Good news for everyone who takes photographs with a telephone: you can now listen to NPR on your lamp!
cc: @AthertonKD, who never RTs me pic.twitter.com/JpveDJlSX4
— AKSARBENT blog (@aksarbent) March 9, 2017
… and hopefully most of the GOP liars will take the weekend off, even if the President-Asterisk down in his Mar-A-Largo dacha gets his tiny little hands on the Twitter-enabled phone again…
What’s on the agenda as we (try to) wrap up the week?
Halperin and Heilemann writing third "Game Change" book on 2016 election and HBO producing a mini-series based on it.
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) March 9, 2017
Stylized recreation of the minute before a car crash, narrated by passenger in the car that hit you, playing while you bleed on the pavement https://t.co/AsLHqxRWLh
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) March 9, 2017
Heilemann does the writing, of course. It is all that can be done to stop Halperin from looking like a fainting matron.
— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) March 9, 2017
I'm really not sure HBO should be doing this guy's version of the election. pic.twitter.com/UIIuwaKMvM
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 10, 2017
Baud
And NPR can listen to you!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
SFAW
I was considering referring to Halperin as Riefenstahl, but
A) That name is already taken
B) Riefenstahl actually had talent/ability
SFAW
@Baud:
“In USA, …”
Is like Yakov Smirnoff routine, appropriately repurposed for this Maladministration
Baud
I will not be watching or reading anything about the 2016 election. America has proven its inability to deal with Hillary Clinton fairly.
OzarkHillbilly
The daffodils are in full bloom, so are the peaches, and the cherries are almost there too. So naturally it is going to snow tonight and tomorrow with lows of 20 Sat night.
kindness
Oh great! Now the CIA can listen to us through our lightbulbs.
OzarkHillbilly
Also too, I missed you yesterday morning, Anne.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yep. Same here, plus tulip magnolias. It will be very saddening if this cold weather and snow showers hurts those trees’ blossoming. It’s one of the highlights of spring around here.
Yesterday I had three close calls driving to work and home. I think I get distracted by news and my Trump rage. I have got to cut back on the news consumption.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Seems to be warmer than that where Quinerly is.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Agreed.
danielx
@rikyrah:
Good morning to you!
Mustang Bobby
Full employment for Alec Baldwin.
Good morning, everyone.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Good morning, rikyrah! (And Baud, and Ozark, and SFAW, and Anne Laurie….)
(ETA: And everyone else who showed up after I wrote/posted my greetings.)
p.a.
Where is Halperin’s right arm in that photo?
XTPD
@SFAW: I just refer to him as Fucking Idiot.
danielx
The Internet of Things? I don’t think so, not in my abode….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Still bitter about your loss?
Sab
@p.a.: Speculation about that will pretty much ruin my morning.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: You’re up early.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nope. But I am still bitter about Trump’s win.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
We all are.
Baud
Google Assistant just rolled out to my phone. I knew it was coming but I’d imagine it would be scary for someone who didn’t.
danielx
Do these guys seriously think anybody wants to rehash the 2016 campaign?
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: Do the peach blossoms stand a chance or do you think you will lose the peaches this year?
Baud
@danielx: The right would.
WereBear
For me, with this month’s crazy schedule, it is TGIS. At least I have a couple of extra days off sprinkled through it.
Snowstorm yesterday. Not nearly shorts weather yet.
liberal
Best thing on IoT is the Twitter account internetofshit.
danielx
I must tell you all there is evidence that the passage of the American Health Care Act, or whatever the hell they are calling it now, is almost certain.
Bill Kristol predicts demise for the GOP health-care bill
Also too, Paul Ryan’s grip on the whole insurance concept is exceedingly tenuous. I mean, pooled risk is kind of the idea, amirite?
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: what SiubhanDuinne says: good morning all! I was so verklempt after the Walter thread yesterday I slept late after reading it again last night.
@OzarkHillbilly: I have some daffs fully blooming, but most of mine are later ones (thanks Watergirl!) and are just coming up. But if the fruit tree blossoms are damaged by frost no Missouri fruit for the market and that stinks. Happening more often I think these crazy weather days.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Me too ?
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Truth
Mike in DC
In my version of the movie, Halperin is on Morning Joe sitting next to Michael Ironside’s character. Cronenberg to direct.
Baud
@satby: I couldn’t deal.
danielx
@Aleta:
We are about to lose all the hyacinths, all the tulips, all the daffodils, all the wisteria blossoms…..le sigh.
Lapassionara
Good morning, everyone. I woke this morning and realized that we move to daylight savings time this weekend. SU out of town, and I am a dolt at clock changing. Spring forward, right?
raven
I wonder what they are going to do at the Masters? Our azalea’s are nearly done blooming now.
bemused
The McMansion Hell site linked to in a previous thread is quite interesting. I’ve always been mystified why anyone would want to live in a gazillion sq foot monster house. Even if I was a multi-billionaire, I would want to live in a dwelling that feels like a home, warm, cozy and inviting.
Then filthy rich Betsy DeVos popped into my head. She and her husband had a tax issue dispute several years ago over whether their 22,000 sq ft lakeside home with over 6,000 sq ft guest “cottage” was their primary residence for tax purposes. What does anyone even do with that amount of sq footage?
MattF
A lightbulb with a speaker (paired to radio, I suppose, through a smartphone app) is a phenomenally dumb idea, just in and of itself.
satby
@Baud: I notice I deal well less and less these days. If I had gotten to it before it hit 300 comments, I would have joined the Self-Pity thread. Seems a lot of us are in the same boat, maybe a mass PTSD following a horrific November.
Lapassionara
@raven: I read that one year the Masters people put ice bags around the roots of the azaleas, to slow down the blooming process. But this year has been even warmer earlier
raven
I’m glad we got to go last year!
This year, it’s the azaleas making headlines. More than the pines, the forsythia, the magnolias or the wisteria, it’s the white, pink, dark pink, purple, fuchsia and red blooms of the azaleas, set against the emerald fairways and greens, that provide the background optics that make Augusta National one of the most beautiful venues in any sport anywhere in the world.
Typically, the azaleas are in full bloom during the Masters. This year, though, they were coming into full bloom in the Augusta area a month before the April 6-9 tournament. That may cause local folks, TV execs and course officials to say some prayers for the flowers to hold their blooms, at least until the winner dons the Green Jacket.
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta: 20 degrees is sure to freeze everything, but it doesn’t really matter when it comes to fruit off my trees. I never get any anyway.
satby
@bemused: They show off.
donnah
Did anyone else see Halperin and Heilemann on Colbert the other night? They were promoting their book and the show, and Halperin repeated a statement he made that Trump’s election was a cataclysmic event that rivaled 911 (without the deaths) and that the country was in dire shape. They both played the Outraged Liberal roles pretty convincingly.
MrSnrub
I just spent Monday-Thursday at the home office, and in the back of my head, Thursday was the end of the week, since that meant I could go home. The realization that I had to work on Friday was a bit jarring.
MomSense
@p.a.:
Ha!!
satby
@danielx: if it’s not going to be a hard freeze you can try covering them. Bulbs are tough.
MrSnrub
@MattF: The other weekend we saw a shower head with a blue tooth speaker in it (removable for recharging).
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused:
Hire cleaning help.
JPL
@raven: Play golf, blooms or no blooms!
SFAW
@XTPD:
“Now who can argue with THAT?”
El Tiburon
Greenwald is a dick.
