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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / This seems significant…

This seems significant…

by Betty Cracker|  March 30, 20177:28 pm| 350 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

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Hot off the Twitters:

Read all about it here. (Fuck the Murdoch paywall.)

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Previous Post: « Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust
Next Post: Open Thread: Anybody Got Plans for Friday Evening? »

Reader Interactions

350Comments

  1. 1.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    That’s a big “fuck you” leak by the FBI.

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    Remember when Trump tweeted HRC about staffers and immunity…twitter has the receipts…

    https://twitter.com/Freeyourmindkid/status/847591023392038912

  3. 3.

    David Anderson

    March 30, 2017 at 7:32 pm

    Pass the popcorn

  4. 4.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 30, 2017 at 7:32 pm

    @LAO: Fuck you to whom?

  5. 5.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @LAO: Nice

    Today’s news Nunes, Flynn and major highway in Atlanta (85) collapsed after fire underneath. I just want one fking day without anything.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    March 30, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    Well well well ???

  7. 7.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 30, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @JPL: I’m getting tired of so much winning.

  8. 8.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Trump and Flynn.

    ETA: apparently some congressional offices knew, so maybe not by FBI but by a Congressional staffer.

  9. 9.

    Lizzy L

    March 30, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    @JPL: The only way to get that is to stay off the internet for a day. Shit is definitely happening.

  10. 10.

    Mike J

    March 30, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    John Cardillo‏ Verified account @johncardillo 2 hours ago
    Very strong source told me that Katie Walsh was fired for leaking. Her creds were yanked and she was escorted out of the White House.

  11. 11.

    kmeyer the lurker

    March 30, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    Seems too easy to me somehow. My paranoid side suspects he’ll be a nothing.

  12. 12.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    March 30, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    I *told* you Flynn would flip first.

  13. 13.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 30, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    You realize all this Russia stuff — this is simply distracting us from more important battles, like the second siege of the ACA?

    Besides, what’s wrong anyways with fraternal expressions of peace and friendship between two great peoples, Russian and American? I’m sure that’s all that was involved.

    Mir i druzhba!

    (You can tell I get The Nation…)

  14. 14.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 30, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    Lok ’em UP

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    O/T as all fuck, but there’s a massive fire and bridge collapse in Atlanta:

    http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/large-fire-shuts-down-interstate/507589453

    If I were still working, I would have been somewhere in the midst of this. Time for some infrastructure! Hope all my ATL-area peeps are safe and well away from this place (I-85 and Monroe Drive, just north of Midtown).

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    I hope there is a cordon around Flynn. The FSB and the Trumpfenpolizei probably want his singing cut short.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    March 30, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @kmeyer the lurker: Always a possibility — as someone noted the other day, we remember Fitzmas. Still, I’ll take my jollies where I can get ’em in these evil times.

  18. 18.

    CaseyL

    March 30, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    @kmeyer the lurker: Depends on what they ask him. I’d be interested to hear about the info he passed on to Russia shortly after the election, I think it was, that resulted in the CIA’s Russian assets being rolled up.

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: The Nation might need to be sent to a reeducation camp outside Omsk.

  20. 20.

    SatanicPanic

    March 30, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    Well this doesn’t look so good for the president.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    March 30, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: My money was on that little shitweasel Carter Page, but Flynn is a bigger get.

  22. 22.

    Oatler.

    March 30, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    Nothing new here; he’s a millionaire and even if “convicted” (ha ha!) he’ll die a millionaire.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 7:41 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Again I can’t edit my own comment. Thanks, Flynn.

    Was going to say, I see JPL got there first with news of the I-85 collapse.

  24. 24.

    japa21

    March 30, 2017 at 7:41 pm

    Interesting. I assume he is looking for immunity from criminal charges. Fine, if what he has to say has any value, let him have it. But make sure you know what his testimony is going to be. Then, have the Army call him back to active duty, court martial him and bust his ass.

  25. 25.

    m0nty

    March 30, 2017 at 7:42 pm

    The FBI might refuse Flynn because they have enough evidence to convict him already.

  26. 26.

    SatanicPanic

    March 30, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @Oatler.: Sure, but I bet he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder. It would take more than millions to make me want to trade places with him right now.

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    In asking for immunity, I’d like to think they’d at least make sure it’s worth it to grant it? No prosecuting atty could be so stupid as to give someone immunity without at least having some idea that it’d be worth it?

    Or maybe I watch too much Major Crimes or Law & Order?

  28. 28.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: @Betty Cracker:

    Call me crazy, but my money is still on Manafort. Apparently, there were no takers for Flynn (yet).

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @kenvogel
    Statement from Flynn’s atty seems to acknowledge seeking immunity, explaining it’s necessary in “highly politicized, witch hunt environment”

    https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/847592974108299264

  30. 30.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    Re-posting from previous thread.

    So was Twitler trying to get ahead of this with his tweets?

    Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
    Great op-ed from @RepKenBuck. Looks like some in the Freedom Caucus are helping me end #Obamacare. http://thehill.com/blogs/congr…..rting-ahca …
    5:17 PM – 30 Mar 2017

    3,117 3,117 Retweets 13,342 13,342 likes

    Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
    If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform.
    5:20 PM – 30 Mar 2017
    3,486 3,486 Retweets 15,317 15,317 likes

    Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
    Where are @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador?#RepealANDReplace #Obamacare
    5:21 PM – 30 Mar 2017
    2,801 2,801 Retweets 12,440 12,440 likes

  31. 31.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 30, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: That’s just McCarthyism. And you call yourself a progressive…

  32. 32.

    Pogonip

    March 30, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: “Traffic is at a standstill on I-85.”

    Glad to see Atlanta maintaining its normal weekday routine at a time like this.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: The local news started covering it a little before seven. I texted my son and said see this is why you take the train to and from the airport. Someone is going to be in big trouble for storing flammables under the highway.

  34. 34.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    @m0nty: The Feds always look to go up the food chain, evidence against Flynn wouldn’t prevent them from giving him a cooperation agreement, if they thought he could deliver a bigger fish.

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    @akarl_smith
    Michael Flynn to NBC in September: “When you are given immunity, that means you have probably committed a crime.”

    https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/847590551482490880

  36. 36.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    Comey is scum, but if we can make him think he can rescue his reputation by taking down the biggest fish of all, we should do it.

  37. 37.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    @lamh36: Immunity is very rare in the federal system. It’s pretty ballsy to ask for it. Most people get a promise for leniency but still have to pled guilty to a crime. I’m not particularly surprised, no one has taken him up on his generous offer.

  38. 38.

    Pogonip

    March 30, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    @lamh36: In the Charles Manson case the DA was, for a while, desperate enough to offer immunity to murderer Susan Atkins. Fortunately for the public, she blew it by lying on the stand. A DA, or whatever the equivalent is at Flynn’s level, can only work with what he has.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 7:49 pm

    @JPL:

    Someone is going to be in big trouble for storing flammables under the highway.

    Trump will pardon them.

  40. 40.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 7:49 pm

    @JPL:

    major highway in Atlanta (85) collapsed after fire underneath

    My wife’s commute home is now screwed for the foreseeable future. On the plus side, my commute is fine!

  41. 41.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    He’s apparently getting nervous.
    Ex-Trump Adviser: Allegations Against Me Are ‘Just Literally Completely False’

    “I never had a conversation with Paul Manafort, so totally false,” Page said.

    Page also denied that he had more than a brief encounter with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

    “I said hello to him in passing, handed him my business card and never got a business card from him,” he said. “As I did for many ambassadors in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention.”

  42. 42.

    japa21

    March 30, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    I haven’t made my mind up as to whether the Rogue POTUS Staff twitter account is legit or not, but if it is, Trump is not taking this news well.

  43. 43.

    Pogonip

    March 30, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Flynn was storing inflammables under the highway?

    (If this ever gets to indictments I’ll have to find out who Flynn is and why he’s important. ?)

  44. 44.

    dr. bloor

    March 30, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @kmeyer the lurker:

    Seems too easy to me somehow. My paranoid side suspects he’ll be a nothing.

    Beware Ollie North redux.

    Fuck him. He doesn’t have anything that can’t be found in time, and it seems like they’re smelling promotions in the IC.

  45. 45.

    Mike J

    March 30, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    1,392 days until Jan 20, 2021.

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Hope she’s okay. Was she anywhere near this tonight?

  47. 47.

    Mister Forkbeard

    March 30, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @lamh36: I don’t actually believe this. I mean, look at Hillary’s IT guy. It’s pretty clear he wanted immunity because he was afraid the Republicans would basically make something up and indict him and DEMAND a conviction.

    But it is telling that Flynn said it. Poor fucker, but he brought it on himself.

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @lamh36: I say we toss him in the pond now and wait for the weighing of the ducks later.

  49. 49.

    Pogonip

    March 30, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I’ve been to Atlanta a couple of times. Your traffic is nearly as bad as DC’s. When I was there, there was a mass transit called Marta that seemed to have plenty of stops, but traffic was still quite congested.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @lamh36:
    What he meant to say was when other people not affiliated or related to me are given immunity they are guilty. Those close to me are being unfairly attacked.
    Remember they are always victims, even though they are strong and macho.

