Following FSB anno that a US citizen, Paul Whelan, has been accused of espionage, US State Department confirms detention of a US citizen in Russia. US has requested consular access. 'Due to privacy considerations, we have no additional information to provide at this time.'
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) December 31, 2018
If I were Maria Butina, I’m not sure I’d be all that eager to return to the warm embrace of Mother Russia, but then what does an untravelled American like me know about true patriotism?
Per the Washington Post:
… President Vladimir Putin, in his New Year’s greeting to President Trump, said he was open to a meeting of the two leaders. Trump canceled a formal meeting with Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires in December over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian naval vessels and crew.
“Russia-U.S. relations are the most important factor behind ensuring strategic stability and international security,” Putin wrote to Trump on Sunday, in one of many messages to heads of state around the globe…
In December, Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate U.S. conservative groups. Butina, 30, is the first Russian national to be convicted of seeking to influence U.S. policy in the run-up to the 2016 election by acting as a foreign agent.
Shortly before Butina pleaded guilty, Putin said she was not known to any of his spy agencies. The Foreign Ministry has gone to great lengths to paint Butina as a political prisoner, notably by launching a wide-ranging social media campaign.
(For the pedants, yes I understand that Orthodox Russia’s real New Year isn’t for another two weeks. But the ‘Relect Trump’ campaign needs a media distraction for when it’s discovered that Lord Smallgloves attended tonight’s big donor party at Mar-A-Largofvckyourself.)
Well, we know who Trump is going to agree with. "Putin told me™ he was a bad guy, so why not swap him for the confirmed Russian agent who cultivated the NRA-GOP connections?" https://t.co/CSrfhgF7BD
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) December 31, 2018
With respect to #Russia's FSB detaining Paul Whelan, this action is purely retaliatory, as arrests of random Americans have been repeatedly suggested by Russian lawmakers. Additionally, the Russians may be hoping to swap Whelan in exchange for #Butina. https://t.co/RBZTfLz9r0
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) December 31, 2018
Plato
Happy hunting, David
Raoul Paste
So Putin, like Trump, gets suggestions from TV personalities?
John Revolta
We were at a NRA meeting
They were planning new ways of cheating
You’ve been letting your secrets show
Are you safe Miss Butina?
Miss Butina are you safe?
Are you safe Miss Butina?
Miss Butina are you safe?
Is anybody a spy in here?
Is anybody a spy in here?
Is anybody at all in here?
Nobody but us in here
Nobody but us.
PsiFighter37
Kind of surprised I’m seeing Mig Greengard show up a lot as an authoritative voice in tweets here at BJ. He’s basically just Kasparov’s mouthpiece – they have been working together for years. I know him personally (although have not seen him in years). Just an FYI.
germy
Russian TV production values seem like Fox News on ecstasy.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
OK, since it’s an open thread: what should I do with the half-gallon of duck stock I just made? It’s from a duck roasted with 5-spice powder, garlic, ginger, and orange, so it has those flavors in it. I don’t have any more actual duck, but I suppose I could get some.
CaseyL
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Oh, Yum! How long does it keep? How would duck stock work as a base for, say, wonton soup?
Kirk Spencer
I’m hesitant to follow the crowd here. I mean yes, Whelan could be innocent. There were those calls to arrest a random American. But given the secretive nature of espionage, there is a non-zero chance this is legit. Those of us who can say for certain can’t say.
plato
What and how did they fuck up now? Yet another totus turd’s touch.
Tom Levenson
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Make matzoh balls with some cinnamon, thyme and fried onions.
BroD
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Maybe add steamed rice and choy to make congee?
debbie
@plato:
Check the last 30 or so posts in the previous thread for an explanation.
zhena gogolia
@Kirk Spencer:
Da, da, ochen’ mozhet byt’.
dr. luba
Although the “old new year” is celebrated on the 14th, most former Soviet peoples actually celebrate the new year with the rest of the world on the 1st of January. It’s actually quite a big holiday–gifts, New Year’s Tree, big dinner with family, etc.
plato
@debbie: Just did. Bomb, bomb, Iran has now become Bomb, bomb, your own citizens? Jeez. Every shitty thing one can imagine is being normalized now.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@dr. luba:
I like the Dancing Dictators ones the best. Putin has some moves!
chris
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Gravy for poutine! Fries done in duck fat of course.
