Via TPM, here’s a crazy story out of Ukraine about a Russian journalist (and Kremlin critic) who was reported killed yesterday:
Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko turned up at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Wednesday less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building. The country’s security services said Babchenko’s death was faked to foil a plot to take his life.
Ukrainian police said Tuesday that Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back Tuesday and found bleeding there by his wife. Authorities said they suspected he was killed because of his work.
Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, announced at a news conference Wednesday that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko’s slaying. He then startled everyone there by inviting the 41-year-old reporter into the room.
To the applause and gasps of the press, Babchenko took the floor and apologized to the friends and family who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan.
“I’m still alive,” he said.
Ukrainian investigators detected an assassination plot and faked the journalist’s death to foil it, then arrested the conspirators. Maybe all countries targeted by Russia need to get more creative to keep Putin’s henchmen from acting with impunity.
trollhattan
Seems crazy, but maybe “crazy like Ukrainian fox.” In Vlad’s era there are no rules.
O/T Bad day at Pompeii.
rikyrah
TRUTH is stranger than fiction.
This is some crazy azz spy movie shyt.
DID.NOT.EVEN.TELL.HIS.WIFE!
rikyrah
Cohen’s not having a good day:
At Michael Cohen hearing, Judge Wood tells defense lawyers to pick up the pace on privilege review, threatens to turn review over to DOJ “taint team” https://t.co/ibBG1xZv91
— Alison Frankel (@AlisonFrankel) May 30, 2018
Jeffro
This is just getting weirder by the day. To the aliens or extra-dimensional creatures for which we are providing entertainment, could you please change the channel? Kthxbai
Elizabelle
Wow. I’m glad he is alive. Hope he remains so.
Gin & Tonic
Most people in Ukraine are lauding this as a genius move. A lot of people outside Ukraine are saying it is boneheaded because it undermines the very nature of reporting and truth.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Yes. It’s sounding like a Patricia Cornwell novel. (She started losing me with that plot twist many novels back. Now she is unreadable, IMHO. Bring on the Michael Connelly. Who, like most novelists, cannot make up such a farflung plot as has become our real life these days.)
Jeffro
Btw speaking of weirdness, did not think of this but yeah, I guess sports books could lose millions on this *cough* Cinderella story: Golden Knights Could Cost Las Vegas Millions if They Win The Stanley Cup
Let’s do what we can to help out the good oddsmakers of Vegas tonight, shall we Caps???
A Ghost To Most
@trollhattan:
“On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
trollhattan
In a shocking twist, Trump finally makes statement about Roseanne, but that’s actually about Trump.
Humdog
@Gin & Tonic: how can it undermine reporting and truth? The truth came out quickly and the death was reported as an assassination, which it was in that it was attempted
rikyrah
These coons, just like Marc Lamont Hill, must NEVER BE ABLE TO REWRITE WHAT THEY DID IN 2016.
They must be called out for their treachery. Will make it easier for us to nail the ratphuckers in 2018.
Inside the Pro-Trump Effort to Keep Black Voters From the Polls
Breitbart staffer recruited Sanders activist Bruce Carter to get African Americans to support the Republican—or stay home
Breitbart News landed an election scoop that went viral in August 2016: “Exclusive: ‘Black Men for Bernie’ Founder to End Democrat ‘Political Slavery’ of Minority Voters… by Campaigning for Trump.”
If the splashy, counterintuitive story, which circulated on such conservative websites as Truthfeed and Infowars, wasn’t exactly fake news, it was carefully orchestrated.
The story’s writer—an employee of the conservative website run by Steve Bannon before he took over Donald Trump’s campaign—spent weeks courting activist Bruce Carter to join Trump’s cause. He approached Carter under the guise of interviewing him. The writer eventually dropped the pretense altogether, signing Carter up for a 10-week blitz aimed at convincing black voters in key states to support the Republican real estate mogul, or simply sit out the election. Trump’s narrow path to victory tightened further if Hillary Clinton could attract a Barack Obama-level turnout.
…………………………
“If you can’t stomach Trump, just don’t vote for the other people and don’t vote at all,” Carter, 47, recalls telling black voters. It’s the message he says the Trump campaign wanted him to deliver. “That’s what they wanted, that’s what they got.”
The work Carter says he did, and the funds he was given to do it, also raise questions as to whether campaign finance laws were broken.
