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A snippet of commentary heard on the radio this morning:

"Democrats are turning out for the primaries in Texas in record numbers, for this mid-term election. But, they still have nowhere near the numbers that Republicans enjoy."

Got home, and took a look for myself. https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/texas/

Isn't that special? The Republican primary winner has 1.3 - almost 1.4 - million votes. The total of democrat votes is 1.01 million. The total of Republican votes is 1.54 million voters.

Abbot is another Trump, IMO. I don't like him. But, it looks like he has this election in the bag, already. Ted Cruz appears to have it for the Senate, as well.

Congress critters - not so much. They all show big fat zeroes right now. I clicked on a few other states, no one has results to show. I don't even know when primaries happen in most other states.

Anyway - if Dems are turning out in record numbers, and they STILL make such a poor showing - well - Texas is going to remain red, red, red.

Hmmmmm - link doesn't appear to show up as a hyperlink? Let's try again - https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/texas/

Which VPN Services Keep You Anonymous in 2018?

Which version of XKeyscore are we running on?

So here we are, once again being the alternative to the "other site", which seems to have crapped itself, but we still have our own problems. Yes, I have gone on about them for maybe way too much, but I wanted to bring up one nicety of SoylentNews that is honored in the breach. Notification of submissions rejected.

For Example:

We're sorry, your submission "Here’s How an Alt-Right Troll Auditions for Survivor" was declined for the following reason:
Journal for this - not worthy of the front page--JR

Now I love JR, or janrinok, he is my favorite editor, he tries to stay true to the ideal that was SoylentNews, but I have to ask, not worthy, why? Us submitters could use some more constructive criticism! Is it just that once again, I was critical of the alt-right? Knowing that would help. Or was it that the submission was about broadcast TV? Was that the reason? Not enough to go on, even for a 2400 year old philosopher!

And then there is the boilerplate:

The editors felt it inappropriate for them to correct the issue themselves. Please feel free to correct the issue yourself and resubmit.

For some reason, in my particular case, I feel that this is less than sincere. I have resubmitted, with the limited guidance given by the eds, and had the re-submission also rejected. Oh, poor aristarchus! Doomed to a level of Dante's hell where the editors are the authorities, and they can make decisions based on things we know not of. So I guess I will put something about how there are boobies, a la TMB, on Survivor, with the alt-right rejected because there are never any boobies in alt-right things at all because it is just like the scene in the Blues Brothers, where the Illinois Nazis were plummeting to their death, and the second in command, cmn32480, says, "I have always loved you." So, there is that.

Now is the time for all good Soylentils to come to the aid of their news aggregating website! We need more balance, more inclusiveness, less right-wing fanbois bubbling! We could use an aristarchus submissions, not because he will just submit more and make us look like a bunch of right-wing dweebs, but because there is a viable, majority, sane and everyday position out there that thinks the alt right needs to be hung out to dry. Let the racist bastards speak, I say. And my submissions are the one way to do so. If the eds reject them, they have made the bed in which they will lie. Not a good bed. Roll over, and there is Milo? Do you really want that?

Exclusive: Florida Public School Teacher Has A White Nationalist Podcast

Crystal River teacher hosts white nationalist podcast, HuffPost reports

Meanwhile:

Here Are 911 Transcripts of Some of the Times Apple Employees Walked Directly Into Glass Walls

Friends, I know a lot of you have been worried about me. Some beautiful DMs. And I can almost hear your prayers, thank you for those. And I'm sure you're worried about our beautiful, beautiful White House in Washington. It wasn't beautiful, it's becoming beautiful. Because Melania and I are working very hard, fixing it up. My predecessors left it very dirty, we're cleaning up a lot of messes. And covering up so much. But I wasn't at the Washington White House today. I'm at my Southern White House, Mar-a-Lago, in beautiful Florida (why does President Putin hate Florida so much?). Not in Washington. But our thoughts & prayers are with the family of the late Shooter, RIP!!!! And with everybody who got spattered. The guy wasn't a bad dude, maybe sick. Probably sick, nobody was in danger. Can we call it suicide? Why not, right? But let me tell you, he left a terrible mess. Not as bad as the mess Obama left me with, nowhere near as bad as that one. My Secret Service, as always, did a great job! Thank you and thanks to our wonderful first responders, our Police & EMTs. And our Coroner, very tough job, you have to be a very tough cookie to do that one, am I right, folks? If Crooked Hillary had won, she'd be keeping our Coroner very busy. And maybe she is anyway. Seth Rich, so tragic, he was a true patriot. As everybody knows. I'm having a fabulous weekend and I wish the same to every American. God bless! secretservice.gov/data/press/releases/2018/18-MAR/GPA_Secret_Service_Statement_Regarding_March_3,_2018_Shooting_Incident_Near_the_White_House.pdf

Hi-Rez president compares new ‘Overwatch’ hero to a ‘Paladins’ protagonist

Just bookmarking so I can check out the videogamedunkey video later.

