April 26, 2018

Is anyone else puzzled by the Chapman/Gerardot murder/suicide?

Two things I don't get:

1. Why did she take the trains? To get from Wilmington or Newark to Radnor by train is time consuming, since you have to take either Amtrak or the Septa R2 to 30th street, and then another Septa regional out to Radnor. I guess since Google maps provides transit instructions, then that's simpler for a new resident to figure out, but why not just drive there?

2. Why the disguise? Why would it matter if anyone on the trains or at the stations recognized someone who had moved here a few months ago, and didn't have many acquaintances in the area. And why disguise yourself if you've sent a string of texts or emails describing what it is you are going to do?

3. When did he show up in the driveway? The reports suggest that neighbors heard gunshot(s?) and then called police. Or did he arrive, and then call police? Either way, he is in the driveway when the police arrive. So, did he arrive after the shooting, but before the police?

When the police get there, he says "My wife may be inside." So, he shows up at the house, presumably aware of the threats, etc., goes to the door, has to notice that the door is broken, doesn't go inside, but just stays in the driveway until the police show up?

I realize that crazy people do crazy stuff, so things don't always make a lot of sense, but some of the details of this thing are a real head scratcher.

Like, was she expecting them to show up together, shoot the both of them, and take his car back home? So her plan would be messed up when Chapman shows up alone - unless she shot Chapman and then sent the texts to lure him to the house. But, for whatever reason, she decides to shoot herself instead.

I'm just having trouble making sense of what the plan may have been versus what seems to have happened. Him getting there (a) after the shooting, and (b) before the police, and making a guess about what's inside the house, just hits me as kind of odd.

April 26, 2018

One Internet Archive Quirk Which May Not Be Relevant

If you remember, a lot of the early web, in which the IA was first launched, consisted of static HTML pages, making it relatively easy to store and compress content. However, if you think the IA is merely gorging down a "copy of everything on the internet" on their budget and without the storage space of the Almighty, then you may have a simplistic view of how the IA works, and how it has worked at different times during its development.

And, oddly, since I was looking for an old picture I tweeted from an IA server location several years back, I found that my photograph wasn't archived....

https://twitter.com/Berryhillj/status/989296718201151488

In any event, as things moved beyond static HTML and storage capacity varied, IA implemented, at various times, different sorts of tricks to deal with either problem.

Since I deal in IP disputes which often hinge on claims of "who was first", one of the tricks I noticed was that IA would skimp on storage space by sometimes making external calls to the existing site for images. If the image wasn't stored at IA, one of two things would happen, (a) you'd get a broken image icon, or (b) if the same filename still existed on at the reference URL and the same last-modified date (which is easy to change on some systems), then when you called up the "archived" version of the page, IA would simply inline the presumed-to-be-the-same image file from the referenced site.

There was a time, and I haven't checked this lately, where active content - i.e. content generated by scripts or served up from databases - would be handled in a similar way: if the relevant php file existed on the live and current server, then it would be invoked to serve up the content.

None of this may be even remotely relevant to the teacup tempest at hand. I am only saying that there are circumstances I have encountered in the course of my career where there had been issues involving "things in the Internet Archive not actually being what they seem to be". That's all. Whether it applies in this instance - I have NO IDEA.

But more importantly:

Joy Reid is a living breathing human being. IMHO if you want to know what sort of person she is, and what sorts of opinions she holds, you don't need to consult the Internet Archive. I would imagine the best way to know what sort of person she is and what sorts of opinions she holds, would be to converse with her.

April 24, 2018

The 2020 Democratic nominee will be...

...the candidate for whom I will vote in the presidential election.

April 21, 2018

The real reason for the entire Comey Memo / Rosenstein play

I think we are missing the true genius of Trump and Nunes here.

Figure... The hypothesis goes that Rosenstein wouldn't release the memos, so he could be held in contempt by Congress, thus providing cover for firing Rosenstein. Rosenstein "outsmarts" them by releasing the memos, which are then immediately leaked and which, in fact, provide further damning insights into Trump's apparent knowledge of guilt.

Well, gee, anyone would have known that was a bad idea. Aside from which, how do they sell Trump on something as complicated as a Rube Goldberg scheme to get to fire Rosenstein? The dynamics are well beyond his comprehension level. It takes more than five words to explain to him.

So, I think I understand what may have been Trump's true reasoning -

To hurt Comey's book sales.

I know, this is crazy, but hang with me here for a moment. It's no more crazier than a lot of stuff that's actually true.

The only thing Trump understands is ratings - television, best seller list, top grossing movie, playmate of the year, whatever - So, to get Trump to buy in, what you'd have to tell him is:

"Comey is coming out with a book. We've already read it, since a former FBI official's book has to get agency review before publication. It's all based on his notes that we already have, see. So, how about we have Nunes demand the notes, so he can leak them, so everyone can get them for free, and then... boom... it cuts into Comey's book sales!"

THAT is, IMHO, a plan that Trump could understand and go for.

April 20, 2018

If you are interested in the actual DNC civil complaint re: Russia

Here's a link to the actual complaint itself, instead of 20 screaming headlines saying the same thing:

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.492363/gov.uscourts.nysd.492363.1.0.pdf

The DMCA claim is a nice touch.

April 15, 2018

Woodland Beach

The ride out from Route 9 is half the fun....

https://twitter.com/Berryhillj/status/985238454383542276

https://twitter.com/Berryhillj/status/985590408859267073

April 14, 2018

Do you believe Britain and France are doing this to distract from Trumps other problems?

Whatever the media goes on about, the fact of the matter is that Monday morning the SDNY USAG’s office turns on the lights and goes back to work, as do the courts, as does the special counsel’s office.

The process of law is the process of law, and it doesn’t stop to care what leads on the hourly news.

The Syrian action does not have any real impact on what is already in motion on the Trumpster Fire front.

I sincerely doubt that Macron has any interest in using French military assets to do Trunp some sort of personal favor. If you believe otherwise, please explain what’s in it for France?

April 13, 2018

I'm calling shenanigans on Keith Davidson

So with the lastest GOP hush money thing, this certainly jumps out:

The lawyer for the woman, Keith M. Davidson, also represented two women who were paid during the presidential campaign for their silence about alleged affairs with Mr. Trump...

How on earth was Davidson getting these referrals?

April 13, 2018

Sorry, not buying the Pence Is Worse thing

A president Pence, constrained by a Democratic Congress is a distinguishably better outcome than the present circumstances.

There is no question that Pence - nobody’s choice for anything - is an odious character. But in his blithering ineptitude, he is also not a one man wrecking crew.

IMHO, the “Pence is worse” argument is an attempt to suggest that the rule of law is some sort of means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

April 12, 2018

Seems like someone finally told Trump why the TPP, in principle, is worth pursuing

Apart from "what are the specifics in the deal" which is a separate issue, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was, in principle, a bulwark against Chinese hegemony in Asian markets.

After finally figuring out that a bi-lateral trade war with China (a) has no winners, and (b) mostly hurts Trump's base, comes this:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/12/trump-tpp-trade-pact-519128

President Donald Trump directed two of his top aides to study the possibility of re-engaging in negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in an interview Thursday. The move would be a huge policy swing for Trump, a free-trade skeptic who walked away from the massive trade pact after winning the presidency.

At a meeting with pro-trade senators and governors, Trump directed economic adviser Larry Kudlow and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to scope out whether re-entering TPP talks makes sense, Sasse said. The trade deal, negotiated by President Barack Obama, would aid the United States in isolating China by crafting agreements with many of its neighbors.

The problem with being stupid is having to be constantly brought up to speed on the most basic information that everyone else already knows.