Inside The Investigation To Get To The Bottom Of Russia’s Role In The Election
Aleta
@danielx: Not the wisteria!
Can you gently lay a bed sheet over some of them for the night?
It was 50 degrees at midday a few days ago. 16 now (will warm up). Forecast of 2 degrees for tonight and 0 tomorrow night.
danielx
Every time I think some GOP congressman has plumbed the depths of stupidity to the Challenger Deep, I get surprised yet again.
‘Is that not correct?’: Male GOP lawmaker asks why men should pay for prenatal coverage
Why indeed? And why should women pay for treatment erectile dysfunction? Or testicular cancer, or prostate cancer, or…
Words. Fail.
Mustang Bobby
Speaking of stupid pundits, yesterday Chris Cillizza revealed to a candid world that he had never heard the Jimmy Carter / Killer Rabbit episode until just recently. Seriously. I know it took place in 1979, but it’s been a part of presidential lore — and used very effectively by the Reagan ratfvkers in the 1980 campaign. I don’t know why he keeps that job.
Hal
This is like making a movie about 911 a month after it happened.
danielx
@Aleta:
Hyacinths maybe…no hope for wisteria, and denizens of the rabbit condo under my deck usually scarf up the tulips and daffodils anyway so they are no great loss.
raven
A woman’s random act of kindness caught on camera is touching hearts around the world
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Aleta: Forecast in Beautiful Downtown Glendale is 90 on Sunday and 92 on Monday(ducks).
OzarkHillbilly
@El Tiburon:
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
@Mustang Bobby: Correction: yesterday Chris Cillizza revealed to a candid world that he had never had a fully functional brain.
satby
@danielx: I put that clip on TH and my reliably conservative female friend came right back with how he’d expect Viagra to be covered. So that won’t play even with conservative women.
Peale
@danielx: he does know how babies get made. Well, maybe not. someone should tell him that for the most part, they don’t spontaneously appear.
Baud
@El Tiburon:
What a weaselly sentence.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Yeah. For a change, i was asleep by 1:00 a.m. and slept straight through until 6:15.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@danielx: In most cases men have something to do with the need for women to need pre-natal coverage.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s nuts. Everything has budded, including the trees. If all this really cold weather materializes here in central Misery, those buds will die.
The “good” news from that standpoint is when the Baltimore Orioles (migratory song birds, not the baseball team) show up in late April, they’ll be forced to “come down” to the feeders. They normally stick to the tree tops but that last time this happened, our feeders couldn’t keep up.
Life is good when you can sit on your porch and watch male orioles bicker around a feeder.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I put a new fan in the window here, it’s working much better and looks nicer than the old one.
danielx
@Peale:
Possible, but I wouldn’t make book on it. He may be under the impression they are home-delivered by storks.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: My Lord. I need at least 10 hours of sleep just to get to groggy.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@raven:
We went the year before, Wed practice round and Par 3 tourney. Had a fantastic time. Wonderful place. I need to figure out how to become a gallery guard in my retirement.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: And here I thought I was going to get a video of an 87 year old woman beating Paul Ryan about the head with an umbrella.
Aleta
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Swimming pools, moovie stars
Baud
@danielx:
I’m still wondering why I’m paying for other people’s kids through my taxes and the cost of delay whenever I’m behind a school bus.
Kay
@El Tiburon:
You’re moving the goalposts. No one said there would be evidence of Trump/Russia collusion.
This was the question:
It was directed at Democrats, hence “manipulating” not just “disrupting”. Not just the universally hated and reviled Hillary Clinton, either. It was directed at House races.
So why did the Russian government want to disrupt a US election, specifically DEMOCRATS ? Greenwald keeps skipping over this question and it’s the big question. He says “the US has interfered in elections in other countries” as if that’s an answer but it’s not. It really doesn’t matter as to the question of why the Russian government targeted Democrats in a US election. We can ask that even if the US interfered in elections in other countries. It’s permitted.
Why did the Russian government want Donald Trump and House Republicans to win elections? Voters should know that, right? If you’re a fan of transparency?
donnah
@Peale:
Good Christians don’t have sex…it’s all Immaculate Conception.
raven
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Same here 1st day no par-3), I’ve been in the lottery for over 20 years and finally hit. I almost made enough dough on the 2 extras to pay for all the stuff we bought at the clubhouse. . . almost!
Here’s my shot of Amen Corner.
Baud
@Kay: The goalposts have been mounted on a flat bed truck that is cruising down the highway.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: So true. I especially wouldn’t be reading or watching anything by Mark “How hard can I kiss your butt, Mr. Trump” Halperin. Game Change was an excellent expose of Palin’s dizziness but Halperin’s adoration of Trump would mar anything he produces.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Aleta: We could see that house from our dorm, and you know that St. Ronald of Reagan lived right behind it.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I was thinking about this, the bad polls for Hillary. It’s like the way children blame Mom for everything bad that happens. The country is being destroyed, so it’s all her fault. Not our fault for not supporting her and voting for her and for saying “e-mails” every time her name comes up (the way my friends in an almost parodically liberal university all did all last fall).
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Yep. While Hillary voters are better than non-Hillary voters, the rot still runs deep even on our side.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: I’m sure answers are on those deleted emails on Hillary’s email server.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s a dumb piece and it has political fingerprints all over it. The only way this investigation will succeed is if it not only ties Donald Trump directly to Russian interference but finds an “impeachable offense”.
This is the Donald Trump defense argument. They’re rolling it out.
In a way it doesn’t matter. If they fuck it all and then spin it to death the Russian government will interfere again in a US election and probably soon, since we have elections every two years. At some point someone will ask why they are doing this.
Aleta
A mailer ad came yesterday, convenience store opening, great deals.
Buy One, Get One! (Picture of one whoopie pie)
Somehow it sounded like Republicans.
Patricia Kayden
@donnah:
In what possible way is Halperin a liberal? Must be in the mold of Glenn Greenwald inasmuch as they focus all their anger and ire on Democrats and leave Republicans completely unscathed. Having wasted time watching Halperin on MSNBC prior to the election, there was no doubt that he was hoping for a Trump victory.
OzarkHillbilly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The orioles are hit and miss on my ridge top homestead. Some years they show up here for a few days but most years they stay down in the bottoms. But damn, it is special when they pay us a visit.
My favorite transients are the rose breasted grosbeaks. Last year we had 3 pairs and they stuck around for 3 weeks, I think. One year I had a blue grosbeak show up. I was like, “Wait a minute, that is no indigo bunting!”
Baud
@Kay: You saw the excerpt I copied upthread? I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting bullshit journalism. The NYT trained me well.
WereBear
@bemused: Walk around in it, rubbing your hands together, and laughing like this: Bwahahahaha.
But I have met people like that in such homes, and they actually don’t enjoy them as much as you would think, because someone else’s is bigger and more expensively decorated.
Kay
@Baud:
But if she had just campaigned more in Wisconsin! Like Senator Russ Feingold!
I was told “data journalism” would replace these pundits and yet there are more of them every year. THAT was a big flop, I must say :)
Kay
@Baud:
I recognize this because it’s part of my job. “Unless you PROVE he was not only THERE but IN THAT CAR, with the CANDLESTICK….I think you should dismiss everything” :)
Say that last part really fast.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Transparency is for little people Kay.
Baud
@Kay: “This court is out of order!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: You mean the Halperin that called President Obama a dick on live TV, that Halperin?
