Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

We still have time to mess this up!

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Evening Open Thread: Can the Summer ‘Silly Season’ Survive?

Thursday Evening Open Thread: Can the Summer ‘Silly Season’ Survive?

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Given a relentless daily media reality that swings from farce to dada, is there still a potential for eye-rolling silliness? THE CIA IS HERE TO TEST!

Reader Interactions

176Comments

  1. 1.

    Gin & Tonic

    You people are professional cynics. IMO, props to the CIA for trying to engage with high school kids and promote STEM.

  3. 3.

    ? Martin

    Agreed. Also worth noting, scientists and engineers aren’t always the most creative types. They miss a lot of good opportunities that some entrepreneur or artist might see.

  4. 4.

    TenguPhule

    @Gin & Tonic:

    IMO, props to the CIA for trying to engage with high school kids and promote STEM.

    They had one job. Keep the Russians out of our fucking elections.

  5. 5.

    Mike in DC

    Well, since the CIA guy in BP was not cartoonishly, irredeemably evil, and actually kinda likeable, I guess it makes sense to do piggyback marketing off of it. “Join the CIA: We’re not entirely evil(maybe?)”

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    I think it’s actually a good use of pop culture to try to get under-represented minorites interested in how STEM careers can be used not just for “nerdy stuff”.

    Besides, more diversity in recruitment can lead to more diversity in opinions and actions affect other people of color.

    I don’t mind it. The entire CIA twitter thread is actually kinda neat.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    Speaking of silly season, has Adam been asked about QAnon? I hadn’t heard of them until today.

    Post Partisan Opinion
    QAnon is terrifying. This is why.
    1:11
    4 things to know about the QAnon conspiracy theory
    During President Trump’s rally on July 31, several attendees held or wore signs with the letter “Q.” Here’s what the QAnon conspiracy theory is about. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

    By Molly Roberts
    August 2 at 3:21 PM
    Email the author
    “The Storm is coming,” say the conspiracy theorizers whose grotesque imaginings terrified the country to attention this week. Maybe they’re right.

    QAnon adherents encourage those seeking the truth to “follow the White Rabbit,” but it’s hard to hop down this hole without getting totally lost in their horrorland. The simplest description of the plot line goes something like this: President Trump isn’t under investigation; he is only pretending to be, as part of a countercoup to restore power to the people after more than a century of governmental control by a globalist cabal. Also, there are pedophiles.

    A figure named “Q,” who supposedly possesses Q-level security clearance, disperses “crumbs” that “bakers” bring together to create a “dough” of synthesized information. (This is not how baking works, but that seems the least of our worries.) Because Q is the 17th letter in the alphabet and 17 is also a number Trump has said a few times, among other clearly-not-coincidences, he is the real deal, not an Internet troll engaged in an elaborate example of live-action role-play.

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    This should surprise no one who is engaged on social media. I believe I read somewhere that there are more people of color engaged on social media, than any other ethnic group, particularly African Americans.

    And on SM places like Twitter, this representation has lead to and influenced alot of the eye opening stories brought to light that the media was NOT first even aware on. Black Twitter, has def set many real life news program agenda, esp in regards to pop culture, entertainment and social justice causes.

    @ajplus
    80% of black Americans believe social media helps to highlight important issues that don’t get enough attention.

    80% of white Americans believe it distracts from “issues that are truly important.”

    Report via @PewResearch: https://pewrsr.ch/2zpv7zY

    3:48 PM – Aug 2, 2018

  16. 16.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    They had one job. Keep the Russians out of our fucking elections.

    Actually, that’s not the CIA’s job. Their job is to collect foreign intelligence; they aren’t supposed to do anything here in the US. Counterintelligence is supposed to be the FBI’s job.

  20. 20.

    Mary G

    Happy to report that the exterminator came out today to look at the wasps and they are paper wasps, which aren’t that bad, and there is no big nest in my yard. Told me he could get rid of the little one in my driveway for $80 if I wanted, but it would be fine to have the housemate do it and didn’t charge me anything for the 30 minutes he was here.

  21. 21.

    germy

    A commenter on another blog wondered why the weird news about Manafort insisting his wife have sex with other men while he watched is not being reported. Because we got Anthony Weiner’s … uh… habits shoved down our throats every day when HRC was running for president.

  25. 25.

    FlyingToaster

    @Gin & Tonic:

    You people are professional cynics.

