Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Not all heroes wear capes.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

“woke” is the new caravan.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

No Justins, No Peace

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

T R E 4 5 O N

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: The Secret Service Are Bodyguards, Not Babysitters

Open Thread: The Secret Service Are Bodyguards, Not Babysitters

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… In an emailed response to questions about Sekulow’s comments, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said the younger Trump was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the meeting, which included Trump’s son and two senior campaign officials.

“Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” the statement said…

The Secret Service’s mission is to provide physical protection for the U.S. president. The agency also protects major presidential candidates. But its role in vetting people who meet with a U.S. president or candidates is limited to ensuring physical safety.

A federal special counsel and several congressional panels are investigating allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to hurt Clinton and help Trump. They are also investigating potential connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on one of the panels investigating the matter, the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN: “The level of credibility from the senior level of this administration really is suspect.”

Warner said he wanted to hear from everyone who attended the June 2016 meeting.

“Whether we will be able to get the Russian nationals to come over and testify is an open question, (but) those people that our committee has jurisdiction over, the Americans, I sure as heck want to talk to all of them,” Warner said…

Just incidentally…

Reader Interactions

207Comments

  1. 1.

    MJS

    Look, you can’t blame them for trying. They saw, “No puppet, no puppet. You’re the puppet” work as deflection. They have to believe any asinine statement will also work.

  2. 2.

    efgoldman

    On whether Trump would rule out pardoning key figures in Russia probe, Sekulow says, “I have not had the conversation with the president.”

    That much, and ONLY that much, I actually believe.
    Because if they HAD had the conversation, Peach Pustule couldn’t help blabbing/twittling about it, and he hasn’t.

  3. 3.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Despite the stupid here, someone I know had dinner with the head of the secret service a few months ago, and he said agents liked working for the Trumps. My friend’s conclusion was the Trumps know how to treat “the help.”

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    On whether Trump would rule out pardoning key figures in Russia probe, Sekulow says, “I have not had the conversation with the president.”

    …which sort of concedes the major point: pardons would be irrelevant if there wasn’t anything criminal going on. While we pretty much knew that, nice of lawyer guy to confirm.

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    We have three things regarding the Secret Service that arise as a result of Sekulow’s stupid remarks today:
    1) After going to war with the Intel Community and the news media, Sekulow has decided to open up a third front with the Secret Service, specifically the Executive Protective Service division.
    2) The agents of the Executive Protective Service place their lives at risk to protect the President, his family, former presidents and their families, other senior executive and legislative branch personnel, and select foreign dignitaries. Pissing them off is a way to turn an elite service that agents compete to join into a place with poor morale who won’t have faith that the people they’re charged with protecting actually recognize this reality and are willing to reward this service with loyalty and gratitude.
    3) If there was a Secret Service agent present in that meeting on 9 June 2017 it is only because the President was in attendance. I don’t think this is what Sekulow meant to intimate, but he’s kind of dumb, so…

  8. 8.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Open thread: I am back from a driving trip to Yellowstone National Park and have pictures, some of which I’ve shared on Twitter. Will do a post on the trip tomorrow.

  12. 12.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    My friend’s conclusion was the Trumps know how to treat “the help.”

    Does the Secret Service have a Food Tasting section?

    I’d be running a Geiger counter over those two scoops of icecream.

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I am back from a driving trip to Yellowstone National Park and have pictures

    If only there were a Web site that had a regular feature devoted to travel photos.

  14. 14.

    efgoldman

    So here we are with a Red Sox / Yankees weekend, and I haven’t seen old frenemy Victor (c u n d gulag) in months
    He’s one of the people who I’ve never met, probably never will, but I worry about him because i know he has persistent health issues.
    Anybody seen him around? gulag, you out there?

    And the ESPN broadcast crew started really badly decades ago, and has evolved to pretty much unsufferable

  16. 16.

    mdblanche

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t anyone who’s been pardoned still be called as a witness for someone else’s case and would no longer be able to take the fifth?

  17. 17.

    Gin & Tonic

    By the by, I have found that one sure-fire way to not give two shits about what’s happening in Trumpworld or politics more generally is to have your grandchildren visit. Take note, efgoldman.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    I saw the thread title and figured it could be Cole or the title would have been

    Open Thread: The Secret Service Are Bodyguards, Not Fucking Babysitters

  19. 19.

    Cheryl Rofer

    The question I am finding more and more interesting is who is leaking some of these stories. Here’s a new one: UAE orchestrated hacking of Qatari government sites, sparking regional upheaval, according to U.S. intelligence officials. And why? The question also applies to the Jared story earlier this week, which came out while I was under Internet silence.

    These are BIG stories. The UAE-Qatar story shows Trump to be an easily led fool. (Yes, we knew that already, but it’s quite something for the intel community to put it so bluntly.) I’m guessing they would like to try to damp down the uproar in the Middle East and also the one between Trump and Tillerson on this. I thought I saw something, in one of my internet instants, that Trump said the US could move its big airbase out of Qatar. At the cost of billions of dollars and several years of construction, probably.

    So who is talking to the press? And how many of them? Sekulow is a distractor.

  20. 20.

    Face

    I’d like to point out that we still have 87.5% of Trumps presidency left (no, he isnt going to be impeached by a GOP Congress). Imagine how much investigation fatigue there’ll be at this time by 2019.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Face: You get an investigation! And you get an investigation! And you get an investigation!…

  26. 26.

    randy khan

    The Secret Service statement does not actually say that Trump Sr. didn’t attend, or that they didn’t screen the attendees. I mean, I think that’s the correct inference, but there’s a bit of wiggle room there.

    And it should be noted that they don’t screen for national security threats, etc. – just for the safety of protectees – so Sekulow’s claim is irrelevant to the underlying questions about the meeting.