The group Carter founded, Trump for Urban Communities, never disclosed its spending to the Federal Election Commission—a possible violation of election law. In hindsight, Carter says, he believed he was working for the campaign so he wouldn’t have been responsible for reporting the spending.
trollhattan
@A Ghost To Most:
Heh. There’s taking a rock to the face, then there’s TAKING A ROCK TO THE FACE. At some point they’ll find Acme Boulders etched on it. #LeanIn
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
Someone on another blog wrote that the Las Vegas team was akin to ‘ The Island of Misfit Toys’, and that’s why they hoped they won it all..LOL
Jeffro
Also speaking of weirdness: Ambien’s maker, Sanofi, is tweeting that “racism is not a known side effect” of the drug. 21st century social media skillz, they haz them…=)
Gin & Tonic
@Humdog: Next Kremlin critic that’s reported to be assassinated, Sputnik and RT will say “he’s not really dead, he’s in hiding because of some attempted sting.” That’s the view of the critics of this operation, I haven’t decided how I feel about it yet.
Jeffro
@trollhattan: I wonder which specific ‘HORRIBLE’ statements Orangemandias is referring to? Let’s give them some airtime and parse them all day long, shall we US media?
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Love it!
I’m oddly addicted to the machine gun delivery contraindications statements at the end of teevee prescription drug ads. My absolute favorite is “uncontrolled gambling.” Surprisingly frequent is the single word: “death.”
The Other Chuck
When one fakes their own death, doesn’t one usually, yunno, at least temporarily leave the locality that’s swarming with people trying to kill them? Jus’ sayin’
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: What stops Putin from getting him the next time, now that it is known that he is alive?
Gin & Tonic
@The Other Chuck: @schrodingers_cat: People like Babchenko are aware of the risks they are taking.
JPL
@trollhattan: It’s doubtful that anyone won the what will Trump tweet contest.
This is the same asshole that accused Nancy Pelosi of loving MS-13
randy khan
@trollhattan:
Well, that’s entirely unsurprising.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T, and I know we’ve picked over the Roseanne story beyond TBogg Units, but holy crap:
EDIT: Oops, apologies to trollhattan @ #10.
MattF
@schrodingers_cat: Indeed, now that Putin’s been challenged…
Adam L Silverman
eclare
@Elizabelle: Patricia Cornwell lost me a long time ago, after I really enjoyed her first several books. Can’t go wrong with Connelly…still sad over the alphabet for Sue Grafton ending at “Y”.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne: Shorter Trump: MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Peale
@The Other Chuck: Yeah. Maybe they arrested everyone in Ukraine who might possibly commit murders and assassinations for money? Like in general it is a peaceful place and there were these three hitmen who had a monopoly.
A Ghost To Most
@trollhattan:
Now every time I see that pic, I’ll see Wile E., and hear “meep meep”.
evodevo
@eclare: Yes to all this …
Aleta
Great news.
Also:
MattF
@dmsilev: Shorter shorter Trump: ME.
eclare
@SiubhanDuinne: ABC has another tweeting scandal on its hands: one of the leading contenders for the Bachelorette to choose has been unmasked liking racist, bigoted stuff on IG. It will be interesting to see how ABC proceeds since there is a lot of secrecy while the season is shown on tv, and the season premiere was on Memorial Day. And yes, I’ve just confessed to watching The Bachelorette!
Link
FlipYrWhig
@Adam L Silverman: It is hard to conceive of a human being as conspicuously (a) stupid and (b) gullible as Trump.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
They are so corrupt over there that they are even fraudulent about murdering someone to get them out of their way.
President Spanky tweeted in on the Rosanne Racism scandal and declared himself the real victim in it.
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: Last night on Hayes’ and Reid’s special on racism in the US, one of the guests, a criminology professor, Dr. Goff, who does a lot of work training law enforcement on best practices in policing related a conversation he had with the Salt Lake City Police Chief. He said the chief told him that he tells Salt Lake City citizens all the time that if they don’t want or need an armed response, not to call the police. That his police are highly trained in armed response – it’s what they’re good at. So if you don’t want that, don’t call them. My immediate thought was: “did they move Salt Lake City to Syria?” How much violent crime requiring a significant armed response is their in Salt Lake City? Are there armed gangs roaming Tabernacle Square and collecting tributes from tourists at gun point?
ruemara
Christ, we’re in a spy movie written by Michael Bay & Seth Rogin.