Suburban Mom
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Maybe use it as the base for a rice noodle soup with some fresh herbs like the ones that go in pho? If you want a protein either tofu or shredded roast duck from your local Asian grocery could work. This seems like a good kitchen problem to have.
Geeno
@dr. luba: New Years replaced Xmas during the legally areligious communist years – so yeah, it’s basically their Xmas.
Steeplejack
@plato:
Details here (and in comments above).
Gin & Tonic
Let’s remember that Russia currently holds as prisoners of war 24 Ukrainian sailors who were sailing from one port in their own country to another port in their own country.
TomatoQueen
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Degrease after chilling overnight, duck fat is wonderful stuff to have but it smokes. Poultry-based soups, esp the kind where you started with a cooked rotisserie chicken. Fancy up mirepoix.
Jay
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Duck Soup!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsw9jYU_rJI
FlyingToaster
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: All of the previous suggestions sound good.
Also, stock freezes; you can put it into plastic ice cube trays, freeze into cubes, dump them out into freezer bags and use the cubes to flavor stuff (rice, various sauces) for a very long time.
We do this with chicken & turkey stock if we’re not using it immediately.
plato
plato
Mike in DC
Who will they trade for Trump?
Emma
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Rice noodles, green onions, sesame seeds.
Mary G
I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas day breakfast – they turned out great, but I didn’t read the recipe closely enough to see that it makes 30 of them, so I refrigerated half the dough. It rose again in the fridge, even though I keep it very cold and I took it out tonight to try to bake some kind of sweet bread with it, but it doesn’t seem to want to rise a third time. Does anybody have any advice? I guess I’ll give it another half hour or so in the proofer and see what happens.
Brachiator
@plato:
Love this. I had heard a few folks on the radio fall into lame “both sides are being childish” nonsense.
I want to see the Democrats moving forward, making the GOP have to react.
Adam L Silverman
@plato: Here’s a screen grab. Of course there was a video that was embedded in the tweet that you can’t see. This was not a spur of the moment thing. Someone spent some time putting the video together.
Adam L Silverman
@PsiFighter37: I’ve remarked here several times, as recently as last week, that Greengard is Kasparov’s assistant.
plato
@Adam L Silverman: So, other than a one-line apology, will any action be taken against those responsible? You know checks and balances stuff?
Mary G
Here’s some Happy New Year’s news!
NotMax
Dashed out back to pick some lemons for making the beet & ricotta hummus. Must be 60 or 70 on the tree, in various states of ripeness. Almost all round, except for one mutant the shape and size of a very large mango.
Mary G
@Mary G: And of course:
Baud
@Mary G: Nice. Keep on cleaning house, America.
Adam L Silverman
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Parcel it out into ice cube trays, freeze it into duck stick cubes, remove from the trays once frozen, place in a zip loc bag, and keep them in the freezer until you need them. Then take however many you need out and you’ve got duck stock ready to go.
plato
@Mary G: Happy fucking new year, you fucking nazis.
John Revolta
@Mary G: It’s that third time that’s always the tricky one.
Baud
@Brachiator:
I almost prefer the fascists to the savvy set.
Baud
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Duck it.
joel hanes
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
My favorite pho place had a duck variant which inspires these suggestions best-quality noodles and some basil and some mung sprouts and a slice of fresh jalapeno; maybe some slices of blanched portobello or shitake, or a handful of fresh straw mushrooms allowed to cook just a bit in the hot broth.
I bet it would make a dynamite risotto.
