Does this mean, finally, we can be done with the Donald?

Oh, just shut up and go away

Trump calls for a total ban on muslims entering the US

Even his supporters must see that he is an out of control demagogue with a complete disassociation from reality. We’ve just had that – in fact, Obama is still in office, it’s reported. Four more years?

The country won’t last.

I waited to post this until the family was all notified

John Caldwell Fountain II 12/22/82 -12/06/15 (photo: Sarah Fountain)

John died at 8:52 last night, peacefully and finally at rest after 17 months of pain. We – Pal Nancy, Kate and Sarah and I – spent the last 48 hours with him at the hospice he’d been admitted to on Tuesday (Sarah, being the indomitable little sister, just told him, “John, it’s time”, and he went, thank God), but he declined rapidly in the early hours of Saturday, and so the watch began.

John and sister Kate, Presumpscot River, Maine (Photo: Sarah Fountain0

There’s surprisingly little sadness here, at least at the moment, because the sorrow came with his diagnosis in May, 2014, and we had time to heal wounds and say goodbye since them; there was no unfinished business when he finally moved on.

I’ll probably post more later, though writing pissy snark about other things seems to afford more relief, but until I do,  here’s Sarah’s first remembrance, posted on her Facebook.

And here’s the most fitting song I can come up with at the moment – we played it Saturday while waiting. I think it’s the perfect accompaniment to the picture above, or vice versa.

One more shot

From National Review

A Muslim civil rights group is suing the federal government on behalf of five Michigan plaintiffs who are challenging their placement on the government’s “terror watchlist.”

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed the suit in Detroit federal court Thursday, “challenging the government’s broad and unchecked power…to secretly designate American Muslims to be added onto the terror watchlist without due process,” said CAIR-Michigan attorney Lena Masri.

Masri is representing the five Detroit area American Muslims who say they were placed on the centralized list of all “known and suspected terrorists” in the US. Components of that larger database include the “no-fly list” and “selectee list” mandating secondary screening and detention at airports.

Masri said her clients weren’t given any notice about being put on the watchlist, violating their right to due process. “And they have not been given any recourse or legal mechanism to contest their designation,” she added.

Do they have a case? You’re damn right they do. Not only does the system rely upon names rather than identities — and thus yield ample opportunity for confusion — but, per the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, the meager due process protections that are provided are “arbitrary and capricious” and fly directly in the face of the Administrative Procedure Act.

As a result, the question here shouldn’t be “why does the NRA oppose using this list in a civil context? ” but “why doesn’t everybody oppose using this list on a civil context?”

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Confers Farm inventory Fall, 2015

Greenwich realtors report strong October sales

According to the Greenwich Multiple Listing Service, 42 single-family residences were sold in October, little changed from the same month in 2014. The median sale price on such homes rose 23 percent to $2.125 million from $1.725 million.

“October proved to be more positive than anticipated with an increase in median price and a strong amount of closings considering the little showing activity that had taken place at the end of August and through September,” said Joann Erb, president of the Greenwich Association of Realtors and executive sales director at Halstead Property’s Greenwich office.

Erb said 17 percent of homes closed in October sold at or above the listed price, and although November is traditionally the slowest month for closings in Greenwich, there are currently 85 single-family homes under contract, which indicates a stronger market than in years past, she said.

Sales in the $3 million to $7.5 million range … have increased 18 percent from 2014, while the over-$10 million market lags behind with a 67 percent drop.

Nothing against Joann, who’s a friend, former employer and an entirely ethical person in every way, but she speaks as the President of our local monopoly here, and, while the figures she quotes are accurate, there are some other relevant statistics left out – not her fault: the reporter probably didn’t think to ask.

For instance, “17% of October sales sold at or above listed price”. That’s 7 houses, and while I have no doubt that our lowest homes did generate that kind of interest – there just aren’t that many on the market; the high end is freaking moribund. The “days on market” stat for these higher ends, for example, are bogus. 12 Byfield Lane, shows”0″ days on market, not the 1,810 days it was for sale, begging at $11.9 million, before finally being lost to foreclosure and selling for $4.9. 18 Parsonage spent 168 days on the market, according to our statistics, but in fact started at $13.75 million before fetching $9.355 1,376 days later.

And so on. So take the numbers with a grain of salt. There’s still a real estate market going on (although the two weeks before Thanksgiving until Martin Luther King’s birthday are historically our slowest period and will probably be so again this year), but be prepared to be disappointed if you’re expecting a quick sale at your desired price – at least for now.

Who could possibly be against a “common sense” gun law prohibiting terrorists from buying guns?

Well lots of folks, actually, and they aren’t all NRA members.

People who are concerned about using a “terrorist watch list” that includes some 300,ooo people “with no discernible ties to terrorism”;

People worried about a list that, in stripping away individuals’ constitutional rights without adjudication or appeal, threatens the civil liberties of all.

People worried that the NSA didn’t have the San Bernardino killers, the Boston Marathon bombers  the Fort Hood shooter. Nor the Chattanooga shooter. “In other words, no perpetrator of any major attack on American soil was on the no-fly list.”

People worried that the NSA employs 97 individuals on that very same no-fly-list.

People worried that the government is claiming the power to label anyone it wants to to the terrorist list, based on their names alone, leaving to mistakenly barring individuals from flying and, under the new proposal, possessing a weapon, with no way to appeal or correct the errors.

And so on. Imagine, if you can – I wonder if you can – if an Obama ally like the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “terrorist” list were used to compile the no-fly list: Christians, Jews, opponents of gay marriage and homosexual adoptions: all are terrorist hate groups, according to the SPLC. An administration that gleefully sics the IRS on its political enemies is also capable of targeting and labelling as terrorists anyone who opposes the Liberal agenda.

So subject a constitutional right and liberty to the whims of central government determined to expand its power over citizens? You don’t have to be  terrorist to oppose that plan.