Baud
@Kay: These people exist because people want to be lied to. The world is changing rapidly and people want to be told they are right and righteous and special and everything bad is someone else’s fault.
danielx
There’s an old Little Feat tune called Wake Up Dreaming….I think I am going to rewrite the lyrics and call the new version Wake Up Sneezing, which is what I did at 4:30 am. Not the way I would have chosen to start the day….
Aleta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I wonder if he called Granny a welfare queen to her face.
El Tiburon
@Baud:
Well, it equals all the ‘weasally’ sentences that have tried to definitively prove some Watergate-type collusion between Trump and the Russians.
The point all along is if the accusations of collusion is put out on the table for dinner by the Democrats, and that dinner is a pile of dogshit, then Trump wins. Trump has immunity pretty much from all future accusations of wrong-doing.
Before I’m accused of being a Trumpster – I hope like hell his ass is nailed to the wall and there’s enough to send him to prison. It’s just sad to see those of us on the left acting like deranged lunatics like the dbags on the right before we have all the evidence.
El Tiburon
@Kay:
Perhaps it started this way. But the question has morphed into how deep is Trump and his team in with the Russians. You have not been paying attention or you are willfully distorting what is happening.
Baud
@El Tiburon:
Yes professional journalists should be equated with blog commenters.
You know what actual Democratic officials are asking for. An independent prosecutor so we can have the investigation you say you want. You know who is saying no to that — an administration whose top officials have been caught red handed lying about their prior contact with Russians. The good guys are clear here. And Greenwald isn’t among them.
Quinerly
@SFAW:
I’m in a cozy cabin with a snuggly Poco in Escalante, Utah. Much warmer here than I thought it would be. Basically the Grand Canyon a few weeks back was the coldest I’ve been. Glad I met those Canadians that day with the red wine in the van. I had one of those heating elements that you stick in the lighter. We had a parking lot version of mulled wine. Did the trick!
danielx
@WereBear:
Same here, and quite true. Never being satisfied because there’s always somebody else with more…is part and parcel of the whole ‘being a rich asshole’ gig, I think.
gvg
@danielx: And why would married fathers to be not want their offsprings costs covered? I mean, they will be glad to pay out of pocket thousands of dollars for a routine pregnancy, and insurance isn’t really one of the important reasons they work, right? How can anyone be this stupid?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@OzarkHillbilly:
Living here 20+ years has taught me how uber-specialized bird habitat can be. We live alongside the Osage River so we’re prime oriole territory. Go one mile “inland”, ie out the holler, away from the river and up on what passes for a ridge here and you’ll never see orioles…but you will see grosbeaks as you describe. We might see one or two per season but get away from the river and into territory like you describe and it’s “their neighborhood”. Again, just a couple of miles make a huge difference.
It’s been one of the real treasures living here among all these cracker-ass wingnuts most of whom never realize what’s going on in the natural world around them.
OGLiberal
@bemused: A friend from my hometown who was previously kind of apolitical but is now a Trumpster used to own a McMansion. All kinds of wasted or unused space. A closet in the master bedroom bigger than my master bedroom. Some nice features but mostly a waste. Had to sell for something more reasonable because he lost his job in the housing industry when everything blew up. He became a teacher and is now a school administrator (vice principal). Hates Christie (we’re in NJ), loves Trump. Go figure.
Taylor
@Kay: Howard Baker’s famous “What did the President know and when did he know it” was exactly this.
Baker was trying to give Nixon cover. No-one dreamed that Nixon was tapping the Oval Office, and then be stupid enough to go on the record planning the cover-up.
danielx
@gvg:
He’s a Republican congresscritter. This has been another edition of SATSQ.
amk
journalism – gop ass kissing grifting
oh, look the putative putin troll is here.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, sure, they got the money. Even so, I don’t get why anyone would want all that empty wasted space. All that money spent on vanity sq footage could fill a lot of food banks. I guess I just don’t have the billionaire mindset, thank goodness.
bemused
@satby:
Right. Show off to and one up on their billionaire crowd. Pathetic, empty lives.
El Tiburon
@Baud:
Greenwald is a bad guy for clearly articulating what so far is 100% factual: Zero evidence exists to date of any type of nefarious collusion between Trump and Trump associates and the Russians. And also no evidence exists of the Russians hacking DNC/Podesta e-mails.
He doesn’t say that THERE IS NO COLLUSION OR NO HACKING, just NO EVIDENCE exists yet. Do you not understand the difference here? I don’t blame you because nobody here understands the difference.
I will agree with you who the good guys are, but if we all follow the right-wing strategy of lynch ’em before the evidence becomes clear, then we are no better than them. Most folks here have decided that Trump is a Russian mole of some sort (and he may be) without seeing the evidence. I’m all for investigations and a special prosecutor and the whole 9-yards, but this doesn’t negate the fact that no evidence exists yet like many here claim it does, or that those who point it out are the Bad Guys.
Aleta
@Baud: Someone better step in and stop the investigation then, to save the country from the chaos of illegitimacy.
Kay
@El Tiburon:
Why can’t there be two questions? 1. Why did the Russian government manipulate an election in a way that exclusively harmed Democrats? 2. Was there Trump campaign involvement in that effort?
For transparency advocates you folks are very rigid. Don’t narrow the inquiry in an effort to dismiss the findings.
I’m actually more interested in the first question because I don’t think the 2016 election was a one-off. If they succeeded in manipulating one they’ll do it again, and soon. People who vote in House races should know this and unlike 2016 they should know it BEFORE they vote. Transparency advocates should be all for that.
danielx
@OGLiberal:
His love for Trump puts his common sense into question, but detestation of Christie on the part of NJ teachers and school administrators is totally understandable.
JMG
Light snow today, blizzard to come on Tuesday. Subfreezing temperatures all the while. March in New England is the worst of its 12 months. There’s more daylight in which to see the bad weather.
bemused
@danielx:
He’s got kids. I suppose he thinks his wife/kids deserved pre-natal care because he’s not taking taxpayer handouts, lolol.
satby
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I’m going to miss that part of living out in the country. Last year was the best one ever for Orioles at my feeders. My neighbors all had bird and hummingbird feeders, so they enjoyed the birds. But they killed every snake, every bat, and would try to kill every raccoon and cyote. Just because those creatures crossed their paths. I remember a couple being surprised that I put up a bat house and hearing they ate mosquitoes. A city mouse knew that, but the country mouse didn’t.
Kay
@El Tiburon:
What about the Congressional elections? Those are inconvenient – not easily explained away- so they’re often ignored but if this is some kind of “deep state” war against Trump why would they pitch in and assist the GOP in House races? That would just give Trump more power.
What is omitted with Greenwald is often as or more important than what he chooses to include.
Those congressional races stump everyone. They don’t fit the theories.
germy
@bemused:
There are certain people who hate being around humanity. So they move out to the exurbs (cities are crowded hellscapes in their opinion) and live in extra-big houses, so they can even avoid their own families. These people vote (R) more often than not.
Patricia Kayden
@p.a.: Do we really want to know?
satby
@germy: huh, I didn’t know you knew my neighbors!
(To be fair, I got along with them, but I can befriend a rock. Wait…)
Baud
@El Tiburon: I think the fact that GG is worried about what we think rather than getting to the bottom of what happened speaks volumes. We are defined by our choices.
satby
@Kay: @Kay:
Which is the reason most here don’t like GG or trust his take on anything.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Thank you for again noting the meddling in the House races. Kinda scary how quickly that disappeared down the memory hole.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Will be forever bitter and flummoxed about Trump’s election. It’s maddening and the consequences are already being felt with much worse to come. 2018 mid term election can’t come fast enough.
satby
@Baud: yep.
bemused
@OGLiberal:
Hmm, trump supporter? I suppose he blames home mortgage meltdown, his job loss and economic downturn on Dems?