@Adam L Silverman: There’ might be random brown person… aggressively standing.
I confess to avoiding that show like the plague.
@rikyrah: Yeah, I posted that yesterday. That man deserves to be shunned. Bastard. Ignorant bastard.
eric
@Adam L Silverman: those are scientologists.
MomSense
Another weird situation is the whereabouts of Melania Trump. It’s been 19 days now since anyone outside the White House has seen her. Anyone else find this odd?
Humdog
@Gin & Tonic: Sputnik and RT are disinformation sources covering for Putin. That they are unhappy is good. That they will use this for further disinformation is a given.
MomSense
@ruemara:
I hate those movies.
Chyron HR
@MomSense:
What are you talking about? Melanie’s right here!
MattF
@MomSense: My wild guess is that Melania got extremely freaked out by ICE separating parents from their children.
Fair Economist
@MomSense: There was speculation she was really (or at least also) having cosmetic surgery and the kidney surgery was a cover. Extended recovery from cosmetic surgery is not unusual.
eric
@Fair Economist: I would think that since Maggie sold her soul for access, she might take a swing at this one…
ericblair
@schrodingers_cat:
From my understanding, the assassin either had been caught or flipped, and the whole op was to convince the people who ordered the hit that it was done so they would pay up and the Ukrainians could trace the money. I guess we’ll see what they caught.
Elizabelle
@eclare: I know. Y is for “Why was she taken so young?” Object lesson, like “don’t spend much time worrying about what happens after she gets to Z”, no?
Here’s an excerpt from forthcoming Michael Connelly novel, Dark Sacred Night. Generous; it’s several chapters. Book out on October 30. You will see that he does a lot of explaining for readers new to the series.
Harry Bosch teams with newish character, Detective Rene Ballard, to solve a cold case. I think it’s fascinating how Connelly mapped out the series, or had a good idea of its arc (at least its initial arc), way before writing the series of novels. He is solving a problem here: what do you do when your lead character, star of your series, is going to age out of his line of work within the next 5-10 years? Harry’s already retired a few times, and a 70 year old detective is 70 years old.
Connelly’s also got Harry’s daughter, now at college, as a potential future character.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Temple Square, Adam.
Brownian
@Adam L Silverman:
Much in the same way that my IBS makes me good at pooping, if ‘good at’ means ‘does so often, unpredictably and without much conscious control’?
Adam L Silverman
@FlipYrWhig: If you look around the room and can’t tell who the mark is, you’re the mark.
Aleta
@MomSense:
Feeling concerned /s, I looked up ‘recovery time face lift,’ and saw it was around 2 weeks for bruises to disappear, much longer for puffiness. Or maybe the issue is detox/recovery or other mental health issue, so she’s still in treatment?
eclare
@Elizabelle: I know, I’ve read all of his books in chronological order, and the imagination behind the series is incredible. And like you said, he must have gamed out a very, very long arc before even writing his first book. Thanks for the link!
Adam L Silverman
@ruemara: This was a MSNBC special they hosted on the topic. They did a very good job considering that they only had an hour. But Goff’s remark was interesting to say the least.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman:
Ever since the Mormon Tabernacle Choir went feral, the whole area has been a no-go zone.
Elizabelle
@eclare: I’ve started back reading them again. Just finished The Black Echo and Black Ice. In both cases, had remembered a lot of the story, but not all of it.
It’s fun to see the police without cell phones (as was Kinsey Milhone, and ever will be). Definitely changes the plotting.
Adam L Silverman
@eric: If he had been quoting the Clearwater Police Chief then I might buy that your suggestion is correct.
eclare
@Elizabelle: I wonder if Billin has read any of them, the books give so many LA area details. Angel’s Flight still haunts me.
Adam L Silverman
@MomSense: The official White House response is she was in the hospital for a week and has spent the past week recovering at home at the White House and is very private and doesn’t appreciate all the press inquiries.
In any other administration having the First Lady essentially disappear for two weeks would be a huge scandal.
In this one? Who knows.
trollhattan
@MomSense:
Richard Thompson has a song that perhaps fits.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Is it the Mormon Temple Choir? No. It’s the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! Therefore…//
Wapiti
@Adam L Silverman: So when faced with an emergency/situation/crime in Salt Lake City, civilians on site should be ready to tell the 911 operator what assets to send? smh
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: More seriously Utah is one of the few states I’ve never been too. Other than stepping a few feet into it at 4 Corners.
