Month: July 2019

The President’s Social Media Meeting is Today

photog Current Events, On-Line Article Reviews, Quote of the Day, Trump , ,

President Trump is hosting a meeting with non-leftist web personalities to discuss the anti-right bias at places like Twitter, Facebook and Google.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/9/trump-v-big-tech-social-media-summit-will-snub-tec/

The White House hasn’t published the invite list but many participants have self identified.

Along with well-known media figures like James O’Keefe of Project Veritas, I read that the Claremont Institute was invited.  I’m especially glad to hear that because of several members of that institute (e.g., Michael Anton and Angelo Codevilla) have shown themselves to be almost prescient about what needs to be done to reverse some of the damage done by the left.

It will be interesting to hear from the participants afterwards to see what they think will come from this meeting.

 

After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting

What Do the Democrats Say They Want?

photog Current Events, OCF, Trump , ,

Now that the first two Democrat Presidential Primary debates have occurred, we have some information about what exactly they are offering the Democrat voters.  One of the more interesting results occurred in Debate 2 and included all the major candidates except for Elizabeth Warren (or as she’s affectionately known in Massachusetts, Liarwatha) who unfortunately, was trapped at the kiddie table in Debate 1.  The question was a show hands as to who thought illegal aliens should have the right to free health care insurance.  Every single hand went up.  That includes Biden, Sanders, Harris, Buttigieg and the rest of the clown brigade that drew the long straw.  Think about that, at least all but one of the major candidates has agreed with the position that illegal aliens should have better health care insurance than many actual American citizens.  The fact that it was a show of hands probably made some of the serious contenders feel that they’d been ambushed by NBC into saying something that would bite them in the butt once the general election started but they felt they had to raise their hands anyway.

What other Democrat issues are apparently universally held?  Undoubtedly, Global Warming Alarmism is right up there.  That’s low hanging fruit and so vague in its outlines that they can sign on and grandstand about how they’ll save the planet without any fear of having to explain what the hell they’re talking about.

But past that we get into issues and policy stances that become more varied.  As befits a card-carrying Communist Bernie Sanders is right in the vanguard of those handing out the most gimmees.  College tuition debt forgiveness, free college, guaranteed universal income, elimination of private health insurance and the institution of free health coverage for all, you name it he’s giving it away.

Behind him the other candidates are a spectrum of entitlements and one big entitlement that many of them have latched onto is African American Reparations for Slavery.

Another big plank in the Democrat platform is the legalization of all immigration and elimination of the border.

Liarwatha does have one interesting proposal and that is the regulation of the Tech Giants.  But far from curtailing their ability to discriminate against conservatives she wants to force them to infringe on free speech even more oppressively.

And finally, they want to reinstate the globalist policies that sent all the manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China and devastated life in the Rust Belt.

So, let’s recap.  The Democrats want to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Slavery reparations, free college, free universal income, college debt forgiveness, free health care for illegal immigrants and taxing oil, gas and the electricity that they generate out of the reach of anyone but the rich.

They want to flood the country with unlimited illegal aliens from the poorest countries on Earth thereby eliminating all blue-collar jobs and exposing us to the violence and disease that will become the norm all across America.  And they want to roll back all tariffs and empower China to control all the manufacturing activity on the planet.

All right.  Does it seem to you that there won’t be much problem crafting an advertising campaign to deny more or less every single middle class and working-class vote that isn’t already bought and paid for?  I mean shame on the Republicans if they don’t use this platform to win back the House and consolidate their hold on the Senate.  And I can’t imagine President Trump failing to make hay with all the ammunition they’ve provided him.  I mean Christmas in July is not just for the Hallmark Channel, it’s right here in our laps as the Democrats bury themselves under piles of madness.  Actually, I’m starting to suspect that they want to lose this one.  But why that would be I can’t imagine.

And despite all the ballyhoo in the media I still think they’ll anoint Creepy Uncle Joe the candidate.  He’s just too weird not to stand out even in this slush pile.  Stay tuned for the next debate, it should be a hoot.

After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting

 

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 4 Episode 15 – The Incredible World of Horace Ford

photog Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F TV Show Reviews, TV Reviews, Twilight Zone , , , , , , , , , ,

Horace Ford is a toy designer.  He’s thirty-eight years old but acts like he’s ten.  At the office he’s preoccupied with a cap gun that he shoots at his office mates.  When his friend Leonard tries to talk to him about a problem with one of his designs, he gets off on a tangent about the games he used to play as a kid.  His boss Mr. Judson tells him that a toy he designed is much too expensive but when Judson tells Horace to remove the lights on the eyes, he pitches a tantrum like a kid.

When Horace goes home, he continues his childish conversations with his wife Laura and mother.  They try to get him to grow up and see reality but he goes into a childish rage.  While talking about his childhood on Randolph Street he gets the idea to go back there and see it today.  But when he goes there, he seems to have gone back in time to the 1930s where a hot dog is three cents and clothes are very old fashioned.  And when some kids rush past him and knock his watch out of his hands, he sees that they are the kids he played with when he was ten.  They haven’t grown old at all.

Late he goes home and tells Laura about it and she doubts his sanity and asks him to see a psychiatrist.  Later, one of the boys shows up at her door and returns Horace’s watch to her.  Horace goes back to Randolph street several times more and each time he relives the exact same sequence of events including the loss of his watch.  And each night he comes home more agitated and confused.

