Category Archives: Administrative

Administrative, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Tripling Down On Stupid

34 Comments

OK, we have a regular commenter, probably the most prolific one (note that this is not a quantity with a quality all its own), who thinks that the Republicans would like to replace Trump with Hillary.

No, don’t laugh, he apparently really thinks this:

In about a femto-second the left would choose a new primary target so we could all suddenly realize how stupid and evil that person is. It would not be Pence because a tie breaking vote is not much real power. The GOP would try to enact law to retroactively make Hillary president so they can return to their safe space where nothing positive is actually accomplished.

So I responded:

Ken, even if that were legally possible, it would be politically impossible, and very few Republicans would have any desire to do it. That’s just stupid.

If you seriously believe that any Republican wants Hillary (as opposed to Not Trump) as president, you’re insane. The only reason any Republican supported Hillary last year was because she was the only serious alternative at the time. Every Republican would be perfectly happy to replace Trump with Pence. [Emphasis added for future reference]

Now note his response:

Many said they voted for Hillary. They could have just not voted. Bush voted for Hillary (and we wonder why the country moves left regardless of elections.)

That’s it. No recognition whatsoever of my emphasized words above. He is fantasizing that because they voted for Hillary a year ago, they want her to be president now, and would prefer that to a President Pence. He offers no sane rationale for this fantasy, but there we go.

There’s a lot more nuttiness over there if you want to wade through it, but it gets really great here:

You seem to be presuming Pence would get the vote of every Republican over Hillary. This is you asserting your faith because there is no logic based on any fact that provably reaches that conclusion.

About the only related fact we have is that some Republicans did vote for Hillary when some conditions existed. Neither you nor I know if Pence being the alternative would not be such a condition for every Republican.

I am not presuming that Pence would get the vote of every Republican over Hillary, and it is not necessary for me to assume that. I am assuming, because I didn’t chow down on lead paint chips when I was kid, that there is an insufficient number of Republicans who would prefer Hillary to Pence for this to occur. I think any assumption other than that is insane.

Set aside the fact that neither he, or anyone else has responded to my challenge to name a single Republican who would prefer a President Hillary to a President Pence. He doesn’t even posit a Constitutionally plausible mechanism by which this could occur, even if it had (and again, this would be insane) majority Republican support. All he says is that “The GOP would try to enact law to retroactively make Hillary president.” It betrays an utter ignorance of how our government works. Congress has no power to simply remove a president, bypass the existing vice president, and name someone else president.

Is he saying that they’ll impeach and remove both Trump and Pence? Really? Then Orrin HatchPaul Ryan is president. Will Orrin Hatch Paul Ryan nominate Hillary to be Vice President? Really? And a majority of the House will go along with that? Really? And then he’ll resign, or they’ll impeach and remove him so they can get their precious President Hillary? Really?

No, this is just anti-anti-Trump derangement. And I wish I didn’t have to waste time responding to blithering idiocy like this in my comments section. But I guess the only way to avoid it is to either ignore it, and let it continue to clog it up, because he clearly has no more self control than his Lord and Savior Trump to stop doing it, or to ban him.

[Late Monday-night update]

Part of the purpose of this post was to ferret out other loons in my comments section. It seems to have succeeded. Also note that Ken is now saying, “Oh, I didn’t mean it, I was just joking,” after repeated defenses of his original idiocy.

Sorry, no.

The worst thing about Trump is arguing with morons who support him, even when I compliment him on the rare good things he does, like tonight’s speech (which obviously someone else wrote, but with his input, to make sure he had the right 3rd-grade words in it, like “horrible”).

Administrative, Business, Technology and Society

Light Blogging

We woke up this morning to no Internet. The lights on the modem looked fine, but there was no ethernet connection to either my computer or to the mesh router (which was magenta, indicating no Internet). I talked to Frontier, and they agreed that it sounded like a dead LAN port bank. Unfortunately, they won’t get me a new one until tomorrow or Thursday. I’m typing this from my laptop tethered to my phone, but I don’t want to use a lot of bandwidth, so I can’t really scour the web for material as I usually do. The other issue is that I don’t seem to be able to get a wireless connector going on my Fedora desktop, either an old Linksys PCI card or a new Tp-Link USB device; the system doesn’t seem to recognize either one. So I’m stuck on the laptop if I want any Internet at all.

[Wednesday-afternoon update]

Got the new modem early afternoon, and we’re back on the air.

Administrative, Business, Technology and Society, Weird

Libre Office Problem

16 Comments

I’ve been working on a document for a client, and it’s laid out in book format. Each chapter has its own page style (to maintain chapter title in headers) and there are several other styles as well. I’ve been printing it double sided, two pages per side. Today, when I tried to print it, instead of US Letter (which is what I set up all of the styles to be in) it insists on printing in a #8 Monarch Envelope format, which totally screws things up. But there’s no way to change it; the format is greyed out. The default for the printer is US Letter, the page styles are US Letter, but for some reason Office has decided that it’s only going to allow me to print it as an envelope, in this file, and this file only. I can’t find anything in either the Help for the software or by Googling anyone else who has had a problem like this. Is there a Libre Office doctor in the house?