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
Best HBO series pitch of the year. Make it so!
“Tabernapocalypse!”
Speaking of things Utah and Mormonish, McClatchy has been publishing a multi-part series on Ancestry.com. I vote Proceed with caution before sending in your spit and cash.
Peale
@Adam L Silverman: I guess its a good place to park in handicapped parking spaces and in front of fire hydrants.
Jeffro
@MomSense: Which is 18 1/2 more days than a Dem First Lady would be able to disappear without it being a full-blown media sensation…the double standards are more like quintuple standards these days…
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
As long as you like mountains it has its charms.
catclub
@Jeffro:
unlike your standard cocaine black helicopter paranoia
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: I know. But it’s largely preaching to the converted. The ones who need to watch, won’t. And if you’re like me, you’re a little too heartbroken at humanity to do this pain parade thing, hoping that this time, people will get it.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: is that the same as me hanging with my college buddies and not being able to figure who has aged the most? I suspect it is…
Jeffro
@catclub: Hey now, that actually was on the warning label of the last 8-ball that…oh…nevermind…nothing to see here, folks.
zhena gogolia
OT, Cole tweeted the cutest picture of Lily and Steve I’ve ever seen.
Tom
@dmsilev: You owe me a new computer screen, now that my current one has coffee all over it.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: I actually made that comment last night.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
If the only dispute resolution tool that SLCPD officers know how to use is a gun, there is an obvious deficiency in their selection and training. I wonder if this thought has occurred to the Chief.
FlipYrWhig
@Adam L Silverman: I’m sure if Hillary Clinton had disappeared from public view in 1998 the press would say it was most appropriate to keep a respectful distance.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@trollhattan: A reasonable, dare I say saner, response to that article. TL;DR: WTF is he talking about?
Adam L Silverman
@eclare: I just watched the Angel’s Flight arc on the Amazon Prime series. They did an excellent job.
Adam L Silverman
@Wapiti: And to be prepared to paint targets for them. Or something.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: I love mountains. That’s why we have New Mexico and Colorado and other places that aren’t Utah.
eclare
@Adam L Silverman: Glad to hear! Don’t have Amazon Prime, but if I ever do subscribe, that will be at the top of the list.
rikyrah
@ruemara:
I know that folks posted it, but I wanted to again, just to remind folks what we need to look out for in 2018, and we should go on the offensive. We should have no reticence in accusing folks of being ratphuckers. MAKE THEM PROVE that they’re not.
Beginning with those muthaphuckas at Our Revolution.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: The Portrait of Jeffro Gray…
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Not really. After all, she couldn’t be bothered to be First Lady the first 6 months he was in office.
But, I do know what the reaction would have been with any other First Lady.
They just should have admitted that she was having ‘ work done’.
RemindsMeOfThatMovie
You (and TPM) buried the lede.
“Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who had been recruited and paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the killing. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn hired an acquaintance who had fought in the separatist war in eastern Ukraine as the gunman.”
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: That was pretty much my question too. Goff’s remark included prefacing that the chief said that while they could respond to call outs for mental health concerns and other similar things, what they’re really there for is armed response. Which is a really whacked view of policing.
dmsilev
@trollhattan:
Tabernapocalypse Now, the story about a choir director gone rogue upstate and the team sent up the wilds of Interstate 15 to take him out …by any means necessary.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
link, please?
Adam L Silverman
@FlipYrWhig: The right wing news media/social media ecosystem has spent the past two days, when not responding to the Roseanne crap, has been pushing a story that appears to start at InfoWars that Secretary Clinton is wearing a back brace because something, something health conspiracy, something her coat looked bulky and ill fitting in a picture from last week.
Adam L Silverman
@eclare: I’ve been very impressed with the series, but they did excellent casting and Connelly himself is involved.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: It’s called Temple Square, since the Temple is there. The Tabernacle is in Temple Square. The Choir performs in the Tabernacle.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eclare: Nope, I get my stuff from the web(noirish LA).