  28. 28.

    efgoldman

    @Face:

    Imagine how much investigation fatigue there’ll be at this time by 2019.

    I’m imagining Emperor of Orange wandering around the WH, all the kids and advisors trying to make bail, tweeting away, nobody else around except the protective detail, the chefs and house staff (all of them the wrong hue, if you know what I mean, and i think you do) waiting, waiting, waiting to see which one [or more] of the family drops the testimonial anvil on his head.

  30. 30.

    John Revolta

    @MJS: WOULDA been first if I wasn’t laughing so hard at this schlemiel.

    @Adam L Silverman: It did occur to me that Sekulow had spilled the beans here. I still half believe that we’ll eventually find out that Trump was there.

  32. 32.

    James Powell

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    someone I know had dinner with the head of the secret service a few months ago, and he said agents liked working for the Trumps. My friend’s conclusion was the Trumps know how to treat “the help.”

    My inference is that the secret service, like any other law enforcement protective service, is filled to the brim with RW authoritarian types who see themselves as our nation’s Praetorian Guard, especially when a RWer is in the White House. And it’s not like the Trump family’s secret service agents have to go around messing with the common folk.

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I’ve been suspicious of the Secret Service ever since their guys were the ones running around spreading nasty rumors about the Clintons, so I would not be at all surprised that they’re happy to be serving a nice (white) family again and not those uppity elitist Obamas.

    No offense to your friend, of course.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Since this is an open thread, I shall update those interested in the story of my Saab. The car is dead. On Saturday, I traded the title for a check. Later that day, I made a deal on another Saab. One year newer and with a 6-speed manual. Still silver, but black rather than gray leather. A bit higher mileage, but 17″ rather that 16″ wheels. I pick it up on Tuesday.

  35. 35.

    smintheus

    @Iowa Old Lady: Under what circumstances would the head of the Secret Service conceivably declare that agents disliked working with the current president? I mean, except as a preliminary to announcing that he was resigning his job effective immediately.

  36. 36.

    PhoenixRising

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If there was a Secret Service agent present in that meeting on 9 June 2017 it is only because the President was in attendance. I don’t think this is what Sekulow meant to intimate, but he’s kind of dumb, so…

    Thank you. I just…how dumb do they think we are?

  38. 38.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Adam L Silverman: I bet point 3 is the truth. No way that Donny Jr. attended this meeting without Daddy or without telling Daddy about it before and after it happened.

    If the Secret Service was involved as Sekulow suggests then Trump was at the meeting and another shoe drops.

  39. 39.

    efgoldman

    @randy khan:

    Are you a Fire Joe Morgan guy?

    Miller was excellent, the one year he did the Red Sox.
    HOF or not, no ex-ballplayer should sound like he doesn’t know anything about the game.
    I’m old (duh!) and a traditionalist. To me, you want one PBP person who really knows the game, has some individuality and knows when to shut up. Scully, of course, is the great exemplar. Ernie Harwell, Jack (NOT JOE!!) Buck, Ned Martin…
    Second person for middle innings. Most ex players aren’t very good. Harrelson is awful
    A few ex players are good. Te former shortstop that does the Giants. Merloni and Eckersley in Boston (Eckersley does post season secondary games, too).
    I can’t tell how many people are yapping on this ESPN crew, just that one is a woman. At least three, I think. That’s 1.5 too many

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PhoenixRising: It isn’t how dumb they think we are. It’s how dumb do they 1) think their base is? And 2) How dumb they are in attempting to do damage control?

    In the case of the latter question, they have burned through almost a dozen poorly constructed, facially illogical, and/or easily debunked explanations and excuses in under a week. None of them last very long. And outside the base, and everyone on Fox News other than Shep Smith and Chris Wallace, they aren’t convincing anyone.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: Thank you. I noted earlier that, for me, losing the 2006 was like losing a bet. Getting the 2007 is like getting a new one. Don’t judge me.

  48. 48.

    Jim Parish

    I lived in Chicago for a few years in the ’80s, and thus had the mixed pleasure of listening to Harry Carey on the radio. Carey knew his stuff, certainly, but there were failings. Two items:

    1) This I did not see, but heard about: an occasion when a runner on first was taking a bit too much of a lead. Just as the pitcher came set, Harry shouted, “He got him!” – a fraction of a second before the pitcher turned, threw, and picked the runner off.

    2) This, on the other hand, I heard: runner on first, pitch comes in, Harry calls, “Ground ball, out at second, out at first!” No problem – unless you’re trying to keep score, in which case it would really help to know who actually handled the ball…

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Patricia Kayden: Based on reading the biographies and biographical articles about him I think he was informed of the meeting. Whether he was there or not is still an open question.

    The larger question, based on the wording of the emails about Russian efforts to assist the Trump campaign is whether the Russians were engaged in their active measures campaign during the GOP primaries as well. We have news reporting from the end of the week that the IC had SIGINT back in 2015 that the Russians were already discussing supporting the President’s campaign. One important question to be run down in the various investigations is just when exactly the discussions gave way to actual activity.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Lapassionara: I haven’t had a manual for years. An unrepaired knee and then a wife who couldn’t drive one and wouldn’t learn. Both situations have been resolved. Six is a lot of gears. Both five and six are OD. I am looking forward to playtime.

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @Jim Parish:

    thus had the mixed pleasure of listening to Harry Carey on the radio. Carey knew his stuff, certainly, but there were failings.

    When we first got cable in the late 80s, we got Cubs games on WGN. I heard a fair amount of Harry. He always sounded 2/3 drunk to me.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    WaPo:

    The condition for which Senator John McCain had surgery on Friday may be more serious than initial descriptions have implied, and it may delay his return to Washington by at least a week or two, medical experts said on Sunday.

