Fortunately, we have an app for that!  You just need to enter the relevant data, which we have below, or adjust it as you might like, and we'll figure out the odds of so many members of such a small group of IRS employees and supervisors going through the experience of their hard drive crashing so bad that no information related to potentially unlawful activities would ever be retrieved from them.

Rotten boroughs were one of the curiosities of the British electoral system.  Rotten boroughs were a product of a system that did not want change, where fathers passed on constituencies (and the power as a MP that went with this) to their sons as if they were personal property.   In many such boroughs the very few electors could not vote for whom they truly wanted due to the lack of a secret ballot or simply due to the lack of a candidate desirable to their political philosophy.  The term rotten borough came into use in the 18th century, and was used to mean a parliamentary borough with a tiny electorate, so small that voters were susceptible to control in a variety of ways.  The word "rotten" had the connotation of corruption as well as that of long-term decline.

Ukraine is, of course, the place to start.  The country is vital to Russia as a buffer against the West and as a route for delivering energy to Europe, which is the foundation of the Russian economy.  On Jan. 1, Ukraine's president was Viktor Yanukovich, generally regarded as favorably inclined to Russia.  Given the complexity of Ukrainian society and politics, it would be unreasonable to say Ukraine under him was merely a Russian puppet.  But it is fair to say that under Yanukovich and his supporters, fundamental Russian interests in Ukraine were secure.

This was extremely important to Putin.

Those who think that Putin is both the most repressive and aggressive Russian leader imaginable should bear in mind that this is far from the case.  Lenin, for example, was fearsome.   But Stalin was much worse.  There may similarly come a time when the world looks at the Putin era as a time of liberality.  For if the struggle by Putin to survive, and by his challengers to displace him, becomes more intense, the willingness of all to become more brutal might well increase.

This has happened often enough in this area so that I suspect that Obama — and his millionaire contributors — are timing these visits to disrupt traffic intentionally, that they enjoy the pain they cause for so many ordinary commuters.  (Here's another example of bad timing in a Seattle visit from last November.   Note that Obama was also able to disrupt traffic in Los Angeles on that same visit.)

Polls before the 2012 election showed that most voters thought that Obama cared about ordinary people; these fund raising schedules show that he doesn't.

Cross posted at Sound Politics.

(For those unfamiliar with the roads in the Seattle area:  There are two bridges over Lake Washington connecting Seattle with the east side suburbs.  The main one, I-90, has just one lane open in one direction, thanks to construction; the other, 520, will be closed by the Obama motorcade between 5 and 6 PM.  To get back to the airport, Obama will probably close I-405, one of the two main north-south routes, between 6 and 7 PM.

In our chat, Abramson spoke about press freedom, her career and the powerful women she’s encountered along the way.

Among them was Hillary Clinton, whom she met in 1978, while Bill Clinton was running for governor.  At the time, Abramson found her to be friendly and very helpful as a source.  But once Hillary became first lady, their relationship cooled.  “Hillary is incredibly unrealistic about journalists,” Abramson told me.  “She expects you to be 100 percent in her corner, especially women journalists.  She got angry with me because when I became the top-ranking woman at the New York Times, she thought I should be loyal.  An editor is going to be independent, always.”

Prepare thyselves, travelers.  Starting Friday night, lane and ramp closures will occur on westbound Interstate 90 between Bellevue and Mercer Island for an entire week, constricting the thoroughfare down to one lane at the height of the closures. Like a clogged artery, the effects are expected to be felt throughout the Seattle region, with some reports warning of 10-mile backups and advising adding an hour to the commute time.

Furthermore, President Barack Obama is expected to visit the area on Tuesday.  His motorcade will probably pile on more road closures.  Oh, boy!

Four years ago, the big-government liberals got the agency of their dreams, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  It was the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was a Harvard law professor in real life and a Cherokee Indian in her dreams before she was elected to the U.S. Senate.  There she beats the drums for the bureau to serve as a “cop on the beat” to protect consumers from undisciplined capitalism.  The bureau is mired in undisciplined corruption.

Created through the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulation act, the bureau was crafted with uniquely undemocratic features.  The bureau pays its bills by drawing funds directly from the Federal Reserve, bypassing Congress.  It was set up this way to ensure it would operate as a fiefdom free from congressional scrutiny, and it shows.

The bureau’s head, currently Richard Cordray, cannot be fired, no matter how poor his performance.

And then, in contrast, four minutes of video taken by a drone, flown by Chelan HD Productions.  Here's their brief explanation of what you are seeing in that video.

Video starts on outskirts of Pateros, Moves to Alta lake, then to Indian Dan Canyon and ends in the City of Pateros.

Of the big five, four were nation states.  It isn't difficult to define what one means by this: in each of these countries, a majority of the citizens shared a common language and religion.   At least 90 per cent of Frenchmen spoke French and the same proportion belonged at least nominally to the Catholic Church.  More than eight in every ten Prussians were German (the rest were mostly Poles) and of the Germans 70 per cent were Protestant.  The Tsar's seventy million subjects included some notable minorities (five million Poles, three and a half million Finns, Ests, Letts and Latvians and three million assorted Caucasians, but that still left fifty millions who were both Russian and Orthodox.  And the inhabitants of the British Isles were 90 per cent English-speaking and 70 per cent Protestant.  Countries like these needed little holding together: they had an intrinsic cohesion.  By contrast the Austrian Emperor ruled an ethnic mishmash that must have made him groan every time he thought about it.  He and eight million of his subjects were German, but twice as many were Slavs of one sort or another (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats and Serbs), five million were Hungarians, five million Italians and two million Rumanians.  What sort of nation did that make?

The answer is none at all.

The Carlton Complex fire destroyed one home in Malott Friday night and early Saturday morning.  The evacuation level for Malott is still a Level 3 Saturday morning but residents were allowed back in to check for damage.  Malott has about 500 residents.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers told KREM 2 News just before noon on Saturday that the fire is moving northeast of Pateros with no homes currently at risk, but wind gusts of 25-35 mph are expected Saturday until 9 p.m.

Fire officials estimated the Carlton Complex fire grew to 215,153 acres Saturday morning. The fire is 0% contained.

Residents strolled through the smoldering rubble of their neighborhoods, some wearing surgical masks to protect their lungs from the smoke and ash lingering in the air of the riverside community they call "Paterodise."

"Paterodise is hurting right now," said one, Stephanie Brown, as she surveyed what was left of a friend's home.

A wind-driven, lightning-caused wildfire racing through rural north-central Washington destroyed about 100 homes Thursday and Friday, leaving behind solitary brick chimneys and burned-out automobiles as it blackened hundreds of square miles in the scenic Methow Valley northeast of Seattle.

'Before I begin, obviously the world is watching reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russia-Ukraine border.  And it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy.  Right now we’re working to determine whether there were American citizens on board.  That is our first priority.'

'And I've directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian governemnt.  The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. And as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and passengers, wherever they call home.

Obama then jarringly quickly returned to his prepared remarks.

“Speaker’s participation at the event including the speech and reception will be closed to the press, unless otherwise agreed to in writing,” the contract stipulates.  “There will be no other media opportunities or availabilities (i.e.. press conferences, statements. etc.).”