Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

In my day, never was longer.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“woke” is the new caravan.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

The revolution will be supervised.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Mid Day Open Thread with a little housekeeping.

Mid Day Open Thread with a little housekeeping.

by | 85 Comments

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Not much going on around here.  It’s Oklahoma, after all.  99 degrees in OKC with a heat index of 107.  There’s not much going on because nobody particularly wants to die of dehydration.

In my last post, I referenced the FOIA reading room where the Army is posting the unclassified documents pertaining to the court martial of Bradley Manning, which is presently in its penalty phase.  That reading room can be found here.  Additionally, I referenced but did not have a link for the trial transcript service being provided by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.  They have hired a couple of court reporters who are taking stenography of the trial and releasing their unofficial transcripts on a daily or near daily basis.  Those transcripts may be found here.

Reader Interactions

85Comments

  2. 2.

    Redshirt

    Up here in the mountains of Maine, it’s 66 degrees for a high, and tonight is dropping down to the low 40’s. Where’s my global warming?! It’s so chilly out!

  3. 3.

    shell

    As Charlie Pierce calls him, ‘Obvious anagram Reince Priebus’ get’s tough.

    Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus on Monday called on both NBC and CNN to drop their planned film productions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or face losing their partnerships with the RNC for 2016 presidential primary debates.
    ***********

    You mean we’d be spared Santorum’s goofball face on our TV? Oh, please.

  6. 6.

    Redshirt

    @shell: Nixon perfected this technique – attack the media (the refs), pre-emptively, if necessary. And man does it work in their favor. For all the nonsense and ignorance and outright stupidity they display, they’re really good about gaming the media.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Has everyone seen today’s dispatch from the One Percent and their delusions of persecution? A recent college graduate is starting his own hedge fund, and he’s offering to job-create for some of his frat-bros:

    After a series of summer internships, however, I have somehow found myself without a full-time job offer for the upcoming year. F***n’ Obama’s fault for strangling this economy.
    Luckily, due to the tough job market, my dad has agreed to let me access my trust fund early (mid 7-figures) to start a relatively small hedge fund, ___ […]
    With my financial expertise, help from my powerful father and connections, and a skilled team, I have no doubt that this fund will rise quickly to prominence. We’ll all get filthy rich and, inevitably, bag hot slampieces.

    “slampieces”, for my fellow un-unenlightened olds, means women.

    Young Master Josh/Ryan/Tagg, in spite of his awesome expertise, internships and daddy’s power and mad connections, can’t get a job, and that’s Obama’s fault. I can’t imagine his stellar personality and character don’t shine through in interviews. This kid hasn’t been outed yet, I can’t imagine that will last. I’d love to see how his trust fund has done since Fuckin’ Obama started strangling the economy when the DJIA was at about 8,000.

  10. 10.

    JoyceH

    My puppy just hauled a little turtle out from under the porch. I need to figure out how to block her under-porch access without also blocking the turtles. Think there might be a nest under there or something.

  11. 11.

    Hal

    Upstate NY is freakishly cool. It’s been mid to high seventies during the day to high fifties low sixties at night. All with no humidity, which I love. Hate humidity and hot weather. I think I’m the only person looking forward to fall and winter. Maybe I have the reverse of seasonal effective disorder.

  12. 12.

    piratedan

    @Redshirt: heck, all they have to do to guarantee non-coverage is to have a series of appearances discussing fiscal and economic policy and the media will stay away in droves, just ask President Obama…. oh wait a minute…..

  17. 17.

    maya

    Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus.

    Now there’s a name that just drips off the….. oh, never mind.

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’d not considered myself part of the tinfoil-hat crowd, but with all the news coverage about impending terrorist activity this weekend, I certainly can’t help thinking – isn’t it just so damn *convenient* that this threat, obtained through communication intercepts, natch, was revealed not days after the House came within seven votes of passing a bill curtailing at least somewhat) the NSA?

  21. 21.

    piratedan

    @Gin & Tonic: granted, certainly after the abuses from the previous administration, but from what I’ve seen with the track record of the current administration, they really don’t appear to operate that way. Even their missteps, they’ve taken pains to come clean and fix the problem rather than bury the turd in the sand.

  22. 22.

    Belafon

    @Gin & Tonic: Wouldn’t it be more convenient if:
    1. It came out right after Snowden started leaking information, to bolster the argument that yeah, the government is spying, but it’s needed for this reason?
    2. It came out before the vote?

