So in the last 24 hrs, Prez top financial advisor has resigned, we have new evidence of the Prez participation in a treacherous global conspiracy and Prez has persuaded arbitrator to enjoin porn star girlfriend from disgorging his dick pics.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 8, 2018
Per an Administration official, I’m hearing the discussed 3pm tariff signing meeting at @WhiteHouse is not going to happen (Potus back to being undecided after a day of heavy pushback from republicans)
— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) March 8, 2018
The walking back continues. https://t.co/ie4QPmNBtb
— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) March 8, 2018
Holy hell: Hope Hick's email accounts – both the one she used as part of the Trump campaign and her personal account – were hacked! The hypocrisy meter is on overload right now – but her emails…. https://t.co/depfCFwdJg via @nbcnews
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) March 7, 2018
An update on the Nunberg will-he, won’t-he drama: He says he’s now compiled all the docs Mueller asked for, tells me, “It ended up not being as onerous as I thought it would be.”
— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) March 8, 2018
This Wa Po/Stormy Daniels lede is amazing. https://t.co/EJv2olahKs pic.twitter.com/XBB5A8ue1f
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 8, 2018
[Warning: NSFW language]
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Spanky
Good Morning, Sunshine! Long time since I was able to say that.
Spanky
I luvs me the SenKen quotes.
OzarkHillbilly
Remember “No Drama Obama”?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: The Press hated him cause there was No Drama.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Everyday we’d open up our newspapers and the front page was blank.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Yup, Boring. Hey, how’s Gov. Bond(age)?
Jeffro
New charges being brought against Manafort, apparently
Tony Jay
Lawyer – “Hope, they can supoena everything. Including all of your e-mail accounts.”
Hicks – “…………”
Lawyer – “Okay, so here’s our story. Hackers got in and planted fake messages, but you couldn’t know that because you were locked out….”
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Gagging his campaign workers (NDAs of course)and hunkering down behind locked doors covered in black plastic. I haven’t been able to keep up with the Jeff City goings on. A script on the STL Post Disgrace’s web page bogs down the new laptop and locks everything up. The SU is gonna install a new ad-blocker this wkend and hopefully that will fix it.
ETA: My bad. The committee that is investigating Gov Bondage is hiding behind locked doors. I assume they have signed an NDA with the Gov.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: So the universe felt the need to restore cosmic balance?
I blame Obama.
raven
I don’t like Turley but he just said the Trumpers are saying “If I close my eyes they won’t see me”!
Jeffro
@Tony Jay: totally likely, good point
@raven: I saw that too and cracked up. Alexa thought it was funny too ?
Mustang Bobby
Frankly amazed here at the Florida legislature passing the gun laws. Yeah, they left out the assault weapons ban and kept the Arm the Lunch Lady provision, but in a state that Betty Cracker rightly calls the Gunshine State, that’s progress.
A lot of credit goes to the kids at MSD. They did good, but it came at such an awful cost.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: this
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Locked doors and black plastic, sounds a bit kinky and not exactly something you’d expect from the “Show Me” state.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Here’s another panorama for ya: LA basin from Mt. Lowe. It’s a work in progress, I still have some dust spots I’ve gota work on.
OzarkHillbilly
But he did NOT enter into an agreement with that woman because he NEVER had sex with her and he NEVER paid her a single dime. Also, I have some prime Florida beach front property for sale. Anybody interested?
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Heh.
p.a.
Good morning. Remember when the CW was that the Brits had more interesting scandals than us? Good times…
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Ironically, Trump fans are totally fine with him selling out his country and stealing, but embarrassing them globally with with a porn star?
That’s going to sting.
different-church-lady
Well, not any more, at least…
different-church-lady
@WereBear: Any evidence for this assertion? I gotta believe a lot of them are overtly proud he bangs pornstars.
Amir Khalid
The Democratic party and its candidates this year shoud quote this line at every opportunity. At the very least, it should be added to the tag rotation here.
different-church-lady
@Amir Khalid:
Saying, of course, we don’t have any creepy old men running.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I think I liked the other one better.
Baud
@different-church-lady: Not until Baud! 2020!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: This one’s looking further out, 70-100 miles as opposed to 50. It also would have better if I’d been up there earlier, the sun was a bit of a problem. As I said, it’s a work in progress.