  51. 51.

    Chet Murthy

    March 30, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @Mister Forkbeard:

    Poor fucker

    Unh-unh. Borrowing from another commenter: fuckem.

    Also: Flynn delenda est.

  52. 52.

    Aleta

    March 30, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    If you want to read the WSJ article or comments, you can access it from the link on the reporter’s twitter feed.
    https://twitter.com/shaneharris

  53. 53.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I say we toss him in the pond now

    Is he a witch?

  54. 54.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 30, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @hovercraft:

    Is he a witch?

    Only way to know is toss him into the pond.

  55. 55.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    Flynn’ lawyer’s statement.

    https://twitter.com/robkelner/status/847590575352270850

  56. 56.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:00 pm

    @MaxineWaters
    Now, Wall Street Journal is reporting Flynn has asked for an immunity deal! The walls are closing in on Trump & his #kremlinklan
    https://twitter.com/MaxineWaters/status/847580798328995840

  57. 57.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: When I was driving back from downtown last Friday they were all over the healthcare vote in WSB. The traffic dude came on and said “and NOW for a program that really doesn’t work”! Shit is fucked anyway you slice it.

  58. 58.

    Keith P.

    March 30, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @m0nty: Cynic I am, I’m thinking Flynn’s endgame is to get immunity from the House committee (aka Nunes) in order to dump out a bunch of information that will fuck up the FBI’s case, whatever it is. This game has been played in Congress before.

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Only way to know is toss him into the pond.

    What happens if he floats?

  60. 60.

    japa21

    March 30, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    Reading the lawyer’s letter, he is very clear that Flynn believes he is being unjustly accused of many things and just wants to set the record straight.

  61. 61.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    March 30, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Carter Page sure is acting buggy, but Flynn has the most to lose.

  62. 62.

    JDM

    March 30, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    In late breaking news, Donald Trump shits his pants as he reads WSJ Tweet during staff meeting.

  63. 63.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    Best Flynn tweet, so far. https://twitter.com/bettybowers/status/847598929810083844

  64. 64.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:04 pm

    what someone said on twitter. Flynn and Son are trying to save his military record reputation…cause it’s has def been dinged..

    Ollie North may have not gone to jail, but his military career was essentially over and the only gravy train left for him is Faux News…but Faux News can only have so many disgraced military folks at one time…lol

  65. 65.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 30, 2017 at 8:04 pm

    @LAO: So he just want’s to clear his good name, but only if granted immunity.

    ETA: Did you know he’s a highly decorated soldier? His attorney spends a paragraph on that alone.

  66. 66.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    @japa21: Not to belittle defense attorneys, but what else would he say.

    ETA: Bill beat me to it (by seconds!)

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 30, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    @LAO:

    Call me crazy, but my money is still on Manafort.

    I’ve heard it said (and I’m inclined to believe) that Manafort is too dirty to flip.

  68. 68.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    O/T as all fuck, but there’s a massive fire and bridge collapse in Atlanta:

    http://www.wsbtv.com/news/loca…../507589453

    If I were still working, I would have been somewhere in the midst of this. Time for some infrastructure! Hope all my ATL-area peeps are safe and well away from this place (I-85 and Monroe Drive, just north of Midtown).

    I was at the Four Seasons today and drove home on that stretch a couple of hours before the fire. It must be snowpocalypse-like traffic again. Glad I left the reception early–seven hours with 300 lawyers is enough for me in one day!

  69. 69.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 30, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    @Corner Stone: Then he’s guilty and will be burnt at the stake.

  70. 70.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: The WSB tv dude just said it was worse.

  71. 71.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @lamh36: Flynn Son was attacking Twitler on twitter today (I didn’t see it, a commenter mentioned it in a previous thread)

  72. 72.

    Mister Forkbeard

    March 30, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @LAO: The dumb thing is, he has no reason to GET immunity if all he’s going to do is “clear the air”. But if his lawyer announced that Flynn had some dirt on Trump/Pence but wanted Immunity before he’d disclose it, he’d almost certainly get it.

    Basically, this immunity plea isn’t going to work right now, because by his own admission the Feds have no reason to grant it. They have nothing to gain from his testimony, according to Flynn.

  73. 73.

    Aleta

    March 30, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    @Aleta:

    The fact that he was seeking immunity suggested Mr. Flynn feels he may be in legal jeopardy following his brief stint as the national security adviser, one official said.

    Don’t know much about lawyering, but if he gets immunity, that would suggest he’s given them something significant, or someone, wouldn’t it?

  74. 74.

    japa21

    March 30, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    @LAO: Yes, that would be the right thing to say.

  75. 75.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I find that difficult to believe. But he’s definitely very dirty.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    @Pogonip:

    Your traffic is nearly as bad as DC’s.

    Yes, we take inordinate pride in how bad our traffic is.

    When I was there, there was a mass transit called Marta

    Still is. Things would undoubtedly be worse if there were no MARTA, but it could be an infinitely better system. Unfortunately, a lot of it (routes, schedules, etc.) can be traced straight back to Atlanta’s troubled racial history. And funding is always an issue, since Metro Atlanta consists of minimum five and, depending on how you count and whom you ask, as many as thirteen counties, each of which has a voice and a say in whether they care to provide funds for rapid transit. Often they don’t. So you end up with a patchwork of independent systems and a state DOT that still values the automobile and the highway above all other forms of transport.

  77. 77.

    m0nty

    March 30, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    Is there a bigger fish than Flynn on which charges would stick, though? If the Four Horses all got sent to the knackery, would that not lead to Trump’s impeachment without Trump himself being charged, as happened in Watergate?

  78. 78.

    Yarrow

    March 30, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    It’s all happening now. Trump can run but he can’t hide.

  79. 79.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    @japa21: ok…so why the need for immunity unless he realizes even if he directly do criminal things, he did enough to be charged by association…kinda like the getaway driver who survives after a botched bank robbery/homicide, even if driver didn’t directly kill someone, he still gets a murder charge variation? Right?

    I think maybe Flynn and Son seeing Trump Co trying to throw them under the bus, want some payback and Flynn may be willing to give up bigger name?

    Again, IANAL, I just watch too much L&O

  80. 80.

    m0nty

    March 30, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    Well, resignation under threat of impeachment, I should say.

  81. 81.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    @Mister Forkbeard: interesting take.

  82. 82.

    Starfish

    March 30, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    @japa21: It is fake. It got into a fight with AngryBlackLady. I had never seen it that far off the rails.

  83. 83.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    Malcolm Nance predicted on last week AM Joy, that Flynn might be the first to flip…

    @MalcolmNance
    Malcolm Nance Retweeted Chris Sampson
    My prediction last Saturday that Flynn would be first to flip.

    https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/847595480431427584

  84. 84.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: fortunately, she was sick of the bullshit at work and left about 4:30. No one can find her paralegal, however, who drives home that way, but she’s also the type who turns off her cell phone. Twisted nutjob that she is.

  85. 85.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    I don’t think most people understand how vital the Atlanta interstate “system” is. This will have an accordion effect all over the Southeast. I’m so glad we have a builder in charge now. s/

  86. 86.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: The newsies are saying no one hurt.

  87. 87.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @lamh36:

    but Faux News can only have so many disgraced military folks at one time…lol

    Even if they wanted to upgrade from Olie, they couldn’t hire Flynn since he was fired for supposedly lying to Dense, he betrayed Hair Furer. I’m not sure where he’ll be able to make money going forward, most of the wingnuts having embraced Twitler, won’t pay him the big bucks.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    @raven: The CNN video is whacked.

    http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/us/atlanta-i-85-fire/

  89. 89.

    Mister Forkbeard

    March 30, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    @LAO: There’s only two ways this makes sense.

    1) Flynn actually does have the dirt on Trump but doesn’t want to say so publicly for a number of reasons.

    2) Flynn is presuming that his past military service should get him immunity even on a “clear the air” testimony. He’s basically just trying to ride patriotism to cover his own (potentially non-treasonous or somewhat minor) crimes.

    My guess is that it’s probably #2, but #1 is a distinct possibility. Unless Flynn can vouch for (and prove) that Trump and Pence knowingly colluded with Russia, he doesn’t have a lot to say that would really mean anything.

  90. 90.

    Cacti

    March 30, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    Thing is, to get his top secret security clearance, Flynn almost certainly lied on his SF86. That’s a felony.

    He also lied to the FBI concerning a material matter in an investigation. That’s also a felony.

    Not surprised he’s out to cut a deal.

  91. 91.

    Aleta

    March 30, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    @Mike J: Or Pence walked in when she was alone at the coffee machine.

  92. 92.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    Here’s what drumpf tweeted in Oct. 2016 about immunity:

    ATTN: @HillaryClinton – Why did five of your staffers need FBI IMMUNITY?! #BigLeagueTruth #Debates

  93. 93.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @Pogonip:

    I’ve been to Atlanta a couple of times. Your traffic is nearly as bad as DC’s. When I was there, there was a mass transit called Marta that seemed to have plenty of stops, but traffic was still quite congested.