FlipYrWhig
@Adam L Silverman: I thought it was a point chiefly for rhetorical effect: that when you call out the police, you’re beginning a process that may well involve armed response, so if you don’t want that, don’t call the police, do something else. Because so much of the rest of the forum was about how if there’s a person minding their own business sitting in a coffee place or barbecuing, ask yourself whether this is a situation that benefits from the addition of cops with guns. I hadn’t thought about it in quite that way before, so I had a more positive response than I guess you and others did.
FlipYrWhig
@Adam L Silverman: I have some unpleasant news to break to them about Donald Trump’s appearance, not just recently, but for the past 30 or so years.
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: I suspect that the cosmetic surgery was needed to repair her face after Donald wailed on it.
Adam L Silverman
@FlipYrWhig: I’ve taught and trained a lot of law enforcement – municipal, state, and Federal. So that is likely the reason I heard it differently than you did.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: OMG, she’s dying(yet again).
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You would like the books. Connelly scouts out his scenes and has a lot to say about the evolution of LA as a city, and of policing. Used to cover crime for The Los Angeles Times before turning to fiction.
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: That has been some of the speculation. I have trouble believing that could have been kept under wraps at Bethesda despite it being a military hospital.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
The rot starts at the top.
The chief doesn’t see any other thing that his department is supposed to do. Draw and shoot. Done.
He’s not the only chief to think this way.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No one gets out of life alive.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I don’t have time to read, beyond Balloon Juice and norish LA. Priorities!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jeffro:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: True, but when Sec. Clinton does meet her maker, they’ll say she faked her demise.
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: I just read about that. What a gigantic asshole. I really, really hope someone just up and punches Trump in the mouth one day.
I’d settle for washing his mouth out with soap. What a racist fucking blowhard.
Steeplejack (phone)
TenguPhule
@RemindsMeOfThatMovie:
Subcontracting the important stuff never ends well.
Elizabelle
@Ruckus: I’m wondering if we’ll see the SLC police chief with pushback against Dr. Goff, claiming he was misquoted. In which case, I hope it’s on tape or notes … although sounds like a private conversation.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Hillary Clinton as Snowball?
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And claiming she’s hiding out in Tabernacle Square.//
TenguPhule
@FlipYrWhig:
Its Utah, they don’t get a presumption of good faith. They’re Mormons.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): There’s always this medication that Colbert talked about.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: They have replaced the real Melania with a Russian look alike. IIRC this was a plot of a cheesy novel in the 80s.
TenguPhule
And FYWP is borked on editing comments.
sukabi
@Aleta: I’m thinking she’s got several more weeks until her cast is off, her bruises should be healed by now.
And yes, I think the old cheeto could easily break her arm.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
What would she be doing differently if this was not true?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: That’s the way Fox News will report it.
rikyrah
Abramovich cannot work in UK if he arrives on Israeli passport, No 10 says
VeniceRiley
I have a bunch of Mormon relatives in Utah and they’re straight up racists.
I have one liberal sister there living in sin with her Jewish boyfriend. SLC is okay. They keep electing competent lesbians and stuff to dunk on the rest of the state. Aces! Oh, and my sister’s company is participating in Pride this weekend. yay!
The Moar You Know
@MomSense: Seen a couple of minor stories in the MSM about it starting today. People are starting to ask.
Me, I know facelifts take a while to heal, so not worried.
Amir Khalid
@FlipYrWhig:
Consider the question the SLC police chief wants you to ponder:
Is this how the public should think of the police?
trollhattan
@VeniceRiley:
Jack Mormons can be lots of fun. They know exactly what they’re missing and definitely miss none of it.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
rikyrah
@Steeplejack (phone):
so cute :)
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: I’m going with “yes”, because in America if you think of the police any differently, you or someone else could easily die.
I gotta be honest, there have been a couple of times this last year where I’ve thought about calling the cops on what are obviously some extremely mentally disturbed individuals down at the dog park near me, but then I think “what’s going to happen to this guy when some roided up screaming asshole shows up with a gun?” (this is not an inaccurate or exaggerated example of your typical San Diego police officer) The answer is something that frankly I don’t want on my conscience. So I haven’t, even though I think these guys in the park present a chance of danger to others.