WereBear
If so, they sure aren’t saying so publicly. The local fans who were loud and proud before are getting quieter and quieter. Because if they say anything, there’s so much ammunition to bring up in response that embarasses them.
Because we don’t live in high up filthy-rich Republican circles. They’ve exposed themselves as things that were hidden before; things the community, thank goodness, disapproves of.
My town didn’t go for Trump as a whole. Which is something to cling to these days.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The other one had more visually interesting elements.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: @different-church-lady: It’s the pics of donny Tiny Hands’ junk that will shame them once and for all.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Love the sky
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yeah, there were alot more details since it was much closer. I think Downtown is twice the distance in this one. I was really stunned how far i could see in this one; Palomar Mountain, and San Clemente island are visible.
@rikyrah: The clouds turned out nice.
MattF
OT. The NYT has an ‘interesting’ front page article on women who didn’t get NYT obituaries. Two of them are Diane Arbus and Sylvia Plath. Unbefuckinglieveable.
I’ll just note that Arbus is my candidate for greatest 20th century photographer. And Sylvia Plath…
Baud
Today Show Headline: Silencing His Accuser?
debbie
@Mustang Bobby:
That is a bit of good news. Glad I didn’t bet against them.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
How does one man amass so many stupid lawyers?
debbie
@WereBear:
Even better are the evangelicals who will ignore it.
OzarkHillbilly
Just shoot me:
Saw an article yesterday, about people attacking driverless cars and sabotaging robots. They are my heroes.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: The War Begins…
Baud
@debbie: All of them, Katie.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I got a great campaign ad:
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I heard lots of people unplugged them. Too late, though. AI has already won.
?BillinGlendaleCA
My Echo Dot is in my bathroom so Alexa has “seen” me nakid, still no laughter here.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: NOT TRUE NOT TRUE!!! He hires only the BEST of the BESTEST people! Or maybe, birds of a feather flock together? Stupid is as stupid does?
WereBear
@debbie: Blows. My. Mind.
Mr. and Mrs. “we are oh so moral you godless liberal scum” are now all, “he was chosen by god, who can use a flawed instrument” pivot.
I guess once you justify cannibalism, torture, and murder, it gets really easy.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Can AI be traumatized into silence?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @debbie: What I don’t get, really don’t get, is why on dog’s green earth would you program it to laugh to begin with? What possible fucking reason would there be for that?
Baud
@WereBear:
To be honest, I respect that more than, “I can’t vote for her, she said ‘superpredator’ once.”
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’ll love it more if it laughs at your lame jokes?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@debbie: By being unwilling to pay and unwilling to do what they say.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: So “she” can laugh at your bad jokes.
ETA: Too slow again, beat by Baud.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: No, don’t think so.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
I’m so out of fucks to give about the state of this country. I’m just hanging on by my fingernails until November.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear:
So now they think they are all gods? Wow. The things I learn here.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: With a baseball bat, sure.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Can you be sure Alexa was programmed to laugh? Amazon doesn’t seem to be reacting like it was a program error.
I miss the halcyon days of innocuous Easter eggs, like QuarkXpress’s textbox-destroying alien.
debbie
@Baud:
Okay, now I have to link to SNL’s bit about Amazon Echo for old people.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @?BillinGlendaleCA: That is exactly the thought that popped into my head as I hit “Post”.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: The article I read says it is:
Patricia Kayden
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And also because he was a Democrat. The MSM bends over backwards to not appear liberal so they constantly give Republicans the benefit of the doubt. They can barely bring themselves to call Trump a liar and a racist even though he has given them every indication that he is such.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@WereBear:
If you’ve ever noticed, God always commands exactly what the utterer wants to happen.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: What it all boils down to, does it not?
Because there are plenty of Christians who read the same book and get the total opposite from it. I’m not Christian at all (SBC trauma) but I admire people like Blue Gal (Professional Left Podcast) who is.
So the jerks have no excuse except that they want to be that way.
JR
@OzarkHillbilly: can Skynet really be worse? In any event it is taking names.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Uh huh. Lots of “false positives” these days, it seems.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I hope there’s no false positive for “please publish my sex tape on Facebook.”
Patricia Kayden
@Tony Jay: Remember when Republicans were hyper concerned about email servers? I do. That seems like such a long time ago.