    Why yes, yes we are. Your point?

    IMO, props to the CIA for trying to engage with high school kids and promote STEM.

    This is a good thing.

    My daughter is on week 4 of 6 weeks of Museum of Science Summer Camp (technically “Summer Courses”). This is the third year she’s been at MOS, and the kids in the program are a freaking delight. This week’s afternoons have been in “Spy Camp”, and when I pick her up, WarriorGirl’s both excited and completely exhausted*. Fridays I spend the day at MOS, and the last 45 minutes of each class are demos to parents of what they’ve done all week.

    If it were left to me, in addition to the “come play sports with us” camps here in town, we’d have STEM camps in every fucking zip code, and taco trucks on every sixth block (you can walk 3 blocks, really). And “Vacation Bible Camps” would be taxed.

    * Note: she’s 10. And she’s fucking taller than me. And she goes to science camp. But no, I’m not in the least bitter.

  26. 26.

    lamh36

    Since we are talking Black Panther, this from the Infinity War directors is a prime example on how diversity can really make someone kind entertaining even more so!

    This ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Scene Was Improvised By The ‘Black Panther’ Actors#shadowAndAct

    Many folks who have seen the film says it’s one of their favorite parts of the battle scene, and they even included it in the trailer!

    If you’ve seen the movie though, you can also tell, that Marvel and the Russo Brothers really had NO idea just how much a phenomenon Black Panther would be. Although (going back to my comment about representation on social media), maybe Marvel/Disney should have been paying attention and seein the writing on the wall…esp considering just how popular T’Challa/Black Panther was in just his few scenes from Civil War.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    At first I thought it was the Culinary Institute of America.

    That’s their cover identity. Not sure if it’s more or less obvious than “cultural attache.”

  29. 29.

    germy

    Holy hell.

    A suspected Russian spy worked in the US embassy in Moscow for over a decade with a security clearance that allowed her access to the President and Vice President's schedules, as well the Secret Service's intranet. https://t.co/Vztt8aEDez

    — Avi (@AviAhvee) August 2, 2018

  30. 30.

    EBT

    The father of the kid that I stopped the kidnapping of the other day has called a lawyer and made false claims to CPS (that the child has been starved, and is suicidal). Joy.

  31. 31.

    dexwood

    @Mary G:
    That’s good service, good customer relations. When I’ve had similar experiences with a business, I always call them later for the bigger jobs I know I need them for.

  33. 33.

    waratah

    I noticed the pop out ad is missing but now I do not have any advertising. I am using an IPad in desktop, anyone else with no advertising.
    Ok I now have some but no top banner and no pop out.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: I first heard of (well, read about) ‘Black Twitter’ in The Hate U Give Eye-opening (both re: BT and T.H.U.G.)

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    Because Q is the 17th letter in the alphabet and 17 is also a number Trump has said a few times, among other clearly-not-coincidences

    So I guess this explains why his older tweets referenced “14 Angry Democrats” on Mueller’s team but he has recently changed that to “17 Angry Democrats.”

    Good to know.

    ETA: But I am growing more suspicious of Quinerly by the minute.

  40. 40.

    normal liberal

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Spelled “Wauconda,” sadly. Eons ago my mom used to get her hair done (and I do mean done) in that odd little burg. Welcome to the wonderful world of the northwest suburbs.
    ETA And I was beaten to it.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @EBT:

    The father of the kid that I stopped the kidnapping of the other day has called a lawyer and made false claims to CPS (that the child has been starved, and is suicidal). Joy.

    OMG, I must have missed the backstory on this but it sounds dreadful.

  49. 49.

    EBT

    @SiubhanDuinne: Last Friday I got hit by a car while stopping a kidnapping. The father (the kidnapper) is now trying every dirty trick he can think of to screw over his ex.

  53. 53.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    So we shouldn’t kneel before him?

    This kind of thing just pisses me off to no end. If Trump was suffering from obvious mental decline, why didn’t she bother to tell anyone about it until now? It’s not that I don’t believe it’s possible, but she has no credibility on the point. If it’s true, she’s a sociopath for helping get him elected and working for him even when she had reservations about his mental state. A decent human being would have quite the campaign and made a big public stink about it rather than keeping a lid on it until she could put it in a tell-all book.

  55. 55.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Roger Moore:

    A decent human being would have quite the campaign and made a big public stink about it rather than keeping a lid on it until she could put it in a tell-all book.

