Has there been another presidential election where the followers of the losing candidate – almost a full 2 years later – spent so much of their time & energy trying to blame everyone they can find for the loss: except the losing candidate and the losing campaign staff & party????

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 28, 2018

I have good recall of nine presidential elections now, and while there was some of this during the 2000 election, it mostly dissipated within a few months.

Even if there isn’t massive Republican cheating in 2020 (which there probably will be), unless there is a major recession it’ll be Trump winning that one, too — all thanks to the Democrats (really Republicans in all but name) and Centrists (more conservative Republicans who call themselves Democrats).

Hell, they might even nominate Hillary again.

After the language police have purged our argot of all that is offensive or even potentially so, thus removing all evocative phrases and any connotative content, and we are still prejudiced and still, well, human, what then?

The first 10 on today’s playlist.

What a fun song and video. She’s too young to even remember it firsthand of course, but it reminds me of the 80s and very early 90s when people had much more open and approachable personalities. She might be making a reference to that directly because her clothes and hair are an homage to 80s fashion.

At the very tail end of this period, in 1993, I went to a Belly concert. Great concert, but the organizers let too many people in. It was a very dangerous mess, and particularly perilous for women who were shorter and generally not as physically strong. After a few minutes of people falling down and getting half-trampled, and several girls passing out, a woman standing near me tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hi, I know we don’t know each other, but can I put my arms around your neck? I heard you talking to your friend and you seem nice enough. And I don’t want to get knocked down.”

“Absolutely, this place is crazy” I said. So she hooked her arms around my neck, her hands clasped, and pressed her body against mine so we wouldn’t get separated (the pressure of the crowd in this concert was absurdly strong — I had marks on my stomach for days where I’d been shoved against the stage so hard). We spent most of the concert like that and after the concert she gave me her number (email addresses weren’t a thing then for most people), and like an idiot that I was, I never called her.

Can you imagine anything like that happening today? I can’t. People are so insular now that a woman in these times (or a man) would let themselves be trampled before that would occur.

Everything felt just so different then, and not because I was young. People’s approach to the world was wholly opposite to now, more broad-minded, less suspicious and more available for experience.

Tina, sorry I never called you, but the concert was better (if sweatier) because we got to chat and squee over our adoration of Belly and Tanya Donelly. Even though the circumstances of our meeting weren’t the best, it was a better experience in spite of it all.

Here’s a song Belly played during that concert that absolutely blew our brains out of our heads. Fuck, what a performance that was.

Soccer/Football is the most boring game in history. I can’t see why anyone can stand it. Hockey is just as boring, but icier. In general, I dislike watching team sports of any kind but the idea of anyone wanting to watch soccer is just baffling (yes, I understand the rules).

What a turd of a sport.

Laura Dern as Admiral Holdo was by far the best part of The Last Jedi. She was just great. Not everyone agrees, it appears.

One of the other admirals is a fish. https://t.co/0ocILElVdn

— Bob Chipman (@the_moviebob) June 27, 2018

The military in general (in this or any universe) would greatly benefit from having more diversity of thought and experience.

In a story with few great characters, Holdo is a pretty great one and the only reason I’d ever watch that film again. It helps that Dern plays her completely straight so that she seems like a real person.

Mars is extremely bright this morning in the sky, blazing like a cinder. I wonder if the dust storms increase its luminosity, and if so by how much?

I don’t work there anymore, and now I don’t care, so I can tell this story.

One day when I was working at my last job, I came in to the office to find the intern I’d been mentoring very upset and near tears. By that point we’d moved our desks beside each other so it’s not like I could miss it. “Caroline*,” I said, “what’s going on? You look upset. More than upset.”

“Can we go somewhere else to talk?” she asked me, looking at all nosy people arrayed around us in the semi-open plan office.

For some privacy, we went to a small conference room where she told me that she found out after being assured otherwise previously that she would not be hired fulltime (or at all) for a role where she was currently interning, something she had very much wanted (hell, I wanted it too — she was a great worker and a friend).

Then she looked at me and asked, “Is it for the reason I think it is? I mean, I feel uncomfortable talking about this, but I want to know, ok?”

I knew where she was going but I wanted her to say it. I said, “Why do you think it is?”

“In my department, I’ve noticed that tons of interns come in, but the prettier ones are treated just the worst and never get hired fulltime. I mean, that’s just what I’ve seen. And I know I’m not ugly. At least I don’t think so.”

“No, you’re right,” I said. “You’re awesome. And the opposite of ugly for sure. I thought that it would be enough, that you’re just damn good at everything and smarter than just about anyone. But that department is run by some very fucking bitter old women who despise anyone young and at all attractive. I don’t know why. But yeah, you figured it out, unfortunately. You’re exactly right.”

She looked down and after a moment said, “Oh shit, Mike, I feel both infuriated and embarrassed at the same time!” She started crying a little and being the very physically demonstrative person she was, she grabbed my hand and held it for a bit. “Can we just sit here a while?” she asked.

Of course we could.

She seemed to feel better after that for the rest of the day. The next day she didn’t show up to work, so I texted her, “Everything ok?”

“Yes,” she responded. “Just couldn’t deal today.” I understood perfectly.

After that, she started looking for other opportunities, as they say, and in just a few months she was hired by Google. So screw those bitter old broads who consistently treated her like trash and made her cry. By the way, one of the reasons she was working with me cross-department is to get away from those women (and that we just hit it off and she was interested in what I did). I honestly have no idea what their problem is or why the vendetta, but it’s not uncommon I’ve noticed.

Sure, pretty people experience life on easy mode, most of the time, but there is no life on that mode all the time.

*Not her real name.

Anyone who voted 3rd party or didn’t vote (especially ppl who claimed Trump & Clinton were the same), look at the last few weeks at the Supreme Court. Excepting Carpenter (which likely would have gone the same way w Garland), it’s been a travesty for civil rights. You did this.

— Robyn Greene (@Robyn_Greene) June 26, 2018

No. But it did have something to do with the fact that the Democratic party, for whatever reason — and knowing this full well in advance — nominated one of the most widely-disliked candidates in history, allowed her to run a terrible campaign (where her campaign promoted Donald Trump’s rise for an “easy win”), and then blamed the voters for voting wrong.

Nominate a terrible candidate, get terrible results. That’s where the blame rests.

Just realized that the small IT firm where I’m CTOin’ up a storm will be more than 60% women in a few months as some new hires come onboard.

Now that’s a rarity if there ever was one.