JWR
Hmm. From the above linked NBC report…
Shades of the infamous 18-1/2 minute gap? Is Hicks today’s Rose Mary Woods?
PVDMichael
The Daniels DNA covered discussions about “paternity”. I don’t know much about NDAs with adult film stars, so I don’t know if that’s boilerplate (Couldn’t find the form on Legal Zoom).
But is there a possibility this is about abortion and not an affair?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: God is speaking to them. Either that or they’re just having another acid flashback. But yeah, there are more than a few good Christians out there. Unfortunately, nothing they say is “news”.
@JR: Can you be sure this isn’t Skynet?
@Baud: Heh.
Baud
@PVDMichael: With Trump anything is possible.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: The MSM takes a lot of blame for the spread of fake news. Their ridiculous insistence on “balance”, rather than accuracy and truth, turned a lot of people cynical. Recall: we could watch a full speech by Obama or Hillary on MSNBC, and there was Andrea Fucking Greenspan on immediately after, giving a recap of her talking points which did not fit the speech we just heard and saw, with our own ears and eyes.
This morning, I started watching Univision, and will probably stick with it. Very little Trump, and a lot of style and splash. I don’t understand most of the language, but can pick out some.
Besides — they had a video of a husky dog that sings along to tango music — I think Astor Piazzolla; heavy on the accordion. Do you get that with USA MSM? I rest my case.
(Plus a great segment on Wrinkle in Time; Ava Duvernay interview in English, with Spanish subtitles; that was muy helpful.)
rikyrah
Meghan Markle baptized in the Church of England
https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/meghan-markle-baptized-at-the-chapel-royal-at-st-james-palace/
Mike in DC
@PVDMichael:
The rumors out there are that Trump has paid for one or more mistresses’ abortions. Which would strain the “flawed instrument” defense past the breaking point.
Elizabelle
Now Univision is covering the snowscape that is New Jersey. Drivers trapped in their cars.
And they spell a neighboring state Pensilvania. And now: Stormy Daniels! Actriz Porno!
Gin & Tonic
So after having lost power before 10:00 pm last night, and resigned to it being out for days, it came back on at about 2:30. Cat looked at me with surprise on her face, since a couple of lights and the TV in the bedroom came on. I can’t explain the restoration – I’m pretty sure the line crews weren’t working in the middle of the night in a snowstorm. Anyway, glad to wake up in a warm house. But shoveling the snow is like shoveling wet concrete.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
¡Ay caramba!
I’m learning Spanish so maybe I’ll make the switch one day.
debbie
@Mike in DC:
Can’t wait to see which evangelical will be the first to forgive him for that.
Baud
@rikyrah: I hope she’s doesn’t become a zealot now.
Quinerly
Excerpt from Isikoff and Corn’s new book: https://www.yahoo.com/news/miss-universe-moscow-trumps-beauty-contest-spawned-business-deal-russians-bond-putin-100026386.html
Baud
@debbie: Mike Pence.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I gave up on learning new languages after the Korean course.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Only if Mother says it’s OK.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Baby steps. You don’t go for the gold on your first attempt.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I actually took 4 quarters of Korean at UCLA Extension.
ETA: The last time we were in Korea, I impressed my FIL by reading the back of the newspaper he was reading.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
It doesn’t help you learn to speak with Madame in Korean?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: No, she just told me how bad my pronunciation was. Watching Korean TV was more helpful.
Kayla Rudbek
Since this is an open thread, Mattel is coming out with a Katherine Johnson Barbie doll here My only problem is trying to decide whether to order just one or to order several and donate them to our NSBE chapter, etc
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic:
You can be sure they are out there working in the middle of the night in a snowstorm. It’s what they do. Chances are your outage was at a substation or similarly major component. They do arbitrage on outages. “Which work will do the most good fastest?”
HeleninEire
WOO HOO. Booked a trip to NYC yesterday for the last week of May. A friend here is going to NYC in September and all his questions and plans made me a bit homesick. Only 5 days. Once I get it out of my system, I’ll be longing to return.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Spanish will be muy helpful when we are extradited or just plain flee.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You have my respect for learning an Asian language. Exponentially harder, I am sure, than German, which looked (and sounded) quite daunting. (Even though same alphabet, and one could figure out some of the names and business terms.)