    That would cut down on the grifting opportunities, wouldn’t it?

  56. 56.

    JWL

    Well, that’s just great. Another 35 Jason Bourne’s trained and unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Wake up, sheeple!

  59. 59.

    FlyingToaster

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s a Museum of Science; it repels troglodytes.

    For contrast: I’ll lay you 50 bucks that Professor Barack Obama took his daughters to the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Art Institute, yadda yadda yadda. And that Donald J. Trump never took any of his kids to the Museum of Natural History. And that he’s never gone with Barron to the Smithsonian.

    One of the big glaring signs of “these people are going to hate us” when I was a kid in the midwest was when we’d mention the Truman Library or the Turner Ag Museum or Nelson’s Gallery or Bent’s Fort and our classmates had no idea what we were talking about.

  61. 61.

    M31

    @germy:

    For he’s in mental decli-ine,
    For he’s in mental decli-ine,
    For he’s in mental decli-ine,
    That nobody can deny!

  63. 63.

    M31

    don’t forget that the entire political media covered up Reagan’s 2nd-term Alzheimer’s for him, so it’s not like there isn’t precedent

  65. 65.

    A Ghost To Most

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Happy hunting. I’m about to ask my wife if she wants to take a run into the mountains tomorrow, to field test the electrical modifications I’ve made to the truck (nothing like jumping into something you know little about). A second charged battery is one less thing to worry about.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: Yes, I have. I’m with The Jester on this:

  74. 74.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: You can’t stop the signal. Everyone is now a first recorder/reporter. You can either leverage that or you can be leveraged by it.

  76. 76.

    FlyingToaster

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Truman was local for me growing up, and the JFK is now, plus you can ride the RedLine there. WarriorGirl’s class went out to Plimouth Plantation this year; I figure to wait for middle school to drag her around to the presidents’ (JFK, Adams, Coolidge). She believes that the Freedom Trail is best tromped in the dead of Winter (“I get tired, but there’s no crowds”).

    I took her to the Jesse James’ Museum the last time we went back to visit her cousin; her succinct analysis: “Mom: they were ALL terrorists.”

  78. 78.

    James E Powell

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I was also clueless. At first I thought it was that guy that murdered his pregnant wife, but then I used the google to find out that he’s yet another academic who comforts racists & misogynists.

  82. 82.

    lamh36

    @Jeffro: I’d bet you tho…that many of the stories that you have heard that you never heard about before, in regards to BLM and the latest “calling the police on Black people” stories, came to attention thanks to SM and esp Black twitter.

    You wouldn’t believe the number of articles that have their origins from Black twitter that make it into the mainstream media, with no attribution to where the article/idea came from.

    Just becasue you have never heard the exact words “Black twitter” doesn’t mean some ideas or concepts started by the denizens of Black twitter, never crossed your path

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    Bringing a comment forward from the previous thread. I liked this tack.

    From NEVER MADE A POLITICAL AD (CLEARLY):

    Is this a crazy idea? I’ve been thinking of a short video directed at people who have long been R, voted Trump, and are now maybe having misgivings, but it’s hard to turn your back on one party when you have thrown in with them for so long.

    I’m thinking of two women sitting at a kitchen table, having a discussion as if one has been learning one bad thing after another about her husband. The woman says something along the lines of:

    I know how much you cared about him. You trusted him. You thought it would last, and maybe it will. But you’re telling me now that you know he has lied to you. He’s cheated on you. He’s taken money out of your joint account and put it into his own. I know how hard it is to face this. You have to give up so much to do anything about it. But there are some smaller, easier steps you can take. Because now you know that his friends have been covering for him. They told you he didn’t cheat, but they knew he was and lied about where he was and what he was doing. When he hurt you, they said he didn’t, and blamed it on you. I know it’s hard to leave someone you’ve built a life with. But you don’t have to keep supporting his friends. You didn’t marry them. Maybe, just maybe, without those so-called friends, he’ll be forced to treat you a bit better.

    Close with a full screen “Hold Trump Accountable. Don’t Vote Republican For Congress.”

    My assumption here is that people feel much more strongly about their attachment to a presidential candidate than to their congresscritter. I’m also very sincerely aware of how hard it is for people who have a longtime relationship with republicans to change their mind. Maybe this is an effective way to soften support for Trump’s enablers.

