Blame presumes guilt. There's no guilt in voting for your interests, even if others don't understand them.

Reasons for those voting decisions are interesting, but also very hard to get since the media ignores everything between the coasts, and even the diverse internet is so full of filter bubbles that you're basically funneled straight into echo chambers. At least on my end, the Silicon Valley/Hollywood culture is drowning out everything else -- and I'm a commie outsider who doesn't give a shit about celebrities or "save zones".

That said, the election is just the most recent culmination of an ongoing, decades-long development. But that's beyond the point, so...

Populism trumps business as usual if business as usual leads to Detroit, Cleveland and Camden. Or the rural areas on the coast of Louisiana, which were hit much harder than New Orleans and still look worse than Chernobyl, 11 years after the fact.

So the question is: did you a) fail to provide an alternative, b) fail to make a convincing case for that alternative, c) decide against trying to convince those that think differently, or d) not even realize that not everybody shares your perception of reality.

Given the tone of the reactions, the collective damnation of Trump voters as (insert any insult in the book), I'm thinking that d) is a much bigger issue than anyone is willing to admit.

In short, I blame George R. R. Martin. If he had published The Winds of Winter by now, all would be well.

Have I mentioned how much I like reading pieces by Thomas Frank?

He had a piece in the Guardian two days ago about the Podesta emails and it's just brilliant. Excerpt:

This genre of Podesta email, in which people try to arrange jobs for themselves or their kids, points us toward the most fundamental thing we know about the people at the top of this class: their loyalty to one another and the way it overrides everything else. Of course Hillary Clinton staffed her state department with investment bankers and then did speaking engagements for investment banks as soon as she was done at the state department. Of course she appears to think that any kind of bank reform should “come from the industry itself”. And of course no elite bankers were ever prosecuted by the Obama administration. Read these emails and you understand, with a start, that the people at the top tier of American life all know each other. They are all engaged in promoting one another’s careers, constantly.

Everything blurs into everything else in this world. The state department, the banks, Silicon Valley, the nonprofits, the “Global CEO Advisory Firm” that appears to have solicited donations for the Clinton Foundation. Executives here go from foundation to government to thinktank to startup. There are honors. Venture capital. Foundation grants. Endowed chairs. Advanced degrees. For them the door revolves. The friends all succeed. They break every boundary.

But the One Big Boundary remains. Yes, it’s all supposed to be a meritocracy. But if you aren’t part of this happy, prosperous in-group – if you don’t have John Podesta’s email address – you’re out.

Thanks man,I replied.... I decided that I am going to move to the Sonoran desert, get away from Cali and focus on health, space and money Ayahuasca/DMT definitely influenced that decision. SF/Bay Area/Santa Cruz/Silicon Valley... it's too unwieldy for me to deal with anymore. Shit, is out of control in terms of risk & cost of living.... 15 years, brah, I'm finally off into the wilderness... will be riding my bike across a seemingly infinite wasteland of beauty every day

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IBM Research? located in south SJ in 1952, 'cause of Stanford, Berkeley (HATE how he says it), UC Santa Cruz , & Moffett Field (NASA-Ames Research, but at the time was NACA).

Personally, I think Facebook is outside of Silicon Valley Proper, instead in AMPEX territory. Menlo Park (Stanford/HP) is the northern-most edge of Silicon Valley, whereas IBM marked the southern-most. and don't forget about Cisco & Silicon Graphics, whose machines were the bomb.

I grew up blocks from IBM and half my friends parents worked there (mine for NASA). I'm back here again in the Santa Cruz Mtns, Los Gatos.

Does anyone say Marin or Berkeley the way he does? How do you get Berkeley wrong? I can't imagine he's from the area or even heard anyone say those names before.

Also Id personally define Silicon Valley as Most of Santa Clara County(not all). Palo Alto to San Jose. I don't think of it as including the cities of Milpitas, Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Although, i think of it this way due to when it was first being used and the area in encompassed at that time. It's probably been ever changing depending on how the tech areas expand.

Wiki describes it "Geographically, it encompasses all of the Santa Clara Valley, the southern half of the San Francisco Peninsula, and southern portions of the East Bay. It includes parts or most of Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Alameda County."

I see a distinct lack of sugar or spice, but silicone is pretty nice.

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It's called transillumination, my scotum transilluminates beautifully without silicone!

Look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnl1ltqFiQ

Or for diagnosing pneumothorax in newborn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEydWnDMuH4

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It seems like high quality industrial silicone.
The ionic version was awesome, and could make a stretch great sensor.

Wasn't this idea stolen from the 1st season of the Silicon Valley TV show?

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Yes they did.

Found a press release.
http://www.renovomotors.com/marty-press-release/

"MARTY was built in collaboration with Renovo Motors, an automotive start-up based in Silicon Valley that specializes in building advanced electric vehicle technology. Working closely together gave the Stanford team early access to a brand new platform derived from Renovo’s electric supercar that delivers 4,000 pound-feet from on-motor gearboxes to the rear wheels in a fraction of a second – allowing precise control of the forces required to drift."