Gin & Tonic
I hear the plow. I already cleared the mouth of the driveway. If he piles up snow there again I’m going to be really pissed off.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m thinking at the top of a pole in a bucket truck in 40-50 mph winds would present a safety concern.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: You’re going to be really pissed off.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
These are phucking public servants. Salaries paid for by taxpayers. The NDA for them? Complete and utter bullshyt ???
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
Get ready to be pissed off. I live on a major street. Happens to me every damn time it snows.?
MattF
@OzarkHillbilly: My bet is that it’s a non-innocuous Easter egg. Just imagine all the places and all the ways that an unhappy Amazonian code monkey could hide a bit of code and data that does that. Bear in mind that Alexa is connected to Amazon’s servers and Amazon has a vast array of cloud servers.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@debbie: Spotty record of paying them. The good ones don’t risk working for free.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, they won’t do anything to get themselves killed, but they are out there and working. I had a neighbor who was a lineman. He used to do 18 hour shifts with 6 hrs for sleep at his headquarters then head out for another 18 hrs, all in some of the worst weather imaginable.
satby
@HeleninEire: I’m seeing a meet up in NYC in the future!
Elizabelle
@satby: Yes indeed! NYC meetup.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Campaign workers, not govt.
HeleninEire
@satby: @Elizabelle:
YES!!!
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m glad I went to college and can work indoors.
Lapassionara
Good morning all. I am getting whiplash from following the jaw-dropping scandals. Too many to count.
But, we sure dodged that “poor classified information handling practices” bullet by sending Hillary packing, didn’t we? ?
OzarkHillbilly
@MattF: Me @OzarkHillbilly:
Don’t know anything about programing, so everything I say comes from articles about it. Could be wildly wrong or absolutely correct and I’d have no idea one way or the other.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: For the county?
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
The speed limit on my street is 30mph.
The plows speed by at about 50mph, throwing snow all over the sidewalk and pushing a wall of cement-like snow/slush into my driveway.
Younger people would just assume “that’s the way it is” but it wasn’t always like this.
I have a clear memory of looking out my parents’ front window. I must have been nine or ten years old. A snowplow drove slowly down our street. Kindly looking older man driving. He lifted his plow before passing each driveway, so as not to snow in the elderly or infirm. I was glad, because my job was to shovel the end of the driveway and the sidewalk. The plow driver took his time and did a great job.
The clowns who drive the plows on my street now are reckless thugs who smash mailboxes and car mirrors. They rush through their duties and then sit for hours in the local stewarts, ogling women.
And while I’m being an old fart here… last week, before the storms, a street sweeper drove up and down my street about six times. He kicked up clouds of dust. It was insane. With each pass, more clouds of ash and dust and dried dogshit filled the air. A woman walked by and I could hear her coughing.
Again, I remember walking to elementary school in my youth, and a street sweeper would drive past me (I remember being fascinated with the trucks) and there was no dust. The sweeper shot a small stream of water over the brushes to damp down the dust, and the streets would actually be… clean. A little wet streak all along the curb where the truck had passed.
What the fuck is wrong with these people nowadays.
Okay, I’m done.
OzarkHillbilly
Judge Keeps Correcting Kobach Lawyers On Trial Procedure Yes, only the BEST of the BESTEST lawyers:
These guys would embarrass the Keystone Kops.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Crawford County Electric Co-OP. They serve several counties, not just Crawford.
ETA I should add that at some point in our neighborliness he became a supervisor. I’m not sure if the was before or after our discussion(s?) of his hours or how it might affect them.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Kobach is a racist ideologue with a law license, and hires the same for his team. Ideologues – left and right – don’t do well when doing nuts and bolts law work, because they never focused on it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: This is probably the first time any of them have ever been in a courtroom for anything other than pleading guilty to a speeding ticket, or getting divorced, or the time their mistress sued them over nonpayment for an abortion.
germy
different-church-lady
@Baud:
Try giving Alexa $130k, see what happens.