    Traffic here is horrendous, though I think a bit shy of NYC/DC/LA/Chicago type stuff.

    MARTA is great in the limited areas in which it runs (doesn’t get to me, SD, or JPL, to name a few), but many of the suburban areas refused to let it expand out of fear that the Negro would take it to their rarified white areas to rape and pillage. But people here are totally over the War of Northern Aggression. And on a clear day I can see the Confederate bas relief on Stone Mountain from my office.

  94. 94.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @Baud: That’s after it fell, check this one.

  95. 95.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @raven: My son and DIL live in Sandy Springs and he works fairly close to home but she works at 285 and 75, Told son she might have to leave early, and he said nah she knows back ways. I texted back and mentioned so does waze.

  96. 96.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    Jason Pinter‏Verified account @jasonpinter

    “President Trump has never met anybody named Michael Flynn.” –Sean Spicer, tomorrow

    Caroline O.‏ @RVAwonk

    FBI/Congress hasn’t accepted Flynn’s offer yet. Why? Likely b/c he’s not going to get full immunity after allegedly plotting to kidnap Gülen

  97. 97.

    dr. bloor

    March 30, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @Yarrow: Twenty-five months between the Watergate break-in and Tricky Dick’s resignation. This is the beginning of the beginning.

  98. 98.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @lamh36: McCoy never grants immunity unless he can go up the chain. I watch so much L&O (+SVU) I find myself thinking I can answer general questions about trial procedures in a conversation. Thankfully I stop myself and wonder if I’m slipping into some Trumpian view of “reality”.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    March 30, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The FSB and the Trumpfenpolizei probably want his singing cut short.

    If he’s vindictive, he’ll have everything written up and set to be released if he dies. If he’s smart and vindictive, he’ll let relevant parties know. In any case, him dropping dead suddenly is going to give whomever kills him a lesson in the Streisand effect.

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @japa21:

    Reading the lawyer’s letter, he is very clear that Flynn believes he is being unjustly accused of many things and just wants to set the record straight.

    He would say that, wouldn’t he?

    Sigh. So like a lawyer….

  101. 101.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: And if you climb it at sunrise you can walk with lot’s of African American folks!

  102. 102.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: True, but when I travel I go to the Sandy Springs station. It appears that 85 north and south will be closed for awhile.

  103. 103.

    p.a.

    March 30, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    Glad no one was hurt. Sure am glad we have a world-class rail trans system to take up the slack… uuhhh… oh
    Sure am glad we have a first rate new head of FEMA to step in… uuhhh… oh
    Sure am glad the Infrastructure Investment Act isn’t just a b.j for contractor coffers so this kind of thing doesn’t become common in the fut… uuhhh… shit…

  104. 104.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    Schooley‏Verified account
    @Rschooley

    Watching Flynn chant “Lock her up” on a loop all afternoon.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    @raven: There is a second video at the CNN link of cars driving by the fire.

    Really intense.

  106. 106.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @germy:

    FAKE! FAKE NEWS!!

  107. 107.

    Yarrow

    March 30, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @lamh36:

    what someone said on twitter. Flynn and Son are trying to save his military record reputation…cause it’s has def been dinged..

    I think they’re really trying to save his military pension. That’s worth a lot for a guy who will never work in military or intelligence related fields again.

  108. 108.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @JPL: Dude on 11 alive is saying that this may be the tip of the iceberg. The fact that is collapsed may signal that all over the sections are faulty.

    They are also saying there were huge spools of wire and/or plastic pipe stored under there for years.

  109. 109.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Metro Atlanta consists of minimum five and, depending on how you count and whom you ask, as many as thirteen counties

    1. Fulton
    …
    …
    …
    …
    …
    Cobb/Dekalb/Gwinnett

    I refuse to acknowledge the rest, especially Forsyth.

  110. 110.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Heh. I used to go to receptions and luncheons and shit at the Four Seasons all the time back in my working days (only half a block from our offices in Colony Square, and for a long time it was Canadian-owned — don’t know if that’s still the case — so we favored it, and always put up Ministers and Ambassadors and other Canadian dignitaries there).

    But yes, you will understand my (former) commute route home.

  111. 111.

    Roger Moore

    March 30, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Only way to know is toss him into the pond.

    You could always see if he weighs the same as a duck.

  112. 112.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @lamh36: First law of Law & Order: You can never, ever watch TOO MUCH Law & Order.

  113. 113.

    Gravenstone

    March 30, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: And people thought the Atlanta traffic was bad before losing this route for a year or so.

  114. 114.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @Kathleen: I still say the media should add the Law & Order chime whenever it reports on Trump.

  115. 115.

    p.a.

    March 30, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @dr. bloor: things move quicker this century. and Dick knew how to play defense. tRump will just attack, and bury himself.

  116. 116.

    danielx

    March 30, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I’ve been thinking there’s a lot of that going around. At this rate these guys are going to drive up the price for elite-level bodyguards.

  117. 117.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @hovercraft:

    Distraction! /smh/

  118. 118.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    she’s also the type who turns off her cell phone. Twisted nutjob that she is.

    De NOIVE!

  119. 119.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @raven: Amazing they are just going to direct all traffic to 285.

  120. 120.

    Mister Forkbeard

    March 30, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @lamh36: The theory is that he did nothing wrong but is afraid partisan democrats will witch hunt him into oblivion. This makes literally no sense from a real perspective, given the utter lack of power Dems have in today’s government.

    It is however a FANTASTIC public relations idea. Pissing off Democrats and accusing them of persecuting conservative veterans is probably a great way to automatically get a bunch of republicans on your side regardless of any actual facts.

  121. 121.

    Mike in NC

    March 30, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    Flynn, Page, and Manafort need to check their window locks. Bannon is probably looking to give any of them the Trotsky treatment.

  122. 122.

    trollhattan

    March 30, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    @SatanicPanic:
    But it is good news for John McCain!

  123. 123.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    @LAO:

    Flynn’ lawyer’s statement.

    You know those news articles that say a bunch of explosive shit, and end with “according to the plaintiff’s lawyer”? i don’t read those, just like I don’t read criminal defense lawyers’ statements!

    (except on Balloon Juice, or course)

  124. 124.

    Yarrow

    March 30, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    @dr. bloor: This is bigger and much more wide reaching than Watergate. Treason, espionage, corruption, collusion, money laundering. I don’t even know what else. So many people are involved. It’s going to be very ugly.

    I’ve said many times, Trump will throw everyone under the bus, with the possible exception of Ivanka, before he’s forced out. Everyone who has worked or is working with Trump should be aware of this. If they aren’t, they’re stupid. They’re all cannon fodder for him in his desperation to save himself.

    First is was Flynn who was The Mole. The goal of making him the only one to blame didn’t work, so now they’ve blamed Nunes and some staffers. It won’t end there but Trump will go through everyone in a desperate attempt to save himself. No one will be safe, except possibly Ivanka.

  125. 125.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    @JPL:

    Amazing they are just going to direct all traffic to 285

    Merde–there goes my commute! And 285 cannot handle any more traffic. #WASF

  126. 126.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    Here’s a picture of the spools of pvc that have been under that bridge for at least 5 years. They are what burned.

  127. 127.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    @Baud:
    If only, at least we’d get a giggle before the next shoe dropped. There are a lot of shoes dropping.

  128. 128.

    dr. bloor

    March 30, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    @Mike in NC: Eh. Bannon has the tiger by the tail in this deal. He’s the one that should be checking his windows and abstaining from tea.

  129. 129.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    @JPL: Opening day should be a gas!

  130. 130.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    @raven: who needs al quaeda or ISIS or right wing militias when we have republican governors and congressman to destroy our infrastructure?

  131. 131.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    You know who talked to the FBI without ever asking for immunity. Hillary.

  132. 132.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    @Baud: Ha! Evidently creating that distinctive sound was a complex project:

    https://www.quora.com/How-was-the-Law-and-Order-chung-chung-sound-created

  133. 133.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @Yarrow:

    This is bigger and much more wide reaching than Watergate. Treason, espionage, corruption, collusion, money laundering. I don’t even know what else. So many people are involved. It’s going to be very ugly.

    I keep reminding myself/pinching myself: this administration (I use the term loosely) is what? 70 days old? This is just an extraordinary unraveling in such a short time. And I’m not at all confident that we’ve seen anything close to what there is to see.

  134. 134.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: It is historic.

  135. 135.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @raven:

    Dude on 11 alive is saying that this may be the tip of the iceberg. The fact that is collapsed may signal that all over the sections are faulty.

    #WASF

  136. 136.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @raven:

    Hard to believe after looking at your linked photo.

  137. 137.

    lollipopguild

    March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @raven: Lets store highly flammable items under a major interstate.

  138. 138.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @Kathleen: Especially those of the Brisco/Logan era.

  139. 139.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    @Kathleen: IKR…I swear I read an article once that said L&O is so prolific, that any hour of any day, you can find an episode of the original or spin off L&O running on any random channel…lol

    I mean hell…there was even an L&O: UK….and all they did was recycle L&O US storylines with British laws and customs instead…I mean down to even the verdict…lol

  140. 140.

    Aleta

    March 30, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    If this ever ends I’m going to check into a reeducation camp to rejuvenate.