    The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has already announced that votes on a bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act will not begin until Mr. McCain’s return. A statement released by Mr. McCain’s office on Saturday had suggested that he would be in Arizona recovering for just this week, but neurosurgeons interviewed said the typical recovery period could be longer.

    […]

    “Usually, a blood clot in this area would be a very concerning issue,” said Dr. Nrupen Baxi, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

    He added, “The recovery time from a craniotomy is usually a few weeks.”

    A statement from the Mayo Clinic Hospital said that the senator was recovering well and in good spirits at home, and that tissue pathology reports would come back in several days.

    […]

    “Usually, a blood clot like this is discovered when patients have symptoms, whether it’s a seizure or headaches or weakness or speech difficulties,” Dr. Baxi said. “Generally, it’s not found on a routine physical because doctors would not know to look for it.”

    […]

    He also has a history of melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer that can spread to the brain and cause bleeding. That cancer history could have prompted Mr. McCain’s doctors to scan his brain even in the absence of symptoms, some doctors said. The pending pathology reports are expected to help explain what caused the bleeding.

    The clot could have been in one of several locations: between the skull and the dura, the membrane that covers the brain; between the dura and surface of the brain; or inside the brain itself.

    Dr. David J. Langer, the chairman of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, said a likely diagnosis was a subdural hematoma, a collection of blood between the dura and the brain.

    “You would hope it’s a subdural, a relatively benign process,” Dr. Langer said. “It’s common in the elderly, especially if they’re on blood thinners. It can occur from relatively minor head injuries. The elderly brain loses volume, and as it retracts, the bridging veins from the brain to the dura are under increasing tension, and minor trauma can cause them to ooze or leak.”

    The senator’s staff has not disclosed whether he takes a blood thinner.

    Such hematomas can develop over weeks and months with subtle symptoms if they press on the brain, or even no symptoms, and removing them is usually an elective procedure, not an emergency, he said.

    […]

    Dr. Philip E. Stieg, the chairman of neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and the neurosurgeon in chief at NewYork-Presbyterian, said it seemed a good sign that Mr. McCain was able to go home so quickly.

    “I think the one possibility that’s of concern is that melanomas are known to go to the brain and they can bleed,” Dr. Stieg said. “They’ll have to wait for the pathology to come back. The good news is that five centimeters is a sizable blood clot, but in the frontal lobe, it should be well tolerated and hopefully he won’t have any neurologic deficits.”

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: It is important to remember that he was beaten, repeatedly and severely, around the head and face when a POW. If you ever see him up close the scars are very visible. And, of course, the damage to his jaw that can be seen very prominently as he’s aged.

  59. 59.

    The Lodger

    @randy khan: If the Secret Service is doing its job correctly, no one hearing their statements should be able to infer whether Trump (Sr.) was at that meeting or not.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Do you like to drive fast on an open road? My boyfriend in 1973 took for a ride in his ’57 Chevy and we went 105 mph. Too fast for me!

  63. 63.

    Gelfling 545

    @Iowa Old Lady: I feel reasonably certain that it is not the done thing to acknowledge that working for the current occupant, whoever they might be, sucks sewage.

  64. 64.

    efgoldman

    @efgoldman: What bothers me about this crew is, apparently they get fired if there’s more than 1/2 second of silence.
    Although that might also be dictated by the suits (producers and directors).
    It’s baseball, for Abner Doubleday’s sake, It’s sllllooowww. (It should be faster, but that’s another discussion). There are times when nothing happens. People don’t tune in to hear the bozos in the booth impart “wisdom.” The deep submersive fans know it already, casual fans don’t care.

  65. 65.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Omnes Omnibus: I taught all of my children how to drive a standard transmission. It is a life skill, like knowing how to swim, or to tie a bowline, that everyone should have.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: I did when I was married. The dead Saab was Inga. It was a Romanian thing. You bless the new car with wine on a wheel and then name it. I doubt I will continue.

  67. 67.

    Joyce Harmon

    Just on the basis of job amenities, protecting a guy by staying at a country club and tooling around a golf course in a little cart is probably a lot more desirable than protecting a guy who’s chopping brush in Texas in the summer, so there’s that.

    But I’m highly skeptical that Trump is ‘nice’ to the help. Remember that creepy drooly comment to the French First Lady about what great shape she’s in. That IS him being ‘nice’.

  76. 76.

    Joyce Harmon

    With McCain out for a couple weeks, I wonder if McConnell will change his mind about shortening the August recess? Or will he just come out and admit that the real reason is that his members are scared of going home to face their constituents?

  77. 77.

    mdblanche

    @Another Scott:

    “I think the one possibility that’s of concern is that melanomas are known to go to the brain and they can bleed,” Dr. Stieg said. “They’ll have to wait for the pathology to come back. The good news is that five centimeters is a sizable blood clot, but in the frontal lobe, it should be well tolerated and hopefully he won’t have any neurologic deficits.”

    Far be it from me to second-guess a neurosurgeon, but based on my experience with a relative with a sizable growth in the frontal lobe, I’d ask some follow-up questions rather than accepting Dr. Stieg’s statement at face value.

  82. 82.

    Ken

    @efgoldman: I think it was better before computers, when in order to fill the gaps the announcers actually had to know interesting stuff about the players and the history of the game. Now they just tap a button and tell us “He’s 7 for 23 against left-handed batters at away games when the humidity is under 16%,” which I’m sure is correct but somehow more boring than dead air.

  86. 86.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Joyce Harmon: Senator Johnson from Wisconsin has also come out against the bill. So provided he doesn’t flip or flop again that’s three against regardless of when Senator McCain is back from medical leave.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: I am of two minds. The cars given this treatment have done well, I may continue it. Ingrid may be the name. I love Casablanca.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: They do. It was found in an attic of one of his sister’s descendants. The sword was given to her after the war as he had no children. It has his initials on it and the serial numbers and makers marks match those on record with Wilkinson in England.