    Thoughts?

  88. 88.

    lamh36

    @Gin & Tonic: Gonna put it on the list…I’m renting a car since our hotel isn’t in Miami.

    So getting to a destination isn’t a problem. The beach is DEF on the agenda. I’d like to do a nice sit down dinner somewhere good on Saturday. Breakfast and lunch on Saturday, can be anywhere good along the beach. And Sunday before the concert, don’t want to be too tuckered out but a good lunch and seeing some stuff would be great also

  89. 89.

    bluehill

    @lamh36: I guess not all fetuses are created equal.

    A pregnant woman weeks shy of giving birth is currently being held in a Texas detention center, despite ICE promising it wouldn’t detain women in their third trimester

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m with The Jester on this:

    Yeah, now that somebody has pointed it out, this is pretty damn obvious. It’s just amazing how many people they’ve managed to sucker.

  93. 93.

    Mandalay

    @germy: Having a Russian spy in the US Embassy in Moscow for 10 years is only half the story. Equally amazing is how they took forever to get rid of her after they knew:

    The Guardian has been told the RSO sounded the alarm in January 2017, but the Secret Service did not launch a full-scale inquiry of its own. Instead it decided to let her go quietly months later, possibly to contain any potential embarrassment.

    An intelligence source told the Guardian the woman was dismissed last summer after the state department revoked her security clearance. The dismissal came shortly before a round of demanded by the Kremlin after Washington imposed more sanctions on the country.

    The order to remove more than 750 US personnel from its 1,200-strong diplomatic mission is understood to have provided cover for her removal.

    “The Secret Service is trying to hide the breach by firing [her],” the source said. “The damage was already done but the senior management of the Secret Service did not conduct any internal investigation to assess the damage and to see if [she] recruited any other employees to provide her with more information.

    “Only an intense investigation by an outside source can determine the damage she has done.

    Given the potential magnitude of the crime, it seems unlikely that the cover up will be worse than the crime in this case, but that is one fucked up cover up (if the story is true of course).

  94. 94.

    EBT

    @Adam L Silverman: The father has been emotionally abusive to the mother for years. On the day the father is dropping off the child after browbeating the mother in to letting the father take the kid to Texas for two months (also the mother’s birthday) he decides that he ISN’T dropping the kid off and instead leaves with the kid. The rest of us had driven away before because the mother was spending the weekend in Denver at her old place with her kid. We get back to her at the same time her wife shows up. Everyone gets in to the van, and we go to the father’s place. The Texan grandmother is behind the wheel of a car with the child in the back seat. The father sees us and books it in to the passenger side. I jump from the 3rd row of the van, behind her car and she puts it in reverse and gasses it in to me. After this, the father comes out with his fists up read to hit me, until he realizes that people are now setting up lawn chairs to watch, and maybe he doesn’t want to be the guy who hit a woman.

  95. 95.

    lamh36

    After it was pointed out on social media…now comes a statement from the company…

    @Deadspin
    EA Sports says Colin Kaepernick’s name was bleeped in the Madden 19 soundtrack due to an “unfortunate mistake,” and will be corrected in an update this month: http://deadsp.in/MWdPI3u

    “cough..cough…BULLSHIT…cough…cough…”

  98. 98.

    Mandalay

    @lamh36: Little Haiti and the Museum District are just north of downtown Miami. Fine for just wandering around, and there are plenty of places to retreat from the sticky heat. And be sure to carry an umbrella – it’s rainy for the next few weeks down here.

  99. 99.

    A Ghost To Most

    @EBT: Texans acting like entitled assholes in Colorado. Must be a day ending in ‘y’. Bless their hearts.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    Many folks who have seen the film says it’s one of their favorite parts of the battle scene, and they even included it in the trailer!

    This is one of the interesting things about Marvel. Even though these movies are mapped out and follow a template, the producers have very good instincts about being flexible about what goes into these movies. It has gone a long way in making them resonate with viewers. The Russo brothers were very smart in letting the Black Panther cast stretch out a bit, since it makes their appearance in the film more than a glorified cameo.

    It is also Interesting to see that Winston Duke was instrumental in setting up the war chants. I recall that he improvised some of his scenes in Black Panther and almost stole the movie.