Steeplejack (phone)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Heh, I thought it was going to be something from Prescott Pharmaceuticals.
sukabi
@The Moar You Know: gee if only there was an organization with folks who were trained to deal with situations that required a calm demeanor, could de-escalate tense situations, were trained to subdue without the use of tasers and or bullets…
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
I see that Steeplejack responded, but just for future reference, you can see John’s tweets if you look to the right of the BJ website and click on his name at the top of his tweets there. There’s a lot of funny stuff there. (I’m not on Twitter, but I enjoying reading John’s tweets and sometimes the stuff he links to.)
FlipYrWhig
@Amir Khalid: I agree with The Moar You Know. It’s something that should cross your mind. I suppose there’s a slippery slope from thinking “cops shoot first, I should ease up” to thinking “snitches get stitches, I’ll mind my own business” but I still think it’s a useful other voice to have in the back of your head when you’re thinking about calling the cops in the absence of imminent danger.
Steve in the ATL
@trollhattan:
Breaking news alert!
Joke made, Pompeii is one of my favorite sites in Italy.
Amir Khalid
@The Moar You Know:
@FlipYrWhig:
Is it a desirable reality that the public think of the police not as protectors but as dangerous, easily provoked people with guns? Clearly not; as you note, that defeats the purpose of a police force. Yet I suspect that the SLCPD chief actively encourages people to think this way, not only the public but also his officers.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: SLC is a *hotbed* of activity for that LDS-13 gang we’ve been hearing so much about. No wonder the SLC police go about armed and trigger-happy. Animals, all of them. Buh-LEEEVE me!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): Funny thing, I was on the medication when I originally saw that.
Doug R
@Adam L Silverman: Vince McMahon broke kayfabe almost immediately after Chris Benoit died.
Adam L Silverman
@Doug R: Yep.
Felony Govt (Formerly Old Broad in California)
We’re living in an edition of the Onion
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/politics/kim-kardashian-jared-kushner-white-house/index.html"
The Lodger
@Adam L Silverman: Health conspiracy? My goodness, could being in a(n inferred) back brace interfere with her ability to do her job? SCANDAL!
Aleta
@sukabi:
arm, wrist, hand– easily
ha I like that. That soggy old cheeto.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
Running a sting operation to catch the plotters in these kinds of murder-for-hire cases is actually pretty common. What’s unusual is that they took it so far as to actually stage the murder.
I’ll bet that they did it in part to intercept the electronic communications back to the FSB to report the killer’s success. If you’re going to start an international incident over something like this, you’d better have all of your ducks lined up first.
Amir Khalid
@The Lodger:
I was under the impressiom that Hillary Clinton’s job these days was full-time grandmother.
Shana
@MomSense: My theory is she had plastic surgery and is healing.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m pretty sure that Hillary has to wear body armor for her public appearances. Seems like a far more likely explanation.
HeleninEire
@Elizabelle: Very late to the thread but yes this. I loved Patricia Cornwell until that stupid twist. I stopped reading her.
HeleninEire
@eclare: Sue Grafton’s death broke my heart. If you want a really great detective series try Armand Gamache. The prose is beautiful.
artem1s
@Peale: All the Very Serious People agree he should have done another fluff piece on what regular guys all of Putin’s assasins are.
Elizabelle
@HeleninEire: Lucky for you. I was treated to werewolves swimming around in the Seine before wising up.
With that book: it ended so abruptly. I swear, Fedex was at the door and she was just writing it to fulfill her multimillion dollar contract. An object lesson there, in killing a series through too much money and not enough editing.
germy
Hot take!
catclub
@HeleninEire:
which is to say: Louise Penny’s writing.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack (phone): Dammit Nexium, that pothole just cost me a hubcap!!
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Cole’s Twitter feed doesn’t appear on the mobile BJ site. But people can search for his Twitter nym, Johngcole (if they can remember it).
Search on the Twitter site, duh.
Captain C
@Adam L Silverman:
Tithes. The armed gangs are collecting tithes. And spending the proceeds on Pepsi.
Sister Golden Bear
@Captain C: All I wanted was a Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me. #FreeMike #Institutionalized
J R in WV
Lots of people wear appliances to help their backs. Most all warehouse workers, lumber yard workers, etc. They’re really weak people who can’t stand up to the pace and difficulty fo their work, right>? Right!
Wrong. There’s nothing odd about someone wearing a back brace. There’s nothing odd about someone being targeted with hatred wearing body armor, either. I’m sure it helps the Secret Service team cope with protecting someone under 20/7 attack by vicious right-wing monsters. There’s a stressful job!!