    I’m just having trouble seeing how it’s convenient at this time. Unlike the Bush’s, who somehow magically had to raise terror levels right before a vote/election.

  23. 23.

    JGabriel

    This is getting to be a pattern: The Times or the Post writes an article telling us the NSA is not as bad as we think — with an article showing that, just for instance, the NSA doesn’t share data with other agencies for domestic stuff, like drug crimes:

    Agencies working to curb drug trafficking, cyberattacks, money laundering, counterfeiting and even copyright infringement complain that their attempts to exploit the security agency’s vast resources have often been turned down because their own investigations are not considered a high enough priority, current and former government officials say.

    And the next day someone else, this time it’s Reuters, comes along and tells us, “Nope, the NSA is sharing info with the DEA“:

    The unit of the DEA that distributes the information is called the Special Operations Division, or SOD. Two dozen partner agencies comprise the unit, including the FBI, CIA, NSA, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security. …

    One current federal prosecutor learned how agents were using SOD tips after a drug agent misled him, the prosecutor told Reuters. In a Florida drug case he was handling, the prosecutor said, a DEA agent told him the investigation of a U.S. citizen began with a tip from an informant. When the prosecutor pressed for more information, he said, a DEA supervisor intervened and revealed that the tip had actually come through the SOD and from an NSA intercept.

    .

  24. 24.

    Soonergrunt

    @Gin & Tonic: I knew somebody would pull a Noonan at some point. Peggy Dolphin-lady “would it be wrong to ask? It would be wrong to not ask…”
    That should be asked, but so too should it be remembered that bad people do in fact do bad things, and occasionally they talk about those bad things.
    Just like how the fire departments in Moore and South OKC had to respond to fires the week of the big F-5 tornadoes and one of them responded to the dumbest interview question of all time “Doesn’t responding to these fires degrade your ability to do disaster relief?” with “well, you know that fires still happen, and that we are the Fire Department, so we kind of have to respond to those.”

  27. 27.

    max

    @Gin & Tonic: I’d not considered myself part of the tinfoil-hat crowd, but with all the news coverage about impending terrorist activity this weekend, I certainly can’t help thinking – isn’t it just so damn *convenient* that this threat, obtained through communication intercepts, natch, was revealed not days after the House came within seven votes of passing a bill curtailing at least somewhat) the NSA?

    Isn’t it? Especially since September 11th is the terrorist holiday. On the other hand, it’s almost like the terrorists are trying to spoof somebody into running around like an idiot. (It’s a contest of fraud between the terrorists and the intelligence agencies.

    And let’s not forget:

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin – not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

    (I believe this is known as ‘damaging our intelligence collection efforts’ since anyone finding out about it would ask for the charges to be thrown out.)

    My spam is more fun though:

    This email is to notify you about the release of your outstanding payment which is truly $15.500.000.00 USD. The New Prime Minister ( UK) scheduled a time frame to settle all foreign debts which includes Contract/Inheritance/ Gambling/ Lottery(Sponsored by Microsoft and National Lottery) and other international loans.News had it that over the past,numerous individual (s) who happen to be impostors (claiming to be individuals, banks and organizations) are claiming to release numerous sums of fund via numerous ways. With the help of the (OFAC)U.S Treasury Department’s and with the FBI we have noticed that people have being asked to pay outrageous amount of money by these impostors for the transfer of their funds to them. We want you to stop all communication that has to do with these fraudsters who have been requesting unreasonable sums of money from you to release your funds which they do not have access to.

    Very bottom of email:

    Disclaimer: This e-mail message including any attachment may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. If you have erroneously received this message, you are notified that you are strictly prohibited from using, copying, altering or disclosing the content of this message. Please delete it immediately and notify the sender. Dharampal Satyapal Ltd. or its group companies (DS Group) accept no responsibility for loss or damage arising from the use of the information transmitted by this email including damage from virus and further acknowledges that any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and no binding nature of the message shall be implied or assumed, unless the sender does so expressly with due authority of DS Group, as applicable.

    Yes, if you send me a fraudy email purporting to be from the Treasury Dept., well, you have a disclaimer!

    max
    [‘And the scolds complain about what normal people get up to in cyberspace.’]

  28. 28.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Belafon: Snowden leaks are as “ripe” now as they were a month ago. And I think Obama’s team didn’t think the House vote would be as close as it was. Two-three weeks ago it was something they could safely ignore. With the squeaker it turned out to be, the picture changed. We often see how winning a vote isn’t enough – winning by an unsatisfactory margin can send potent signals as well (see what’s happening in Cambodia, for example.)

