Fwd: The civilization wreckers' next target

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From: Tom Woods

May 8, 2018 View this email in your browser Connecticut just became the tenth blue state to pledge to cast its electoral votes for whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationally. Why? Because according to the measure's proponents, the electoral college -- along with everything else that's more than 10 minutes old -- is backward and stupid. Here's one more step toward making the United States into a giant, undifferentiated blob, as opposed to the collection of distinct societies it was originally intended to be. The Constitution refers to the United States in the plural every time, and the way the Constitution and the Union were originally understood, the "popular vote" was an irrelevancy. During the World Series, for example, we don't add up the total number of runs scored by each team over the course of the series, and decide who won on that basis. We count up how many games each team won. Thus: Game 1: Red Sox 10, Mets 0 Game 2: Red Sox 15, Mets 1 Game 3: Red Sox 5, Mets 2 Game 4: Red Sox 1, Mets 2 Game 5: Red Sox 0, Mets 1 Game 6: Red Sox 2, Mets 3 Game 7: Red Sox 3, Mets 4 In this imaginary series the Red Sox scored 36 runs while the Mets scored only 13, yet everyone would acknowledge that the Mets won the series. Not a single sports fan would be running around demanding that we count the total number of runs instead, or insisting that the way we determine the World Series winner is sinister. But I think this is the correct analogy with the electoral college. How many games — e.g., how many political societies, albeit weighted to some degree by population — did you win? Also, the electoral college puts an upper bound on how much support you can earn from any one state. Even if your whole campaign is geared toward taxing the rest of the country and handing the money to California, you still can't get more than 55 electoral votes from that state. So to some extent, the electoral college forces the candidate to run a national race more than would be necessary otherwise. A group called National Popular Vote, which seeks to abolish the electoral college, claims that "presidential candidates have no reason to pay attention to the issues of concern to voters in states where the statewide outcome is a foregone conclusion." But this problem becomes much worse without the electoral college. If there is no limit to the support I can get from California and New York, then I'll campaign in those states like a madman. At least the electoral college puts something of a brake on this kind of strategy. A brief note about Trump's defeat in the popular vote: had the election been decided on the basis of the popular vote, Trump would have campaigned differently in the first place. Also, more people in, say, California would have bothered to vote for him. So we can't know that he would have lost the popular vote had those been the rules. What we do know is that every step toward making the U.S. into a giant blob instead of a decentralized collection of societies is a step toward more centralized, bureaucratic management of society, and away from liberty. We're not taught to think this way in school, of course. You know where you do learn this stuff?   http://www.LibertyClassroom.com Tom Woods Share Tweet Forward to Friend Copyright © 2018 Tom Woods, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at yourfriendsarewrong.com, tomwoods.com, bernieiswrong.com, contrakrugman.com, or nostateeducation.com, or you received a free eBook by texting various words to 33444. Our mailing address is: Tom Woods PO Box 701447 Saint Cloud, FL 34770 Add us to your address book

Fwd: Exclusive Training Camp in the sunny Algarve, Portugal - 21 to 26 May

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From: Mikael Eriksson

Hi Mark, It's my great pleasure to invite you to an exclusive training camp in Quarteira, Portugal. You'll find more details further down, but here's a quick summary (if images don't display, click "Display images" in your email client): Training Camp Algarve (20-26 May 2018) Summary Dates: Check-in Sunday 20 May with introductions and optional training. Official training days are Monday 21 to Saturday 26 May, with check-out Sunday 27 May. Duration: 6 to 6.5 days (depending on when you check in), 7 nights Location: Quarteira, Algarve on the southern coast of Portugal. Quarteira is the triathlon capital of the region and has hosted European Cup races for years.   How to get there: Fly to Faro and get a transfer to Quarteira (cost ~25 euro) OR fly to Lisbon and join me in my (rental) car down to Quarteira on Sunday morning/noon (if you rent a bike in Quarteira).  Direct flights from London to Faro are available for ~130-140£ at the moment, round-trip. Participants: Only 4 athletes can attend this camp, in order to make it very much driven by the individual needs. AKA exclusive!   Accommodation: Private apartment 50 meters from the beach with 2 bedrooms, 4 beds, fully equipped kitchen, Wifi, etc. Cost: 580 euros for registrations by Saturday 12 May, 690 euros after What's included: Accommodation (7 nights) Complete coached training week with constant feedback as one of only four athletes on the camp Access to 50 m pool and 400 m track Swim and run video analysis After the camp, you get a personal Athlete Report which explains in detail what areas you need to work on, a reminder of specific drills, exercises or type of training to achieve this and your video analysis files You can also get a Virtual Wind Tunnel analysis done to assess your aerodynamics at a 50% discount (64.50€ rather than 129 euros) Preliminary Training Schedule: Mo: Bike (long ride), open water swim Tue: Run (track + video analysis), Swim (pool, technical + video analysis) We: Bike + run brick session Thu: Open water swim (race-specific), Bike (hills/cadence) Fri: Run (long), swim (pool, endurance + open water skills) Sat: Bike (long ride) Other information: Food and restaurants: Quarteira is full of good restaurants with very affordable prices. For many of our meals we will, therefore, eat out, but we also have a fully equipped kitchen to cook ourselves, depending on the participants preferences. Triathlon education: I will prepare and conduct workshops/seminars on specific topics (I'll ask for your preferred topics when you register). These will be informal (but well-prepared), interactive "classes" designed to empower you to become a better triathlete on your own when you resume training at home. Examples of topics are: planning and analysing training, planning and executing in races, nutrition, strength training, technique, equipment, etc. REGISTRATION Reply to this email now to secure 1 of 4 available slots for this exclusive camp. If you have any questions, email me and ask! When you confirm your registration by Saturday, you secure the best price for this camp. I look forward to welcoming you to amazing weather, amazing cycling and open water swimming opportunities, and just a really good fun week together in triathlon company! Cheers, Mikael