  90. 90.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Another Scott:

    five centimeters is a sizable blood clot, but in the frontal lobe, it should be well tolerated

    Translation: ventral prefrontal cortex handles executive functions, impulse control, understanding of the behaviour of others. McCain has nothing to miss.

    That cancer history could have prompted Mr. McCain’s doctors to scan his brain even in the absence of symptoms

    Translation: He was increasingly erratic and incoherent, but no-one thought that was a symptom, just normal senility.

  94. 94.

    amygdala

    @Omnes Omnibus: Nice! I don’t drive much any more, but as a native Angeleno, I get having a certain emotional attachment to one’s vehicle. May you and the 6-speed have many happy and safe years together.

  95. 95.

    dww44

    @Iowa Old Lady: Anecdotally, the daughter (she’s gay and her parents are very very religious) of a former co-worker of my SO is in the Secret Service and during the Bush years, the father told us that his daughter talked about how very nice the Bushes were, much more so than the Clinton’s. I think there’s a predisposition among SS types, who are probably politically attuned to the GOP, to be predisposed to like R Presidents and their families.. Remember all those gifts to the nation that the Clintons took from the White House in 2001?

  97. 97.

    efgoldman

    @John Revolta:

    isn’t dead air supposed to be the number one sin in radio?

    Tightly-formatted music and news, pretty much. Baseball? Nope.
    Anyway, I’m whining about ESPN TV – they have pitchas’. youse can see what’s happening.

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: Cool. My family had a house fire in the 1920’s which lost pre-Revolutionary through Civil War New Englandy stuff. The Dowager Countess was not completely off base in her concerns about about electricity.

  99. 99.

    Another Scott

    @sm*t cl*de: Oooh. ;-)

    There’s a lot of redundancy in the brain, even in the frontal lobes. I think he was saying that it’s not as serious as it would be in, say Broca’s area (speech) or the Precentral Gyrus (fine motor control), etc.

    Presumably he was showing no obvious signs of problems or they wouldn’t have released him from the hospital.

    Still, it’s hard to believe that an 80 year old man would recover quickly after something like this. Especially when he said after the Comey hearing that he was ‘confused’ then simply as a result of staying up to watch a football game.

    We’ll find out soon enough.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: You weren’t here for Tommy? He was a part of a recent remodel. To his credit, I believe he brought Alain in. Against him? I will leave it at I really didn’t like him for reasons that I have and others may not.

  104. 104.

    Bill Arnold

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    So who is talking to the press? And how many of them?

    Agreed. This UAE hacking story has been riveting. Occam’s razor would suggest (at least to me), and apparently to you, that it indeed is one or more persons in the US intelligence community (perhaps egged on by the diplomatic corps) who are trying to deflate the UAE/Quatar hostility ramp-up. Not sure about Tillerson/Trump. (Not sure I care about that aspect. Perhaps too spiteful I am :-)
    It feels like there might also be hidden players/plays, but I’m not informed enough to trust intuitions here.
    I am also rather curious about how exactly the hacking (if it was real) was accomplished, i.e who did the work, and how sophisticated was it?

    (Meta comment) Anyway, we all need to be careful about distraction-by-squirrels!!!!. Plenty of that (of the deliberate media-cycle-manipulation sort) going on.

  107. 107.

    randy khan

    @Jim Parish:

    So I have a Harry Caray story.

    Many years ago (well, it has to be, now), the Smithsonian had a series of programs called “Voices of the Game,” led by a guy who’d written a book on baseball broadcasters, with broadcasters as the guests. The guy was insufferable, and much preferred his own voice to the voices of the broadcasters, who were the reason that all of us were attending.

    So we get to the session on Harry Caray. The moderator starts off his usual monologue and finally asks Caray a question. Caray talks for five minutes. The moderator starts his second monologue, gets one sentence in, and Caray interrupts, says “That reminds me of a story,” and tells the story for another five minutes. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the hour and a half. It was the best night of the whole series.

    Also, when the Cubs were on WGN back in the day, it was a lot of fun to listen to Caray doing play-by-play. He wasn’t a great play-by-play guy, but he certainly was the voice of the fan, usually the *frustrated* voice of the fan at the time. I remember him at the end of some game when the Cubs had the winning or tying run on base and their best hitter up. The guy popped out to second, and this was Caray’s call: “He popped it up! He popped it up! I can’t believe it! He popped it up!”

  108. 108.

    amygdala

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ve driven 5-speeds for the past 25+ years, and can’t quite imagine what one does with that extra gear. My current car is itself almost old enough to have a driver’s license. I’m dragging my feet on replacing it because hybrids seem to all be CVT these days, and I like driving a manual.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @amygdala: Fifth is .85 and Sixth is .75. Fourth is not quite direct (.95). I plan to have fun playing with it. As far as your old car thing, why do you think I wanted to buy more or less what I had?

  114. 114.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    Do you like to drive fast on an open road? My boyfriend in 1973 took for a ride in his ’57 Chevy and we went 105 mph. Too fast for me!

    No worries — Saab’s top out at 100 kph.

  115. 115.

    mai naem mobile

    @Another Scott: I thought it sounded kind of serious. Also,you can’t travel with a clot situation partly because of the air pressure issue – it’s not just lack of movement like with a DVT in your leg. And,McCain is elderly. I was kind of shocked to see Meghan McCain on a FOX show clip on Twitter from Friday. If it was me I would have been with my dad.