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Soonergrunt: It would, certainly, be irresponsible not to speculate. Surely you are aware of that.

    Tell me why the scenario I’m speculating about is impossible.

  30. 30.

    Suzanne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just hope and dream and wish on a star that this douchecanoe contracts some REALLY embarrassing STD from one of his “slampieces”. Maybe permanent scars, too.

    If there’s a just and fair God….

  31. 31.

    Belafon

    @Gin & Tonic: I have to disagree about Snowden. “Snowden releases another set of documents showing…” is not the same as “Tonight, Eric Snowden gives us access to the inner workings of the NSA.” If you’ve already told me the government’s watching me have sex from a camera in the ceiling light, telling me there’s a camera in my alarm clock doesn’t really change much.

    As for the House, I really doubt there will be another vote for a while. Probably not until another 40 Obamacare repeal votes occur.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @shell:
    I think the main thing going on here is the RNC PR BS has decided that the primary debates hurt the Republican candidates last time around, so he’s looking for an excuse to have fewer of them and to keep the ones they have from getting such broad distribution. If he can blame it on the liberals, so much the better.

  34. 34.

    Soonergrunt

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s not impossible. I did not say that it was. There’s an easier way of addressing this. Coincidence does not equal causality.

  36. 36.

    Anoniminous

    @Amir Khalid:

    And:

    “The electrical current of the return stroke averages 30 kiloamperes for a typical negative CG flash, often referred to as “negative CG” lightning. In some cases, a positive ground to cloud (GC) lightning flash may originate from a positively charged region on the ground below a storm.”

    Which is a massive improvement over previous means of powering the servers.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    Completely unrelated to any topic above (but hey, it’s an open thread) — have any of you ever made your own [fill in the blank] fried rice? I never had until this weekend, when I was looking for something to make that was a) easy, and b) used only ingredients I already had on hand. It was 20 times better than any takeout I’ve ever had.

  39. 39.

    Anoniminous

    @Betty Cracker:

    We regularly roast our own coffee, make our own ice cream, stir fry our own rice, bake our own bread, & etc. Practically anything made at home has superior ingredients, superior taste, and is cheaper than “store bought.” In 25 years the only failure was Herself (the associated Female Biological Unit’s) attempt at making chocolate chip cookies. She put in the sugar, butter, spices, and chocolate chips … and forgot the flour. “Failure” is stretching it since they were REALLY GOOD chocolate chip cookies, albeit with a tendency to melt in and all over one’s hand.

  41. 41.

    different-church-lady

    I went to that FOIA site and all I saw was my own damn MS Word documents!

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    @JGabriel:
    The two pieces you’re quoting don’t actually contradict each other. One has the other agencies bitching because the NSA doesn’t give them everything they want. The other one says they do get something.

    Also, FWIW, it’s at least theoretically possible that the NSA may pass along tips about US citizens even if it isn’t monitoring them. For example, it might be monitoring foreigners, hear them discussing their contacts with a US citizen, and pass that information along to a domestic law enforcement agency to do with as they see fit. AFAIK, that would be legal and above board. Of course, we can’t know if that’s what they’re doing or if they’re doing something illegal because we don’t have enough information about their activities.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:

    My dad used to make us homemade fried rice, and it was delish. He’d monitor our stock of leftover steak or chicken, and leftover white rice, then carefully cut up scallions and other veggies and make us a feast.

    He also made great grilled leg of lamb.

    Have had neither since he passed away, and miss him and his specialties.

  45. 45.

    DocSardonic

    @Betty Cracker:

    Why yes I have…One trick I learned from the owner of my favorite Thai place is that leftover rice works best. Also too, it makes a great thing to build with other leftovers especially shrimp and chicken. One of my favorites is Creole shrimp fried rice.

  47. 47.

    DocSardonic

    @raven:

    Don’t understand the physics, but since I started using the cold rice it turns out much better than before when I used freshly cooked rice.

    ETA: May have something to do with the starches?

  48. 48.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker:

    have any of you ever made your own [fill in the blank] fried rice?

    I have, and it was catastrophic. Tried the damn recipe twice, was a pain in the ass, gave me heartburn both times, and the second time hot oil hit my hand while I was pouring something into the pan and I involuntarily flung the measuring cup across the room (plastic, thankfully…).

    Perhaps I just had a lousy recipe. Care to share yours?