Kylatie, 10 A 1, 00320 Helsinki, Finland

Fwd: Thrival 2018 Presents "Life.Code" — Dates, Locations, & First Ticket Release

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From: Thrival Festival <marketing@ascenderpgh.com>

Pittsburgh explores the intersection of humans and technology.

Roboburgh View this email in your browser SAVE-THE-DATE! THRIVAL PRESENTS LIFE.CODE HUMANS X TECH September 19-20 Carnegie Museum of Art     Kelly Strayhorn Theater  Phipps Conservatory and Botantical Gardens   BUY TICKETS MUSIC X ARTS September 21 Highmark Stadium *EARLY BIRD TICKETS ON SALE SOON*   ABOUT THRIVAL FESTIVAL 2018 "What makes us human?" "How does technology humanize or dehumanize us?" "What can we do as individuals and communities to better prepare for the future?"   Join us in Pittsburgh on September 19-21, 2018 for the sixth annual Thrival Festival, where we explore these questions — and the evolving relationship between humans and technology. This unique conference experience leverages the city's strengths in automated systems, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and life sciences. Thrival convenes cross-sector dialogue around the impact that these fast developing technologies will have on society, business, and culture. For more information on the festival, visit thrivalfestival.com, and follow Thrival on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Thrival Humans X Tech tickets available at thrival2018.eventbrite.com. Thrival Music X Arts "early bird" tickets will be on sale this week through Ticketmaster. AN ASCENDER EVENT SPONSORED BY Copyright © 2018 Ascender, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. Our mailing address is: Ascender 6401 Penn Avenue Suite 300 Pittsburgh, PA 15206 Add us to your address book

Fwd: Fast and furious

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From: John H

The media is having a field day with all of the rumors and disinformation flowing out of the administration, the special prosecutor, the pundits and then regurgitated and dissected endlessly on cable news.  However, no matter how much we may despise Trump and everything he stands for, we should be very cautious about what we wish for – particularly when it comes to the potential for prosecutorial misadventures and support from 'deep state' intelligence sources.  This article from naked capitalism discusses some of these problems and concerns.  As I sometimes do with naked capitalism, I have included some of the comments to the piece.

John

Article, setting a perjury trap for Trump

Citiparks to honor Chuck Senft on Saturday at the Brooline Rec Center

Saturday at noon. 

Bravo! 

Fwd: Neoliberal Healthcare . . . an oxymoron

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From: John H

In case you were wondering why neoliberal healthcare schemes (the one we now struggle under) have never worked and never will work the attached article should give you a basic understanding of some of the issues by looking at some of the ways the neoliberals are attempting to fix it – at, I might add, enormous cost to the government will little or nothing to show for the efforts.  There is no earthly reason that a nation with the maldistributed wealth of the United States should be forced to endure such bolloxed up mess as we have in our so-called healthcare system.  Everyone on all sides of the political spectrum knows this, including a great majority of the voting public, and yet those running the system have no concerns whatsoever about what the neutered American public might think.  Their focus is on how much government money can be diverted to corporate and financial interests.  This is textbook neoliberalism.  If you still don't understand, read the Philip Mirowski article linked in the article.

 John 

Article

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Ta.
 
 
Mark Rauterkus       Mark@Rauterkus.com 

Executive Director of SKWIM USA, a 501(c)(3)
PPS Summer Dreamers' Swim & Water Polo Camp Executive Coach

Middle School Swim Coach at The Ellis School

Former Varsity Boys Swim Coach, Pittsburgh Obama Academy

Recent Head Water Polo Coach, Carnegie Mellon University Women's Club Team
Pittsburgh Combined Water Polo Team

http://CLOH.org

412 298 3432 = cell

Fwd: Russia as pawn in the game of world power

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From: John H

Attached is an excellent must-read article offering some deep background on the current effort to demonize Russia and just how the neocons accomplished much of this.  What is missing is any companion discussion of how the neoliberal coterie utilized this movement to really jump-start their efforts to gain control of the world for corporate and financial interests.  And, while that would have made for a really interesting and comprehensive explanation of the situation in which we find ourselves today, it would have made for a very long book-length feature.  Do read this it is worth your time.

John

Article

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4BpSFBQUldRbFZPOTNmZ2hYNFF2MTdPSVMtZmtV