Let's say you had a bunch of people counted by the census - thus counted for determining the populations of Congressional districts - who were all located in one small space, and yet none of them could vote. A prison, for example. Would you think one could cleverly use such places to help shape Congressional districts to one's favor? You'd be right!

"Himself": it's clearly a blend word of "him" and "self". But in what situation would those two words in that order make any sense at all? None that I can think of. He killed himself => He killed him self. Convention ensures that we know what that means but, grammatically, it is a ridiculous sentence. He killed him? Sure. He wrecked him truck? He found him keys? No, and no.

Now consider "Herself", "Yourself", "Myself". Those make perfect sense; it's her self and your self and my self. The self in question belongs to her or you or me. She can laugh at her self. You can see your self in the mirror. I burned my self. Yes. All fine. He touched him self. No! Wrong!

The object form of "he" - "him" - doesn't show possession of the "self". "Her", "Your", "My", "Its" - all possessive. "Him" - objective.

What we mean to say, but are discouraged from saying is "his-self". He threw hisself off the cliff. Yes! It was his self that he threw off the cliff. But "hisself" is non-standard and should only be spoken by ignorant people who don't know that the non-grammatical "himself" is the correct. Follow the rules, except for the ungrammatical exceptions.

Also wrong: themselves (theirselves).

A white guy walks into a Walmart and kills three people. CBSNews web site has a single story.

They have sixteen stories about the NYC truck attack.

Protests and counter-protests in Texas in May of 2016 were in fact orchestrated by Kremlin trolls some 5,000 miles away from the US border, a US Senator revealed on Wednesday.

Facebook pages controlled by Russian trolls organized both a protest and a counter-protest in 2016 where fewer than 100 people showed up, according to Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). During a Senate hearing on social media influence in the 2016 elections on Wednesday, Burr revealed that a protest and simultaneous counter-protest in Houston on May 21 of last year were organized by Facebook groups under the control of the infamous Internet Research Agency. This troll farm allegedly works for the Russian government and was responsible for wide-ranging influence operations on social media platforms in the lead-up to the US presidential elections.

The first protest, called "Stop The Islamization of Texas," was organized by a Facebook group with more than 250,000 followers called Heart of Texas, as previously reported by CNN and Business Insider. As it turns out, a counter-protest on the same day, at the same time, and at the same location was also organized by Russian trolls, this time using another Facebook group called United Muslims of America, which had more than 300,000 followers.

"What neither side could have known was that Russian trolls were encouraging both sides to battle on the streets and create division between real Americans," Burr said during the hearing.

Burr also quoted a person who attended the event, who said that "Heart of Texas promoted this event but we didn't see ONE of them."

"We now know why. It's hard to attend an event in Houston, Texas when you're trolling from a site in St. Petersburg, Russia," Burr said to the head counsels of the three leading American internet companies, Google, Facebook, and Twitter. "Paying for the ads and causing this disruptive event in Houston cost Russia about $200."

We're doomed.

Mueller turns up nothing substantial enough to touch Trump - which is convenient since the GOP Congress wouldn't act on it if he did find something. In the end, Trump disowns and abandons all the people who Mueller successfully prosecutes and declares it's time to move on. The media agrees.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

See also: Now That Trump’s Cronies Are Starting To Fall, It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before Everything Works Out Totally Fine For All Guilty Parties Involved .

To all my fellow NE troublemakers.

George H.W. Bush, legendary ass-grabber.

Grolnick told Deadspin that “he reached his right hand around to my behind, and as we smiled for the photo he asked the group, ‘Do you want to know who my favorite magician is?’ As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, ‘David Cop-a-Feel!’”

Solhberg confirmed Grolnick’s account, saying that Bush’s behavior didn’t shock her because other theater staffers “always complain that he’s kinda creepy.”

“They warned us, he gets pretty handsy,” she said, adding that “everybody in the room nervously laughed” after Bush “grabbed [Grolnick’s] ass.”

Oh Obama, please come back.

Six years ago, when Tom Emswiler moved from Washington, D.C., to Massachusetts, he saw something that shook him to his core: The sun went down at 4:11 p.m.

"I knew I was moving north, but I had no idea how far I was moving east, and so you can imagine my horror when in December the sun was setting" in the mid-afternoon, Emswiler told NBC News on Wednesday.

He began dreaming of a better future for the Bay State. An hour into the future, to be exact.

Emswiler, a 37-year-old public health advocate, is now one of 11 members of a state commission studying whether Massachusetts should leave the Eastern Time Zone and join the Atlantic Time Zone. In a region where winter darkness comes early, an extra hour of sunlight could be a boon for the economy and a godsend for public health, according to supporters of the shift.

Do it!

On a related note... We in the US are in the time of the year right now where sunrises are as late as they will ever be - according to our clocks. These three weeks have the worst mornings. Last Thursday, the sunrise where I am was at 7:25 AM. Today it was 7:32 AM. The Saturday after this, sunrise will be 7:40 AM. Blech! But that night, we leave Daylight Savings Time, and the following Monday, sunrise will be 6:40 AM. And even though it will gradually get later and later until early January, sunrise will never be later than 7:24AM until next October.

Once upon a time, Monday, TV stations in the US were required to maintain an actual physical presence (a "main studio") in the communities they broadcast to.

But as of yesterday, that's no longer true. Now, TV stations no longer need to have any association with the local communities they serve. Now they can fall backwards into the welcoming arms of out-of-state conglomerates.

As always, thank the GOP.

To my favorite jeweler.