  141. 141.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    @Mister Forkbeard: I’ve been thinking (always dangerous) and I’m not sure either scenario is probable. Not to get to technical, but the Feds usually only offer use immunity (i.e. Can’t use witness’ evidence against them but are free to continue to investigate and develop other evidence) versus transactional immunity (a free pass).

    If you (a witness) can’t deliver another wrongdoer, use immunity is useless.

  142. 142.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    @raven: My favorite Red, Brandon Phillips, was traded to Atlanta (sniff). I hope they at least can get a playoff berth, ’cause he’ll be a grandfather before the Reds get that far again.

  143. 143.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @raven:

    Opening day should be a gas!

    HA! Who’s going to sit in that now-even-worse mess to see the home team lose 95 games?

  144. 144.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @raven:

    Burnt PVC. Thank heavens we won’t need the EPA for that!

  145. 145.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @lollipopguild: For years. They are showing google map images of it now.

  146. 146.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @Baud: It seems much, much bigger in scope than Watergate.

  147. 147.

    mai naem mobile

    March 30, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I thought it was going to be Page or Stone. I’m wondering if Christie’s buddies getting sentences made Flynn think about getting a deal first.

  148. 148.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    March 30, 2017 at 8:38 pm

    @Baud:

    You know who talked to the FBI without ever asking for immunity. Hillary.

    Telling, isn’t it?

  149. 149.

    Hkedi

    March 30, 2017 at 8:38 pm

    @Mister Forkbeard:

    Pissing off Democrats and accusing them of persecuting conservative veterans is probably a great way to automatically get a bunch of republicans on your side regardless of any actual facts.

    Eh, we were never going to get people like that anyway. Even if we did nothing, there would be some fake news argle-bargle-Bengazi-Whitewater-Muslim-Birth-certificate BS that those people would lap up with a spoon and still vote straight crazy.

  150. 150.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:38 pm

    @Kathleen: Yep. This is international.

  151. 151.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    @JPL:

    Amazing they are just going to direct all traffic to 285.

    Oh now there’s a solution that’ll make everybody happy. Are they diverting all the NE folks across and over to 75? Or down to 20? Or the poor overworked surface streets? The mind, it boggles.

    Just emailed my former carpool passenger to see what he’s doing for his commute these days, and how this may affect him.

  152. 152.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Me too, especially when I draft it! Useless lawyer speak.

  153. 153.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    220,000 cars a day.

  154. 154.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Oh, Briscoe! I sense we could have an entire thread on our favorite L&O cast configurations and scenes. I love Logan & Briscoe, but Briscoe and Green pairing is my favorite for the “Law” side. On the “Order” side, McCoy, of course, and I think my favorite Asst DA was Claire Kincaid.

  155. 155.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @lamh36:

    When I lived in NYC, I recognized most of the plot lines before the first commercial break. The writers had it pretty easy.

  156. 156.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: She’s the direct victim here and the media can’t be bothered to vindicate her or even mention her name (unless they are talking about Chelsea).

  157. 157.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    only half a block from our offices in Colony Square

    Twenty or so years ago my wife was working late on a Sunday night in Colony Square, during Freaknik. She had to get a police escort to escape. And we only lived by Emory!

  158. 158.

    danielx

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @japa21:

    Right. If he’s clean as the proverbial driven snow, why-ever-for should he require immunity?

    ETA: those quicker than me (which admittedly does not set a very high bar) have already commented to this effect.

  159. 159.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Google maps of the overpass, spools.

    You have to navigate up Piedmont to get the view of the spools under the bridge.

  160. 160.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    @Kathleen:

    Well, it does involve Russia.

  161. 161.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    @Baud:

    It is historic.

    Yup. May you live in interesting times, indeed.

  162. 162.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    @Mister Forkbeard: Oh, I’m not disputing that is likely the case, I’m sure it will work on rank and file Republicans…but then wont’ it becomes who do you have loyalty to… Trump or Flynn (military vetes)? Cause as of just this morning, Flynn the Juror was angry tweeting at Cheeto…and Trump Co has been throwing Flynn the Elder under the bus left and right

  163. 163.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    Merkerly says on Chris Hayes that the Dems will succeed in filibustering Gorsuch.

  164. 164.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Oh now there’s a solution that’ll make everybody happy. Are they diverting all the NE folks across and over to 75? Or down to 20? Or the poor overworked surface streets? The mind, it boggles.

    That QuikTrip on Buford Highway? Ka-ching!!!

  165. 165.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    @raven: @Steve in the ATL: I was commuting to Athens the afternoon that day trader killed all those people in Buckhhead.

  166. 166.

    Roger Moore

    March 30, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I keep reminding myself/pinching myself: this administration (I use the term loosely) is what? 70 days old? This is just an extraordinary unraveling in such a short time.

    They’ve only been in office for 70 days or so, but they’ve been unraveling since the election, maybe before.

  167. 167.

    lollipopguild

    March 30, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @p.a.: Forget it p.a. it’s trumptown.

  168. 168.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: At least the highway collapse took the focus off the roadway shooting at 85 and 78.

  169. 169.

    trollhattan

    March 30, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @lollipopguild:
    We all know “jet fuel can’t melt steel” so this is clearly some kind of false flag attack on Big Freeway. Book it, hippies!

  170. 170.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @Baud:

    Merkerly says on Chris Hayes that the Dems will succeed in filibustering Gorsuch.

    Thank fucking God. I can’t even read stories about him it makes me too sick. I can’t handle another three generations of right wing lunacy on SCOTUS.

  171. 171.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @lamh36: OK, confession. I know where to find L&O every day of the week. The only L&O I know of on Monday is Criminal Intent which is on when I’m up at 3:30am. I’m ashamed to admit I go into a kind of withdrawal on Monday. DId not know there was UK version! Dick Wolfe is brilliant.

    SVU is my newest L&O drug.

    (Whispers) Are you by chance also a fan of Little Debbie Nutty Bars?

  172. 172.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @lollipopguild: Let’s store water blasting runoff in the pontoons of a floating bridge!

  173. 173.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Did the Reds move to Atlanta?

  174. 174.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: He wasn’t promising that the GOP won’t use the nuclear option. Just that the filibuster would hold.

  175. 175.

    Keith P.

    March 30, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    I’m learning from Jack Kingston that Michael Flynn’s immunity request is actually a good thing for the Trump administration. Because the administration says there will be no collusion, and something something Hillary Clinton.

  176. 176.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I don’t know how long, normally, a stretch of interstate highway would be expected to last, and I don’t know how frequently they do significant maintenance, but a lot of the inside-the-Perimeter stuff was massively overhauled in 1995-96, just in time for the Olympics. And I know they’ve done some improvements since then, like the interchange from I-85 to GA-400 and the Spring Street Connector.

  177. 177.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @raven:

    I was commuting to Athens the afternoon that day trader killed all those people in Buckhhead.

    Oh man. I lived in Buckhead then, in Peachtree Park. Not a good day, and that was years before Ray Lewis shot the place up. A few years later I worked with a young women who was a victim of that shooting; she had quite an inspiring story.

  178. 178.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @Kathleen: I liked Briscoe/Green as well. It still had Briscoe! :D

  179. 179.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    And a huge thunderstorm is bearing down on the ATL!!!

  180. 180.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    @Baud: But poor Wilmer was the one victimized by the Russian hackers! And the DNC. And DWS.

  181. 181.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    @raven: It’s been nice knowing you.

  182. 182.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    *quietly whispers* (((I hate L&O, it gets everything wrong!)))

  183. 183.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    @Kathleen: I will forever love L&O for introducing me to 3 of my fav tv crushes…

    Chris Noth (Logan…forget about the lame azz Sex & the City Mr Big character…Noth will always be Det Logan to me)

    Benjamin Bratt (Det Curtis…I mean…you’ve seen him right…)

    Jesse L. Martin (Det Green…love him…and he sings too)

    Chris Meloni (Det Stabler…don’t even get me started on how much I loved Meloni as Stabler)

    Dont’ even get me started…

  184. 184.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @raven: This happened earlier http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/shooting-leads-to-crash-shuts-down-highway-78-in-dekalb-county/507532084

  185. 185.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @LAO: That’s cuz reality is boring!

  186. 186.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @Kathleen:

    Did the Reds move to Atlanta?

    I said lose 95 games, not lose 105!

  187. 187.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @debbie: I was thinking just the numbers of people associated with Trump and his handlers/minions. HUUUUUGEST Presidential scandal in history. That should make him happy.

  188. 188.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @raven: It’s starting to sound like the beginning of the end. Take immediate cover!

  189. 189.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Yea, I worked at Tech and I’d bug up Northside, get on 75 and fly across all those lanes to get on 85n. I left just as it went down and shit was weak. I was also taking Raven to Auburn when the dude shot up the courthouse. First time I ever saw the heat with M-16’s at the Kangaroo on 316.

  190. 190.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @raven:

    And a huge thunderstorm is bearing down on the ATL!!!

    Good–will put out the fire and wash away all this yellow pollen!

    Floor wax/dessert topping

  191. 191.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @Baud:

    Merkerly says on Chris Hayes that the Dems will succeed in filibustering Gorsuch.

    You know, I have no problem with Manchin and Heitkamp doing what they gotta do for their local state politics. Fine. But I can’t quite get why they have to come out way ahead of all their colleagues and let the world know they are Yes on Gorsuch. It doesn’t buy anything! Keep your mouth shut until it is needed. Assface motherfuckers.

  192. 192.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    March 30, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @japa21: Do generals ever really leave active duty? Or is that just for 5 star level demi gods like Pershing, MacArthur, etc?

  193. 193.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @LAO: We need it badly in Athens, the pine dust is really bad!

  194. 194.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @raven: I hope rain it’s water and not frogs.

  195. 195.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @Corner Stone: It’s hard to know unless you know how it plays in the local press.

  196. 196.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @Kathleen: Or fish.

  197. 197.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    @LAO:

    *quietly whispers* (((I hate L&O, it gets everything wrong!)))

    Word. Can’t watch any lawyer depictions without several drinks and a couple of heart pills.

  198. 198.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    @raven: OK, so it’s a good thing. Excellent.

  199. 199.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    @Kathleen: lol…can’t stand Nutty Bars…lol. I like Peanut Butter, I love chocolate, but put them together in ANY kind of way and I’m not interested…lol

    Oh and I LOVED me some Det Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) oh and Criminal Intent also had my nerd girl crush…Jeff Goldblum take over as lead detective…loved it

  200. 200.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    @LAO:

    Immunity is very rare in the federal system. It’s pretty ballsy to ask for it.

    IANAL, but as I skim the letter, it looks like he wants immunity for congressional/senatorial committee testimony; I imagine he/his lawyer would try to use that to avoid prosecution via the Ollie North appeal ruling.

  201. 201.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    @lamh36: I agree, though Bratt is my least favorite BUT Stabler!!! I think his departure left a void. I like the new cast members OK but Stabler and Benson were magic. He’s also a big Hillary supporter.

  202. 202.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    HA…..Pete Souza…the most trollingest…former WH photographer of them all…love it!!!

    https://twitter.com/theonlyadult/status/847612713513607169

  203. 203.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @raven:

    I was also taking Raven to Auburn when the dude shot up the courthouse.

    Another not good day. Remember the kill list they found in his cell? It had one of my company’s employees on it. I got a very panicked call from the executive committee that day.

    You know, I’m starting to think that I sure am in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot….

  204. 204.

    Pogonip

    March 30, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: In West Deplorable we take ordinate pride in our traffic control, which consists of everyone politely, and sensibly, waiting while the skunk waddles across the road.

    True story: I have trained numerous computers to let me pay over the phone with my checking account, so occasionally I have to transfer funds from the credit union if we have an extra expense. I don’t know if it’s state law or one or both parties’s rules, but you can’t do that over the phone; you have to go to the CU, get a cashier’s check, and take it to the bank. The other day at lunchtime I performed this maneuver AND went to the pharmacy in 32 minutes total. You probably couldn’t get off your home street at lunchtime in 32 minutes in Chicago or Atlanta. (The equivalent errands in Columbus, Ohio, where I last lived, would have taken about an hour.)

    I would invite you all to experience the joys of West Deplorable except I have this nagging fear that everyone would want to drive here…

  205. 205.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Sssssssssssssss! Though I’m not insulted. Everyone here says, “Oh, the Reds are rebuilding”. My response, “As in the 1963 Mets?”

  206. 206.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    @Chet Murthy:

    Borrowing from another commenter: fuckem.

    Your royalty bill is in the mail.

  207. 207.

    raven

    March 30, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Sounds like the right place.

  208. 208.

    Pogonip

    March 30, 2017 at 8:58 pm

    @lamh36: Are you old enough to remember the Reese Cup commercials where 2 people run into each other? ” You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!”

  209. 209.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 8:58 pm

    @Amanda in the South Bay: Just the five stars. They’re permanently on active duty with full pay. Last living five star: Omar Bradley, d. 1981. Lesser stars do actually retire on something like 75% pay (varies based on years served)

  210. 210.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    @efgoldman: Ollie North predates my legal career, I’m will gladly defer to your analysis.

    @Steve in the ATL: You’re like a reverse Forrest Gump.

  211. 211.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    @LAO: what…I can’t hear you…la…la…la…la…

    lol

  212. 212.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    @efgoldman:

    IANAL

    Dude, some days I think know more about the law than I do.

    And every day I think you know more law than Omnes and Burnsie combined. Zing!

  213. 213.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    @lamh36: I love Jeff Goldblum in anything! My jury is still out on the Goren character. I’m not as attached to CI as I am the other 2 (yet).

    I’ll have to troll for other potential Little Debbie Nutty Bar cultists. We are mighty but reticent.

  214. 214.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    @lamh36: ?

    It still grinds my gears, though.

  215. 215.

    lollipopguild

    March 30, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @trollhattan: PVC pipe is like gasoline in solid form.

  216. 216.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @LAO:

    @efgoldman: Ollie North predates my legal career, I’m will gladly defer to your analysis.

    @Steve in the ATL: You’re like a reverse Forrest Gump.

    I went to college with Ollie’s daughter!

  217. 217.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @lamh36: Goren was fantastic. He had this sort of Colombo air to him where he just slowly, slowly peeled away the layers of onion to get to the nugget. There’s one ep where Steven Colbert (!) is the episode’s antagonist in which each was superb.

  218. 218.

    LAO

    March 30, 2017 at 9:02 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: You really are the reverse Forrest Gump!

  219. 219.

    PaulW

    March 30, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    For what I understand, all immunity deals are based on the guy giving truthful testimony. Any fibbing on Flynn’s part and he loses the deal and HE ends up getting charged on the stuff they’ve got him with.

    Whatever he’s got, the sliver of evidence he’s given up already to bait the hook has probably got enough on it to cause every campaign inner circle player suffer sleepless nights (just how far into that inner circle WAS Flynn?). Otherwise this leak would have waited.

  220. 220.

    Aleta

    March 30, 2017 at 9:04 pm

    @Yarrow:

    I don’t even know what else.

    The Russian mafia, and in Trump’s case the NY and Atlantic City mobs too. And the Bank of Cyprus, which used to be connected to the new US Sec of Commerce. And Jared Kushner and his nearly insolvent 5th Avenue office tower, and the deal to buy it that just fell through (after becaoming public) with a Chinese insurance co. that has secretive shareholders (but ties to families of high officials in the Chinese government) and owns the Waldorf Astoria and a lot of other real estate. As does Kushner’s family.

  221. 221.

    jacy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    @Kathleen:

    I love Nutty Bars. There, I said it. (Not sure if the makes my previous confession of my pre-adolescent crush on the Bay City Rollers better or worse…)

  222. 222.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    I feel like we should bifurcate this thread into Big National News of Treason and Atlanta Traffic & Weather.

    Speaking of which, the bottom just dropped out of the sky here in my suburban Atlanta trailer park. JPL, you may have been hit already; SD, you’re next; raven, you’ve probably got time to finish grilling the chicken.

  223. 223.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Goren was fantastic. He had this sort of Colombo air to him where he just slowly, slowly peeled away the layers of onion to get to the nugget.

    Goren also had a latent violence all around him. He was a big dude who didn’t mind getting in your space abruptly.

  224. 224.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:06 pm

    @raven:

    I was also taking Raven to Auburn when the dude shot up the courthouse.

    Oh yeah. Dude got as far as Duluth and holed up with some young woman in her apartment who, amazingly, talked him down. I had just moved to Duluth right before this happened, and was kind of freaked out at how close everything was to me, in a town I hardly knew my way around in yet. (Then a couple of weeks after that was the “runaway bride,” also from Duluth, and I really started wondering what kind of town I’d chosen as my new home.)

  225. 225.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @Pogonip: yeah…I know them…and I always shook my head as the commercial played…lol

  226. 226.

    Mike J

    March 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @PaulW: They’ll also want to know who he’s gonna give up. They will not give him immunity and then let him say, “It was ME ME ME I DID IT ALL!”

  227. 227.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Yeah, it suddenly got wicked here.

  228. 228.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    I had no idea until very recently that Vincent D’Onofrio was the guy in the Men In Black movie that was full of bugs. I just didn’t recognize him. He also played Orson Welles in the Johnny Depp/Ed Wood movie.

  229. 229.

    Lizzy L

    March 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    Comment from TPM:

    Mike Flynn tells the FBI he’s willing to talk, but only for immunity. But you only get immunity if you deliver someone else higher up the ladder. And there’s only one person higher up the ladder.

    I’m extremely skeptical that this will go anywhere.

  230. 230.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    many of the suburban areas refused to let it expand out of fear that the Negro would take it to their rarified white areas to rape and pillage.

    Same reason they located the new ballpark where they did, yes?

  231. 231.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: If you are in the 6th district, vote early. just sayin

    weather is fine here

  232. 232.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Same reason they located the new ballpark where they did, yes?

    Deplorables are always afraid of what they call “undesirables”

  233. 233.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @lamh36:

    D’Onofrio guested on the absolute best episode of Homicide, and Meloni played a totally different kind of guy on Oz.

  234. 234.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @Lizzy L:

    I’m extremely skeptical that this will go anywhere.

    Unfortunately, I am getting a yooge “Maddow with the tax returns” vibe from this whole Flynn revelation.

  235. 235.

    socraticsilence

    March 30, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I could live the closet advisor to the most powerful man in the US going to jail. At least for now.

    And hell Bannon probably makes a mean pruno.

  236. 236.

    lollipopguild

    March 30, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    @lamh36: So, you are a slightly overweight male who was in “Lost”?

  237. 237.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    @Corner Stone: At least it’s not her scoop.

  238. 238.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    @Lizzy L: (insert dramatic music here)

  239. 239.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    @p.a.:

    Sure am glad the Infrastructure Investment Act isn’t just a b.j for contractor coffers so this kind of thing doesn’t become common in the fut… uuhhh… shit…

    You know, I’m sure, that I-195 Eastbound out of Providence was closed for most of the last 24 hours because of a huge natural gas leak underneath.
    (No explosion/fire. Pure dumb luck.)
    And they say we’re not a world-class city.

  240. 240.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    @debbie: Oh…I know about Meloni on Oz…yes…I…do

    lol

  241. 241.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    @debbie: Do you remember Meloni in the “Fear and Loathing” movie?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWATBOQCUqM

    Elderly Law & Order fans would have pooped their pants if they’d seen it.

  242. 242.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    HA!

    @TorraineWalker
    Live recording of Mike Flynn’s testimony.

  243. 243.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 9:17 pm

    @debbie: He was nominated for a primetime Emmy for that role.

  244. 244.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 9:17 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Bannon is probably looking to give any of them the Trotsky treatment.

    As if he had the balls. Sniveling coward, afraid of his own shadow and anybody with brown skin, like all of them.

  245. 245.

    geg6

    March 30, 2017 at 9:17 pm

    @Kathleen:

    I have never seen a single episode of any of the L&O iterations. Sincere question…what’s the attraction? From the stuff I’ve seen and read about it, it’s the very definition of the standard tv procedural. And yet, so many people are just obsessed with it. I don’t get it.

  246. 246.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    @jacy: Welcome! I now know who I can really trust.

  247. 247.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    @Yarrow:

    This is bigger and much more wide reaching than Watergate.

    Only because the ’72 election was never going to be close.
    “Democrats in disarray” could have been coined for that year.

  248. 248.

    Rand Careaga

    March 30, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    Regarding the Atlanta fire and overpass collapse, we had something similar to that here in the Bay Area a few years back. A local engineering firm replaced the destroyed stretch with impressive alacrity—as I recall, their bid was high, but the contract carried with it some steep late penalties. CalTrans sensibly paid up for the swift restoration of normal traffic patterns.

  249. 249.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:20 pm

    Allan Smith‏Verified account @akarl_smith 2h2 hours ago

    Michael Flynn to NBC in September: “When you are given immunity, that means you have probably committed a crime.”

  250. 250.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:20 pm

    @Kathleen:

    I’ll have to troll for other potential Little Debbie Nutty Bar cultists. We are mighty but reticent.

    May or may not have mentioned it here — I know I did a long post on FB a couple of weeks ago on what would have been her 110th birthday — but my late stepmother, Pearl Frush (Mann), a commercial artist of some renown in the 1930s-1960s, was the person who painted the Little Debbie image, used to this day as the company logo. She and my dad were pretty broke at the time, so she charged the one-time princely sum of, I think, $1000, which was serious money in 1960. Later, Pearl very much regretted that she hadn’t signed a contract for a fraction of a fraction of a percent on every LD image sold or published. I’d probably be a fairly wealthy woman today if she had.

  251. 251.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    @Rand Careaga: Yeah.. we won’t do that.

  252. 252.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 30, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    @efgoldman: It takes courage and confidence to leave everything you know behind and a make a home in a new country where you hardly know any one. Sometimes, I think these immigrant haters, are just jealous, because they know that they lack the courage or the smarts to do so themselves.

  253. 253.

    Ruviana

    March 30, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    @lamh36: I once longed for a dedicated L&O cable channel.

  254. 254.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @JPL:

    If you are in the 6th district, vote early. just sayin

    Going tomorrow! Certainly not going to drive into town….

    @Steve in the ATL:

    many of the suburban areas refused to let it expand out of fear that the Negro would take it to their rarified white areas to rape and pillage.

    Same reason they located the new ballpark where they did, yes?

    Bingo

  255. 255.

    lamh36

    March 30, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @MaxineWaters 3m3 minutes ago
    More
    Trump’s campaign is under an FBI counterintelligence investigation. His former NS advisor is asking for immunity. Your move, Republicans. ??

  256. 256.

    MomDoc

    March 30, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It sounds like a lot of us used to work in Colony Square!

    Having spent a significant amount of time in several of the larger metro areas in the US (LA, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta), Atlanta is only behind LA for traffic horrors for me (I have little experience with DC traffic but I have heard about it). Chicago was bad but Atlanta still brings back nightmares.

    I can’t imagine what it will be like with 85 out of commission…

  257. 257.

    Ithink

    March 30, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    “All in w/ Chris Hayes” has been all over this nearly the whole hour tonight and my heart could do nothing except skip for joy; I’m sure Hillary’s is as well somewhere!

    I know there’s no de facto criminal charges against any of the Shitgibbon’s government puddies yet but it brings me undying glee that the soulless mofo who initiated and flame over those nascent “Lock Her Up” chants across every Idiot American gathering (I.e. Trump campaign rallies) post the conventions last summer is getting a hot and vomit-inducing serving of Humble Pie even after his breathtakingly short stint in the current administration.

    May many other breakthroughs in support of our democracy’s healthy continuance come to pass, because one nor two, no matter how large is gonna be enough to tale out the cancer metastasized from within it now…?

  258. 258.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Only because the ’72 election was never going to be close.

    Indeed–the Miami Dolphins ran away with it

  259. 259.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 30, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    @MomDoc: DC is a small city and the Metro is pretty good. Beltway is a nightmare, of course.

  260. 260.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    @geg6: The characters, the writing and the acting. They suck you in slowly before you realize your addicted. On many episodes I’ve seen several times I usually catch a new bit of business or nuance that I missed before, especially the interactions between Briscoe, Green, Curtis and Lt. Van Buren. The Medical Examiner is very funny at times (when Green asks her what’s on the phone receiver he’s about to pick up she says, “Brains. Or maybe egg salad” Green quickly finds another phone).

    My father was also addicted and I didn’t get it at the time. Now I’m old. It’s a kind of comfort food in some strange way.

  261. 261.

    Lizzy L

    March 30, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @Corner Stone: Yeah, me too. The mouse that roared…

  262. 262.

    Keith P.

    March 30, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    A bit on-topic, Gizmodo did some sleuthing and very likely discovered James Comey’s secret Twitter/Instagram accounts. I particularly like the method of using Twitter’s “Other users you may be interested in” feature…clever.

  263. 263.

    hovercraft

    March 30, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    @debbie:

    Meloni played a totally different kind of guy on Oz.

    He’s a slave catcher on Underground.

  264. 264.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    He should have won.

    @lamh36:

    YouTube has the Homicide episode in 6 parts. It’s worth wading through (Seaon 6, Episode 7).

    ETA: Oops, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qhplAN8ie2w

  265. 265.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    The Washington Post doesn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea from all this:

    It is not unheard of for potential congressional witnesses to seek immunity in exchange for testimony. During the Obama administration, former IRS official Lois Lerner sought immunity for her testimony to Congress, which was investigating how she and other officials scrutinized conservative groups. The FBI was also investigating the matter at the time. The committee declined to grant her immunity, and she was still called to testify at a hearing, in which she repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right to protect herself against self-incrimination.

  266. 266.

    Aleta

    March 30, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    Without all the leaks and their timing, I wonder where we’d be now.

    I think there should be a National Whistlebower’s Day.
    A Whisteblower’s Parade every year would be good for the spirit.

  267. 267.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: What a great story! I love that the image actually represents the time it was created vs. someone’s idea of the time it was created. I will make sure to pay more attention to the picture now. (Whispers) Do you like Little Debbie Nutty Bars?

  268. 268.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 9:33 pm

    @hovercraft:

    I’ve read the book. He’s perfect!

    @germy:

    I will have to now!

  269. 269.

    Redshift

    March 30, 2017 at 9:33 pm

    @Keith P.:

    Cynic I am, I’m thinking Flynn’s endgame is to get immunity from the House committee (aka Nunes) in order to dump out a bunch of information that will fuck up the FBI’s case, whatever it is. This game has been played in Congress before.

    That’s been my fear for a while, that Nunes was out in that position to deliberately set up Ollie North get out of jail free cards for all of them. It’s still a concern, but he’s been such an obvious stooge, I think it’s reduced the chance that his fellow GOP committee members will risk their necks to vote for a bad immunity deal.

  270. 270.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2017 at 9:33 pm

    @debbie: I have to check that out. Loved Homicide.

  271. 271.

    JPL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Roswell has early voting for city council and the 6th district starting the tenth of April. I’m waiting because it’s easier to vote in both elections then.

  272. 272.

    Baud

    March 30, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    @germy: And no one speculated about her motives at all!

  273. 273.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    And every day I think you know more law than Omnes and Burnsie combined.

    Well, thanks a lot. They’ll blame me, you know.
    I think if you know the details of history in things like Watergate and Iran-Contra, you kind of learn the law as you go along. I lived it (both) as an adult; also, in those days, when stuff happened like Ollie’s appeal, the MSM brought experts to take the time to explain it.

  274. 274.

    amk

    March 30, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    The beginning of the end? Tell me it is so.

  275. 275.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    Will Ferrell was uncanny as Little Debbie
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F8sw_TIARs

  276. 276.

    rikyrah

    March 30, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    Maxine Waters‏Verified account @MaxineWaters

    Trump’s campaign is under an FBI counterintelligence investigation. His former NS advisor is asking for immunity. Your move, Republicans

  277. 277.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    @Baud:

    And no one speculated about her motives at all!

    It was a gentler time.

  278. 278.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    @amk:

    We appear to be at the inflection point. Everything is getting clearer, and happening fast. We’ve caught them all with their own words and actions, but now it gets extremely dangerous. There’s no one really in charge of anything and there’s going to be a lot of lashing out.

  279. 279.

    AliceBlue

    March 30, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    @MomDoc:
    I worked for a couple of lawyers in Colony Square from 1984 to 2001–the 400 building. I lived within walking distance until I got married in 1986, and moved to the ‘burbs. Needless to say my commute changed drastically. The things you do for love …

  280. 280.

    rikyrah

    March 30, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    Greg Miller‏Verified account @gregpmiller

    Greg Miller Retweeted Max Boot

    CIA tried to get Cohen removed. He went to Bannon and Kushner. All of sudden CIA officer assigned to NSC is escorted off White House grounds

  281. 281.

    p.a.

    March 30, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @efgoldman: Jimmy Breslin said the best crooks come from Providence.

  282. 282.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @AliceBlue:

    I lived within walking distance until I got married in 1986, and moved to the ‘burbs. Needless to say my commute changed drastically.

    I used to live 8 minutes door to door from work.
    ***SIGH***

  283. 283.

    zhena gogolia

    March 30, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @Kathleen:

    Richard Brooks.

  284. 284.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:42 pm

    @MomDoc:

    It sounds like a lot of us used to work in Colony Square!

    When were you there? And were you in the 100 or 400 building? (1996-2013 for me, on the 17th floor of the 100 building.)

  285. 285.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 9:42 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It takes courage and confidence to leave everything you know behind and a make a home in a new country where you hardly know any one.

    I’m only a skipped generation (my paternal grandparents) away the boat from Russia. And they traveled as adolescents, maybe 12-13 years old, with siblings or cousins but no adults. (Separately; they met in Boston). The courage and the desperation, in the first decade of the 20th century, to do that….

  286. 286.

    amk

    March 30, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    The Trump White House: The plot of House of Cards with the characters from Veep— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) March 31, 2017

  287. 287.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    @rikyrah: Oh, now that is interesting.

    Cultivating good relations with the IC there, Drumpfentwits.

  288. 288.

    zhena gogolia

    March 30, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    @debbie:

    Yeah, Homicide, terrifying when he was stuck in the train. Hard to watch, but great acting.

  289. 289.

    zhena gogolia

    March 30, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    @debbie:

    I remember Meloni as a terrifying villain on NYPD Blue.

  290. 290.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 30, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    Well at least things are going great in other areas of government

    Many career diplomats say they still have not met him, and some have been instructed not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact.

    “Him” is our more-or-less Secretary of State, Friend of the Vlad Rex Tillerson

  291. 291.

    randy khan

    March 30, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @raven:

    That looked like a pretty bad fire. A hot enough fire will really weaken any metal components, which makes it likely that something heavy enough would collapse.

    And I noticed that it looked like only one chunk of the road fell in. Of course, they’re going to need to look at a lot more than that segment to decide what needs to be done.

    *sigh* Really tough on all of the Atlanta commuters; and now I’m going to need to find an alternate route between Hartsfield and the place I visit most often there for work, which is a minor detail but quite annoying to me.

  292. 292.

    Hobbes83

    March 30, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    But her emails…

  293. 293.

    p.a.

    March 30, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @Rand Careaga: Didn’t an interstate bridge collapse in Minnesota not long ago? 13 killed. Believe because of stress, wear & tear.

  294. 294.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @Kathleen:

    I love that the image actually represents the time it was created vs. someone’s idea of the time it was created.

    “Little Debbie” was the granddaughter of the company founder. She was about 5 years old, and my stepmother used a black and white photo of her as a model, aged her by a couple of years very subtly, and of course rendered the image in colour.

    You know, AFAICR, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a Little Debbie product. No particular reason, I was just never drawn to any of their pastries. But I still feel a little thrill of vestigial ownership whenever I see a package or print advertisement with that child’s painted image adorning it.

  295. 295.

    debbie

    March 30, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Very intense! After watching, I apologized to myself for all the times I leaned way over the edge of the platform to see if a train was coming yet.

  296. 296.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Many career diplomats say they still have not met him, and some have been instructed not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact.

    “Him” is our more-or-less Secretary of State, Friend of the Vlad Rex Tillerson

    It’s in his contract. Also, like Van Halen, no brown M&Ms.

  297. 297.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 30, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    @efgoldman: Courage, desperation, madness,. all of the above. Plus know that you will never know that secure feeling of belonging 100% to a place. You will be an outsider in your adopted country and where you were born.

  298. 298.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: That would make a nice essay for a magazine. Have you ever thought about writing it up?

    I remember sometime in the 1970s, Mike Douglas had an elderly woman guest who’d been the model for sunmaid raisins. She was an employee in her youth, and they chose her out of a crowd to pose for the box.

  299. 299.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:53 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Many career diplomats say they still have not met him, and some have been instructed not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact.

    I have a vague recollection of advice for being a pedestrian in NYC: never look a driver (especially a taxi driver) in the eye or they will run you right over without a qualm.

  300. 300.

    gbbalto

    March 30, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    Maybe I shouldn’t, but I feel a little sorry for GEN Flynn, as in watching a distinguished officer destroy his career, reputation, and probably his pension for some stupid shit that he should never have fallen for. I recall LTC Terry Lakin, who once worked at my agency. Didn’t know him well but he seemed to be a very smart and pleasant guy. Have no idea how he got on the birther track and the road to court martial and Leavenworth. Too bad though, they were both smart enough to have not spiraled into a smoking crater.

  301. 301.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 30, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    Are all of our FPers held hostage in Putin’s lair?

  302. 302.

    amk

    March 30, 2017 at 9:55 pm

    maxine waters: trump & co = #kremlinklan

    LOL. Racist stooges. A twofer.

  303. 303.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    @p.a.:

    That was almost ten years ago. When you think of how fragile so many of our roads and bridges are, it’s kind of amazing that we don’t have more frequent events like this, and that human casualties, so far, as relatively minimal.

  304. 304.

    clay

    March 30, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Is Athens-Clarke County part of “Metro Atlanta” yet?

  305. 305.

    amk

    March 30, 2017 at 9:57 pm

    @gbbalto: If you fell for the birther crap, you sure ain’t smart but you sure are a racist.

  306. 306.

    Chet Murthy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:57 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: My experience was the opposite in both NYC and Paris: look ’em in the eye, stare ’em down while you walk, and NEVER break your stride. So they know you’re there, not gonna jump outta their way, it’s up to them to stop.

    And esp NEVER break your stride.

  307. 307.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Are all of our FPers held hostage in Putin’s lair?

    They’re in a huddle right now. They’ll post, but in exchange for immunity.

  308. 308.

    gbbalto

    March 30, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @amk: Funny, I never got that impression of him but I think you are right about the racism. He was smart but I guess not in that area.

  309. 309.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @clay: Ha! Not if the Georgia Tech people have anything to say about it.

    Shoot, if we had high speed trains then Athens, Macon, and Chattanooga would all be metro Atlanta.

  310. 310.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 30, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: You’ll get yours.

  311. 311.

    Mnemosyne

    March 30, 2017 at 10:01 pm

    @debbie:

    That was a good episode of “Homicide,” but I thought the two-parter with Bruce Campbell was better.

    Also, too, JK Simmons and Andre Braugher facing off in the Box.

  312. 312.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 10:05 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would punch that fat fucking piece of shit in his stupid fucking John Wayne face.
    Waaaahhh! I didn’t want this jerb! My old lady made me take it!

  313. 313.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 30, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    @Rand Careaga: CalTrans did the same thing when the 10 collapsed during Northridge, they had it up and running real quick.

  314. 314.

    Chris T.

    March 30, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    @Yarrow:

    They’re all cannon fodder for [Trump] in his desperation to save himself.

    This is a misreading of narcissism. From Hair Furor’s point of view, he has not done anything wrong. (Whatever he does is automatically Not Wrong, and in fact is Right and Great and The Best Ever.) So there’s never desperation to save himself because he never needs saving. But the effect is very similar, because it means that anyone near him who claims he has done wrong, is a traitor / turncoat. (Again, this is all from the Orange Idiot’s point of view.)

    So, yes, they should worry. But it’s never “desperation”. Bewilderment, sure. He can’t understand how we can all be so blind to his godlike godness.

  315. 315.

    YellowDog

    March 30, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    Flynn lied to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. The FBI takes that very seriously. He may want immunity from that, nothing more. Until there is more to the story, I wouldn’t assume yet that he is the smoking gun (for you youngsters, that is a Watergate reference). Speaking of Watergate, that was a slow grind, even after John Dean testified. This is likely to be the same.

  316. 316.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    @germy:

    That would make a nice essay for a magazine. Have you ever thought about writing it up?

    Only recently. It’s really only since Pearl’s death that I’ve come to realise how significant she was as a commercial artist. She was widely considered to be one of the three finest female illustrators of her era (which was the great era of calendar and magazine art). She did lots of “pretty girl” pin-up paintings, and the most wonderful book of paper dolls in the world (“Seven and Seventeen,” of which I owned several first editions and could now cheerfully kick myself for not having held onto them). If you’re old enough, you’ll remember “Grapette” soda — she did just about all their calendar girl paintings — she also did a few Coca-Cola calendars, the originals of which hang in corporate headquarters in Atlanta. Her live models in the ’30s and early ’40s included Barbara Hale (Della Street in the old “Perry Mason” series) and, I’m about 98% positive, Lucille Ball.

    I need to go and edit some factual errors in her Wikipedia entry. Google her name (Pearl Frush, aka Pearl Mann) if you’re interested in seeing some of her stuff, only be well aware that some of the images they show are not hers but those of other artists of the same general timeframe.

  317. 317.

    clay

    March 30, 2017 at 10:11 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I used to commute from Athens to Atlanta. I just knew that, one day, the city would grow large enough to swallow all of the little incorporations in between. Like a gelatinous cube, swallowing bits of armor and treasure as it expands through the dungeon.

  318. 318.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 10:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne: JK Simmons plays Commissioner Gordon in the upcoming Justice League movie. Big bushy mustache and all. Sort of looks like John Bolton.

  319. 319.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 30, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Shoot, if we had high speed trains then Athens, Macon, and Chattanooga would all be metro Atlanta.

    Every time I drive north on I-75, I see more and more evidence that the Atlanta-Chattanooga corridor is fast becoming a megalopolis. Probably will include Knoxville before we’re much older.

  320. 320.

    eclare

    March 30, 2017 at 10:16 pm

    @germy: Van Halen actually had a valid reason for no brown M&Ms. Their show had a lot of pyrotechnics which needed to be exact. They figured if they put no brown M&Ms in the rider, and they got there and saw brown M&Ms, the crew didn’t pay attention to the pyrotechnic stuff either. Easy way to check if crew checked the instructions.

  321. 321.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 10:17 pm

    @eclare: That’s true. It was a way to see if they were paying attention.

  322. 322.

    clay

    March 30, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Forgot to add that I, of course, would’ve loved to had high-speed rail for that thrice-weekly commute.

  323. 323.

    MomSense

    March 30, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    Ok this is the part of the book where I want to skip to the last page.

    I just want these traitorous bastards to go to jail.

  324. 324.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 10:22 pm

    @clay: that was a brutal commute. Have you kicked the drug and alcohol habit that it surely caused?

  325. 325.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2017 at 10:22 pm

    @germy: He was FANTASTIC as J. Jonah Jameson in the first Spiderman trilogy. Nailed the dude!

  326. 326.

    germy

    March 30, 2017 at 10:24 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Best line: “I don’t trust anyone but my barber!”

  327. 327.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    March 30, 2017 at 10:30 pm

    Joy-Ann Reid filling in for Lawrence O’Donnell. Upgrade!

  328. 328.

    Just one more canuck

    March 30, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: they’re the equivalent of saying that a CEO is leaving his job to spend more time with his family

  329. 329.

    kindness

    March 30, 2017 at 10:33 pm

    Wow. Considering the Russian connection, I sure hope Flynn doesn’t turn up dead before his testimony. Putin kinda rolls that way apparently.

  330. 330.

    Corner Stone

    March 30, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    @Steeplejack (tablet): Severe fucking upgrade.

  331. 331.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 10:35 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    DC is a small city and the Metro is pretty good.

    Generally, parking is worse than driving.
    Every day nobody is killed on Metro is a good day. It used to be good.

  332. 332.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    @germy:

    she repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right to protect herself against self-incrimination.

    This never made any sense to me. She didn’t do anything remotely illegal, prosecutable, or even out of procedure.

  333. 333.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 10:43 pm

    @Redshift:

    that Nunes was out in that position to deliberately set up Ollie North get out of jail free cards

    Since he’s one of the leaders of the RWNJ Congresscritters as Dumb as a Curbstone Parade, I don’t think he’s capable of it.

  334. 334.

    SgrAstar

    March 30, 2017 at 10:44 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    “What happens if he floats?

    EZPZ. If he floats, he’s a witch.

  335. 335.

    clay

    March 30, 2017 at 10:49 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I was in my early 20s — young and invincible. Of course, the commute meant I had to leave home early and got home late, which meant I had less time to read and study. So my last year of grad school is a complete blur to me. I barely remember what classes I took, much less what the material was.

  336. 336.

    efgoldman

    March 30, 2017 at 10:49 pm

    @gbbalto:

    as in watching a distinguished officer destroy his career, reputation, and probably his pension

    As Adam has said, he apparently morphed from a fine intelligence officer into a raging Islamophobe. Hanging around Tangerine Torquemada certainly didn’t help.

  337. 337.

    sukabi

    March 30, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    @Corner Stone: tie rocks to his feet and throw him back in?

  338. 338.

    MomDoc

    March 30, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I was in the 400 Building from 1999 to 2001. It is really a small world!

  339. 339.

    Captain C

    March 30, 2017 at 11:00 pm

    @Corner Stone: Almost like he was a not-so-distant relative of Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket.

    I love the way Vincent D’Onofrio totally inhabits his characters.

  340. 340.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 30, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    @clay:

    I barely remember what classes I took, much less what the material was.

    That pretty well describes my last three years of law school. Also the first three.

  341. 341.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 30, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    @Captain C: He was a very good bug.

  342. 342.

    Gelfling 545

    March 30, 2017 at 11:10 pm

    @dr. bloor: I’m really hoping that Trump can hang on until 2018. With him tied up with this mess he won’t have time to push his agenda, whatever it might be pn any given day, whereas Pence would probably cooperate with Ryan, etc. with any luck, we’ll have a fighting chance after 2018.

  343. 343.

    Ruckus

    March 30, 2017 at 11:42 pm

    @raven:
    My plane landed at ATL on 9/11 and we were chased out of the terminal by I’m imaging NG but it could have been army, armed with M16s, with clips in. Did/do not imagine they were unloaded. The police were also not at all friendly. They were just stuffing 5 people into each cab and saying get the hell away from here, we don’t care where you go but you can’t stay here.

  344. 344.

    Ruckus

    March 30, 2017 at 11:55 pm

    @Rand Careaga:
    We had the same thing in 94 in LA with the I5/CA 14 rebuilding. They made good money on that, came in on time. But it was close. And they cleared and reopened what was known as the Old Road, which ran under I5, in an amazing amount of time so that my commute, which had been 15 minutes each way prior to the earthquake, which turned it into 2 hrs each way back into 30-45 minute drive each way.

  345. 345.

    clay

    March 30, 2017 at 11:56 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Geez, is law school really six years? I had no idea.

  346. 346.

    PJ

    March 31, 2017 at 12:23 am

    @gbbalto: Hate and ego will lead people to some strange places.

  347. 347.

    opiejeanne

    March 31, 2017 at 1:45 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I think that was the Yeagers, and I remember that they were really quick about it. We had just moved to the bay area when that bridge came down; was it the 14? It was hard to get detailed news about what was happening in SoCal; the local papers didn’t really acknowledge the southern half of the state other than some short reports about the earthquake. I drove through the area maybe a month later when they had diverted the I-5 traffic through that interchange onto a surface road.

  348. 348.

    Ruckus

    March 31, 2017 at 2:00 am

    @opiejeanne:
    There was quite a bit of damage on I10, some overpasses had to be rebuilt. But the major damage was the I5/CA 14 that I wrote about above. That surface road was The Old Road, which was the north-south route before I5 was built. It used to connect directly to the Grapevine.

  349. 349.

    opiejeanne

    March 31, 2017 at 3:41 am

    @Ruckus: That’s what I remember about the I-5/14 interchange. It was shocking to see the damage when I drove through there the first time after the earthquake. My family in SoCal saved newspapers for me so I could read about the earthquake when we came down; thought about keeping our LA Times subscription when we moved up there but it would have been mailed to us and I think it would have arrived 2 days after publication.

  350. 350.

    Ruckus

    March 31, 2017 at 4:01 am

    @opiejeanne:
    The interchange was NW and just out of view from my house at the time. You should have seen the damage before they cleared out and reopened The Old Road.

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