  49. 49.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Anoniminous: In re chocolate chip cookies – I recall reading a long time ago that the standard recipe (the one you find on the bag of chocolate chips) improves *very significantly* if you mix the dough and let it sit for 36 hours before baking. Of course nobody ever does this, because you want the cookies *now*, but I’ve had occasion to try this theory, and they really are a lot better for it. But I do include flour.

  50. 50.

    Linda Featheringill

    Probably related to “get off of my lawn”;

    What happened to nail polish? I was looking for some to make markings on the stove more obvious to those of us what aren’t what we used to be, but they’ve gotten very expensive! We had to troll through the whole drug store to find a brand that was reasonably priced. Geez!

  51. 51.

    raven

    @DocSardonic:

    This is obvious, of course. You need to start with boiled or steamed white rice. Ah, but you can’t make fried rice with freshly cooked rice. The best rice to use is leftover rice that’s been lying in the fridge for at least a day. This will turn the grains firm and get rid of the excess moisture. They will also be much easier to separate. If you cook with freshly-made rice, all you will get is “fried mush” instead of fried rice. If you can’t wait a day, at least let the rice cool for a few hours in an airy spot.

    eta, this, obviously, is a quote. I didn’t say obviously. Obviously.

  54. 54.

    different-church-lady

    @Amir Khalid: The thing that worries me about cloud computing is that when the cloud gets saturated your data just falls out of the thing.

  55. 55.

    DocSardonic

    @different-church-lady:

    Hot Wok or other similar pan. Add about 2 TBS(Not the TV network) oil, using one with a high smoke point works best, not EVOO. Add sliced scallions garlic and protein of your choice, stir fry till about half cooked, add rice, Tamari. little fish sauce, red pepper flakes to your taste, or sweet chili sauce.

  56. 56.

    Ted & Hellen

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’d not considered myself part of the tinfoil-hat crowd, but with all the news coverage about impending terrorist activity this weekend, I certainly can’t help thinking – isn’t it just so damn *convenient* that this threat, obtained through communication intercepts, natch, was revealed not days after the House came within seven votes of passing a bill curtailing at least somewhat) the NSA?

    BINGO.

    But I don’t think you can say that here.

    I’ve been waiting for the White House to tell me what color code the level of my fear should should correspond to.

  57. 57.

    Ted & Hellen

    @piratedan:

    Even their missteps, they’ve taken pains to come clean and fix the problem rather than bury the turd in the sand.

    lol

  58. 58.

    different-church-lady

    @Ted & Hellen:

    I’ve been waiting for the White House to tell me what color code the level of my fear should should correspond to.

    Silly rabbit — they did away with the Muppet Warning System a while back.

  59. 59.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    My GF in grad school taught me to make fried rice, nice and spicy. Quite easy to make, just have to find the chicken in the freezer.

  61. 61.

    Anoniminous

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Thanks. Good tip. Have to exercise some foresight and patience and give it a whirl.

    When making bread we* try to do it before running-out time so we* can form the mix the goodies, give it a rough kneading, form into a ball, and place in a metal bowl, lightly covered with oil, under plastic wrap, placed overnight in the ‘fridge to develop. The next day another rough kneading, forming, and rest/rise really brings-out the flavors and texture.

    ————————————————————————————————————————————————

    * The generic “we.” Meaning “The associated Female Biological Unit.” My bread is usable in the building trades but not so good for anything else.

  64. 64.

    Anoniminous

    Anybody know the secret to cooking beans at high altitude? The cookbooks suggest pressure cooking. While we have and do pressure cook since The Spaghetti Sauce Incident we’re leery of anything requiring unmonitored, long term, pressuring.

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    @different-church-lady: I used Martha Stewart’s recipe as my baseline and customized it according to what I had on hand (e.g., I had leftover pork chops, so I used that instead of ground pork, etc.). It was damn tasty, and I don’t think there was enough oil to accidentally splash yourself unless you turned the pan over or something…

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @Anoniminous:

    Practically anything made at home has superior ingredients, superior taste, and is cheaper than “store bought.”

    This. It’s amazing how many times I’ve thought that it isn’t worth making something myself because the store bought kind is fine, only to discover that homemade is even better. The other big thing I’ve discovered is that a lot those things are way easier to make than you’re led to believe, especially if you have good quality (not necessarily super expensive) basic kitchen appliances.

  69. 69.

    raven

    @Anoniminous: I cook red bean and blackeye peas in one all the time. I use a newer Faygo and have never had a problem. If you let the pressure build up and then cut the heat back to med it should be fine.

