It's always someone else's fault.

Still unexplained is why all the other bereaved families of his presidency don't rate the same generosity.

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Newsweek says the *resident feels his mental capacities are not fully appreciated:

President Donald Trump informed reporters on Wednesday he's a “very intelligent person” who was a “nice student” at an Ivy League school—as he blamed the press for any negative impression Americans have of him.

Trump spends a substantial amount of time tweeting insults at his political opponents and began his presidential campaign by referring to Mexican immigrants as “rapists.” But on Wednesday, he said reporters suggest that he is “uncivil.”

“You know, people don’t understand: I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person,” Trump said.

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The president also said he has “one of the great memories of all time.”

Last year, MOTUS said he has the world's best memory, then forgot it.

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Breitbart seethes: it's not that we object to the fund. What gets the neck veins bulging is we didn't get our share.

Oh, and that two black guys controlled so much money.

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Charlie Pierce sings of the new gold rush out west:

It’s quite fitting that the swampiest portion of the Drain The Swamp administration* is the Department of the Interior, presided over by that famous campaign-finance wrangler, Ryan Zinke. After all, the department has responsibility for the public lands, such as they may be once these thieves and vandals get through with them. This includes the public swamplands. The latest, from The Washington Post, is quite remarkable in how swampy its swampiness truly is.

The company, Whitefish Energy, said last week that it had signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct large portions of the island’s electrical infrastructure. The contract is the biggest yet issued in the troubled relief effort…The unusual decision to instead hire a tiny for-profit company is drawing scrutiny from Congress and comes amid concerns about bankrupt Puerto Rico’s spending as it seeks to provide relief to its 3.4 million residents, the great majority of whom remain without power a month after the storm.

But both Montana and Puerto Rico have mountains, so it’s all good, right?

Whitefish officials have said that the company’s expertise in mountainous areas makes it well suited for the work and that it jumped at the chance when other firms were hesitating over concerns about payment. The company acknowledges it had only two full-time employees when Maria struck but says its business model calls for ramping up rapidly by hiring workers on short-term contracts.

Whitefish Energy is based in Whitefish, Mont., the home town of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Its chief executive, Andy Techmanski, and Zinke acknowledge knowing one another — but only, Zinke’s office said in an email, because Whitefish is a small town where “everybody knows everybody.” One of Zinke’s sons “joined a friend who worked a summer job” at one of Techmanski’s construction sites, the email said. Whitefish said he worked as a “flagger.” Zinke’s office said he had no role in Whitefish securing the contract for work in Puerto Rico. Techmanski also said Zinke was not involved.

I’m certainly convinced. To paraphrase Lamar Parmentel from The Big Easy—Whitefish is a marvelous environment for coincidence.

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Amazon's been around long enough that other retailers have been able to hone their defenses:

Retailers routinely negotiate guarantees that their landlords will not alter malls in a way that hurts sales, whether leasing to a strip club or starting construction projects without approval, real estate lawyers said.

These leases, which often last 10 to 20 years with options to renew, may even name competitors barred from opening a store.

A 16-page memo in July detailing the lease restrictions governing Miami’s Pinecrest Place mall, obtained by Reuters, offers a glimpse of the legal protections retailers are securing.
Target required an affiliate of national landlord Regency Centers Corp to bar “Any lockers, lock-boxes or other type of storage system that is used to receive or store merchandise from a catalog or online retailer.”

The document then specifies more than a dozen other restrictions for the mall, from leasing space to a pet shop or toy store to operating “a fulfillment center in connection with receiving, storing or distributing merchandise from a catalog or online retailer.”

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My local TV weather reporter refers to all of western North Carolina as "neighborhoods, as if Boone-117 miles away- is the same as Oakdale, which is all of down the street.

Now I see why:

The Federal Communications Commission [yesterday] eliminated a decades-old rule that required TV and radio stations to maintain studios in the local communities they serve.