OzarkHillbilly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I floated the Osage and the Niangua a few times a decade or 2 ago, Nice bass fishing. (I stay away from Lake of the Ozarks). I am more than a little jealous of you bottom land folks and your warblers. That flash of yellow in a riparian forest always grabs my eye. I have a Summer Tanager who returns to my land with his mate every year. He likes to perch on top of my shop roof in the pre-dawn hours and sing his heart out. Took me years but I finally spotted Mama Tanager last summer.
Kay
@El Tiburon:
I’m genuinely curious. There seems to be a Right wing nationalist movement that isn’t limited to Donald Trump or the US and they seem to be allied with the Russian government. They’re vehemently anti-immigrant and that interests me too- I wonder why that is. I’d like to know more about that. Now maybe all the intelligence agencies are corrupt and also Congress, I don’t know, but since they are all I have I would like them to investigate.
I want to know what they want. What do they want from the US politicians they assisted in the 2016 election? they want something.
Mike in DC
@El Tiburon:
I talked about the difference between direct or “conclusive” evidence and indirect or “circumstantial” evidence in a previous thread. Please stop asserting that there’s “no evidence” when it’s more accurate to say there’s no direct or conclusive evidence.
Most liberals and progressives are simply demanding a vigorous independent nonpartisan or bipartisan investigation, and let the chips fall where they may.
debit
@satby: I’m so envious of everyone who gets a wide variety of birds. Being right in the city I have the usual sparrows, chicadees, blue jays and cardinals. The most exotic bird I’ve seen is a downy woodpecker at the suet cakes. But I shouldn’t complain, as there’s almost always something out there for the cats to salivate over at the windows.
MomSense
@raven:
I must confess I’m not too worried about the Masters. I am really worried about the puffins here in Maine. Because the ocean is warmer in the Gulf of Maine, the fish that have been always been just the right size to feed to the puffin chicks are now too big by the time the puffins hatch. As a consequence there was a record die off of puffin chicks last year. They literally starved to death.
bemused
@germy:
Ha, ha. I’m not very fond of humanity either, not in the last few years and particularly after pres Fubar, I’ve made a point of avoiding people who likely to be his supporters. I live rural and can’t see the neighbors. I enjoy seeing friends, other people when out and bout but I don’t even remember the last time I was bored at home not seeing anyone but my husband for days or even weeks at a time. I have plenty of hobbies, books to read and chores to keep me occupied.
Once a friend got impatient with her friend who kept complaining how bored she was until the friend told her, “It must be the company you’re keeping”.
geg6
@Baud:
This.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: Having built a few of those monstrosities, and added more than a few amenities* later on over the years, I can say that the likes of you and I will never understand them.
*Was rehabbing one such place- the master bedroom had his and hers baths, each of which was easily twice the size of my bedroom. The husband was particularly picky about his bath, I framed it up 3 or 4 times, exactly as he wanted. Then he’d come in, look at it all, sit and think, then say “Nah, I don’t like it. Let’s try it this way.” Never an asshole, just wasn’t able to visualize it without the actual structures in place and had the money to have it done multiple times.
satby
@debit: so far those are all the birds I’ve seen at my feeders since I moved here (-bluejays). I don’t expect to see others, but I do hold out hope I will get hummingbirds later. If we occasionally saw them in Chicago, I hope a much smaller city wouldn’t deter them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Wrestling with a pig just drags you into the muck and after a while you realize the pig is enjoying it.
Lapassionara
@Kay: I can think of a lot of possible answers to what did Putin want: no Hillary presidency; more global warming; more fossil fuel use; waning US global influence; for T to have the money to pay off his debts to Russian oligarchs. If we never see T’s tax returns, we will not see the whole picture.
Chris T.
@bemused: Simple: this lets all the family members stay far, far away from her (and/or each other).
Another Scott
@raven: I’m going to play Grinch on that.
Stuff like that annoys me.
1) Someone just happened to be filming it on their phone? (Yeah, I suppose it’s possible, especially these days.)
2) Someone who filmed it just happened to post it to some “feel-good memes” place? (see #1)
3) WSB has people on staff who just happened to come across it in the course of their duties and posted it to their site (see #1).
It seems all too conveniently manipulative, like (easy to verify as false) e-mail forwarded memes that are designed to manipulate our emotions. But that may just be the way things are these days…
Where’s the outrage that he was charged a mountain of money at the last minute? Why is this a “feel good story” when if there was any “feel-goodness” it should have been the result of a manager at the airline waving or substantially reducing the ticket cost (e.g. only charging the kids price that would have been paid when he bought his ticket). Surely the airline knew how old the kid was when the ticket was purchased, right?
I don’t like feeding memes in which reasonably well-off J Random Stranger pays because a company has stupid, hateful policies, myself. (Not picking on you, raven.)
YMMV.
Grrr.
TGIF everyone!
Cheers,
Scott.
bemused
@Kay:
Rachel Maddow made a case last night on Putin right wing nationalists working to diminish US and western Europe democratic influences. She spent some time on how our state department has been woefully understaffed by WH which is also trying to undermine IC, etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@debit: I missed the Walter thread. Just wanted to say Thank you.
El Tiburon
@Mike in DC:
And also slamming Greenwald, et al for making the true assertions regarding actual evidence and that the Buzzfeed article appears to back-up, along with Taibbi’s piece.
Let me ask you this if you care to answer, as this all started yesterday with Doug’s misguided post on Greenwald: Has what Greenwald asserted incorrect in any form or fashion? Or is it that he’s just an asshole and folks here like to bag on him?
satby
@Another Scott: those last minute, sky high prices are what airlines charge when people are frantically trying to get to a dying loved one or heading home for a funeral. It’s like a surcharge for grief. Miraculously, there always seems to be a seat available though.
Immanentize
@donnah: Some “Good Christian Men” have sex like in the Handmaid’s Tale — they have sex with women when they choose and care naught for the consequences (or the law). Or at least that is their fantasy.
Betty Cracker
@satby: Those assholes kill bats? Ugh! I have a redneck uncle who picks off every armadillo that crosses his path for no particular reason. (He doesn’t do this in my presence because he learned after the first incident I’ll throw his fucking gun in the river!)
satby
@El Tiburon: he’s an asshole, we like to bag on him; and oh, yeah, he’s an apologist for the Kremlin.
But other than that, he’s a swell guy.
If course, why you’re so invested in what people think about him is kinda curious.
Mike in DC
@El Tiburon:
Is he calling for a vigorous independent investigation and saying the charges are both serious and plausible enough to be concerned about, or is he saying that this is russophobia, McCarthyism and the Dems trying to deflect from responsibility for their loss? Because I’ve seen all of the latter come from him. Not so much the former.
Greenwald needs to be more careful about saying there’s “no evidence” when we’re drowning in circumstantial evidence. Direct proof is what is produced by the end of a vigorous independent investigation, not the beginning. If there were direct evidence at this point, prosecution and impeachment would be on the table, not investigation.
