Rule of Threes

"In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me—who lives and who dies?"
-George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

It's a matter of mythology in The United States that presidents only serve two terms. Our founding father, George Washington, served two terms as president and then declined a third. Following his example, no presidents sought a third term until Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. While FDR was one of the great presidents, he did violate an unspoken rule of American politics and the 22nd Amendment was passed soon after. And that's why our presidents are limited to two terms.

Twenty-Second Amendment
Section 1
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Get it now, before it disappears.

Like most mythology, there are some inaccuracies in this telling. Washington did care about the example he set as the chief executive, but he also had health issues. He'd die two years after leaving office.

Looking back at 2024

Jesus christ, this year. Let's process it in the format of awards.

Great Wiki Award

Sarna.net - A great site. I should probably kick them a little money. Just a great resource for Battletech lore and tech when I don't need to open a book and fumble around inside of it for what I need.

Fandom.com -  This includes the Star Trek, American Dad, Cheers!, Babylon 5, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia wikis under its loathsome banner.

Wikipedia.com - The classic. A universal good I think we call take for granted. I should probably also kick them a little money.

And the winner is...Sarna.net. Apologies to Wikipedia, but I'm not kidding when I say I use Sarna, on average, every day.

The Chief Clancy Wiggum, "The Law is Powerless to Help You, not to Punish You" Award

Alito and The Supremes - Between a judge getting disciplined for speaking out about Alito's flag, Alito's flag, that secret recording of Alito, 

New York State - They put national guard on the subway and mobilized every cop in NYC for a CEO dying. If there's a clearer example of this award's title, I'm hard-pressed to think of it. They'll pull out all of the stops for a rich guy getting killed, but there's a soldier with a gun if you jump a turnstile.

Suicides and MRSA - One Boeing whistleblower, John Barnett, and one OpenAI whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, died this year apparently of suicides. Another, Boeing whistleblower, Joshua Dean, an otherwise healthy 45 year-old died suddenly of a MRSA infection. This is the kind of time where I'd like some security theater. Right here.

And the winner is...the entire United States Judicial Branch. 

Remember Donald Trump getting his bond reduced because he's a very special boy, you remember Judge Aileen Cannon giving Trump's team every accommodation and then making up a few extra accommodations for them? Remember Marcellus Williams not even getting a stay from a judge when the prosecutor, the victim's family, and maybe even the jury who convicted him wanted to reconsider DNA evidence and changes in testimony?

It's mostly the Supreme Court though. You were the last branch of government the average citizen respected. Congrats on achieving the level of arrogance necessary to completely squander that; you only had to keep your mouth shut while sitting on the most opaque court in the country, you morons. You fools.

30 Minutes of the POTUS

I Was a Warren Supporter; Was Bernie Hard Done By in the January Debate?

I say I've been supporting Warren because that'll get rid of the Bernie supporters who were never going to shrug off their self-perception as downtrodden underdogs. They aren't going to read this and I'd rather they fuck off and find that one fault they need as a pretext to disregard the rest of this. Adios, morons.

For the rest of you reasonable people, I'm going to go down the questions, see how hard they are and judge in aggregate. I could assign a score from one to five, but ultimately this is all subjective. I have subjective judgement.

And if we can all agree on that, we can all agree that you have subjective judgment as well. People notoriously have a double-standard for what is considered 'fair' for their candidate and the same question can read unfairly to different people. My take is that CNN hosted the debate where everything was said and opted to put the screws to folks just so something would happen. They were hard on everyone last night and everyone will take it personally.

Going off of the transcript from the Des Moines Register, let's get to it:

Project 19-19: The President, Simply

For those of you who were fans of Morning Perfect Base, I offer this to humbly tide you over until I get back into it.

Marianne Williamson and The Invisible Context Problem

Full script below the cut:

David Tennat says things will be okay--guys stop it

David Tennant played one iconic role on television--okay, two--okay maybe three or four depending on how you see Broadchurch. My point is that adults don't need David Tennant to "doctor" them with placid messages about how things aren't so bad. 

If folks are worried, they need to do stuff and the best thing actors can do with their platform is to encourage people to take action and stand by their principles even if it's inconvenient.

Oh.

I have additional Hillary Clinton emails

But I'll need a consistent, high amount of traffic before I release them, Russian spambots.

The Hottest Take: Sisko Would Have Voted Trump

Come at me, nerds, I’m going another round with In the Pale Moonlight.

The events of In the Pale Moonlight clearly show Ben Sisko, Starfleet Captain and Emissary of the Prophets would have voted Trump. Why?

