Tulsi, Kirsten, Andrew, Russell, Jeff...

---Presidential primary Democrat Tulsi Gabbard has sued Google for placing too many of her political ads in a spam folder over six hours in June.  Gabbard, like Kirsten  Gillibrand, has a history of anti-gay comments, but she is pretty much sticking with them as a candidate.  Once Gillibrand became a New York Senator she had a change of heart from her previous vehemence.  Gabbard is also supportive of Assad of Syria and opposes all U.S. intervention overseas.  She is a whack job, but articulate and presentable, and has an impressive background.  Now that many candidates are placing ads on Facebook, it should be noted that here they are all, regardless of party affiliation, marked as "hide ad", and depending on my mood categorized as either "irrelevant" or "spam".  Could that be Gabbard's problem, since she chose to advertise heavily at that exact time.

---Russell Crowe's performance as the totally unsympathetic character Roger Ailes in "The Loudest Voice" is completely convincing.  Why he accepted this role, who knows?  Apparently this is well researched and meant to be a true representation of Ailes, and who could imagine he was so much of a bizarre creep, sexual predator, and obsessive paranoid. His wife is made for him, even more of an extremist in every way.  This afternoon "A Beautiful Mind" was watched, the 2001 film in which Crowe played John Nash, a brilliant mathemetician who suffered from schizophrenia but eventually won the Nobel Prize.  Crowe's performance was exceptional in this true story as a character who was completely sympathetic.

---New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is back in the news again for his pay to play style of political fund raising.  The Democratic Party, in general, has worked for years to distance itself from the type of politics that depended on labor unions and public contractors that characterized the party at times in the past.  Cuomo unabashedly continues that tradition in New York.  As head of the MTA, he oversees multiple major infrastructure projects, not unlike his highway projects upstate a few years ago.  A New York Times article today details his fundraiser's actions, one step removed from him.

---Politicians on both sides of the aisle are looking for ways to define the major tech companies as anti-competitive monopolies.  These are global businesses.  European politicians are already taking their tolls, reasons not specific in the least.  Now various states in the U.S. are joining in, and Congress wants in.  For the Republican President, the rationale seems entirely political.  Silicon Valley is not exactly pro-Trump, and Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has not tried to emulate Fox New or Sinclair Broadcasting.  How this plays out is unknown, but accidents can happen.

---"The Year of Living Dangerously", watched last night, was far better than remembered.  Unclear what tonight may bring, and Mets and Yankees are both off tonight so no natural sedative.