  116. 116.

    amygdala

    @Another Scott:

    There’s a lot of redundancy in the brain, even in the frontal lobes. I think he was saying that it’s not as serious as it would be in, say Broca’s area (speech) or the Precentral Gyrus (fine motor control), etc.

    The surgery was done on the left, but with the incision being over the eye, would be some distance from Broca’s (or Wernicke’s) area. I suspect Stieg was factoring in that, plus the fact that McCain was discharged so quickly. He’s got the means for round the clock nursing at home, and a plan to get him to the ED if anything goes awry.

    I wasn’t surprised that Lawrence K. Altman had input into the article, because there’s a lot of nuance in it. The issue of brain atrophy given McCain’s age is germane; older patients can sometimes coexist with remarkably large masses in their heads, because there’s extra space up there. I’m also struck with the comment about waiting for the pathology. That’s usually not a major concern with subdural hematomas. Because melanomas can metastasize late and when they go to the brain have a tendency to bleed, it makes me wonder if something about the clinical presentation or scan has them worried about this.

  118. 118.

    divF

    @efgoldman:

    Te former shortstop that does the Giants.

    That would be Duane Kuiper, who does play-by-play for TV. His brother Glen is the TV play-by-play announcer for the Athletics.

    ETA: I would happily listen to John Miller, the main play-by-play guy for the Giants, reading the phone directory. Peter Angelos was an idiot for letting him leave Baltimore.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SFAW: As a matter of fact, the stock computer set up limits them to 134. A little reprogramming and the right tires and 145 is there for the 2.0T engine. I have the tires on each car for more, but 134 is fine for me.

  121. 121.

    randy khan

    @amygdala:

    My Acura TSX is a 6, and the 6th gear generally seems unnecessary. But you get used to it pretty fast, and in practice you really can just go from 4 to 6 most of the time.

  122. 122.

    amygdala

    @Omnes Omnibus: Should be fun. The apparent impending demise of the manual transmission makes me sad. Plus, it’s fun when people say, “You drive a stick… in San Francisco?!”

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    @amygdala: My TDI Jetta has a 5 speed. It turns about 1900 rpm (the beginning of its peak torque band) at 60 mph. Having another gear or two would be nice when going 75-80 mph on highways that allow it.

    Most of the 8-9 speed automatic transmissions these days are “dual clutch” designs so they can change gears almost instantly. The effective ratios are closer to having 6 or so different ones, but the quick shifting (and hence reduced slippage and clutch wear) is a big plus. But, AFAIK, manual transmissions still provide better mileage (all else being equal).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  124. 124.

    randy khan

    @divF:

    The story about Miller leaving Baltimore is Peter Angelos at his most Angelos-ish. When Miller’s contract expired, the Orioles never even made an offer to him. Eventually he realized they weren’t going to make an offer, so he had his agent make some calls, which is how he ended up with the Giants.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @mai naem mobile:

    Much as it pains me to defend that asshole in any way, it’s extremely easy to do simultaneous broadcasts from multiple studios these days. Unless she was shown to be in the same room with everyone, it would be very easy to put her in the local Fox studio in Phoenix and have her broadcast from there.

  128. 128.

    Yarrow

    @mai naem mobile:

    Also,you can’t travel with a clot situation partly because of the air pressure issue – it’s not just lack of movement like with a DVT in your leg

    Something that was under reported when the Comey hearing happened is that McCain had just recently returned from Australia. He had been there for security talks. That’s a long trip with a large time difference. Even a week later at the Comey hearing he might still have had some jet lag effects, especially at his age. And that’s without whatever clot issues he might have had.

    I was kind of surprised it didn’t come up in the discussion of what he sounded so out of it at the hearing.

  129. 129.

    SFAW

    @burnspbesq:

    No ex-players can touch Darling and Hernandez. Mets’ broadcasts are much better than the team this year.

    My brother agrees with you re: Ron and Keith, and I trust his judgment. I’m out of broadcast range, and too cheap to get the Mets package that DirecTV offers. Although, given the Mets recent “prowess,” probably better to save my money.

    And fuck Jeffy Wilpon. It’s as if he and Woody Johnson are having their dick-waving contest in the form of seeing who can do a better job destroying their team. Sell the Mets and buy the Toledo Mud Hens, you micromanaging, moronic fuck. Or go back to Roslyn, and play in traffic on Northern Boulevard.

    Sorry. I love my Mets, but Wilpon makes it a lot harder than it should be.

  130. 130.

    Chet Murthy

    @amygdala:

    Plus, it’s fun when people say, “You drive a stick… in San Francisco?!”

    Heh indeed. Love it. Love showing off with the “clutch+gas on a hill” trick.

  131. 131.

    The Lodger

    @Omnes Omnibus: I had a 1923-vintage house with the original wiring (there was more modern, code compliant stuff throughout the house, but they never tore out the antique wiring in the basement, just disconnected it.) I can see why the Dowager Countess would have been concerned.

  132. 132.

    randy khan

    @amygdala:

    The apparent impending demise of the manual transmission makes me sad.

    Me, too. Every car I’ve bought since I was a real adult has been a stick. I knew the days of driving a stick were numbered when there the price for my last car was the same with a stick or with an automatic. I got the stick (of course), but next time I bet it will be hard to find one.

  133. 133.

    amygdala

    @Omnes Omnibus: @randy khan: @Another Scott: You guys won’t mind if I pick your brains whenever I get around to replacing my car, will you? I had no idea about any of this.

    And I hate car-shopping with the heat of a thousand suns. That stuff about getting yanked around (or just ignored) for being a woman shopping alone for a car? It’s all true. Bleah.

  134. 134.

    glory b

    @mdblanche: This is from the same party that said (at first) that Steve Scalise was fine and wanted to send a tweet from the ambulance.

    Right.

  137. 137.