Administrative, Technology and Society

Furnace Problem

44 Comments

It’s been warm for the past few weeks in SoCal, and I turned the thermostat off a while ago. But there’s a weather system coming in this weekend that’s going to cool things down, and it was chilly in the house this morning. I turned the thermostat back on, and nothing happened. I checked the fuse, and it’s fine, the switch seems to be on. I’ve determined that there is no power getting to the power switch (which feeds the fuse, which feeds the furnace electronics). No breakers are tripped, and I don’t know which breaker it’s on. Any ideas? If it’s actually failed wiring, that could be nightmare to trace/repair.

[Saturday-afternoon update]

Welp, checked all the breakers, and they all have voltage at the output.

[Sunday-morning update]

Thanks for all the advice in comments. I suspect I’m going to have to kill power to the house, and try to do an RF trace (and hope it comes through the armor). Fortunately, it’s not really an emergency. The temp in the house was 64F when we woke up this morning, and while it will be a cool couple of days until this cutoff low with rain passes through, it will be heating up later this week. Worst case is sweaters and a heavier bed covering, until I figure it out.

Administrative, General, History, Technology and Society

Planes, Trains And Automobiles

4 Comments

We took the day off from our renovation projects (hopefully we’ll be through most of it by next week) to drive up to Mojave for the experimental fly-in (the “Plane Crazy” event held on the third Saturday of each month). It was beautiful weather, and a lot of interesting aircraft on display, including a Yak that someone had restored, and an old Chinese trainer based out of Santa Monica. After lunch with Doug and Ann Jones at the Voyager Cafe, we headed up to Tehachapi, because Patricia had never been on 58 between Mojave and Bakersfield. It was still pretty green up there from the winter rains.

I’ve driven by the sign for the Tehachapi Loop many times, but had never actually seen it. Neither had she, though she’s in the rail business. We actually took the old road from Tehachapi to Keene, and it was tightly winding and gorgeous. About three miles from the end, we found the overlook and marker for the loop. We didn’t see a train go through, but it turned out that if we’d waited a few minutes, we would have.

We had originally planned on going back from Mojave through Lancaster and over to the Poppy Preserve, to catch the tail end of the spring flower bloom. But since we were now quite a ways west, per Doug’s lunchtime suggestion, we continued west on 58 to 223, then down the hill to Arvin, where he said it had been very good. Unfortunately, though, we were too late. The mountain above us was still green from the rains, but the flowers were pretty much done along that route.

So we got to the 99, and headed back south to LA on the 5, but then cut back east over 138 to Lancaster, and took a road south to Lancaster Road, which goes right past the preserve. We saw quite a few poppies still in bloom approaching and departing the preserve, but a lot of the other flowers had faded, but there are a lot of cars parked along the road and in the (paid) preserve parking lot. It was about 4:30, and somewhat windy, so the poppies were mostly closed, though it was still sunny.

Rather than fight the crowds or pay, we decided to just head back to LA, via a new route. Normally, we go south to Elizabeth Lake, then out to Castaic via Lake Hughes Road, which is a beautiful drive, with great views of Lake Hughes and the Valencia/Santa Clarita area from above. But this time, we made a left on Elizabeth Lake road, and went down San Francisquito Canyon, then down Spunky Canyon, then Bouquet Canyon, and finally down Vasquez Canyon to Sierra Highway, all roads (other than the latter) we’d never been on before, and all beautiful, with many spectacular views, including a nicely full reservoir.

I never fail to be amazed at how much California there is to be explored, and this was an area that I’ve driven around for decades, but never through, and it’s right in our back yard.

Administrative, Political Commentary

Off The Air

4 Comments

We’re taking a break from our home renovation and driving up to Berkeley for the weekend to see old (now in both senses of the word) college roommates (mine). Posting will likely be light to non-existent. Be nice in comments.

[Monday-afternoon update]

OK, we’re back. That was probably the longest I’ve been completely off line for a while (not counting my phone). In answer to questions, the college roommate (and his wife) in question was from Michigan, though he does in fact have an MBA from Berkeley. They have a nice place up in the hills, where we spent the entired day of Saturday, and Sunday morning, hiking, cooking, eating, drinking and talking. It was a very nice break. We drove down to Buellton yesterday afternoon, and back to LA today.

FWIW, he voted for Hillary, she wanted Bernie, but we’re all good friends, and it’s even possible for us to discuss politics without damaging that. It can be done. Of course, it helps that she’s Canadian.

[Bumped]