We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Just finishing Michael Lewis' Flash Boys, a terrific history of high frequency trading, front-running and markets in general. It reads like a thriller. You'd expect a Wall Street drama to be all about ego, bad guys ripping people off, and money being 'stolen'. Certainly that all plays a role, but it's not central to the story.
One of the best parts is the side story of Serge Aleynikov, one of the few people arrested, tried, and imprisoned after the crash in 2008. What's truly sad is that he had little to no involvement in any of the events leading up to that, nor was he involved in any transaction coding or theft of any kind (though Goldman Sachs and the US Government said otherwise). It's a sad state of affairs when someone capable of 'fixing' the problems that lead to flash crashes and other tech-driven market impairments is listed as a 'bad guy'.
At any rate, he lost his money, his family, his reputation - but eventually won his case and was freed. He has a great quote:
“If the incarceration experience doesn’t break your spirit, it changes you in a way that you lose many fears. You begin to realize that your life is not ruled by your ego and ambition and that it can end at any time. So why worry? You learn that just like on the street, there is life in prison, and random people get there based on the jeopardy of the system. The prisons are filled by people who crossed the law, as well as by those who were incidentally and circumstantially picked and crushed by somebody else’s agenda. On the other hand, as a vivid benefit, you become very much independent of material property and learn to appreciate very simple pleasures in life such as the sunlight and morning breeze.”~Serge Aleynikov
In my deeply considered view, all of the global whatever you call it is either virtue signalling or power politics. It's all bullsh-t. If one more person tells me "I recycle for the planet" I will just laugh. And maybe ask them what they are doing for other planets.
Well, the media reaction is strange. Normally the media would be interested in letting the sunshine in and finding out what the truth is. And usually the media doesn't care that much about protecting intelligence sources and methods. But I do and I will.
Decides spontaneously to shake hands will every graduating cadet, for 90 minutes. His enthusiasm increases as it goes on. Well, he is only 72 years old.
Keeping Minority Kids in Their Place - If you wonder what Bernie Sanders’ education plan means for African-American and Latino students, then look at what’s happening in California.
The fatal flaw was confirmation bias. People wanted to believe. It is always wise to identify what one wants to believe and to take that wanting into account.
Did Brits warn about Steele's credibility, before Mueller's probe? Congress has evidence
Steele was hired by Clinton to smear Trump. He did. It worked. He got a nice paycheck.
A Waste of 1,000 Research Papers - Decades of early research on the genetics of depression were built on nonexistent foundations. How did that happen?
“What bothers me isn’t just that people said [the gene] mattered and it didn’t,” wrote the pseudonymous blogger Scott Alexander in a widely shared post. “It’s that we built whole imaginary edifices on top of this idea of [it] mattering.” Researchers studied how SLC6A4 affects emotion centers in the brain, how its influence varies in different countries and demographics, and how it interacts with other genes. It’s as if they’d been “describing the life cycle of unicorns, what unicorns eat, all the different subspecies of unicorn, which cuts of unicorn meat are tastiest, and a blow-by-blow account of a wrestling match between unicorns and Bigfoot,” Alexander wrote.
Income inequality is a crazy subject for too many reasons. Sure, single motherhood plays a role but, importantly, government help is not counted as income. And to further mess things up, incomes change. Entry level jobs pay little, but people can advance. And what about people who make low-paying choices, like those people whose dream is to be a Maine Guide? Or a poor Adjunct Professor? And aspiring artists and actors?
... the bad faith of his antagonists exceeds even Mr. Trump’s defects and vices. The plot they concocted to get rid of him failed. And, yes, it was a plot, even a coup. And they fucked it up magnificently, leaving a paper trail as wide as Interstate-95. Now all that paper is about to fall over the District of Columbia like radioactive ash, turning many current and former denizens of rogue agencies into the walking dead as they embark on the dismal journey between the grand juries and the federal prisons.
Why Some Americans Won't Move, 
What is Shavuot? 
Transcript of 
Bezos Drops $80 Million On New York Condos In 
Study: 
D Day
Photos: The Incredible 
A history of 