Where have you gone, Five Thirty Eight dot Com? (sung to Mrs. Robinson)

The Sunday New York Times posted an article about the prospects for the US Senate in this year's November elections, but I missed the clear prose of Nate Silver whose blend of facts, polls and predictions made his Times column a must-read during the last election, particularly with so many others predicting results wildly at odds with both his projections and reality (in essence, the two became one). 

I know he is still assembling his staff for the latest reboot for ESPN/ABC (and it looks like a stellar group indeed), but I hope he will begin posting again soon...for "junkies" like me, there was more to his efforts than just numbers or context; there was a connection to a larger, broader canvas that is too often missing from political analysis these days, especially those done by major media outlets.  It isn't enough to find out the results of an isolated race here or there; what's more important is seeing if there are trends being set in a regional or national context, and what it may portend for the next two years.

And for those who wonder what good the Senate is these days (other than a foil for the House), don't forget that there are four members of the Supreme Court over 75 years of age (Scalia, Kennedy, Breyer and Ginsburg) and all nominees must go through the senate for confirmation.  The first two are longtime bastions of the conservative wing and their retirement/passing would mark a real change in the court's direction if replaced by more moderate justices...but that possibility diminishes if the Senate achieves a GOP majority, and at the moment, that is too close to call; hence the need for Mr. Silver.

In other news, Secretary of State Kerry's trip to Kiev is a welcome sign that the US might not go down the same path with Ukraine that it did with Georgia.  Kicking Russia out of the G8 would also go a long way towards convincing the Kremlin that its plans for annexing the Crimea might not be worth the economic isolation and impact on imports that an organized international response could impose.  Whatever happens this coming week will depend in large part on what develops by Wednesday or Thursday: if Kerry is followed by other EU officials and some kind of effort by NATO, then all bets are off...but if the SOS visit is followed up by...nothing, then expect some kind of renewed Russian push into the eastern part of Ukraine by next weekend.

And just to show that I do sometimes watch TV, I thought Ellen's selfie was awesome and the pizza gambit was funny at first but kinda fizzled out, though it was interesting to learn which celebrities (a) brought money with them, and (b) what they thought was a reasonable amount to chip in towards the take out order.

And after ten hours and almost 200 updates, my old 2005 PC desktop now runs on Windows 7 Professional, which means I won't have to worry about Microsoft's April deadline for removing support from XP.  There is of course the small problem that after reinstalling iTunes, I ran a duplicate check and found slightly over 10,000 tracks with more than more entry in the library.  How to remove the duplicates without accidentally deleting anything that should be in the library: now THAT is a challenge.