Because Garak is Trump. Likeable, selfish, and ruthless. Oh, no Trump is a selfish asshole, but he’s got mass appeal and a convenient handle on truth that make him likeable. “Truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” and there’s no bigger flim-flam artist around than DJT. The only noticeable difference between the two is that Garak has a certain level of style and class; mere pretenses that the president-elect lacks.

Indeed, even Garak’s “cultured” love of literature and fashion are performance for Julian. Garak loves Cardassian literature because it’s Cardassian first and literature second. Garak is a rabid nationalist and clings closely to Cardassian institutions because they benefit him. Hell, even as unprivileged he was a bastard child, he was still born into privilege. Enabin Train isn’t in the habit of raising the children of housekeepers from birth to be spies. Just his. Think of it as a small loan of million dollars and an interest payment of claustrophobia.

Demand

I was in my favorite gaming store the other day. From one of their rental rooms I heard a loud woman talking about how "they" were taking our hotel jobs.

Absurd as it was, she seemed serious. Now, I think that anyone I can hear from an adjoining room has waived their right to not have me join their conversation, but ugh, how awkward would that be?

The issue with folks who've traveled to the US illegally for work is similar to issues with sex workers and drug dealers. WE believe we don't like them doing it for principled reasons; we don't like drug use, STD spread, or underpricing US labor.

But attempts to stop these activities are always-irrationally-directed at the stereotypical images of the suppliers: Hispanics, women, and black Americans. This is because the people who provide these services for money don't have money and that lack of power makes them easier to prosecute. Even the most rudimentary understanding of free market capitalism will tell you how ineffective this is.

The persecution of (relatively) low power suppliers of these--technically--crimes might push prosecution numbers up high and make police and prosecutors look like they're improving their communities, but they're not.

As long as demand exists--as long as companies, middle-class johns, and high-end drug users are given a pass, those high-minded purposes of those laws will not be fulfilled because capitalism ensures that another desperate person will fill supply-side gaps.

Undocumented workers, sex workers, and folks in the drug trade do what they do because there is demand.

Obviously.

Playing whack-a-mole with dealers is bullshit. The power behind these forces is the folks buying their wares. Until they're subjected to the same harsh punishments, until they're treated with the same dehumanization as their suppliers, nothing will change. Not with undocumented workers, not with sex work (which should be legal), and not with drugs.

Suppliers will always take the risk of not getting caught to feed their families or just--unthinkably--themselves.

It's just supply and demand.

Over and Under: The Electoral College in 2016

Come the evening of Tuesday, November 8, nothing on Earth will be as important as the Electoral College. Yeah, some folks are going to get out their quadrennial placards bitching about the college and then quickly stow them before they get any splinters.

Except not this year because about 60% of the electorate is going to be preemptively cheering a Hillary Clinton win and the other 40% will find that like most collective bubbles of ignorance, their collective bubble of ignorance will be popped by The Very Serious and Adult World of Voting in America, a world created by two of the greatest enemies of willful ignorance: math and law.

Actually, cancer edges out law, but law's still third.

Political Mosh Pit

March 8^th, 2016. Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields approaches Trump, surrounded with Secret Service agents,  as he’s leaving a rally in Jupiter, Florida. Trump declines to acknowledge her and after a few moments his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, pulls Fields back and away from Trump.

The altercation was media fodder for a few days as the Trump campaign at first alleged Lewandowski wasn’t even there, and then that he’d never touched Fields, and then that the reporter had initiated a physical altercation by grabbing Trump. Meanwhile, Fields, with bruises on her arm, filed charges for misdemeanor assault.

Ahmed Mohammed

Adults: “This generation of kids is just stupid and lazy.”

Kid: “Makes an electronic device because he loves learning.”

Adults: “WhAt is thiS deviCe? HollywOod BoMB?! ARREST IT!!!1!!”

The real problems you have with “kids these days”:

Their lives are easier than yours were at the same age and you worried that all the suffering you’ve retroactively justified as “character-building” won’t be inflicted on them, when your alleged character determines which person is a human worthy of respect, opportunity, and basic fucking rights as a function of your mood.

You’re only used to exceptionalism and talent coming from very specific corners of society. When society quits patting white dicks on the back for existing and starts putting black folks in space, you think we’ve lost all sense of value.

You’ve kept your head down just turning a wheel until retirement and making sure your kids grow up to keep their heads down and find a wheel to turn until retirement. It must be a surprise when you’re forced to look up and realize there are children with an interest beyond that who’ve been learning about more than just surviving and that such knowledge confers power. Also surprising is the sudden realization that you can no longer tell diversion from danger.