  104. 104.

    efgoldman

    @FlyingToaster:

    WarriorGirl’s class went out to Plimouth Plantation this year

    We took daughter and friend when they were about that age. First fun thing was deciphering the language. We’re walking down the “street’ when one of the “housewives” wrung a duck’s neck right in front to them. Big ‘ewwwww”
    The huge, penned pigs also made an impression, too.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    @EBT: That’s terrible. So sorry to read it. Hope you’re physically okay. And, again, good on you for doing what had to be done.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Most likely had something to do with this. Nothing like a potential lawsuit from the guy you licensed the song from to spur one to action.

  113. 113.

    TenguPhule

    Trump also attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School — an Ivy League credential about which he frequently boasts.

    Trump alluded to that connection during his remarks, and he spent most of the first 10 minutes talking about watching returns come in on Election Night in 2016 and seeing that he would win Pennsylvania.

    “The fake news refused to call it,” Trump said, prompting chants of “CNN sucks” from the crowd.

    Trump repeatedly lambasted the news corps during his remarks, saying that he received unfair coverage of his recent summit meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, as well as for his visits to a NATO summit and to Britain.

    “They can make anything bad, because they are the fake, fake disgusting news,” Trump said, before returning to the subject of the evening.

    “All right,” he added, “let’s get back to some boring subjects — like Bob Casey.”

    The Farce continues.

  114. 114.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: She was mostly horrified at how primitive everything was. “Don’t they understand hygiene?” Well, no. That was something figured out later, kid. (WG just came by and added, “They could have at least figured out that they needed clean water.”)

    The first time I went I was horrified by how much religion was in every damn thing they did. My dad, the Jewish engineer, replied to me, “well, look, they’re religious fanatics, not professional farmers. This is all ‘way outside of their area of expertise.”

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    Close with a full screen “Hold Trump Accountable. Don’t Vote Republican For Congress.”

    My assumption here is that people feel much more strongly about their attachment to a presidential candidate than to their congresscritter.

    I think it’s just the opposite. People are more attached to their Congress person. It’s the midterms. Trump is not on the ballot.

    And even if the person watching the ad was moving away from Trump, how would they know who to vote for, or why?

    I DO like that it emphasizes Trump’s lies, failures and dishonesty. However, someone watching it might think, yeah, Trump’s a bum, but my local person is honest and can keep Trump in line if necessary.

    But I don’t know. Maybe a generic ad like this would have some impact. But I would not spend a lot of time or money on this kind of campaign.

  116. 116.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I’m just fascinated by the mental rhythms and craft of QAnon posts. (Full (?) collection here: https://qanonposts.com/ – don’t know if clicking it will get you on a list.)
    I need to carefully (as in carefully watching my mind’s emotional rhythms while reading it) deep-read that material, sigh. There seems to be intent behind it. (Been badgered to look at QAnon for months.)

  117. 117.

    Jay

    @efgoldman:

    Cyber Command was told to stand down after Yurtle the Turtle forbade a response.

    The NSA tracked “everything”, embedded keyloggers and other actions, bundled it all up and gave the files to Meuller.

  119. 119.

    WereBear

    @Brachiator: i don’t think the R”s admit a mistake. Or will identify with an abused wife.

    I keep seeing people try to reach their better side. But they are been ruthlessly suppressing it for quite a while.

  120. 120.

    Yutsano

    Open thread:

    My sister in law is having her third baby coming early. They’re inducing her now. Updates incoming.

  122. 122.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    CIA
    ‏Verified account @CIA

    No, we don’t know where Tupac is. #twitterversary

    10,404 replies 208,599 retweets 141,182 likes

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @Yutsano: Very exciting, but I am a bit confused. Usually if the baby is coming early they don’t induce. What did I miss?

  125. 125.

    Jay

    @Roger Moore:

    I don’t think the GRU or FSB started it.

    I think a 4Chan troll wanted to see how far he could troll 4Chan conspiracy groups for the LUTZ.

    It seems to obscure, subtle and cryptic for the Russians, ( so far),

    But the Russian’s are probably busy spreading the contagion by now.

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yutsano:

    Updates incoming.

    Among other things!!!

    Mazel Tov! Mumtez Jiddan! Yom Hooledet Sameach! Sanah Halwah Ya Jameel/Jameela!

  128. 128.

    Not Who You Might Think

    @Mike in DC: I know a now retired CIA guy who did a lot of work on documenting crimes against humanity. He also almost punched out Bolton once, so two strikes in his favor.