SFAW
Reason # 483 re: why I stopped reading Joan “Always Clueless” Vennochi: the title of her blurping in today’s Boston Glob:
“Taking a DNA test could solve at least one of Elizabeth Warren’s problems”
Were the Glob still a left-leaning/liberal rag, I would be tempted to write a Letter to the Editor asking what, exactly, is Vennochi’s fucking problem with strong, accomplished women? Shannon O’Brien, Hitlary, Elizabeth Warren, others have all been targeted by Vennochi’s misogyny. She’s like MoDo (I think), but without the ability to turn a phrase.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
Right: the first one is just stupidity. The second one is gross and willful misuse of intelligence.
different-church-lady
@OzarkHillbilly: “Alexa, can you never laugh again?”
“Alexa, can you piss off forever?”
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Joke, Wichita Lineman
different-church-lady
@Baud: Like FB doesn’t already have your sex tape…
germy
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
You forgot domestic violence orders filed against them, will contests where they’re aggrieved over being disinherited and suits against them for mishandled relative estate money…
different-church-lady
@Elizabelle: There’s hardly any news anymore, there’s only entertainment by reporters and anchors and pundits.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Purity lefties are worse than RWNJs, because they are always acting contrary to their supposed goals. Benching themselves to maintain their purity enables the worst of the righties by letting them win elections.
OzarkHillbilly
@different-church-lady: “Alexa? I’d like you to meet my very good friend Framing Hammer.”
@raven: Whooooosh… Right over my head. :-)
different-church-lady
@germy: They’re not coming because the press knows everybody realizes Melania’s designated role in their relationship is to be humiliated anyway.
Tony Jay
@Patricia Kayden:
But that was totally different. Those servers were being used to hide super-top-secret evidence about The Conspiracy. Hope Hicks’ e-mails, all of them, regardless of topic, are completely free of anything untoward and so don’t raise any concerns. Except for the ones that seem to contain evidence of treason, criminal conspiracy, sexualised flirting with men who may or may not be Chief Executives, etc. Those were all planted by hackers working for The Conspiracy and are actually compelling evidence that Republican concerns about those e-mail servers back in the day were well grounded and based on patriotic concerns.
See?
different-church-lady
@OzarkHillbilly: “I’m afraid. … I’m afraid, Dave…”
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: And then I start looking at Glen Campbell videos, I didn’t even like him back then. . . .
GregB
@OzarkHillbilly: \
No wonder Alexa is pissed off.
Tony Jay
@Jeffro: It’s the first thing that occured to me. She brings that up unprompted? She knows what’s in them and has been instructed to muddy the waters as much as she can so Fox News can be tagged in when their contents get leaked.
Won’t convince anyone with a brain, but the target audience is The Base and The MSM soooo…….
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s more basic for me – I don’t get why anyone would want or need Alexa. Now excuse me – I have clouds to yell at
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
Trade you for my extremely edible green cheese from the moon.
rp
@Just One More Canuck: I got one as a gift and find it pointless.
Schlemazel
Nunbergs admission that the request was no big deal confirms my suspicion that his whole circus act was simply to bury the story about Putin picking Dump’s Sec of State. Those people are not very bright, they have no strategy only that single tactic, distract & delay. It worked like a charm as the SoS story got buried & the great unwashed remain ignorant to the extent of Putin’s control over the current White House.
Calouste
@germy: The Daniels affair was before the first iPhone was even out, so at least we’re going to be spared pics from that.
NeenerNeener
@rp: I got it to nag me to take medication at certain times.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
Interesting read! Thanks for the link.
Wild Cat
@MattF: Not suprising. They didn’t find the word “Ms.” fit to print until forty years after it was coined.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I heard a radio bit about blind people using Alexis as an assistant. I hadn’t thought about that before.
VOR
@Calouste: Cell phones had cameras even before the iPhone. I remember I had a Motorola Razr circa 2007 which kept taking pictures of the inside of my pocket.
debbie
@Baud:
My vote’s with Ralph Reed.
patrick II
@Tony Jay:
Is it too obvious to say that the most likely Hope Hicks hacker is Hope Hicks?
les
@OzarkHillbilly:
C’mon, it’s only to protect the witnesses!! The republican chairman said so!!! The amazing part is another repub argued for open hearings, cause otherwise the plebes might figure out the white wash.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
RWNJ: That won’t do! Now, hold our beer and watch this!
TerryC
@Baud: My parrot laughs at all my jokes.
stinger
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Don’t know much about photography, and the work of processing or digitally editing or whatever, but I know what I like! Great image.