Nintendo Holds Off on Switch 2.0, Looks to Peripherals for More Sales

It would be bizarre to release a new version of Switch so soon. They talk about a slimmed down version (rather than a mid-cycle upgrade like PS4 Pro or Xbox One X). Compare to PS4 (Nov 2013) and PS4 Slim (Sep 2016), and Xbox One (Nov 2013) and Xbox One S (Aug 2016). In fact, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X didn't come out very long after the slimmed down versions.

What they could do is drop in newer ARM CPUs and Nvidia GPUs. Even if they underclock and keep performance almost the same, the console would benefit from lower power consumption since it is battery-powered in handheld mode.

The opioids have turned into a very big problem for our Country. It’s been going on too long. So I'm listening. I'm holding a Summit. Watch it LIVE at 1 pm EST, noon central, 11 am Mountain, 10 am Pacific, 8 am in Hawaii -- they're part of our Country now. youtu.be/C15wK65Luvs #TrumpTV

He livestreamed his own murder on Facebook in a North Carolina town

Man fatally shot on Facebook Live had been outing suspected drug dealers, sources say

LiveLeak.

Melania Trump re-emerges amid marriage scrutiny

Can Trump succeed where FDR and Bill Clinton failed?

Several Broward deputies waited outside during Florida school shooting, report says

Coral Springs cops who responded to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say several Broward sheriff’s deputies waited outside rather than rush in as the killer was gunning down students, according to reports.

The allegations emerged a day after veteran Broward deputy Scot Peterson resigned under fire for failing to enter the school during the Valentine’s Day shooting. President Trump on Friday said Peterson, who was assigned to guard the school, “did a poor job.”

The Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that according to police sources at least three Broward deputies, including Peterson, waited outside. The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Friday it is investigating the Coral Springs officer's claims.

The allegations add to a series of failures that have emerged since 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and staff, and wounded 16. Cruz was arrested and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Two additional Broward deputies are also under investigation over whether they mishandled warnings about Cruz in the months leading up to the shooting. The FBI has admitted it failed to investigate similar claims, and Florida child welfare agency looked into concerns about Cruz, but concluded he wasn’t a risk to himself or others.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the Sun-Sentinel that three Coral Springs officers said one or more sheriff’s deputies did not go into the school building when they should have, and their concerns were relayed to the sheriff’s office by the Coral Springs police chief.

“If our investigation shows that our deputies made no mistakes or did things right, or it’s not corroborated, there will be no issue,” Israel said.

“If we find out, as we did with Peterson, that our deputies made mistakes and didn’t go in, I’ll handle it like I always have. I’ll handle any violations of policy or procedures or whatever accordingly.”

This is a primary reason for contempt of police. These cops milled about smartly, outside of a school building, knowing full well that someone was wandering the halls, killing people. Why? Because they are COWARDS!

Oh, I'm sure they can legally justify their actions with policy, and procedure. And, none of them were actually ordered to go inside of the building. Blah, blah, blah - they can defend themselves in a court of law.

But out here, in real life, each of these people stood by while a marauder was taking lives, several feet away from them.

Military veterans? I don't know, maybe some of us would have leaned on policy and procedure. Many, if not most, of us would have charged into the building. We have a tradition of "whatever it takes". A common comment in evaluations (when justified) is "Petty Officer Whoever is mission oriented, and willing to make sacrifices to see the mission through."

The "mission" in this case, would have been to end the carnage, and to save lives. These cops seemed to be content to allow the carnage to continue, until enough of a police force had collected to ensure their own personal survival.

That is a damned good definition of cowardice.

If you aren't willing to put your own life on the line, you are unworthy of respect. You have no right to wear that uniform. You have no right to your paycheck. You haven't even the right to compare yourself to a lowly dog. Many dogs have readily, and willingly, sacrificed themselves in defense of their masters, or children, or even strangers in some rarer instances.

Cops. We've often mentioned that the police force attracts authoritarian, abusive assholes. We need to attract more people who are willing to risk themselves for their fellow man.

It would be interesting to review these coward's service records. How many of them have been abusive pigs, who singled out defenseless (homeless, prostitutes, female, minority, minors, etc) to abuse?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/24/several-broward-deputies-waited-outside-during-florida-school-shooting-report-says.html