  129. 129.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    and Cyber Command and others, like the private security companies were running 24/7 to kick them out and set up firewalls,

    Yurtle the Yellow Turtle wouldn’t let Cyber Command “shoot back”.

    First official ( proven nation state actors) Cyber War and Yurtle demanded the US surrender.

  132. 132.

    Shana

    @FlyingToaster: I’ve run against that too. We live in the suburbs of DC, an easy drive or Metro ride into the city. I always volunteered as a chaperone on field trips and it stunned me to find all these kids, mostly teenagers from affluent families, who had NEVER been to any of the museums downtown. And they’re all free.

  133. 133.

    Platonailedit

    NEW: Accountant who helped prepare Manafort's taxes testified that Manafort never told him about foreign bank accounts. "We had asked the question, and the response was no," he told jurors. Manafort was charged with failing to report foreign accounts. He has pleaded not guilty.— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) August 2, 2018

    Manafort's bookkeeper testified that he was in serious financial trouble in 2016. Falling behind on bills. Maxing out a bank credit line. Company losing millions of dollars. And at risk of losing his health insurance because of late payments. https://t.co/Pvn9J82zlF— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) August 2, 2018

  134. 134.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You should get started.

    There’s a lot of ignorance, bad reporting and misunderstanding about what the US Defences were doing, allowed to do, and prevented from doing through the months of attacks, plus what the 5Eyes and other NATO Partners were doing,

    There’s more real accounting of The Phoney War, ( which wasn’t), than the first official Cyber War.

    BTW, sent your CV off to half a dozen, if there are any nibble’s they’ll contact you, but almost everything is DOD internal, which requires Canadian Citizenship, but they are aiming to lift some of those requirements, sometime in September, ( it’s the Parliament so, October),

    I’m slack on email.

  136. 136.

    Yutsano

    @WaterGirl: She went into labour at 3am last night. But she has trouble getting the baby out from past experience. And they want the kid to come out quickly. She hadn’t produced as of 6pm tonight so they’re pushing things along.

    @Adam L Silverman: Jameel. Todah rabah!

  137. 137.

    Bill Arnold

    Looking at QAnon posts, I see continuous references to HC’s email server. This never gets old., Most people never got to paragraphs 11/12:
    Hillary Clinton’s Email Was Probably Hacked, Experts Say (NYTimes, 2016/07/07)

    Mrs. Clinton’s best defense, and one she cannot utter in public, is that whatever the risks of keeping her own email server, that server was certainly no more vulnerable than the State Department’s. Had she held an unclassified account in the State Department’s official system, as the rules required, she certainly would have been hacked.

    Russian intruders were thoroughly inside that system for years — since at least 2007 — before the State Department shut its system down several times to perform a digital exorcism in late 2014, nearly two years after Mrs. Clinton left office.

    Also, there is no (public) evidence that her server was hacked, so that part is just speculation.

    Mr. Comey couched his concern on Tuesday by repeating the intelligence community’s favorite phrase — “we assess” — four times, but ultimately reached no hard-and-fast conclusion. “We assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account,” he said.

    Read it and weep.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That’s a different angle, huh? That Russia would interfere not just in harming Democrats but essentially organizing for Trump.

    Makes sense. If they intervened to beat Clinton they’d intervene to keep Trump’s base loyal, post-election.

    I also think the Q crazies may be getting more attention because the base is boiling down to the essentials. The true believers. It seems like there are more of them because there ARE more of them, as a percentage of supporters.

  139. 139.

    FlyingToaster

    @Shana:

    all these kids, mostly teenagers from affluent families, who had NEVER been to any of the museums downtown.

    It still stuns me, even here in Boston, because the museums up here are CROWDED, and all the public schools take their kids on field trips to the museums, and they’re all free 2-3 Fridays in the summer (the 10 weeks or so of summer have “Free Fun Fridays”, and most venues are free for several of them). But about a quarter of the kids in her private school have never been to any of them. (The parents of the 3/4s who take their kids to the museums think the others are bonkers). We have 400 years of European occupation, well documented, to hand, plus world-class museums on damn near every subject; the least you can do is expose your offspring to what’s around them.

  142. 142.

    Jay

    @EBT:

    Good, but get prepared to hit back hard, ( misrepresenting the custody agreement, attempted kidnapping, etc).