    Jacel

    @Major Major Major Major: Thank you for pointing that out. I’m sort of relieved that I’m getting into the Against Stupidity story early on, compared to some web comics I’ve found and liked with intimidating years of backstory to catch up on.

  138. 138.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Topping out at 145 kph is nothing to write home about. My CR-V will do that without breaking a sweat, and it’s not what I call a high-performance vehicle.

    Here’s the part where you go back and re-read my original response, and return here to tell me to go fuck myself. Well, unless you’re proud of a 90 mph top end, I guess.

  139. 139.

    divF

    @Another Scott: My 2011 TDI Jetta wagon is a six speed. It came as something of a surprise when I found that it also had cruise control.

    I’m going to have to turn it in sometime soon under the settlement Volkswagen has with the state and feds. I will probably get a (new) gasoline version of the Jetta wagon to replace it.

  140. 140.

    Chet Murthy

    @amygdala:

    That stuff about getting yanked around (or just ignored) for being a woman shopping alone for a car? It’s all true. Bleah.

    I’m sure it’s true, but OTOH, a little story: my friend A. (MBA, MIT Sloan school) is the world’s best negotiator. She once negotiated down cellphone overages. So of course, when another colleague went car shopping, he took her along to do the negotiation. Worked marvelously, esp. since he was a kid and looked it. So …. maybe it might work to take along the sharkiest lawyer or MBA type you know? The one who could sell ice to Eskimos? Just a thought. For sure, A. taught me a thing or two about negotiation.

  142. 142.

    Jacel

    @divF: We are so fortunate with the San Francisco Giants team of announcers. Miller and Kuiper are exemplary at play-by-play. After several recent spectacular years by the team itself, I’m glad the broadcasters still know (as Hank Greenwald did before them) how to make a losing game still worth listening to.

  143. 143.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I wes pretty nervous at 105!

    He had a zest for life and loved the car and the thrill of going that fast. He died at 21 – dove off a cliff at forestry camp that summer, hit the bridge of his nose on something and died instantly. Tragic accident, and he was so full o life. One of the hardest days of my life, limping home battered and bruised from an accident with a car while riding my bike home from work, coming into the house and instantly knowing something was wrong because my mom was waiting for me with my best friend.

  144. 144.

    randy khan

    @burnspbesq:

    No ex-players can touch Darling and Hernandez. Mets’ broadcasts are much better than the team this year.

    Two guys who thought a lot about the game when they were playing. It turns out it makes a difference.

    I can’t really believe I’m saying this, but F.P. Santangelo, who does color for the Nets, is growing on me. He was terrible his first year or so, about on par with Rob Dibble, who he replaced, but he seems to be learning as he goes along.

    I have Sirius-XM, and so end up hearing a lot of different radio play-by-play teams, and a surprising number of them are bad. The top ones probably are (not in any particular order) the Mets, Dodgers, Nats, and Giants. There are too many ex-players in other places and too much John Sterling with the Yankees. I try to avoid Yankees games as a matter of principle, but on the rare occasions when it’s the only choice for some reason, listening to him is like having spikes driven into my ears.

  145. 145.

    kindness

    Game of Thrones was fun. Usually the 1st episode sets up the rest for the season. This one did that and had it’s own action points. Sayanara House Frey.

  148. 148.

    efgoldman

    @amygdala:

    That stuff about getting yanked around (or just ignored) for being a woman shopping alone for a car? It’s all true. Bleah.

    Make it clear that you’re prepared to walk out the door; do so if you think you need to. There are plenty of dealers.
    Also, even if you don’t want to pay for the full whatever, you can get basic pricing info for free on multiple web sites.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:
    Have a dual clutch 6 speed in my car and it works great. It’s not as fast shifting if you put it in manual and use the paddles but then I didn’t buy the car with this trans so I could shift it. I’ve owned mostly sticks in my life so I’ve done my share of that. The manual mode is OK for slow moving traffic so you don’t have to use the brakes as much. The real advantage is the mileage. You get the efficiency of the manual but don’t have to shift it.

  151. 151.

    Another Scott

    @amygdala: Thanks. You’re obviously an expert. Thanks for weighing in!

    You[r] comments, and Adam’s earlier, got me curious. McCain had melanoma surgery for 5 hours 16+ years ago, roughly on August 21. He was 63 (nearly 64). He was expected to be off the campaign trail until Labor Day – Monday September 4, 2000 (if I’m doing the math right). That’s 2 weeks.

    It’s hard for me to believe that he will be back on the job before Monday July 31. At the earliest…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  152. 152.

    frosty

    @amygdala: I just bought a used 2014 Mazda3 hatchback 6-speed. I’ve had 5s before and 6 feels like one too many. Nevertheless, it’s a great ride, fun to drive. And I’m getting gas mileage in the high 30s all the time and 40-43 about a third of my fillups. Non-hybrid gas engine. Those Mazda engineers have done some slick stuff with this one.

  153. 153.

    divF

    @Major Major Major Major:

    you drive a stick in San Francisco???

    So do I – have since 1971. My college roommate had a Fiat, and decided to teach me to drive a stick. After a few turns around the Golden Gate Fields parking lot, he took me over to San Francisco in the middle of the day, pulled over on Van Ness, and told me it was time to do the real thing. Fortunately, I got the hang of starting uphill using the handbrake pretty quickly, or I would have burned out his clutch.

  154. 154.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @randy khan: I always preferred a stick shift until the car before this one. Both of them shift automatically exactly where I would shift. And I don’t have the hassle. So I’m fine with modern automatics.

  155. 155.

    Jacel

    @randy khan: I’m glad to hear that F.P. Santangelo is seasoning well as an announcer for the Nationals. After his playing career ended with the Giants, he had an evening sports talk show locally on KNBR, where he already showed promise as a good broadcaster.