Gin & Tonic
@El Tiburon: Forest, trees. GG is an asshole and people here like to bag on him. But his single-minded focus on whether *at this time* there currently exists evidence admissible in a US court, misses the forest of connections and influence that overwhelmingly (as has been repeatedly pointed out to you here) leads one to believe that Russia has directly influenced and continues to influence key people in the Trump campaign/administration.
Why, it’s almost as if Greenwald isn’t actually interested in discovering the truth.
That’s my one and only comment on this subject for today.
debit
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you.
Immanentize
On the self-pity issue. That is not what I am feeling. I am feeling huge dislocation and disorientation. This is the first time in my life I ever felt true kinship with Kilgore Trout. Or maybe even Bunny Hoover:
Substitute Trump. etc. as fits your mood….
Immanentize
@debit: Debit, I too was not present during the Walter thread. You and he have given me so much joy and you have now have shared so much humanity. So needed now. Thank you.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I’m done. I initially just wanted to point out that the Buzzfeed article is weaselly. After this last election, any liberal who continues to view the media uncritically is willfully a fool.
bemused
I think it was last night that Mike Pence told Bret Baier on Fox, twice, that this was the first time he had heard about Flynn lobbying for the Turkey government. The I read this morning that Rep. Elijah Cummings had sent a letter to Pence in November (after Flynn’s lobbying job was reported in msm) warning Pence about Flynn’s conflict of interest. I know Spicer was asked about this but said Trump not aware, “we know nothing”. Sure, you betcha. I hope Pence gets hounded by reporters.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Russia wants to bring the United States and the other western democracies to its own level, governed by greed and ethno-nationalism. Why? Revenge for the fall of the Soviet Union and making it a laughing stock of the world. Russians are a proud people.
With T’s election and R capitulation, P has demonstrated to the world that liberal ideals that the United States espouses are nothing but hypocrisy. That’s GG and BS agenda too, isn’t it?
Betty Cracker
@El Tiburon: Speaking strictly for myself, I can’t abide him because he’s a long-winded, sanctimonious, thin-skinned, self-important scold. As far as I know, he’s made no untrue assertions about the Russia issue. But he does run around screeching about neo-McCarthyism at such volume as to give the impression that he believes Putin, i.e., Guardian of St. Snowden, is the innocent party and that Democrats are the villains.
In his mind, the real scandal and overriding concern seems to be that Democrats don’t conform to his standards of decorum and proper tone rather than Team Trump’s many hinky Russia connections. He’s welcome to focus on what’s important to him, of course. As are we. As are you. But it doesn’t mean any of us are obligated to respect the results. What editors choose to focus on is as important as the content produced under their guidance.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: The so-called liberal media is a tool of its corporate masters. I include PBS in this.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: GG delivered Snowden to Putin. Who then used the information Snowden had to undermine the democratic process in this country.
hovercraft
@danielx:
Some enterprising Congresswoman should introduce legislation forbidding any tax payer money to be use in the treatment of ED, prostate or testicular cancers, and name it the Lorena Bobbitt Act.
germy
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse:
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-tale-of-amish-puppy-mills-in-ohio.html
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: @El Tiburon: I am not a big anti-Greenwald guy and I don’t go in for the harshest of bashing, but I agree with Betty. The guy has a perspective that infects his reporting in a way that really distorts and separates the facts from his conclusions. He is in it for himself and his personal ideology whatever that is — some form of libertarian, self-righteous crusader a la the worst of the old FDL crowd (of which I was a card carrying member). And although many people like the righteous, few really care for teh self-righteous; there is a significant difference and he is on the wrong side of that line. He reminds me of what Jerry Rubin wrote in Do It: “If the left ever got power in this country, they would have people going to thought school five days a week.”
germy
@Immanentize: But I don’t think of GG being part of the left, as defined by Rubin.
ruemara
@El Tiburon: uh, there’s a lot of evidence. Enough that several agencies had dossier of it. Enough that letters were sent saying there’s a problem with Flynn. Financial evidence. Evidence of coordination with Assange and WikiLeaks. There’s a difference between evidence that fits impeachable and legal standards versus evidence that warrants investigation.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused:
I know the answer but I have to ask: Did any of the reporters ask why thru the vetting process this did not come to light? Especially since it was known by others before the election? And if the vetting process was so flawed, what assurances do the American people have that there are not Russian assets in the Admin?
Betty Cracker
@germy: Oh man. That might be the one thing Trump could do to turn even his brain-dead base against him — allow corporations to start poisoning people’s pets on a massive scale. Million Dog March in DC, anyone?
bemused
@Immanentize:
Not self-pity at all. Anyone who had DT’s number from the get go is justified for feeling a huge dislocation and disorientation. What has happened and is happening is unprecedented in my 65 years and not even in my mother-in-law’s 93 years which included the Great Depression and WWII. I am beside myself worrying about the present and future of our country and our grown kids and grandkids. I’m also worried that fucking Trump and GOP will kill health care coverage, SS/Medicare and the rest of our safety nets. We don’t want our kids to have to take us in if we become disabled elderly and our savings/assets depleted.
germy
@ruemara: I believe most evidence hasn’t been made public (hasn’t made the WaPo headlines), but it exists.
Elijah Cummings and others have called for it to be made public. Maybe at some point it will be. And then GG will shift to some other argument, like “it’s false!”
WereBear
They have to work at it.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
I’d like to see dogs and cats march together, in a massive display of unity against the regime.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: At this point GG or even BS deserve no benefit of the doubt. I judge them by their actions. Same with all the brass that T has attained, I am not buying into how wonderful they are till I see that wonderfulness in action.
GregB
Direct connections between multiple Trump associates and multiple Russian actors is evidence.
To dismiss that as not evidence is lying.
So, yes, Greenwald is lying.
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
I always thought he was a waste of time with his “this is good news for John McCain” shit. But he lost me completely when he said, about Obama “I thought he was a kind of a dick yesterday,” on “Morning Joe,” referring to the president’s conduct during his press conference. Even if I was watching political news other than Joy, I wouldn’t waste my time. Halpren makes Chuckles seem like a professional.
Miss Bianca
Good morning, jackals! Well, after an appropriately lion-like beginning here in the Wet Mountain Valley (freezing temps, howling winds, snow spittle), March decided to grace us with some lamb-like days of sunshine and 60 degree highs….so I think I may play hooky this afternoon and go horseback riding. :-)
germy
@schrodingers_cat: True. And I agree with you about the media. A few mornings ago I saw Nancy Pelosi on the CBS Morning Show, and Norah O’Donnell kept asking her about increases in Obamacare, and isn’t the new repub plan much better? It was relentless.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Obviously, too many in msm thought their sense of direction was far superior to their car GPS and drove hundreds of miles the wrong way to the urgent meeting.
rikyrah
Trump’s climate-denying EPA chief makes matters worse
03/09/17 04:24 PM
By Steve Benen
Gina McCarthy, who led the EPA during President Obama’s second term, reflected this week on her successor. “It’s fine to have differing opinions on how to meet the mission of the agency. Many Republican administrators have had that,” McCarthy told the New York Times. ‘But [with Scott Pruitt], for the first time, I see someone who has no commitment to the mission of the agency.’”
We were reminded today that McCarthy’s concerns about Donald Trump’s far-right EPA chief are grounded in fact.
Or put another way, the Republican head of the EPA disagrees with practically every climate scientist on the planet. Pruitt, not yet a month into his tenure as EPA’s administrator, also disagrees with the EPA.