  70. 70.

    The Other Chuck

    @Anoniminous:

    Anybody know the secret to cooking beans at high altitude?

    How high are we talking about? I never had a problem cooking beans in Colorado Springs. Just soak overnight, drain, rinse, add fresh water, cover, and simmer. I don’t even bother bringing it to a boil first. Cooked black beans galore that way.

    Now if you’re 10,000 feet up or so then maybe it’s a little trickier.

  72. 72.

    Roger Moore

    @DocSardonic:

    Don’t understand the physics, but since I started using the cold rice it turns out much better than before when I used freshly cooked rice.

    ETA: May have something to do with the starches?

    It does have something to do with the starch. When you cook starch with water, dissolves in the water and loses its structure. When it cools down, it comes back out of solution, but water is trapped with the starch, which keeps it from reforming the tightly packed structure it had before it was cooked. As it sits, it “retrogrades”, meaning it re-packs to give it more structure. That’s what makes bread go stale. Starch that has retrograded is stronger than freshly cooked starch, which is why stale bread is better for french toast and cold rice is better for fried rice. As long as you don’t freeze it, starch retrogrades faster the colder you get it, which is why you aren’t supposed to keep your bread in the refrigerator.

  73. 73.

    ranchandsyrup

    who wants a jerb?

    Looking for:
    Accountants (3) in Detroit/Ann Arbor area
    Help desk support in Detroit/Ann Arbor
    Paralegals (2) in Orange County, CA
    Operations analyst and a research analyst in Orange County
    An experienced account manager for a territory on the East Coast (work from home).

    my nym at teh G mails

  74. 74.

    Trollhattan

    Wish to note that summer has officially begun. Despite the 110-degree 4th of July and various other heatwaves, persistent smoke from countless wildfires, only yesterday did the limes on our tree become sufficiently juicy for a gin and tonic.

    Thought y’all’d like to know.

  75. 75.

    Anoniminous

    @raven:

    Thanks for the timely pointer.

    Our pressure cooker is a Prego from the 1950s, bought at a Goodwill for a buck (yes, we are cheap) in the mid-80s and built like a battleship. We’ve used it at least once a month since but Prego has decided to stop making seals and we’re going to have to find a good replacement. (The modern Pregos are shyte.)

    @The Other Chuck:

    6,500 feet.

    We can cook anastazi beans with no problem. Ditto lentils. Black beans are do-able. Split peas eventually succumb. Kidney and navy beans are impossible. I’ve got a couple of pots of the things boiling away for 3 hours, after soaking for ~52 hours, and the things are refusing to soften.

    As an experiment I just put a teaspoon of baking soda in one pot to see if the problem is the water.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @Anoniminous:
    A very useful trick is to use only a tiny amount of yeast, like 1/4 teaspoon, and do the extended rise at room temperature rather than in the fridge. It gives the same kind of long-rising flavor and eliminates most of the harsh taste you can get from packaged yeast.

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @Anoniminous:

    6,500 feet.

    That shouldn’t be a problem. Beans will cook fine at ~90°C, which is the boiling point of water at 10,000 feet. You may have to actually boil them rather than simmering them, but I think your idea about the water may be worth looking into.

  82. 82.

    Anoniminous

    @Roger Moore:

    We use one pound blocks of commercial yeast bought from a restaurant supply store. I can’t remember the exact cost but it’s cheaper and better than Fleischmann’s. Almost always our bread is 1/2 to 2/3 freshly ground grains with a local flour mill’s product to make up the difference. Fresh ground ensures the oil hasn’t gone rancid — which it will after 3 days. After a light kneading (most home made bread is way over-kneaded) we let it sit at room temperature until bedtime. We ‘over-night’ it in the ‘fridge mostly to develop flavor. In the AM part of the routine is to take it out and let the dough come up to room temps before final light handling, forming, and baking.

    Sometimes being lazy is great..

  83. 83.

    Anoniminous

    @Anoniminous:

    Baking Soda!

    The beans in the pot with the baking soda are noticeably softer even after only 30 minutes than those in the controls.

    Thus my question should have been, “does anybody know how to cook beans with over alkalined water?”

    But that’s Science. Sometimes one has to seemingly fail in order make these breakthroughs.

  85. 85.

    DocSardonic

    @Roger Moore

    Well dip me in kimchi and call me bulgogi.. Thank You for the explanation, not only does that make sense, but I have now accomplished learning something new today.

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