  156. 156.

    randy khan

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I skip it. It seemed weird to me at first, too, but it actually is pretty easy and the gear ratio for 6th is close enough to 5th that 4 to 6 is a smooth transition. (An online spec sheet tells me that 4th is 1.07, 5th is 0.87, and 6th is 0.69, FWIW.)

  157. 157.

    randy khan

    @Jacel:

    Miller has practice with losing teams. The Washington Post magazine once devoted a cover story to how he and Joe Angel handled one of the Orioles’ bad seasons.

  158. 158.

    frosty

    @divF: Peter Angelos didn’t let him leave, he ran him out because he wasn’t enough of a “homer” on the air. I loved listening to Miller, you Giants fans are lucky.

  160. 160.

    mai naem mobile

    @Mnemosyne: Meghan was on with the woman who made the comment about Hilz willing to sell Chelsea if it would allow her to become POTUS on one of those big panel around the table FOX shows. The clip i saw sure looked like they were all in studio. She was filling in for a regular.

  161. 161.

    Bruuuuce

    @randy khan: John Sterling drives me nuts. His home run calls are the single most plastic piece of announcing I’ve ever heard (trailed closely by the nicknames formulated by Chris Berman). Worse yet, I have been listening to them since the day of Phil Rizzuto, whose words were poetry. Unintentional, but pure poetry. I pray to FSM that we’ll lose him and Georgie Girl each year; sadly, they seem to have some good blackmail on ownership, because they keep coming back :-(

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:

    Make it clear that you’re prepared to walk out the door; do so if you think you need to. There are plenty of dealers.

    Probably the best advice.
    I’ve done this once and seen it done once. I was shopping for a new shop truck one day and a fella in a shirt and tie walked in, checkbook in hand. Gave the salesman the ID numbers of two new cars on the lot, told him, with pen in hand, how much do I make out the check for? This salesman was as dense as pence and started in on his sales pitch and you have to drive the cars. The customer was getting exasperated more and more by the second. Just the the sales manager came over to talk to me. I told him, do yourself a favor and go take that mans money before he walks out the door and down the street. The other customer told the manager, I don’t want to drive these cars, I will never drive these cars, they are for my salesman and they will like them because they are getting a new car. I think they took his money. They gave me a pretty good deal, probably because I was responsible for moving 3 cars that morning.

  166. 166.

    Another Scott

    @amygdala: I’ve only bought one car new – my current 2004 Jetta TDI Wagon (in late 2003). I’m not as much of a gear head as I used to be, and I’m not sure how much I’d be able to help. I keep hoping that there’s a similar plug-in hybrid or 300+ mile range full electric wagon (not SUV/CUV) coming, but it seems like it’s a long way off… I’ve only got 130,000 miles on the Jetta and it should easily go to 200k, so I’ll keep waiting.

    J’s 2000 Corolla has a noisy front wheel bearing, so it’s another reason why I want her to get rid of it. (Every time we take it to the shop it’s $1000 and it’s too big a job for me to do on my own any more.) It’s uncomfortable, plastic door handles break on it every year, etc., etc. I’ve never liked it (she inherited it from her parents). But she only wants a car as an appliance to take her where she wants to go, so we’ll probably have it another 10 years at this rate. ;-)

    Do post here when you start looking. There’s lots of expertise here that can help.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  167. 167.

    Ruckus

    @Yarrow:
    When they were doing all that surgery, did they happen to remove any sense of reality that he may have had and she woke up a complete moron?

  168. 168.

    mai naem mobile

    @Yarrow: for what reason would somebody vote for Caitlin Jenner? I don’t know if it’s possible but Caitlin Jenner is even less qualified for Senate than Dolt45 was for POTUS. Okay, maybe equally as unqualified.

  170. 170.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Yarrow:

    Sure are a lot of people who think becoming an effective politician is as easy as taking up checkers.

  171. 171.

    Another Scott

    @divF: I got my 2004 TDI because I wanted a manual transmission, I wanted a small wagon, and I wanted the best mileage that I could get. I still like it (though it has tested my patience with the huge cost of the 90,000 mile service); I don’t know what I would get to replace it. 42-44 mpg commuting is hard to give up (I’ve gotten 50 mpg for a tank on the highway). My previous car would get 30 mpg on the highway, but only 20 mpg commuting. I don’t want to go back to those kinds of numbers.

    J’s sister has a newer Prius. It gets good mileage, but it’s bigger inside than I want and it really can’t carry much of anything except people and groceries. It also seems cheap with lots of hard plastic everywhere…

    I like VW interiors and the way they drive, and have lusted after many Audis over the years, but the recent emissions cheating really turned me off on the company.

    Good luck with your upcoming decisions!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Yarrow:

    Something that was under reported when the Comey hearing happened is that McCain had just recently returned from Australia. He had been there for security talks. That’s a long trip with a large time difference.

    “Security talks” might give the impression that McCain was in Canberra to negotiate stuff, which would be misleading, as he has nothing to negotiate with… any deal he offered, Trump could renege on it tomorrow. It was more of a soothing-ruffled feathers tour, trying to reassure the Australians that America was still their ally in principle no matter what Trump does in practice.

    There was this, which I don’t know if it received much attention on your side of the Pacific:

    But Senator McCain predicted that the Trump administration would soon unveil a new strategy in Afghanistan, and make further demands on allies like Australia.
    “We’re going to have a strategy not just not to lose, but to win and that’s going to require a surge of some kind,” he said.
    “It will probably be announced fairly soon and it will probably entail a few thousand additional troops and we’ll be asking friends and allies to supply additional troops as well.”

    Good luck with that.

  175. 175.