Nothing kids can do this day can live up to your misremembered, rose-colored past.

Don't Fight it, America: Vote Trump

The thing I like most about Donald Trump is that every time--every fucking time--I try to type his name, I throw an "h" in there. I always want to give it a little bit of dimension or class that just isn't there. That's my whole opinion of the guy.

For those of you who don't know, Donald Trump is a professional rich person and reality TV star, like Kim Kardashian without the care put into his appearance. He's currently leading the Republican pack of presidential hopefuls and reveling in both the disgust of the left and the chagrin of the establishment on the right. 

Some say he's not a serious candidate, like a first round Ninja Warrior candidate. Journalists are comfortable imagining he's only running to raise his media profile. I get that; the alternative is imagining that a  Luke Wilson movie is real life.

You know the one.

Folks Wanna Remove Historic Confederate Statues Now

Good.

A little background
On June 17th of this year, a domestic terrorist walked into an evening church service in Charleston, South Carolina. After an hour of listening to Americans discuss their devotion to God, he opened fire on the room. Nine people died.

He chose one victim to spare and tell others of his motivation (five others survived). The white, 21-year-old man explicitly stated that he was killing black Americans to start a race war. Photos later surfaced of him bearing the flags of apartheid states, citing quotes from the founder of The American Nazi Party, burning the American flag, and--of course--waving a Confederate flag.

It's that flag that's become this tragedy's Easy Way to Preventing the Next One (TM). We always find something to blame and kick weakly in the shins after a white guy kills a handful of folks, but for once the target is a reasonable one. Making the Confederate flag a less common sight won't change the pervasive racism and cultural cowardice that filled this shitbag with the idea that murdering people would make him vaguely fuckable to women.

And some of that has spread further, to a desire to take down statues of Confederate generals which we apparently have aplenty down here. As a Southerner and a veteran of the US armed forces, screw The Confederacy. Screw their flag. Screw their generals. Screw each and every article of Confederate iconography.

But not the horses they rode in on; I don't think Traveller was racist.

The Classic

Does...does this clip need setting up? It has a wikipedia entry.

Affleck as Olbermann

I'm pretty sure I've posted this one before, but it's a favorite and election season is nigh.

The Battle for The Hugos

Every year since 1953, the World Science Fiction Society has given out The Hugo Awards for notable works in science fiction. Categories like Best Novel, Best Graphic Story, and Best Dramatic Presentation have been given to Star Trek, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and even The Avengers.

Nominations and winners are voted on by members of the society, who either pay to attend the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) or who buy a membership. A few thousands folks and a handful of rules assign some of the preeminent awards in science fiction to works and writers. 

Like most election systems, The Hugo Awards are not, nor have they ever been, marks of absolute quality. They designate the works which are able to garner the votes of the most WSFS members. They're marks of what's most popular that year among a handful of science fiction fans. Granted, you'd be hard-pressed to argue against the quality of those winners.

Hell, you pick one.

Back in 2011, a writer by the name of Brad Torgerson lost the Hugo for Best Novelette to Charlie Jane Anders, noted female and LGBT+ proponent. The following year, Torgerson teamed up with fellow Hugoless writer Larry Correia to address a problem Torgerson's website characterizes as

"...the Hugo voting skew ideological, as Worldcon and fandom alike have tended to use the Hugos as an affirmative action award: giving Hugos because a writer or artist is (insert underrepresented minority or victim group here) or because a given work features (insert underrepresented minority or victim group here) characters."

Linkstorm: Lightning Round!

So a boy known as "Kunkun" has been ostracized by his rural, Chinese community. China is a big, diverse country and it's really mind-boggling to try to take all of it in. Anyway, the Chinese government did that thing that communist governments should do and stepped in to take care of the kid.

Hopefully, it'll end up like the story of Quian Hongyan, also known as "The Basketball Girl." After losing her legs in a car accident, her impoverished family couldn't afford to buy her prosthetics. Instead, they used basketballs to act as a contact patch for her lower torso. In 2005, her story was covered by the press and she was contacted by a Beijing clinic dedicated to helping disabled, low-income individuals.

It's nine years later, she's a minor celebrity and intends to represent China as a paralympic swimmer. She hopes the publicity she's gotten will help change attitudes in China towards the disabled.

Charlie Hebdo

The really big headline is the attack on the satirical French publication, Charlie Hebdo. Two gunmen, brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, stormed the offices, killing ten staff and two police officers on January 7th. Over the next two days, their cell was uprooted and five more French citizens were killed before the Kouachi brothers and another terrorist, Amedy Coulibaly, were trapped in two separate locations in northern France.