Chances are, everyone who takes environmental policy seriously already considers Pruitt a punch-line to a bad joke, but for those who just weren’t sure how bad he’d be, this morning’s comments should remove all doubt.
Tenar Arha
@bemused: I’m seriously wondering if Dense knew. Because it sounds like there were plenty of people neck deep all around him & never enough cutouts.
hovercraft
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m still waiting for the media to freak out over the fact that the entire administration is using an app that disappears their communications, how does anyone investigate anyone or thing if the evidence has been disappeared? They all seem to have made sure to cover their tracks but didn’t have the time for the ethics briefings. I was told that the perception of wrongdoing was a very important thing, it didn’t matter if no law had actually been broken or any classified material had gotten out, the mere fact that they could was a scandal.
rikyrah
Paul Ryan flubs the basic idea behind insurance
03/09/17 02:51 PM—UPDATED 03/09/17 02:58 PM
By Steve Benen
In an apparent bid to drive me batty, CNN recently published a report that described House Speaker Paul Ryan as “a legendary wonk.” In reality, for those who take a closer look the Republican congressman’s record and rhetoric, it’s painfully obvious that Ryan is neither legendary nor a wonk.
Take today, for example, when the GOP House Speaker did a little presentation on Capitol Hill for reporters in defense of his controversial American Health Care Act, which some have begun calling “Trumpcare.” At one point during the slideshow – complete with Ryan’s sleeves rolled up – the Wisconsin Republican tried to explain what he sees as the Affordable Care Act’s fatal flaw:
Let’s take these two points one at a time, starting with the latter.
The first problem with Ryan’s analysis is that he keeps using the phrase “death spiral” without fully understanding its meaning. As we discussed the last time the Speaker screwed this up, if the ACA were in “death spiral,” we’d see declining enrollment numbers, with consumers withdrawing from the system because they can’t afford the premiums and would rather pay the penalty than buy insurance they can’t afford.
The real-world evidence, however, points in the opposite direction. As Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, told the Huffington Post in January, “It seems to me that enrollment holding steady amidst tremendous uncertainty about the future of the law and big premium increases is a positive sign. There is no evidence of a market collapse or insurance death spiral.”
The second problem is that Ryan doesn’t seem to understand what “insurance” means.
Aleta
@germy: Trump has applied for trademark protection in China for pet food that will carry the Tr brand.
rikyrah
Maddow has really been on it:
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/9/17
Signs of continuing Russia influence in US raise alarm
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest evidence that Russia interference in U.S. affairs occurred both before the election and continues after it as Trump administration actions and Vladimir Putin’s interests align.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/9/17
Trump leaves State Department out of Mexico meeting
Rachel Maddow looks at how the State Department under Donald Trump and Rex Tillerson is becoming weaker and is losing its most experienced staff, to the point of being left out of a meeting with the visiting foreign minister of Mexico.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
For you, cat
Warning: Autoplay
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/9/17
Fmr Ambassador Fried: West at lowest we’ve seen since the 1930s
Rachel Maddow talks with former Ambassador Daniel Fried, a 40-year U.S. diplomat, talks with Rachel Maddow about the State Department under Donald Trump and the shifting world power structure.
bemused
@germy:
In pink kitty hats and red sweaters! Actually, this would be a great idea. People who don’t seem to feel much empathy for the neglect and suffering of their fellow humans freak out when it’s pets.
PPCLI
We understand the difference very well. And we recognize, as you do not, that there is lots of evidence of collusion, enough to compel an investigation. Even if we set aside any intelligence information that hasn’t been revealed, and concentrate on the public statements of the Trump people. The story keeps changing, and they are continually revealed to have lied.
Trump says he didn’t have anything to do with changing the Republican platform on the Ukraine. Ooops – then it turns out he ordered it.
Cohen tells four different stories in the course of 24 hours about what he did with the “peace plan” and whether or not he brought it to Flynn.
Trump says that none of his people had contact with Russian authorities, then it keeps turning out that they did. Sessions lies under oath about it, for example. Flynn lies about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, and then they have to dump him to contain the damage. Several of Trump’s people, including his own son, have received a lot of money for speeches to Russian or Russian connected organizations, and have not been forthcoming about it.
Trump denies he has any business with Russia, but this is transparently false: his own son has said (before there was reason to hide the fact) that much of the money coming in is from Russia.
Trump changes his story about whether or not he has met Putin.
And so on. The constant effort to cover up, fog up, lie, is evidence in itself.
And that isn’t even beginning to look at other stuff. Roger Stone acknowledges that he had a backdoor channel with Assange and regularly was aware in advance about what leaks were coming, including Podesta emails.
Just on what is public alone, there is more than enough to demand an investigation. If you think there is zero evidence, that’s because you are committed to not seeing what’s in front of your eyes.
Kathleen
@Baud: Yes. In. Putin’s Amerussia NPR listens to you but does not hear you.
rikyrah
We’re All Conspiracy Theorists Now
by Nancy LeTourneau March 10, 2017 8:00 AM
Given the Breitbartization of the news, I’m sorry to say that in order to really understand what is going on in our country right now, it is important to occasionally check in on what is making the headlines at that site. Frankly, I was a bit blown away by this one: “WikiLeaks: CIA Uses ‘Stolen’ Malware to ‘Attribute’ Cyberattacks to Nations Like Russia.”
Essentially what they are doing is using the latest Wikileaks release to suggest that the whole story about Russian hacking of the DNC and members of Clinton’s campaign was a false flag set up by the CIA. That idea is now spreading on right wing web sites and twitter. In the past we could simply ignore this kind of thing by relegating it to the fevered imagination of extremists. But now those same extremists are inhabiting the White House.
It’s important to keep in mind that the recent Wikileaks dump comes at a time when the U.S. intelligence community is leaking details of their investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. In return, the president has attacked them – going so far as to compare the intelligence community to Nazis.
bemused
@Tenar Arha:
Unless Pence’s staff didn’t give him Rep. Cummings Nov. 18 letter, he is lying. Then again, he’s one of the worst of Republicans looking at his record as governor so he used to ignoring and getting away with corrupt practices.
rikyrah
Is Trump Being Investigated?
by Martin Longman
March 9, 2017 4:16 PM
Keeping Matt Taibbi’s warning in mind that there may not ultimately be any there in the investigation into Donald Trump’s Russian connections, what would an ordinary person infer from the following which just appeared on the New York Times website?
rikyrah
From Smartypants:
You want to know how possible it is that Republicans will fail to repeal Obamacare? Trump has already crafted his plan B, which of course involves blaming someone else.
ThresherK
@Betty Cracker: Can I just copy you and pretend I wrote it? GG and tone policing: It’s only for Democrats.
Also: “He’s made no untrue assertions about [issue x]. But he does run around screeching about [mainstream Democrat y] at such volume as to give the impression…” is just what James Comey did in July, and late October.
Anyone who wants to come across like Comey and be taken seriously…I think the ridicule writes itself.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: People writing for American publications, even people of Indian heritage themselves forget that India is a continent. I find these articles about Indians a tad simplistic and somewhat stupid.
This is the third time I read about Indians wanting to be quasi white. WTF is that. I don’t want to be white or black, I am happy being myself. Seeing everything through the binary lens of black and white is an American view.
ETA: I am also not invested in anyone’s idea of being a model anything.
D58826
I’m convinced that God is a republican. Obama sweated blood to save the economy and get it back on track. The GOP tried and mostly succeeded in blocking everything he tried. The elephant echo chamber complained constantly that the unemployment numbers were cooked. Trump claimed unemployment was as high as 40%.