The FCC's Republican majority claims that the change will produce cost savings that broadcasters can use to improve "programming, equipment upgrades, newsgathering, and other services that benefit consumers." But Democrats say the change will instead make it easier for stations to abandon the cities and towns they serve.

Mignon Clyburn, one of two Democrats to dissent in the 3-2 vote, argued:

By eliminating the main studio rule in its entirety for all broadcast stations—regardless of size or location—the FCC signals that it no longer believes those awarded a license to use the public airwaves should have a local presence in their community. Yes, the very same majority that talks about embracing policies to promote job creation is paving the way for broadcast station groups, large and small, to terminate studio staff and abandon the communities they are obligated to serve.

Pai: No local studio needed to produce news

The rule was adopted nearly 80 years ago "to facilitate input from community members and the station's participation in community activities," the FCC said. But that's no longer necessary because residents "can interact directly [with stations] through alternative means such as e-mail, social media, and the telephone," the FCC majority said.

The FCC majority largely accepted arguments made by the National Association of Broadcasters, an industry lobby group.

"Getting rid of the rule will help broadcasters serve viewers and listeners, especially those in small towns and rural areas where the cost of compliance dissuades broadcasters from even launching stations," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said.

Broadcast stations can produce local news without a nearby studio because of modern technology, Pai also said.

Stations will still be required to keep a toll-free or local number staffed during normal business hours.

Stations also still have an "obligation to air programming responsive to the interests of the community," Republican Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said. When it comes to residents contacting a station, "it is more efficient and effective to call or e-mail a broadcast station, especially in times of an emergency, rather than visit the actual studio," O'Rielly said.

Changes could help conglomerates

Because of the rule change, Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy predicted that "local news production could be moved to places such as New York and Washington as the big networks buy up local stations."

Pai's FCC also recently rolled back broadcast TV station ownership limits, a move that could help Sinclair complete an acquisition of Tribune Media Company that would let it reach 72 percent of TV-owning households in the US.

Having a local presence is especially important during times of disaster, such as recent hurricanes, Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said while dissenting from today's vote. A shortage of stations with strong community ties is already a problem, she said.

Rosenworcel said she got an e-mail from a man in Beaumont, Texas after Hurricane Harvey. There were floods, power failures, and ongoing rescue attempts, but "at midnight during the peak of the storm... not one single station in this market had live coverage of the storm," the man told Rosenworcel.

"Instead, he found his favorite stations broadcasting top 40 formats and national talk programs, oblivious to the trouble in the very community they purport to serve," Rosenworcel said.

While that happened before the rule change, Rosenworcel argued that getting rid of the rule will make things worse.

"There are many broadcasters who do an extraordinary job serving communities during disaster. But let's be honest—they can only do so when they have a real presence in their area of license," Rosenworcel said. Wiping out the main studio rule "will hollow out the unique role broadcasters play in local communities," she said.

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Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller The Wrong Man is getting a reboot for the digital age:

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has chosen to reduce the accuracy of the iPhone X’s facial recognition system in order to boost production of the device, which ships on November 3. Citing sources familiar with the situation, Bloomberg reports that Apple “quietly told suppliers they could reduce the accuracy of the face-recognition technology to make it easier to manufacture.”

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Remember that smart kid who went after your job? Now a smarter kid is going after his:

Tech workers of all ages think older engineers are highly qualified, have good experience, and can share wisdom. But many older engineers are worried about losing their jobs as the tech workforce skews heavily towards Millennials.

That’s the conclusion of a survey of 1011 currently employed U.S. tech workers conducted by job site Indeed.com. The study had a number of startling—and some not so surprising—takeaways.

First surprise: an “old” tech worker is defined as “over 40.” That lumps a bit of Gen X (born between the mid-60s and early-80s) in with us Baby Boomers. And if there’s age discrimination for workers who are over 40, I’d hate to read the results of a study of workers who are over 50.