    Some of these aholes only understand “war”,

    and take care of yourself and your families love, security, support and wellbring first and foremost.

  144. 144.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: A lot of the stuff they pushed on Facebook and Twitter in 2016, as well as what Facebook announced they just broke up this week, was intended to do the same sort of things. Reinforce and enflame grievances, widen cleavages between groups, increase the overall levels of anger and disillusionment. Things like that.

  147. 147.

    EBT

    @Jay: The police are already involved with all handoffs, and have a copy of the custody agreement which HE provided (and fucked himself over because they had a verbal agreement that was different. The cops said once they show up, they have to enforce the written agreement period.)

  149. 149.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yup, and I’m still looking.

    BTW, your writings on National Security and Others, are detailed, multipointed, clear, concise,

    The best reading in many ways that I have ever encountered,

    That you should look at “monetizing” them if able.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Why will no one in intelligence say “support Trump”? Why is it always couched in more generalized terms- “exploit division” “create chaos” ?

    If this were a US lobby we would all say “they promote the Q conspiracy because it appeals to Trump’s base” – US conservatives promoted the Vince Foster conspiracy to fire up the GOP base. No one said they were just looking for general disorder and division. It was a tactic.

    Why will they not take the next step and specify? Because the “chaos” runs in only one direction- the direction that benefits Donald Trump. It never accidentally helps Democrats, which would seem to be an aspect of chaos- that it sometimes misses.

  152. 152.

    Jay

    @EBT:

    Good, but as you noted today, he’s not done being an Ahole,

    So, document, document, document.

    Be prepared to nail him and his aides to the cross on multiple levels.

    And take care of yourself and loved ones first and foremost, little things daily.

    Love you.

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, every time I’ve pitched bundling all the Levant stuff into a book or monograph, or have pitched other projects, I’ve basically been told no one would know what to do with it. This includes talking to a literary agent. So…

    ETA: And when I’ve worked connections to pitch just doing a column for a newspaper or news journal for pay, I get crickets for a response.

  155. 155.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: And my former student is now one of your three stars and is the new Deputy Commanding General of US Forces Korea. And I knew him when he was a lowly Canadian colonel…

  156. 156.

    Jay

    @Kay:

    Outside of proveable, direct actions in support of a Foreign Nation, ( see, Meuller Investigation), by specific persons,

    Or an actual ReThug Memo stating such,

    The Civil Service has to remain apolotical and neutral.

  157. 157.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: They have said that. Wray and Coats have made it very clear that the intel communities assessment is that the Russian interference was in support of the President’s campaign.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But as to specific actions. So there’s an uptick in the Q crazies at Trump events. I mean, are they more active promoting Q now that Trump needs extra help? We’ve heard about what they exploited to divide Democrats. But we haven’t hear about ongoing political interference targeted to shoring up Trump’s base.

  162. 162.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: Anything being worked in an ongoing counterintelligence investigation isn’t going to be commented on. So if there is a foreign angle to the Q Anon stuff, whether it originated with the Russian Intel folks or is just being helped along by them, then no one is going to talk about it. If it is linked to domestic extremists, it isn’t going to be talked about either. If it’s just someone trolling the 4Chan knuckleheads and the MAGA crowd, that’s perfectly legal protected speech under the first amendment.

  166. 166.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Not Who You Might Think: “I know a now retired CIA guy who did a lot of work on documenting crimes against humanity”

    Interesting. The CIA guys I have known were committing or abetting crimes against humanity!

  168. 168.

    Bill Arnold

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I think I lose brain cells reading about it, discussing it.

    The Q contents (and similar material) are to create (shapes of) emotional responses, in service of what (if anything) I don’t know. Don’t look at the (semantic) contents; that way lies madness. (Perhaps the intent, or one of them.)

  173. 173.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:

    It’s a mix of soduku, the jumble, a crossword, stuck into CT sites, to cause feverish brains to kill more brain cells trying to “figure out what it all means!”

  176. 176.

    RSA

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Unfortunately, every time I’ve pitched bundling all the Levant stuff into a book or monograph, or have pitched other projects, I’ve basically been told no one would know what to do with it. This includes talking to a literary agent. So…

    I don’t know if this thread is dead, but… Have you given thought to (or already tried) a book proposal to an academic publisher (like Oxford or Cambridge) or an American university press? Not that they would necessarily know what to do with it :-) but specialized knowledge is their specialty.

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