getting giddy and careless. * https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/29/tax-cut-proponents-promise-3-4-percent-growth-this-economic-milestone-shows-thats-nearly-impossible/ The economy is already at maximum capacity. * The next recession might be triggered by https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/heres-who-should-run-the-fed-next/2017/10/17/1e01dbd4-b2c1-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html a financial bubble that pops after inflating from predictably low inflation rates over many years. * https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/10/army-accepting-more-low-quality-recruits-giving-waivers-marijuana-hit-targets/750844001/ Army recruiters are reducing standards and accepting more recruits with marijuana histories. Recruiting is harder when unemployment is so low. * https://www.thestreet.com/story/14324883/1/target-will-raise-wages-to-15-hour-here-are-5-other-top-paying-retailers.html Target and other retailers are paying $15/hour starting wage. * https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/28/i-helped-create-the-gop-tax-myth-trump-is-wrong-tax-cuts-dont-equal-growth/ Tax cuts do not pay for themselves by economic stimulation, especially when the economy is already maxed out by any historical standard. * http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/25/about-silicon-valleys-crazy-housing-situation-one-real-estate-exec-deconstructs-the-market/ In Silicon Valley, loan qualification is based on unvested restricted stock. * https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/21/us/politics/utah-economy-jobs.html Utah is running out of workers - and it's even worse in Ames, IA and Boulder, CO. * https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/upshot/were-getting-awfully-close-to-full-employment.html Unemployment is about as low as it ever sustainably gets. * https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/business/auto-sales-decline.html Car sales are stagnant. * There are fundamental reasons to doubt that the economy can grow any faster: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2017-04-17/boom-was-blip depopulation, deleveraging, and deglobalization. Unlike the post-war baby boom years, there is no wave of new labor coming on stream in the US, except immigration. * https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/business/dealbook/sorkin-seth-klarman-trump-investors.html Seth Klarman is concerned about deficit spending and interest rates. * http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/02/trumps-policies-could-affect-silicon-valley-service-workers-and-those-who-depend-on-them/ It can take a month to find a restaurant server in Silicon Valley. * Around Silicon Valley, http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/01/24/whats-behind-the-spate-of-recent-bay-area-restaurant-closures/ restaurants are closing due to high rents and lack of labor. * https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/opinion/sunday/why-trump-cant-make-it-1981-again.html Significantly higher economic growth rates are not possible - it's all about population growth and productivity growth. * Even the http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/22/postal-service-struggles-leave-bay-area-residents-searching-for-their-mail/ local Postal Service can't retain employees, and they pay somewhat higher than minimum wage, with some benefits. So another recession is coming, more likely sooner than later. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/opinion/bubble-economy-financial-regulation.html The Republicans are doing their best to make it the worst. On 25 January 2017, the DJIA, S&P, and NASDAQ all set new records, and they're still doing it a year later. That's not good news for Mr. Trump at the beginning of his term - it would have been a lot more helpful to him in 2020. Nobody rings a bell at the top, or the bottom - some minor news blip, much like numerous inconsequential minor news blips in the weeks and months before, will seem to trigger a stock market crash. But the news blip is innocent - a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time - because the cause of the crash is that the market has temporarily run out of buyers at a time when somebody needs to sell for his own specific reasons. Which blip - nobody can say in advance. What is certain is that the following problem is what is called overconstrained and infeasible in my line of work: * Massive tax cuts. * Massive military buildup; worse yet massive military deployment and engagement. * Massive infrastructure spending. * Massive deportation of the people willing to do the work too hard for Americans, for wages too low for Americans. * Massive trade war. * Low interest rates and low inflation. * A trillion dollars in deficit spending over the next ten years, thanks to the new tax law. * Stock market and real estate valuations based on extrapolating corporate earnings and personal income despite no more affordable labor available to produce the goods and services that create the earnings. And this infeasibility will dawn on a critical mass of institutional investors on some random blipful day and they will start to take their profits, and highly leveraged investors will start to cover their positions, and the daily trading limit crash barrier will be hit before most individual investors even know something's up. Too bad for them. Trump will blame it on a media conspiracy. To the extent the Trump Organization is still invested in real estate rather than brand licensing, he might not even be a billionaire any more. Big investors will move from stocks to bonds, and that part will moderate the rise in interest rates. People over-exposed to stocks too close to retirement will blame it on Trump, as will younger people who haven't learned yet that even though stocks, especially in technology, go up slowly and down quickly, common stock funds are still the best individual investment FOR THE LONG TERM. ===== impact 281 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2018-01-05 ratio 9 react 3 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 2 title The Eternal Business Cycle topic other wordrate 0 words 936 ID 559983061012884 URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/559983061012884 audclicks 2 audreach 2 engaged 3 impress 72 likeclickusers 3 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 69 likeusers 1 likeuusers 25 matchedotherclicks 2 oimpress 72 oreach 27 posted "01/05/2018 02:31:55 PM" postotherclicks 2 reach 27 type Link