Just a short trip to Big D.

15 years old today!

From the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia).

US town rejects solar farm after residents say it would suck up all the sunlight

Turns out that here in Austin hundreds of properties, including many multi-million dollar Mansions, had big property tax exemptions.  Why?  Hard to say.  Except for a local newspaper article nobody noticed.

After Statesman reports, hundreds of lakefront properties avoiding taxes now may have to pay up

Not so much really new stuff this year.  My 2019 playlist (subject to changes).

An article from a few months back by an Australian journalist about President Trump and his speaking style.  He lately reminds me of Chauncey Gardner from Being There.  People think: surely he must me saying something important.  Then they proceed to “decode” his “message”.  Of course there is no underlying meaning here and trying to find one is a fools errand.

As a foreign reporter visiting the US I was stunned by Trump’s press conference

Despite being subjected to a daily diet of Trump headlines, I was unprepared for the president’s alarming incoherence

After a series of deaths in Mississippi prisons, Jay-Z is suing the state of Mississippi.  From the BBC:

Jay-Z sues on behalf of Mississippi prisoners ‘in peril’

I have been saying forever that the Reagan Revolution was an attack on the poor and middle-class that led directly and purposefully to today’s economic equality.  An interesting Twitter feed on that subject.

Ward Q. Normal on Twitter

My new hobby is taking graphs of economic data over time and indicating the year that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, in case people find that helpful or informative.

Over the years I suppose I have bought lots of stuff, mostly furniture, that needed some assembly.  You know the stuff.  Comes with little wrenches and inscrutable instructions is several languages.  I have been tossing the little wrenches in a box (in case I ever need them).  Not sure how many I have now.  I should probably throw these out since I have multiple full sets of metric and US wrenches these days.  And most of the furniture I assembled with these over the decades is probably long gone.

From Motherboard:

John McAfee No Longer Willing to Eat His Dick on TV

The, uhh, presidential candidate has flip-flopped on his infamous Bitcoin bet.