Finally, his boss tells him to take a leave of absence and get psychiatric help.  When Horace angrily refuses Judson fires him.  Horace goes home and tells his family that he’s been fired and when his wife asks him to get help, he storms out.  After he leaves all of the people who were arriving for Horace’s surprise birthday party show up at the apartment and Laura becomes desperate.  She goes out looking for him.

Meanwhile Horace goes back to Randolph Street and relives the same scene but this time when he follows the boys, he becomes his ten-year-old self and relives the terrible beating that his “friends” gave him for not inviting them to his birthday party.

When Laura shows up on Randolph Street, she finds the ten-year-old Horace unconscious on the street and turns away and sobs.  But when she turns around again Horace is his normal age again and she helps him come to and get up.  Now Horace tells her that he finally realizes that his childhood wasn’t a shiny dream world but actually contained much unhappiness.  Laura tells him that everyone tries to remember the good and forget the bad.  The show ends with us assuming that Horace will be sadder but wiser and won’t have as much trouble fitting into the adult world.

This was a slightly disturbing episode.  The character Horace Ford was more than a little unhinged.  Today I think he would be described as on the spectrum.  But the saving grace of the episode (for me) was the fact that he mentioned one of my favorite childhood games ringalevio.  Basically, it was a tag game with two teams, each with a jail.  It was a game that we probably spent more waking hours playing than anything else when we were ten.  For reminding me of ringalevio I’ll have to forgive the off-putting behavior of Horace and give the show a B.

 

After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting

 

Lens Review – Sony FE 100-400mm f\4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens – Part 1 – First Impressions

photog Photography, Photography Reviews , , , , ,

Sony’s 100/400 is listed as a GM or G Master lens.  That implies a premium or professional grade model.  I will attest it is a very well made lens.  It’s a metal construction unit and has plenty of heft to it weighing in at over three pounds.  Playing around with the autofocus I noted that the A7 III and the 100-400 are well matched and focus on distant and close objects quickly and accurately with no hunting.  And using a 400mm lens without a tripod (I used a monopod and sometimes handheld) I was impressed with how the image stabilization (IS) performed.  Using the A7 III’s magnified view on close objects without a tripod maximizes the shake observed through the viewfinder but with IS engaged I was very pleasantly surprised to find that once the trigger was half-pressed the shake disappeared.

I tested the lens out as a dragonfly and butterfly chaser.  Understand, it’s not a macro lens.  Maximum magnification is only about .3 but with the electronic magnification in use I can focus on the eye of an insect to perfect focus without a problem.

I like the rotating tripod collar.  It makes portrait shots easy and I used it to move the collar out of the way when I wanted to hand hold the lens.

And first impressions, the lens is very sharp from 100mm all the way to 400mm.  I’ve always been a prime lens snob.  But I have to admit that being able to zoom the lens to quickly frame the shot the way I want is very convenient and actually improved a number of my compositions.  The colors look good (as far as my color blind eyes can tell) with nice rendering of the flowers I’ve been shooting.  I’m very interested to see how the 1.4 and 2.0 teleconverters match up with this lens.  I want to shoot the 100-400 with them to have something to compare to the new Sony 200-600 lens that’s coming out soon.

And here’s a very unfair test of the lens.  This distance would have needed a 1200mm focal length to get any detail.

 

After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting

 

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 4 Episode 14 – Of Late I Think of Cliffordville

photog Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F TV Show Reviews, TV Reviews, Twilight Zone , , , , , , , , , ,

William Feathersmith is an evil man who uses the huge fortune he has amassed to crush his competitors and then grind them down by heaping insult onto injury.  Several of his business victims have committed suicide after suffering bankruptcy and humiliation at his hands.  But now he’s bored.  Feathersmith has reached the summit of his success and there’s nothing left to challenge him.  He talks to the building janitor, Mr.Hecate, one night and discovers that they both came from the same town Cliffordville.  Feathersmith mocks Hecate for his lowly status and leaves his office and takes the elevator down.  But instead of reaching the lobby he finds himself in front of the Devlin Travel Agency.

Enter Miss Devlin (Julie Newmar with devil’s horns).  She offers Featherstone a deal.  She will send him back to his hometown Cliffordville in 1910 and he’ll be able to conquer the financial world all over again only this time he knows about all the inventions and history ahead of time and can capitalize on that knowledge.  Feathersmith agrees to sell his soul but stipulates in the bargain that he will appear as the young man he was in 1910 and everything will be as it was when he lived there last.  Devlin agrees but reveals that Feathersmith’s soul has already been damned to hell for his evil deeds and what she will require for payment is the bulk of Feathersmith’s worldly wealth leaving him only $1,400.  But she reminds him that in 1910 that was a sizable stake to invest.  He agrees and soon finds himself in Cliffordville.

Using his knowledge of the future Feathersmith uses his $1,400 to buy land that he knows will be found to have millions of dollars of oil in 1936.  He assumes he can pump the oil out in 1910 but he discovers that the oil is many thousands of feet below the depth that can be exploited using the oil recovery technology available in 1910.  And now he realizes that even though he looks young his body is still seventy-five years old and he will not live to 1936 to capitalize on the oil under his property.

Desperate to escape his fate he begs Devlin to send him back to 1963.  She agrees in exchange for forty dollars.  In order to get the forty dollars, he is forced to sell his oil field to a young version of Mr. Hecate.  Now back in 1963, Feathersmith is the janitor in the building where Mr. Hecate is the tycoon.  They have a conversation which is the inverse of the earlier one.

What can I say?  This is pretty much by the numbers.  The Devil tricks a bad man.  C.

 

After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting