Check out this Sandhill crane and its fuzzy chick:
Awwwww.
I don’t know about you, but I’m having a tough time getting back into the swing of working after four days off. That’s the downside of extra-long weekends. Hope you’re having better luck with it.
Anyone following the “CNN blackmail” story? I’ll summarize:
1. Asshole president posts fake wrestling video showing body double pummeling man with CNN logo over face.
2. CNN tracks down Reddit asshole who made the video (whose Reddit username literally contains the word “asshole”).
3. Asshole Reddit user apologizes for producing racist, bigoted content (in addition to fake wrestling video), vows to troll no more, hopes to serve as a good example / cautionary tale.
4. CNN declines to publish asshole Reddit user’s name but reserves the right to “publish his identity should any of that change.”
5. Trump supporter assholes — including assholes Julian Assange, Donald Jr., Ted Cruz, etc. — go apeshit about “CNN blackmail.”
TPM has a more complete summary here. My conclusion? It’s assholes — all the way down.
Open thread!
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
CNN starting to get a backbone. Me like
Wjs
Well, I was told to fuck my feelings so it’s all good.
Frankensteinbeck
I read the Redditer’s apology. It was pretty comprehensive. I liked it. Basically ‘I thought I was goofing around getting a rise out of people on a forum. Then I found out people took me seriously, and worse, I was hurting others in general. I have erased my account and I’m giving up trolling, and DON’T BE LIKE ME, PEOPLE!’ With explicit apologies thrown in.
germy
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/pro-trump-activist-with-white-house-access-publishes-doxed-personal-information-for-cnn-anchors/
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
I’m sure papa would know all about that, Jr.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@germy:
Why is this individual at briefings?
aimai
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, I don’t believe it.
JCJ
Perhaps if the person threatens someone it would be reasonable to broadcast/publish the name of the one who threatened in order to facilitate a restraining order. and initiate standing of ground.
cope
In the mean time, how much print space and how many gazillion pixels are being wasted on documenting this nothingburger?
For the love of all that is good and pure, we have got to stop being distracted by this BS when there are huge, horrible problems that have to be acknowledged and dealt with. Christ on a crutch, I grow weary of the endless cacophony that signifies nothing.
Oh yeah, cute picture. We had to drive by a sandhill crane this morning as we were coming out of the blood test place and at eye-level from our small car, they can look pretty prehistoric and intimidating.
cope
Aaron
HanAssHoleSolo issued the following very nice apology:
“I would also like to apologize for the posts made that were racist, bigoted, and anti-semitic. I am in no way this kind of person, I love and accept people of all walks of life and have done so for my entire life. I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life, I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on reddit and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts. I would never support any kind of violence or actions against others simply for what they believe in, their religion, or the lifestyle they choose to have. Nor would I carry out any violence against anyone based upon that or support anyone who did.”
Unlike scrotus, he apologized. And for myself: apology accepted. good for you HAHS.
germy
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Because he’s a controversial pro-Trump activist?
Hoodie
Just had a texting debate with my son re this. I think there’s a widespread misunderstanding that freedom of speech does not entails an inherent right to anonymity on the internet. CNN was giving this asshole a break but wanted to make clear that they’d made no promise regarding protection of his anonymity. A bunch of right wing opportunists jumped on it, including flaming orange asshole’s greasy son, who made up a story about the reddit poster being 15.
randy khan
As I was walking back from lunch, I saw a fire truck and ambulance at the corner of 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s the corner where the Trump hotel is. It looked like they were on the other side (and, honestly, I hope they were), but I thought it might be worth mentioning.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Aaron: In other words, LOLnothingmatters. I don’t care if he never meant any of it. He should have never posted it. This is “in his heart” levels of bullshit. And I don’t believe he’s not racist
amygdala
@Frankensteinbeck: Sounds good, but given the awfulness of what he’s posted, it’ll take a few years of good behavior for me to believe he’s changed his stripes.
Aaron
@Hoodie: “The user, who is an adult male, not a 15-year-old boy, apologized and deleted his account before ever speaking with our reporter,” the network said. “CNN never made any deal, of any kind, with the user.”
Peale
@germy: At this point, we’ve lost pretty much all sense of shame and decency, so please, publish Anderson Cooper’s history of shoplifting and Andrea Mitchell’s group sex club membership cards. There’s really not much more we can do.
Major Major Major Major
I sure am glad we didn’t elect that mean lady with the emails because she reminded America of America’s ex-wife that left America when the factory closed and America wouldn’t get off America’s fat ass and look somewhere else for work.
Yarrow
As per usual, the hashtag is being amplified by bots and trolls. What else is going on that this hashtag takes focus away from?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: Shush you. You’ll hurt the alt-right’s and alt-left’s feelings
jl
” My conclusion? It’s assholes — all the way down. ”
Seems like a pile of assholes all the way down would slide down and collapse on itself and eventually disappear.
Especially if someone gave it a push.
I guess we have to hope that is how it works.
Thoroughly Pizzled
The President retweeting racist cartoon frogmen would be a career-ending scandal in sane times.
NobodySpecial
Wonder what Reddit guy’s Jewish best friend thinks of his Nazi memes?
Betty Cracker
@aimai: I don’t either. The day Trump retweeted the stupid wrestling video, the Reddit asshole was over the moon with joy. He changed his tune when he realized he’d been tracked down and that his super anti-Semitic, racist content could be associated with his real name.
Still, it was a comprehensive apology, so there’s that. It doesn’t sit right with me for CNN to threaten the asshole. But neither does the asshole’s oeuvre. Most disturbing of all, of course, is that the POTUS retweets memes from bigoted assholes. But that’s not new.
Major Major Major Major
@cope: There have been two posts today about the minutiae of healthcare reform and one about its progress through Congress.
joel hanes
Republican legislator in Wisconsin has proposed a hunting season for sandhill cranes.
Frankensteinbeck
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Very much the opposite. More ‘Holy shit, I thought it was all just a joke. I was so wrong. I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, and anybody else who’s getting sucked into this thinking it’s a game, learn from my example and don’t do it.’
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Thoroughly Pizzled: What’s sad is Peppey the Frog used to be a non-racist character in a comic strip, but was coopted. The creator killed off the character recently
hueyplong
Right wingers here virtually spitting the word “threat” when talking about CNN’s statement. Poor snowflakes seem to have forgotten everything they’ve seen on Fox except for the hate list.
catclub
Speaking of assholes and sandhill cranes, meeting of mayors (almost all real estate agents) in south mississippi looking for ways to take away useful real estate presently being wasted as a sandhill crane preserve.
rk
@Aaron:
Screw him and his apology. I want him to be outed. He’s a middle aged guy (according to CNN). Who does this kind of stuff, other than a sick twisted person. He has no right to privacy, and no freedom of speech for this nonsense. Only the govt can’t prosecute him. Everything else is fair game. CNN is not obliged to protect him from the consequences of his trolling.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Frankensteinbeck: I can only hope
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Question: In what way did CNN threaten this asshole?
The Moar You Know
That “apology” was written by a lawyer. What a fucking joke.
And CNN is just as bad. Sitting on his name? Threatening to release it? You’re reporters, CNN, not the goddamn thought police. Do your fucking job, which is solely to release the racist fucker’s name, since you have it. Dealing with his future actions is on him, his family, his employer, and his peers. Not the job of a “news” organization.
hueyplong
“Andrea Mitchell’s group sex club membership”?
?!?
WTF?
On second thought, do not enlighten me.
Mike in DC
Honestly, if a few of these trolls were outed publicly every year, it would improve public discourse by about 1%.
catclub
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
It is probably Jeff Sessions.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@The Moar You Know: Seriously, they should have just released his name and accepted the consequences. No half measures.
rikyrah
Social Media, Dear.
All you need is a janitor spotting AFO landing, and it’ll be on like Donkey Kong.
Cain S. LaTrans @snkscoyote
British Protestors Are Preparing to Mobilize If Trump Stops in England http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a56108/british-protestors-are-preparing-to-mobilize-if-trump-stops-in-england/ … via @Esquire
jl
@Betty Cracker:
” It doesn’t sit right with me for CNN to threaten the asshole. ”
I don’t see how CNN threatened him. The story is unclear on the sequence of events, but from my reading of the TPM article, the HanAssholeSolo person contacted CNN and revealed his identity, and CNN chose not to reveal it to the public. One of CNN’s comments is confusing, since it suggests that his actions in taking down the posts was the reason they didn’t reveal his identity, but that was contradicted by subsequently statements from the network.
Mike J
I also read that the reddit mods deleted the apology because they didn’t like it.
chris
Outside Roy Blunt’s office in Springfield MO. People pretending to be dead in “a very conservative part of Missouri.” From Sarah Kendzior.
Betty Cracker
@rk: I’ll be very surprised if he maintains his anonymity. If CNN can track him down, so can other folks. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I kinda hope a person who would produce a list of CNN anchors with stars of David next to their names to convey “OMG Jews control the media!” falls into a septic tank and drowns. On the other hand, doxxing is creepy. Period.
Kay
@Peale:
It’s really a dilemma. If media respond to him they’re drug down to his level and if they don’t he drags them down anyway.
No one benefits from an association or affiliation with Donald Trump. He makes everything he touches worse and it’s contagious. He’s discrediting himself, sure, and the institution of the Presidency, but he’s also discrediting anything and anyone he feuds with. So few people have been able to handle it. I feel like Obama is a notable exception and so is Mr. Khan, the soldier’s father. I don’t know what I’d do quite frankly. Best just to stay away from him but they can’t do that.
Shell
Thats one long-legged chick.
I shudder to think of the size of the egg that Momma crane had to squeeze out.
Jeff
@Frankensteinbeck: I’m sorry I got caught.
Juice Box
One of the guys who thought that NPR was advocating overthrow of the government because they were tweeting the Declaration of Independence has left his tweet up and has admitted that he was wrong and should have been more familiar with the DoI.
I make people mad when I say this, but some of the righties are reachable. As HRC said, _some_ of them are deplorable, but some of them just don’t know. My aunt was born after my grandparents lost a young son to a shooting accident. She’s married to an NRA gun nut, but he’s softened quite a bit on the subject from seeing how much the loss still hurts my mom. With patience some, albeit not all, are reachable. At the risk of being called a neoliberal, I think it’s important to keep my temper under control and reach out to these people*.
*I’m still having trouble controlling myself around Stein/Wilmer/Putin ‘bros.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@chris: props to guy wearing the grim reaper get-up with the scythe
Bobby Thomson
@Frankensteinbeck: meh. The same guy posted a graphic of Jewish CNN employees with Stars of David next to them. My guess is he realized he or his employer was about to lose a lot of business.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Frankensteinbeck: Here’s what I don’t get. Why would anyone get pleasure out of getting a rise out of people? Whether it’s virtual or physical…why do that? It’s a sickness.
Kay
I like to look at normal world leaders to see what they’re up to :)
Everyone else seems saner now.
dance around in your bones
I’m ignoring all the mad making WTF news right now – it’s too bloody hot here in El Paso so I save the rage roid eruption messages for early AM transmission. Today it was starting off with a laugh re: the NPR Declaration of Independence tweets that got Trumpsterites’ panties in a bunch – funny! Sad!
But my main ‘gotta comment!’ is a plea for help – the swamp cooler I’ve been using in my 3 rooms has become inadequate in these 103 degree temps.
Does anyone know of a good room air conditioner? Budget is $200 on down …. anyone? Bueller? I’m looking online at Home Depot, Walgreens, Amazon etc.
I have no openable window to perch one I’m so it’d have to be a stand alone or able to be jerry-rigged into the door that opens to the patio. My sister’s place, so no tear down major construction either.
A simple room air conditioner that works well enough , that I can buy at Amazon etc ????!! Thanks!!
bystander
@hueyplong: Only when she feels randy.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:
You are surrounded, here on this blog, by people who enjoy trolling in lesser versions. I don’t get it either, but some people just love fights.
Betty Cracker
@jl:From the CNN report:
Sounds like he got spooked when CNN tried to contact him. Also, I’m not sure how to read this other than as a threat:
Again, fuck that guy. But it sure sounds like CNN is telling him to behave or else to me.
trollhattan
@joel hanes: @catclub:
Finally, somebody with the nerve and leadership to stand up Big Crane.
“Coming for you next whoopers, you greedy fvcks!”
aimai
@Frankensteinbeck: Uh–no. No one who isn’t a sociopath engages in this level of trolling because they don’t know that its harmful–they do it because they do know its harmful. That’s their goal. They didn’t suddenly discover that they were promoting racism, sexism, violence, and trumpism (the same thing) because it was brought to their attention, like someone standing on your foot in a crowd who responds to your tapping him on the shoulder by moving off your foot. This is someone who sought out the pseudonymity of reddit in order to create and manage a world of hatred and spite that they were (rightly) afraid was socially inappropriate in their meat space life. I can’t believe how naive you would have to be to accept this apology at face value as reflecting any kind of sincere second thoughts about the chosen behavior.
? Martin
I wrote to Josh regarding this situation as I have a different take on it.
The redditor stopped being a private figure once Trump turned his work into official state propaganda. At that point, it was fair game for the media to investigate this individual to determine if they were indeed a private citizen or not. If that video had been produced by Jared or Bannon, we sure as shit would want a proper identity attached to it, and CNN would have been correct in publishing that name. CNN I think is also correct in not publishing the name since they seem convinced that the work really was from a private individual who did not give consent to have the work used. They reserve the right to publish if that person does turn out to be working on behalf of a Trump or political organization. That’s fair. This individual is being treated no differently than a source. If someone sockpuppeted a news organization to pass along information, they’d be outed. If they come under their name, so the media outfit knows what their angle might be, then they’re confidential. So far so good.
The problem is having CNN do the investigation, it’s impossible for us to tell whether the individual was blackmailed or whether CNN communicated their situation – that if they were a private citizen, they wouldn’t dox him/her, but if they were attached to some political organization or working on behalf of Trump, then the public has a right to know who they are. If from that the person volunteered an apology, then CNN is good. But maybe CNN blackmailed them. We can’t tell. Had some other news org done the investigation there’d be no conflict of interest and no question on that. So:
1) Fault Trump for not investigating the creator of the video and getting permission to publish. Trump is the one at fault for turning the redditor into a public figure. No fault on CNN there.
2) Fault CNN for not turning to a competitor to investigate this story since they clearly had a conflict of interest in the outcome, leaving us wondering what their actual motives were.
jl
@Betty Cracker:
OK, found a link that gives more details on the affair. Still unclear whether CNN and the Hans*Solo guy communicated before he changed his mind about his posts and CNN issued the announcement.
CNN tried to contact him, I suppose he realized they ID’d him and had a change of heart, or convenient change of mind?
Unclear who interviewed the guy from the story, unless I missed a link.
Well, CNN’s crummy journalistic tradecraft doesn’t justify attacks on the media. i don’t think the story is a nothingburger.
Trump clearly has fascist tendencies to along with his complete incompetence and complete unfitness for office. All three are important to publicize.
How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/kfile-reddit-user-trump-tweet/index.html
@Betty Cracker: Thanks, I just found the details myself. I think details too unclear to say CNN threatened him with anything. Might have, but maybe not.
Major Major Major Major
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Sturgeon’s law: “90% of everything is crap.” It’s about art, but you can apply it to people too. Or The Simpsons has one too, if you prefer: some animals are just jerks.
trollhattan
@bystander:
Randy has issued a statement asking to be left out of this.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
I do wish American publications would remember that the terms “Britain” and “England” are not interchangeable.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Countertrolling can be lots of fun. That and trolling assholes. A certain karmic justice can be achieved
aimai
@Betty Cracker: Is doxxing creepy? I guess I think that people who dox other people and use their own anonymity to foster death threats should lose their anonymity. I’m not sure why we have to have a blanket condemnation of doxing at all.If someone sends me an anonymous death threat I think I’m entitled to try to find out who sent it and sic the police on them, or society, or their mother, if I think that will offer me a shred of protection. Just because assholes believe that they can cyberbully women with impunity does’t make it some kind of right.
Betty Cracker
@dance around in your bones: What’s your approximate square footage? A friend of mine uses a Haier unit to cool down a small outbuilding when the temperatures get high, and that seems to work pretty well. I Googled it, and this looks like the unit. My friend’s space is pretty small, though — not sure it would work with a larger space.
aimai
@? Martin: What a bizarre rule you’ve just made up for CNN to fail to have followed. What on earth makes you think that a news organization has to turn its information over to a “competitor” in order to pursue an investigation over a news topic? This is to fetishize objectivity to an absurd degree.
Frankensteinbeck
@aimai:
Naive? I’ve lived with alcoholics, abusers, people with rage issues, and lengthily with a sociopath – and boy, is it god damn scary to know someone who totally does not grasp that anyone besides himself has value. I’ve been through the particular horror of knowing someone who worms into social groups and relationships for the sole purpose of gaining power that can be then used to hurt their victims. Thankfully, that person – the only one I’ve known I consider truly Evil and not just fucked up – is dead and can hurt no one anymore. I have no difficulty at all registering a level of shittiness where the person gets off, in a controlled setting, on getting an emotional reaction out of assholes, without grasping that they are causing outside damage. It takes a huge shock to wake up someone willfully ignorant like that. This would be the kind of shock, and the apology reads consistent with it. It could be a VERY well calculated fake, but it fits.
The Moar You Know
@dance around in your bones: I have the same rig at home. You won’t find one for $200. Maybe $350 if you’re lucky, think mine was about five bills. Works, though.
Mike J
@Amir Khalid: I imagine that with enough notice, protesters will show up from Wales and even Scotland.
Kay
Why is the President of the United States POSTING this crap? OMFG, all the problems in this country and this is how Team Trump spend their days? They’re 7th graders. They need to grow up. How many public employees work on these ridiculous feuds and how many hours have they spent on it?
The Reddit man is not the issue. CNN is not the issue. The President and the collection of oddball losers he surrounds himself with are the issue.
jl
@? Martin: I also fault CNN for vague reporting of the affair. Since they did the investigation, they should know all the details.
You raise a good point. A video clip accompanying the KFile story I linked to above says someone altered the video. The version in Trump’s tweet is different from the reddit post.
So, maybe some political actor was responsible for Trump;s tweet?
? Martin
@Betty Cracker: CNN is educating this individual on what it means to be a public citizen vs a private one. I’ll note, this is a relatively new problem with social media. We have democratized speech to such an extent that people can easily slip from one category to the other, often without their intention. I don’t think we should fault the media for treating public citizens like public citizens – we should demand more of that (hello anonymous campaign donors!) but we should educate people up and down the ladder on when that anonymity can be stripped away.
I work for a public agency which means I have no right to anonymity in my work. But I also recognize, and have been trained, to appreciate when I might accidentally pull someone else into that space. I have to be careful that I don’t take someone who expects privacy and make them public. That’s on me. That’s on all public officials. Trump did this, not CNN.
Betty Cracker
@aimai: I agree under some circumstances it’s appropriate, so my “period” was ill-advised. Certainly in the case of a crime, e.g., death threats, rape threats, etc., or to prevent harm, e.g., suspected child abuse, suicidal/homicidal person, etc., it’s warranted. But for being an asshole? Nah.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Kay:
I’m a worse person than I was on November 7. My thoughts were nicer then. I was more patient.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@? Martin: CNN’s motives are quite clear: get to the bottom of this attack on us as a media entity that has been amplified by the president. I agree they probably should just have had another outfit investigate to avoid allegations of blackmail.
CNN shiould release all correspondences with Han with private identifying info redacted, to clear up any confusion
The Moar You Know
Also love the cranes, Betty. Just had to say that. Hope the lil’ guy makes it.
Cranes and pelicans always get me to see the dinosaurs they are. Secretary bird. Roadrunners. A few others.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: @dance around in your bones:
Do note “exhaust hose installation required.” The hot air has to go outside somehow, and since the windows don’t open you may need a Big Fvcking Drill.
randy khan
@trollhattan:
Speaking as a virtual randy (not my real name, as I mention occasionally) who lives in the same metropolitan area as Ms. Mitchell, I *definitely* want to be left out of it.
Yarrow
@dance around in your bones: I don’t know anything about portable air conditioners, so can’t help you with that info. I did get an email from Lowe’s and they were having an appliance sale that goes through today. Might be an extra discount involved. Stay safe. El Paso in the summer is a tough place to be.
Mike J
@Betty Cracker: Some people think the stars of David over the faces of CNN hosts were just being an asshole, some people see them as an actual threat. I tend to come down on the side of threat.
rikyrah
will my lips ever be unpursed today?
MEMBERS ONLY: Inside The Hard Left’s Plan to Tea Party the Democrats
Obstruction and destruction will never lead to progress.
Justin Rosario
7 hours ago
The hard left, in its pursuit of punishing the Democratic Party, has
abandoned the concept of real world progress in favor of a nonexistent
political purity. The belief is that crippling the party will force them
to swing to the far left and bring about liberal utopia. It won’t work.
Here’s the theory:…
https://thedailybanter.com/2017/07/members-only-the-hard-lefts-plan-to-tea-party-the-democrats-wont-work/
trollhattan
@aimai:
This certainly isn’t on par with Michelle Malkin and her crack countertop squad going after that family with the sick boy. Who did they ever threaten/insult/attack?
Another Scott
@cope: While we can all multi-task to some extent, and so forth, I agree that we can’t let our guard down.
TheHill:
They’re going to try to ram something through next week. We have to keep fighting.
Cheers,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
Scotland, his mother’s homeland, has more reason to despise Trump than the other home nations. And the Scots delight in showing how much they despise him.
trollhattan
@randy khan:
Heh! Maybe change your phone # just in case…. Mrs. Greenspan has a reputation for being relentless.
Millard Filmore
@rk:
And besides what CNN is doing is not illegal, so why are the Trumpies all upset?
Major Major Major Major
@Another Scott:
What? That’s not how regulations work, that’s not how any of this works.
dance around in your bones
@Betty Cracker: I just measured with my Chinese back scratcher and I’m guessing 12 x 18 feet in my bedroom (that’s the room that needs to chill out!)
So maybe the $200 or less is unrealistic …. figures. It just occurred to me today that a portable might work!
I’m reading the DOE site’s hints for room cooling if one suddenly finds oneself in Hell Paso in July – and No Ocean!!!
I may take that left turn thru New Mexico and get back to California where I can breathe. ???????
rikyrah
we know what that means..
uh huh
uh huh
they are SHYT, compared to real Medicare.
Kyle GriffinVerified account @kylegriffin1
The government has canceled its plan to release much-anticipated data on Medicare’s privately-run plans.
MAYHEW, HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Millard Filmore: They’re upset about being held accountable for their words and actions
Yarrow
@dance around in your bones: How well insulated are the windows? They’re one of the biggest heat/cool loss areas in homes. Do you have some heavy drapes or can you put up blankets or something to make sure they’re well covered when your’e not there, especially in the middle of the day? I know at that level of heat there’s not all that much you can do, but keeping the windows covered might help a bit.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@rikyrah: Wouldn’t want the peons to see what we have in store for them too soon. Fuck them to hell
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: It really is amazing how such a high percentage of the polity is unwilling to accept that actions have consequences.
jl
@Mike J: Thanks. I forgot about this guy’s attempt to ID all the Jewish CNN staff, which I read had plenty of mistakes.
CNN had a good reason and justification to try to find out who was putting this stuff up. The Trumpster feds were going to look into it? But they should have done better reporting on their own investigation and what transpired.
Another Scott
@dance around in your bones: Since you’re in the desert, a swamp cooler might work for you. I’ve got no experience with them, but it would cool the air (and raise the humidity) without having to have any exit for the hot air like an AC would require.
Just something to think about. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Under legislation introduced by Senator Cruz, the FAA will allow airlines to perform fewer routine inspections and repairs on a portion of their aircraft so long as they meet all applicable regulations with some of their aircraft. Suspect that’s the approach taken in Russia.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: Then they scream about “free speech” and how the evil PC SJeWs are the real fascists!!11111. Then in the next breath they make death threats intended to silence their opponents. Conservatives and other far righties have their own brand of PC, just one that isn’t for inclusion but rather racial supremacy
trollhattan
@dance around in your bones:
Lots of stories with happy endings begin, “So, I decided to leave Texas.”
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: In GOP land, that is how it works. The world now belongs to the Ted Cruzes and the Trumps; we just exist in it.
Gravenstone
@cope: Oh for fuck’s sake, people are actually able to focus on more than one issue at any given moment. This constant undercurrent of “but everything is horrible and NO ONE is talking about it” is beyond tiresome these days.
dance around in your bones
@Yarrow: I have two windows made of those glass blocks that are real pretty, don’t open at all. One kitchen window that doesn’t open either and has a folding paper screen over it. Bedroom has a non opening sliding window that would look into the garage if IT weren’t covered by a folding paper screen, too! Bathroom has tiny 18 x 18 inch openable window that blows delightfully fresh air through the house – daytime HOT and nighttime ‘AHH ‘!!!
The swamp cooler on top of kitchen helps, plus floor fan in bedroom- at night I leave the two doors open to the cooler air and pray for rain ( it happens! Rarely, but …. it happens!)
Millard Filmore
@? Martin: Please note, I am not a lawyer and this is all guesswork.
The anonymous person produced a derivative work base on a copyrighted work he did not have rights to. Trump is [guessing here] the copyright owner or part owner. When Trump retweeted this derivative work, Trump signaled that he abandoned his right to sue for copyright infringement.
CNN investigated and concluded that this work, along with other postings the anonymous person made, constituted an invitation to commit violence against CNN personnel. CNN lawyers [again a guess] contacted this person to see if filing court papers can be avoided. They came to a mutually agreeable solution.
Only guesswork here.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Major Major Major Major: Hey, cool idea. Think of all the other areas this principle could be applied to save businesses money. For instance, if you build one house that’s up to code (fire, electrical, whatever), the next one you build doesn’t have to be.
You could use up your lead pipes and your asbestos in every other building, too.
? Martin
@aimai:
Given that CNN is getting a lot of blowback over this, even from other media organizations, suggests that had they done this, they wouldn’t be getting that blowback. I’m not sure why we should expect a media organization to be any different from any other organization when it comes to conflict of interest situations. Should we trust Fox News to do a fair investigation of a culture of sexual harassment within their organization? No, of course not. And if we were to later discover that CNN did put pressure on this individual, it would put all of their reporting into question.
The reason you back out of conflict of interest situations is to protect your own future reputation. If you’re a news organization, your reputation is your primary asset – why on earth would you risk that over a minor story? Hell, give the story to Pro Publica or NPR or The Atlantic or WaPo to investigate – someone who doesn’t compete in the same media space.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: You, sir, have won the Internets for today. And I am *so* swiping this.
jl
Important review of how we got where we are with North Korea.
A reminder that even though compared to Bush II, Trump is far dumber, far more malicious and far more incompetent, Dub’s foolishness produced, so far, more long term messes and disasters than Trump has. We have to hope our luck keeps holding up. Six months in. Need to work to make 2018 start to loom very large in GOP Congress’ field of vision.
Trump’s Korea Policy is a Fast-Forward, Stupider Version of Bush’s
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trumps-korea-policy-is-a-fast-forward-stupider-version-of-bushs
NR
@Betty Cracker: I pretty much agree here. Something that’s getting lost in this discussion of doxxing, though, is the fact that Trump supporters in the media were doxxing people last year. Lou Dobbs doxxed one of Trump’s accusers.
There are some people out there who are upset about both of these things, but a lot of the outrage on the right rings pretty hollow to me given what happened with this stuff last year.
Yarrow
@dance around in your bones: Well, if any of those windows feel warm to the touch during the day they might be contributing to the heat in your place. A thick towel or blanket covering them can help. If you are there a lot during the day it might not work since it’ll feel like you’re in a cave. Not opening blinds that face east in the morning and west in the afternoon might also help. Opening windows and doors at night to cool the place down and then covering everything during the day can help keep the place cool.
Gravenstone
@dance around in your bones:
You’ll need a window or someplace outside to vent the waste heat from any air conditioner. Otherwise you won’t be cooling anything, instead it will actually get hotte. Aside from that, afraid I can’t offer much guidance on ways to address that horrid Texas heat.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Meh. If I were CNN, I would also retain the right to out the guy if he reneges on the deal he made, even if it’s an implicit deal. He shouldn’t get to go back to trolling secure in the knowledge that CNN would feel compelled not to out him if he does.
It’s a quid pro quo, not a threat, but IANAL, so …
Millard Filmore
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I was imitating Trump with the “There is no law against it.” What I mean frequently is not what I write.
? Martin
@Millard Filmore:
I don’t disagree with the legal situation. I doubt Trump is a part-owner of the original video, but the owner heads up the SBA, so it would have been easy enough for him to clear that. But I’ll bet my house he just doesn’t give a shit.
What I’m describing isn’t a legal distinction. The question is really – who is a private citizen and who is a public citizen? I think it’s generally agreed that anyone who has an outsized influence on public policy, or anyone who relies on that public exposure for personal gain (a Kardashian, for example) is a public figure. Once Trump retweeted that, regardless of who held the copyright or whether the work had been modified, everyone in that chain became a public figure because the work went from being a private exercise within a reddit board to being an official public statement by the President. The redditor didn’t choose that, but the President did without any consideration on the impact to the redditor. The redditor is now subject to being treated as a public figure, and could be by pretty much the same rules that CNN would use to disclose or shield a source: “Is it in the public interest to know the source or not, and can this information be published while still respecting that”. Trump needed to make that assessment before publishing, and he didn’t.
dexwood
@dance around in your bones:
New pads on the cooler this year? Checked the pump and float to make sure they’re operating ok? I replaced my 31 year old swamp cooler in April.
The Moar You Know
@dance around in your bones: Hey, the standalone portables all usually come with an adapter/exhaust port for a sliding glass door. I had to supplement mine with some cardboard and masking tape, but it’s not rocket science. Put it up every summer, pull it down in the winter. Makes monsoon season here livable. And that season started yesterday.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@NR: but, but… hollow outrage is just about all they have left!
Barbara
@randy khan: Nothing happening at Trump Hotel. I can see it from my office.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
In a weird way, it does read like a statement from someone who just got his first DUI, or an addict who just got released from the hospital after an OD. They were doing something dangerous that gave them a high, and they didn’t consider the consequences until they got caught.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: They did in their statement. Explicitly. That’s the part that grinds me wrong. If they have that info it needs to get reported, not used for behavior modification of one extremely stupid citizen.
ETA: I read it as a very explicit threat. I don’t think the “blackmail” term is overblown here.
catclub
@dance around in your bones:
I really want to paint our roof white – special reflective paint. My wife does not want it.
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: The trolling isn’t the issue though. It’s his right to troll. But what if he turns out to be working on behalf of the FSB? Or the GOP? Or Fox News? Or Trump directly? Then he has no right to anonymity because he claimed to be a private citizen. You don’t get to lie and also get to be shielded.
Mike J
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: Right, but CNN created a situation where we can’t tell what CNNs motives are, which is why they should have stayed out of it. It grinds me wrong as well, but consider if the redditor turns out to be Jared or Hillary. Would we want CNN to protect this individual then? No way.
TriassicSands
Sandhill cranes are wonderful. And that chick is a real beauty! When I lived in Colorado, I used to stop at a refuge in southern Colorado to watch the Sandhill cranes — there were trillions or quadrillions of them — I forget which. But even one is worth watching during a landing.
Major Major Major Major
Ah! Another entry on my mobile pie filter. Works great!
NR
@? Martin: Anonymity isn’t a right for anyone. It’s wrapped up in social ethics, but those are far from clear-cut.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: @rk: @Hoodie: These guys on Reddit — they are like the Wicked Witch and exposure of their identity is like water. There was a guy who made it his calling to publish “upskirting” and similar photos showing nude women or their private parts. He ridiculed anyone who tried to argue with him about the practice. Then, a few tech savvy guys figured out his real identity and just exposed him. They told him in advance they were going to do it so he could be prepared but they refused his pleas not to do it under the theory that he never asked women for their permission before posting pictures of their body parts. He said that he never published anything that could really identify them, but I don’t see how he could have known that with any certainty.
schrodingers_cat
The important point is not CNN and the troll but T’s retweet that gave the original creation a wide audience.
bystander
@trollhattan: Any Randy?
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Really, making a deal with someone is now “blackmail” regardless of the circumstances?
The guy made implicit threats to CNN’s staffers. CNN is the actual victim here, not the guy who made the threats to CNN. How is it “blackmail” for the victim of a threat to decide to agree to keep the threatener’s identity secret as long as he promises not to do it again? We can argue about whether or not it was wise, but the guy is lucky CNN didn’t turn him over for prosecution for his whole thing of labeling which CNN employees are “Jews.”
Karen
@Shell: just remember that the shells are soft until they hit the air and then they hardent
NR
The real question we should be asking is: why is the President of the United States and/or his aides hanging out on shitpost subreddits?
NoraLenderbee
We make our own quotes right here:
(BC)
(M4)
d58826
As the media chases the newest rabbit, the world continues to turm. From Huffington
.
We are going to use our considerable military force to defang this threat. We haven’t been able to subdue the ragtag Taliban in 17 years but we’re just going to go right in there and clean things up. Do the N. Korean people throw flowers at their liberators?
And I just wonder where we are going to launch this mighty blow. Will Japan and S. Korea really want to start a war with their next door nuclear armed neighbor?
And we are going to cut off trade with nations that trade with NK. Hmmmm China? Trump Org won’t like that. All the cheap stuff the Ivanka sells – out the window. I really wish these folks would stop making idle boosts that no one outside of Trumpworld takes seriously.
Brachiator
I only had the Tuesday off, and it still feels weird.
Fortunately, it’s a light day. Some of our customers seem to be taking this half of the week off. Others had that long 4 day weekend including the 4th.
TriassicSands
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:
It may be a sickness, but it’s not exactly rare.
Although not common, that behavior is present on this website.
Betty Cracker
@TriassicSands: I love to watch them land! Never fails to make me smile.
dance aound in your bones
Thanks everybody for all your helpful comments. The swamp cooler that I have (on the kitchen roof – Painted White! ;) has recently been given the overhaul/tune up it requires every season.It cools the kitchen quite well, but I spend most of my time in the bedroom (disabled & painful leg condition forces that – I need hip replacement surgery which is simply NOT going to happen in Texas. Long boring story there starting with Texas refusing the federal Medicaid expansion offered by the federal gov’t because ‘Obama!’ argghh.
I’ll get along ok. Gotta go out and feed the dogs now, two mutts and two shrieking Chihuahuas (we inherited my mom’s Chihuahuas after mom died last year…). My iPhone decided to crap out once I started commenting and now Firefox on my laptop is stuttering and protesting so – I’ll say adios and thanks once again to my jackals, oh my jackals … ;)
The Moar You Know
@? Martin: I must not be very clear today. I don’t want them to protect him, period. They have the info, publish it. It’s their fucking job. Leave being the thought police/enforcing internet decency job on his mother, in whose basement this fine specimen of humanity undoubtedly lives.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: So, guy essentially threatens CNN employees. CNN figures out who it is somehow, and instead of referring him to the local prosecutor or writing a story that identifies his name, they talk to him and promise to keep him out of the news because he has agreed that he didn’t really mean it and won’t do it again. That’s not blackmail, guys. That’s just deciding to do a favor for a guy who would otherwise have no claim to anonymity at all. Is what he did newsworthy? Well, he might not have thought so until it was tweeted by POTUS, and that is most likely why CNN decided not to out him — because he was only responsible for sending it around the block, so to speak, but not around the world. And of course, it dawned on him and maybe or maybe not CNN that he has a lot of content that, if it became associated with him, many other people would dissociate themselves from him ASAP.
People are sitting in jail for a decade or more because a prosecutor threatened to send them down for life if they didn’t plead guilty. That’s unfair. That’s blackmail. This is a stupid guy going swimming in water before checking to see how deep and how fast it was.
The Moar You Know
@d58826: If by “flowers” you mean “grenades” then sure.
North Korea. Since they now have missiles that can reach the West Coast and working nukes, and the only problem now is payload capacity, we have maybe a year before military action is going to be the only solution and that action will have to include nukes. The US can’t do shit, Russia won’t and China won’t. Maybe we should have listened to MacArthur in the first place. If we had, some of North Korea might be habitable at this point.
dance around in your bones
My comment is awaiting moderation because I dropped an ‘r’ from my nym. My bad, my bad!!
{{{ Help me? }}}
TriassicSands
@dance around in your bones:
El Paso. I feel for you. I spent the summer of 1968 there and didn’t enjoy it. Of course, that was before we were deep into climate change.
Something that always annoyed be a little, but made me laugh was the newspaper every day printed a line that said something like “The sun has failed ot shine in El Paso only X days in the last X,XXX days. When I arrived in El Paso it was at 3, I think. When I left only a year later it was up to 8 or 9. But the thing was it was bogus. If anyone, anywhere in the greater El Paso area caught a glimpse of the sun — even for 10 seconds — that counted as a “sunny” day. The fact that it went up so many days in that one year meant that either there was a new and more conservative counter or the weather had been cloudier than usual. (I’m pretty sure the second number was well above 2,000.)
? Martin
@NR: I don’t think the social ethics necessarily applies here. This is more of a business ethics case. A free press requires guarantees of anonymity to function properly. Without it, that fails. The press have to guarantee that anonymity, and the courts are best served by not demanding otherwise.
This case skirts that line in the sense that I think the media should treat the persons anonymity the same that they would for a source. That allows them to respect social ethics without dictating it, and to respect their role as serving the public interest. It’s a decision area that the press is extremely experienced with and a framework that they understand as well as anyone. Why invent a new one?
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
i was at a refuge in New Mexico once and there was a gigantic flock of sandhill cranes — many were taking off and landing — constant motion. Then, for no obvious reason there were no more take-offs or landings. And there in the middle of this mass of light brown was a single bright white whooping crane. And I didn’t have a camera.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know:
Maybe, and at any rate does Alaska qualify as the west coast?
A nuke that will go off during an underground test != a nuke that will work on an ICBM.
OK, you lost me at “we should have nuked the North Korea/China border a dozen times in 1951.”
Davebo
@Barbara:
Threatens? Seriously? He made a silly meme image.
CNN is the biggest asshole in this story. Second is Trump himself for publicizing it.
Laura
@dance around in your bones: Sears – Online & In-Store Shopping: Appliances, Clothing & More
http://m.sears.com/costway-ep22864-us-new-6k-btu-white-compact/p-SPM15218700224
This looks like the one we got over 10 years ago. It was heaven -no lie joe!
Efficient, energy stingy, in the window at top of the bed height and remote control. It was perhaps one of the best purchases we ever made -and we didn’t have two dimes between us, we were on a miserly tight budget.
It was so worth it. Our apartment would soak up the Sacramento summer sun all day and you couldn’t touch the walls at night for the heat they put off. Reverse in the winters. It was heaven to have a cool breeze.
Best of luck in your search.
Major Major Major Major
@Davebo: Guy who made the image wouldn’t have been a factor at all if Trump hadn’t retweeted it, so yeah, he’s higher on the list for sure.
NR
@? Martin: This guy isn’t a source, though. He’s a shitposter and a troll.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t know if CNN should have published his identity, and I’m uncomfortable with the idea of doxxing in general. I also think the way CNN has handled this makes them look really petty. But someone like this absolutely shouldn’t be treated the same way as a legitimate news source.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker:
I agree, but would we carry that over to political spending(money is speech).
Mnemosyne
So apparently some assholes decided to try and take advantage of the long weekend to put some fraudulent charges on my card. Fortunately, my bank was on top of it and blocked them all. Still, yikes!
Good thing I wasn’t planning to use that card for our trip to Chicago next week. ?
The Moar You Know
@Major Major Major Major: Tell me another way this gets solved. If it involves the military it will involve nukes. Maybe they’ll be on rockets, maybe they won’t. Does it matter?
Do you think the North Koreans aren’t going to go down swinging, even if it destroys their country in the process? Oh wait. I got a good one: Maybe they’ll throw flowers and candy. Like in Iraq.
? Martin
@The Moar You Know:
But that would then make them the enforcer of internet decency, for the same reason that respectable media outlets don’t report on individuals sexual orientation if it isn’t relevant to the public discussion. The whole job of the press is to identify what’s in the public interest and expose that. Their job is not to lay bare all information, in fact, it is to a certain extent to protect a fair bit of it which would be damaging if exposed – such as the source of information. That’s what the Pentagon Papers case was about – does the public have the right to know that the government lied to them and does that right to know exceed the right of the government to keep that information secret. Was WaPo right to keep Deep Throats identity a secret? Did it serve the public interest to have a name there, or was is sufficient that WaPo could vouch for that person’s role in the case and keep their anonymity? Without the anonymity, we probably would never have learned about Watergate. That was the greater benefit to the public good. Does the public need to know who this redditor is? CNN says no, not important based on what they know now, but that could change as they learn more. Ok. I’m suspicious of that because they have a vested interest in the result, but I would support that approach if it was ABC reporting it instead.
Davebo
How the Anti Defamation League found that pic to be anti semitic is a mystery.
No, it’s not. It’s just the ADL being the ADL.
NR
@Davebo: The image Trump retweeted wasn’t a threat. But the same guy also posted photos of people in the media with Jewish stars on them as a way to identify them as Jews to the other shitposters.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know: Your solution to “it’s a really hard problem” is “we should have destroyed the country 66 years ago?”
Mnemosyne
@Davebo:
Here’s the problem — it turned out that the guy didn’t just do the one silly WWE meme image. He did multiple other memes, including one where he labeled the “Jewish” employees of CNN for easy reference.
That’s why he’s in deep shit and he knows it. Trump chose the least offensive of his memes to publicize, and it brought all the others to light.
So, yeah, this isn’t some innocent guy whose innocuous meme got popular. He’s an asshole who’s sorry he got caught.
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: That’s the bottom line with NK. The least offensive solution is to do nothing and let the problem propagate. Any effective solution is offensive and likely to result in major loss of life. There’s no better approach. And NK leadership understands this game better than western leaders do. Their sabre rattling has kept the west out of their country for half a century, which was their goal.
satby
@aimai: doxxing isn’t always creepy, sometimes it’s insurance. Bad actors count on anonymity to protect them from the consequences of their words (or deeds). They shouldn’t have that protection to promote hate or advocate violence.
TriassicSands
There’s an interesting interview with Noam Chomsky on the NY Times site. His opinions of Trump and the Modern Republicans are not surprising.
It’s hard to tell whether he’s more worried about climate change or nuclear war. And, of course, both Trump and the GOP make that concern much worse.
Brachiator
Reposted from a thread below. A little whimsy for Wednesday:
The little girls screaming for Justin could have been the Queen of England and the people of Scotland screaming for the other hot Justin, the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
http://globalnews.ca/news/3577006/trudeau-canada-day-flag-queen/
dance around in your bones
@dance around in your bones:
Yes, I mispelled ‘around’ as ‘aound’ in my nym !!
Slap my face, bless my heart, but release me from moderation I beg of you Betty Cracker!
I’m melting ………
The Moar You Know
@Major Major Major Major: No. I cite this more as an observation that 66 years ago, the guy in charge of fighting the North Koreans knew it was going to come to this sooner or later. You can either deal with problems by putting off dealing with them, or dealing with them. They rarely just vanish into thin air.
@? Martin: Agreed, especially the part about them being sabre rattling experts. And the “do nothing” approach has worked splendidly until now, as they really didn’t have the capacity to do any damage save to their neighbors. Sucks to be the neighbors, but I didn’t have any skin in the game so didn’t really give a fuck.
Well, now they’re pretty good at the launch game and they’ll have it down in a few more years, at the most. So now I DO have some skin in the game, seeing as I’m one of those West Coast libtards. I suspect we’ll do what we always do, which is nothing until “something happens”. The problem with that approach is that when “something happens” with these guys, a whole lot of people will be ash and we’ll be missing major portions of either SF or Seattle. High stakes gambling, no?
Brachiator
@? Martin:
But the West didn’t care much about Not Korea, especially since they had a friend in China (and a lesser friend in Russia).
But yeah, the smart course might be to try to ignore N Korea. The complicating factor might be if they try to sell their missile technology to other rogue nations.
JCJ
@dance around in your bones:
Don’t know what replies you have gotten so far, but this is as cheap as I saw…
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/10888179657263835723?q=single+room+ac&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&biw=1380&bih=864&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOmPmChvPUAhVI54MKHYS5A44Q8wIImwUwDw
chris
@Mnemosyne:
Yup. This morning 1226 of HanAssholeSolo’s Reddit comments were posted. I read a few and then took a shower. There’s no way this guy was just playing so the apology is bullshit. IMHO he got off far too lightly and he’ll most likely be back under another nym. Or he’ll go to voat.co with the rest of the people banned from reddit if he hasn’t already.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@chris: Voat is closing down, so he’ll likely have to go someplace else. 9gag?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@N(R):
Hiya N(R)! My favorite buddy in the world!
chris
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I thought their fundraiser worked. Dog knows I don’t want to go and look.
Barbara
@Davebo: CNN’s entire role in this world is publishing newsworthy stuff. People’s names get mentioned in the news all the time. They could have published his name without asking at all, but to be prudent, of course, to make sure their reporting was accurate they would need to call him and make sure it was him and not someone else. This is a problem in the modern world, where just having your name published in conjunction with controversial stuff can lead to death threats and all sorts of unpleasant things. In this guy’s case, it could lead to him being associated with content that many people find deeply offensive. Most of us don’t have the misfortune of having the president pick up our stories and publicizing them widely so that we become more newsworthy than we bargained for. But the reality is that anything we say could become public.
Peale
@Brachiator: Who, though? Which Rogue Nation do we have to Fear Today?
jharp
Sand Hill Cranes can fly as high as 30,000 feet.
We have them flying over Central Indiana in the spring and fall but never see them on the ground. And damn do they fly high. So high that it takes a long time to find them even though you can hear them overhead.
Though I did once see a flock of them on the ground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
They are very cool.
Brachiator
@TriassicSands: Thanks for the Chomsky link info. Only read the first third and have reservations. So much pointless Bernie love. However, I want to give it my full attention later.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Major Major Major Major: This times eleventy bazillion.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@chris: Don’t know. Last I heard, voat was on the rocks. Funny thing is, the r/the_donald tried migrate over there and got a real nasty welcome from the assholes that were already there
Brachiator
@Peale:
It’s not always just about us, and who we might fear. India has a space program and obvious skill with missile technology. Does this make Pakistan jealous. There was a time when everyone was concerned about nuclear proliferation. But it may be that basic knowledge is increasing and may soon allow more nations to join the nuclear club. Is this a good thing, especially with Putin and Trump both seeming to want to halt past efforts at reducing nuclear weapons.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Do you ever feel invisible? Trolling is a way to cope with that. People will BY GOD notice the troll.
Kathleen
@Major Major Major Major: And she didn’t ask America what kind of day it had so they threw the dinner plate at her.
evodevo
@dance around in your bones: Get a Haier … we swear by the brand name …just got one online at WallyWorld for a couple hundred on sale 10,000 BTU
Oops … never mind. Didn’t see the stand-alone qualifier … this was a window installation.
The Lodger
@? Martin:
J R in WV
@NR:
OMG I hate having to agree with him, but this comment by NR is on target. Why were aides for President Trump surfing the lowest sectors of Reddit’s most racist postings?
To good a question for me not to repost it – why indeed? Because they are racist scum is the only answer I can think of, and I’m a smart person.
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
“Trump chose the least offensive of his memes to publicize, and it brought all the others to light.
So, yeah, this isn’t some innocent guy whose innocuous meme got popular. He’s an asshole who’s sorry he got caught.”
He’s an asshole who’s pretending to be sorry he got caught. A few months, a couple years, he’ll be doing it again, or encouraging other haters in their dirty work.
J R in WV
@jharp:
Haven’t seen them at high altitudes. There’s a big flock of them that spend winters in Cochise county, AZ, where we have a small “ranch” where I built a small home over several winters with much help from friends.
But I have never seen a pic with a young chicklet Sandhill Crane before. Really nice. I guess some of them don’t head for the great north in spring?!
You can hear them mid-day off in the desert brush, clucking and talking together. My cousin calls it their “cocktail party” sounds – birds having a party off in the low brush.
Come spring, March or April, they start gathering in big airborne flocks, trying out different flight leaders, getting in line behind in the huge VEE they try to fly in. And then over just a few days, they’re all gone, headed probably for Idaho wetlands.
There used to be a big playa lake in the north end of the valley. But there were earthquakes back in the 19-teens or so, and it squeezed off the springs. So now the playa is dry sand, but the birds still come back every winter.