Now the economy is growing, real wages are growing, U3 is 4.7% (which is now a golden number) and Trump will get the credit.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh
Meet Silicon Valley's Secretive Alt-Right Followers
I investigated the role of “alt-techies” in the extremist movement emboldened by Trump.
JOSH HARKINSON
MAR. 10, 2017 6:00 AM
Readers of The Right Stuff long knew that founder “Mike Enoch” had two main interests: technology and white supremacy. Posts on the neo-Nazi site have included discussion of “a new blogging platform built on node.js,” while other less techie content has alluded to the “chimpout” in Ferguson, putting Jews in ovens, and Trump’s “top-tier troll” of Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In January, Enoch was outed as Mike Peinovich, a Manhattan-based software engineer. His unmasking highlighted a lingering question about the racist far-right movement that rose to prominence with Donald Trump’s election: What support might the so-called alt-right have among techies?
Ever since I began investigating the extremist groups lining up behind Trump last spring, several of their leaders have made big claims to me about an alt-right following in Silicon Valley and across the broader tech industry. “The average alt-right-ist is probably a 28-year old tech-savvy guy working in IT,” white nationalist Richard Spencer insisted when I interviewed him a few weeks before the election. “I have seen so many people like that.” Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, told me he gets donations from Silicon Valley, and that Santa Clara County, home to Apple and Intel, is his site’s largest traffic source. Chuck Johnson, the publisher of the conspiracy-mongering site Got News, said he gets lots of pageviews from the Bay Area.
After Peinovich was outed, he also insisted to me that many techies secretly identify with the alt-right, which he attributed to a backlash against the “corporate feminist and diversity agenda” of tech companies. “The fact that speaking up about this virtually guarantees career and social suicide, as in my case, shows why so many white males in tech would be attracted to the alt-right.”
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I’m sorry.
Baud
@D58826: Better it to be growing now than at election time.
Anyway, Dems can never take credit. Obama tried, but the only permitted attitude is that we need to do better and we still have a long way to go.
germy
@D58826: God created the universe in six days and was arrested on the seventh.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: You have nothing to apologize for. These generic articles usually written by children of immigrants being judgy of their parents are clueless. They have no idea what it is to walk into place knowing no one, being a stranger in a strange land. Not knowing the first thing what it takes to survive. Questions of mulling about your identity is a luxury and privilege most immigrants don’t have.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: You are a good soul.
debit
@Betty Cracker: You would think so, but he’s already rolled back a law to stop horses from being tortured and it barely caused a blip.
ETA: Okay, not rolled back, but put on hold and buried, probably forever.
El Tiburon
@satby:
Started several years around here when I hung out more. I saw that more and more folks, including front-page posters, I think DougJ being the main one (sorry if I’m mistaken) who love to get on here and just hurl shit at the guy. I remember one post in particular from DougJ (I think) where he linked to something from another GG hater. It turned out to be false, GG got on here and chewed out DougJ and I think J. Cole even jumped in.
So an inflammatory post would start: GREENWALD IS AN ASSHOLE! or whatever. I would chime in and ask: “What exactly did he say that was untrue?” Curiously, no one would ever answer directly, they would respond: Well he is sanctimonious! He is an Asshole!
I’d say, sure, whatever, but is what he said WRONG? And if so, can you back it up? Crickets. Just like the topic today. I’ve had some honest answers that it’s all about him being an asshole but what he is saying is factually correct.
Greenwald asserts, and I tend to believe him, that folks around here loved him when he was going after Bush. But when he turned to the Obama administration or other democrats, folks on the left could not tolerate such heresy.
So, to conclude: whenever I see an ignorant post, like the one from Doug yesterday, I like to get on to see if anyone can back up the assertions made, or if it’s just another monkey poo-flinging party.
Monkey poo-flinging party always wins.
FTR: I do appreciate GG’s insight and writing style while agreeing he can get a bit hyped up and overly-dramatic at times.
El Tiburon
@satby:
Can you explain? I’d like to see this. Or is it just a feeling in your gut that you have?
mai naem mobile
@El Tiburon: I don’t think most people here have decided Dolt 45 is a Russian mole. A lot of people here think he will or is doing Russia’s bidding because 1/he’s up to his eyeballs in debt to the Russians and 2/ the pee tape
Mike in DC
@rikyrah:
It wouldn’t have failed on it’s own. The Republicans and Trump gutted some funding provisions, and Trump will fail to maintain the program. That approach will KILL them in the midterms.
OzarkHillbilly
@D58826: That’s not a sign that God is a Republican, it’s a sign that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass.
@germy: God created the universe in six days and on the 7th he said, “It’s your problem now.”
El Tiburon
@Betty Cracker:
Fair enough.
This I disagree with. Per Matt Taibbi’s piece, I think the problem he sees, that I agree with, is that we are so fast to assume the worse about our enemies and ignore the same about our team. So, when Trump orders a raid where innocents are killed he sucks. When Obama does the same, or when Obama orders more drone attacks than any other President, that is sort of ok, you know?
Again, I don’t think GG has ever said or intimated that there is nothing there, just no evidence that we have seen. And it is trickling out that there be nothing there, at least nothing of real substance.
GregB
@D58826:
I think you mean Satan.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
He’s the watchmaker who sees his fine timepiece handed to a toddler (Baby LeRoy) who drops it into a bowl of molasses.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Aww, thanks! Its nice of you to say that.
rikyrah
If he’s from Virginia, what da hail is he doing taping people in Ohio?
US man stalks Indians, posts video saying ‘they’re taking away our jobs’
INDIA Updated: Mar 07, 2017 09:49 IST
Siladitya Ray
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Days after the fatal shooting of Indian-born engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an anti-immigration website that features photos and videos of Indian families relaxing in the city of Columbus, Ohio, has alarmed community members in the United States.
A post on the website SaveAmericanITJobs.com called ‘Welcome to Columbus Ohio suburbs – Lets take a walk to Indian park’ features a video of Indian families hanging out in a public park in suburban Ohio. The video’s description mentions how wealthy Indian families have ‘moved in’ to suburban homes in Ohio as “displacement of Americans has occurred”. As of March 6, the video has over 41,000 views on YouTube.
A Buzzfeed report says that the website is created and maintained by Steve Pushor, a 66-year-old computer programmer from Virginia.
In the video, Pushor’s camera pans over people playing volleyball and children riding bikes, as he narrates: “The number of people from foreign countries blows my mind out here. You see this whole area is all Indian, amazing. It’s an amazing number of jobs have been taken away from Americans. The Indian crowd has ravished the Midwest. It’s a takeover.(sic)” Pushor sarcastically describes the park as a “mini Mumbai”.
Pushor initially posted this video and the accompanying document ‘Ohio – A Journey To Indian Park’ in August. The document labels India as a “hell hole” and highlights the loss of “Norman Rockwell white people class” in the US. A link to the document now directs to a 403-error page, but an archived version of the page are still available online.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: This is nothing new, there are websites by IT guys that post things about the “Curry Mafia” the H1-B workers and the companies that hire them. Even here on BJ bashing people on H1-Bs is the past time of many. 0n the evil scale I would say they rank after MBAs for many jackals.
El Tiburon
@mai naem mobile:
I tend to believe this as well. But, again, it’s all supposition at this point. And if we build a case and it falls apart, then Trump wins and we lose. That’s the danger.