    Lyrebird

    Public service announcement:

    If you have ambivalent feelings about authority figures and/or have perfectionistic tendencies, do not – I repeat – do not sally forth and become a single parent.

    @Omnes Omnibus: ..and also note (though I know you have this well under control) that ferrying a preschooler to and from lessons is not, again not, the way to enjoy learning how your new-to-you 6-speed manual transmission car handles through the mountains.

    Ahem.

    Also, don’t move from a larger home to a smaller one.

  178. 178.

    Yarrow

    @sm*t cl*de: McCain’s visit didn’t get much attention here at all. I knew about it but when I went looking for a link the Seattle Times was the best major US paper I could find. Other coverage was Australian. I kind of wonder if the “security talks” was to make it look somewhat official for some reason, but they really wanted to keep it under wraps because of the soothing ruffled feathers angle. Like I said above, I was kind of surprised it didn’t come up in the discussion of his weird behavior at the Comey hearing. That’s a long trip, a big time zone different, and he’d only just got back a few days before.

  181. 181.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Way OT, but having just watched some Lonzo Ball summer league highlights, all I can say is that guy has got potential.

  183. 183.

    eclare

    @amygdala: I visited SF and borrowed a friend’s car to drive around while she was at work. I know how to drive a stick…had no problem getting out to Muir Woods. Coming back…yikes. I kept looking at the streets: “Nope”, “Not that one”, “JFC”, etc. For a while I considered just parking somewhere and taking a cab. I finally found what I had needed all along: “Truck Route”.

  184. 184.

    Origuy

    I grew up in southern Indiana, where the local radio station carried the Reds games. I was a Pirates fan, but it was the only station I pulled in. The announcer was Joe Nuxhall, who pitched 15 seasons for the Reds. His claim to fame was as the youngest player ever in the majors. He was big for his age and it was during WWII. The games were sponsored by Hudepohl Beer, and I think Joe got it free. He had a long career behind the mic, from 1967 through 2004. I stopped listening in 1974, maybe he drank less than I remember.

  186. 186.

    Karen

    @amygdala: San Francisco is piece of cake, now Salt Lake City in the winter was a different story; both places the worst could happen was some tourist on your bumper when you had been stopped at light.

  187. 187.

    Bruuuuce

    @LesGS: Large swathes of it, at least. But in much of the country, until very recently, that (R) was like a union card (you should pardon the analogy). I have high hopes that much of the country will change that in 2018, and that continued efforts to fix gerrymandering will do even more of that work.

  189. 189.

    SgrAstar

    @WaterGirl: What a sad, sad tale, WaterGirl. I’m very sorry. On my first trip to climb in Yosemite a friend was killed on El Cap. It was a long time ago, but I’ve never forgotten the pain and shock…and for you, losimg your boyfriend, it must have been so much worse. So much sorrow follows us.

  190. 190.

    Mike J

    @efgoldman:

    And the ESPN broadcast crew started really badly decades ago, and has evolved to pretty much unsufferable

    The first hour of the game, they didn’t utter a word that wasn’t about Aaron Judge.

  191. 191.

    seaboogie

    @Ruckus: I think this is what gender equality looks like: you be you, but if you are a douchebag, you are still a douchebag when you put on heels and say stupid stuff.

    Sort of like gay marriage and therefore gay divorce.

  193. 193.

    Aleta

    Trump asked for SS Protection on Oct 16, 2015. Because, he said, his rallies were so huge. Even though he also had and kept on his own security at the rallies. Dr. Carson had received it around that time because of increasing threats. After. he requested it, Trump also received it (Competitive much?) And stagecraft. (Pres. Obama received it in early 2007 for the same reason as Dr. Carson.)

  194. 194.

    Jay Noble

    Late to the game but – The Secret Service folks might like working for the Trumps because they’re NOT treated like the help. The Trumps are used to having Security around them and Help. I’m pretty sure none of the previous Presidents had that level servitude and security around them their whole lives and wouldn’t think twice asking a Seceret Service agent to “Hey, hand me the glass of water over there.” And the kids??

  198. 198.

    LesGS

    @Bruuuuce: I entirely agree that that (R) guarantees a vote from too many people, no matter the character or lack there of of the person it’s stuck to. My main point was that that (R) behind Jenner’s name won’t give her the boost it might in other states.

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @seaboogie:
    True. I think it’s mostly that Bruce wasn’t getting a lot of attention any more and now Caitlyn is. Also Bruce probably mostly got interviewed about sports. Caitlyn, probably not so much. And as you said, once a douchebag, always a douchebag.

  200. 200.

    tamiasmin

    @Gin & Tonic: That’s odd. It seems to me that having grandchlidren visit would be the surest way of all to focus on what Trump and his kind are trying to do to the world.

  202. 202.

    lgerard

    @Jay Noble:

    Strangely, trump has always had the reputation of being personable with the working people he interacts with.
    When i lived in NYC it wasn’t unusual to run across people who had met him briefly in some context and I never heard of anyone who had a bad word to say about him.
    Then again, he is Mr Trump, star, and to him they are his “fans”

  203. 203.

    glory b

    @WaterGirl: Well, some of us have to worry about that driving while black thing. I have NEVER driven that fast and wouldn’t stay in a car with anyone who would.

    Google Sandra Bland if you don’t remember that tragedy.

  204. 204.

    J R in WV

    @SFAW: Had a coworker who had a 900 like ours, not a turbo, could do 135 on the autobahn when he was in the Army. That’s 135 MPHIL, not kph.

  206. 206.

    Annie

    @divF:

    Listening to Miller is the only solace this year for us Giants fans.

    But Dave Flemming annoys me. A guy in his late thirties or forties whose favorite expression is “my goodness”? I know you can’t use profanity on the radio, but come up with something better than “my goodness.”

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