Taumaturgo
From Crooks and liars website http://crooksandliars.com/2017/03/fake-news-site-thanks-gullible-trump a fake news website garnered over a million clicks from fanatical Trump followers.
chopper
@satby:
I know. greenwald is annoying enough but his supporters sea lioning all over random comment threads really take the cake. it’s almost cult-like, like the larouche guys.
different-church-lady
So I can’t dim the damn bulb, but I can use it as a radio?
I hate the entire world.
different-church-lady
@El Tiburon:
I believe there is a line from The Big Lebowski that address this.
(I also believe there is some line from The Big Lebowski that would address any and every situation in our 21st century Western lives.)
J R in WV
@danielx:
No, no, they hatch under big cabbage leaves in your veggy garden. Just ask any farm wife. We don’t have storks here in WV, but plenty of cabbages and babbies. ;-)
Dave
@bemused: I would appreciate huge living space if and only if it was some Hogwarts type bullshit with a small cozy living space and chock full of secret passages and that’s because I’m basically an overgrown kid when it comes to secret passages; hidden chambers.
ThresherK
@chopper: Bonus points for proper use of “sea lioning”..
It’s more than the preferred “debate” tactic of the MRA superhero NotAllMen Man.
different-church-lady
@El Tiburon: Look, fuckin’ Greenwald plays a deliberate game every damn time: write things that insinuate and mislead, then blame the dissenting reader for falling for it.
There’s nothing he craves in life more than conflict. He’s an asshole because he does this deliberately. Sometimes he’s right, sometimes he’s wrong, but he’s corrosive at both times.
mai naem mobile
@El Tiburon: you’ll probably say I’m being just lIke rightwingers but I am not sure we have anything to lose. The RW had theories of ‘scandals’ of the Obama administration which fell apart and yet they are referenced to by FOX, NRO,Daily Caller etc. like they were correct. They didn’t lose any face when they were wrong. Let the left live by those standards.
chopper
@ThresherK:
likewise, the staunch defense of the guy we’re seeing here is the balls standard you see when someone’s argument is based on lying by omission, or goalpost moving, or misdirection – “tell me one thing X said that isn’t true!!”
if we had direct evidence that drumpf was connected to fucking putin we wouldn’t need a fucking investifuckingation to get at it now, would we?
different-church-lady
@Baud:
different-church-lady
@mai naem mobile:
The surest way to lose at Calvinball is to assume Calvinball has stable rules.
Betty Cracker
@El Tiburon: I notice you didn’t address the point about what editorial choices convey independently of factual assertions. I’m not surprised; it doesn’t support your overall theme, which is that all critiques of Greenwald made here are of the monkey poo-flinging variety. Could it be that bias infects even your perceptions? ?
J R in WV
@El Tiburon:
I must say, I think you are very wrong in your assertion that “Zero evidence exists to date…” Maybe if you only accept evidence like bloody fingerprints. But we have Flynn resigning, we have Manafort’s appearance on a ledger of Ukranian payments of $12,000,000, we have American intelligence agencies telling us that it appears that DNC hacking has Russian FSB fingerprints all over the place. And Trump’s tax returns, where are they? Lies all around them, but nary a glimpse of them for anyone!
This is evidence. It may not be dispositive evidence, like your bloody fingerprints on the rollling pin used to kill the butler, but it is evidence, and some of it is pretty good evidence for a political issue.
___________________________________________
So, let me say in closing, if you want to defend the Trump administration, go do it somewhere else, please. For me, I don’t want to see or hear or read anyone defending Trump on any issue for any reason, he is indefensible, in my opinion.
Thanks.
Now Fuq off! G’bye. Good riddance…
ETA: Dammit!! There I go again, feeding a troll! A Russian Troll to boot!!! Dammit…
No One You Know
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s cool! I missed Baltimore Orioles when I moved west…until the day that a flock of western tanagers took over a tree. They looked like living autumn leaves. And a couple of weeks ago, the weather was so bad that a Bullock’s Oriole sat out the storm in my backyard.
different-church-lady
@Immanentize:
One in the same.
bemused
@Dave:
Me too! I’d love that even more now that we have grandkids. Our inlaws’ two story house built in the 70’s is roomy but not huge. They have a kind of hidden nook under a staircase their grandkids have used for a small playhouse. There is also a family room on a lower level so in the space above was built a room with a door in a bedroom on second story which the kids also loved. I was envious when they gave a tour.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
“ETA: I am also not invested in anyone’s idea of being a model anything.”
But you ARE a model cat, Schrodinger style!
J R in WV
@Dave:
Friends of ours with solar heated floors have a bookcase/door that opens up into the basement room where their solar heat sink is located. The house uses no fossil fuel, just stores solar warmth in the heat sink all day, and then pumps it into the floors all night, using solar electric power. Toasty all winter. In a pretty cool climate for summers.
But the secret door into the other half of the basement is just so cool…
Taylor
@El Tiburon:
Whaboutery: The last refuge of the scoundrel.
There are many things about Barack Eisenhower Obama that I did not agree with.
That doesn’t mean that I should now agree with Trump defenders and give Trump a pass.
There is plenty of circumstantial evidence that something strange happened in the last election, not least being the resistance from Republicans in Congress to investigate it, and any claim that there is NO evidence is, to put it very politely, disingenuous.
If you can’t see the difference between disagreeable government practices in economics and foreign policy, and at least the possibility that a major foreign power is now meddling in US elections, then you are no more than a concern troll.
liberal
@schrodingers_cat:
A continent?
schrodingers_cat
@liberal: Its big and vast and has over a billion people. More than 15 main languages are spoken, every religion under the sun is practiced. There are countries that are bigger in area but you would be hard put to find another country with similar diversity.
Continent was a metaphor not a literal truth. If you want to quibble about that you are welcome.
patroclus
@liberal: Churchill (and others) commonly referred to India as a “sub-continent.”
Apparently, Dear Leader Greenwald went off on a twitter rant today claiming that there was “no evidence” of a Russian/Trump connection whatsoever and chiding those who want a special counsel and a public hearing as Democratic “hacks” (or GOS “hacks”). He apparently thinks – like his bots here – that unless the findings reach an absolute conclusion that there was “collusion” then it’s all a waste of time and we should just move along and get back to the business of pushing Trump’s agenda. If there were merely financial ties, or hotel deals or merely coincidental meetings or mere prior knowledge of specific hacking targets or advance information on what Wikileaks was going to publish, it apparently doesn’t matter. According to GG, the Russians are apparently innocent and we shouldn’t even bother to wonder whether they intervened in our election.
GHayduke
@El Tiburon:
Greenwald is exactly like Milo what’s his name.
GHayduke
@El Tiburon: Yes, Bush killed 195 civilians with drone strikes, and Obama killed 395 civilians with drone strikes.
Bush killed 250,000 Iraqis, so Obama is worse than bush.
Good job, little camper.
schrodingers_cat
@GHayduke: I suspect, El T only gets paid if the thread count reaches 300.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat:
#ALTERNATE PLATE TECTONICS
@GHayduke:
I’ve not known GG to wear a fur stole and mirrorshades for an interview.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: Like I said, Greenwald Unit.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: WTF, is that supposed to mean?
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: I have no idea. Comedy doesn’t work like that.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: My comedy/snark detector is broken.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: My comedy generator has frequent malfunctions.
Mike in DC
@different-church-lady:
My hovercraft is full of eels.
J R in WV
@Mike in DC:
Dawg, I love this place!