Adam L Silverman
@Kirk Spencer: It doesn’t matter. If he’s not guilty, if he’s not involved in any way, shape, or form in conducting espionage on behalf of the US, then the President has to go to bat for him as an American citizen. And if he is a not for cover operative, while it will never be acknowledged, the President has to go to bat for him as an American citizen. If Whelan is innocent and the President doesn’t go to bat for him, then it tells Putin and Xi and Duterte and Erdogan and Balsonero and Muhammad bin Salman and Bibi and every other authoritarian or want to be authoritarian that American citizens are fair game. If Whelan is a not for cover operative and the President doesn’t go to bat for him as if he was just an American citizen, then it tells Putin and Xi and Duterte and Erdogan and Kim and Balsonero and Muhammad bin Salman and Bibi and every other authoritarian or want to be authoritarian that American citizens are fair game. And it tells everyone working for the US government in a position that could see them forward deployed, even if there jobs within the US and deployed has nothing to do with espionage whatsoever, that when Putin or Xi or Duterte or Erdogan or Balsonero or Kim or Muhammad bin Salman or Bibi or every other authoritarian or want to be authoritarian goes after them that the President of the United States will not do everything he can to protect them.
cliosfanboy
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: grow more ducks?
geg6
@joel hanes:
OMG, yes! Risotto!
ETS: Also too, yes freeze it. Broth freezes beautifully.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Cinnamon roll matzoh?
This sugary sweet bread of affliction, why do we eat it?
NotMax
@Adam L.Silverman
Not cinnabon, that sounds more like cinnamal.
;)
Adam L Silverman
@plato: I don’t know. The only person in the command group I know for sure is the Foreign Policy Advisor and I only know her because I met her once. The commanding officers/commanding generals I worked for would right now be raking their officer in charge of public affairs over the coals and the senior enlisted officer would be chewing the walls. I have no idea how this will play with the commanding general and command group of STRATCOM.
M31
@Adam L Silverman:
Hmmm, do the right thing by America, or give away the store to America-hating authoritarians?
What in the world will Trump do?
plato
Raven
We’re sitting on the balcony at Burgundy and St Ann overlooking the Rawhide Bar that stays open until 5am. This is one noisy ass place even two blocks off Bourbon. We had a nice dinner at 5, walked over to the Roosevelt where the princess’s folks honeymooned. She got testy because we visited it with her pop when we all came down when the Hokies played FSU for the natty. It’s been raining on and off but, besides being physically shot from walking, we having a good time. There is all kinds of mayhem going on but we’ll hit the rack soon.
MoCA Ace
Ship all Putins fucking assets back to him. I propose we trade Butina, Trump, and Pence for Whelan.
It’s a start!
satby
Happy New Year everyone! Best wishes for a happier 2019!
I lounged around all day watching the Thin Man movies on TCM. It’s rained all day and will be a sheet of ice everywhere tonight, so I need something to binge watch because I’m staying in tomorrow too. Even the dogs aren’t all that enthusiastic about going out in cold icy rain.
Adam L Silverman
@M31: I’d like to say the suspense is killing me, but it isn’t.
Baud
@satby: You too, satby.
rikyrah
ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
Fannie Lou Hamer dropped that truth five decades ago. Not much has changed.
“White Americans today don’t know what in the world to do because when they put us behind them, that’s where they made their mistake… they put us behind them, and we watched every move they made.”
https://t.co/SaIwA5xDSG https://twitter.com/MonieTalks_1/status/1079810532641783808?s=17
spudgun
Delurking to wish everyone and their critters a happy, healthy new year!
Now…going to eat a little cake and drink a little bubbly ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Happy New Year, rikyrah.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: There is something of an axiom in my line of work. Basically the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the tyrannized all understand the rich, the powerful, the oppressors, and the tyrants far better than the rich, the powerful, the oppressors, and the tyrants understand them or themselves. Because if the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, and the tyrannized don’t, then they die.
jeffreyw
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Make duck gravy/duck stew, serve over biscuits.
satby
@Baud: {{Baud}}
rikyrah
Individual 1(very legal and very cool) (@JohnHipps) Tweeted:
An Alabama sheriff personally kept $1.5 million that was supposed to feed ICE detainees
https://t.co/WUUauDEI6X via @TheWeek https://twitter.com/JohnHipps/status/1079828669563129856?s=17
plato
rikyrah
@Baud:
Happy New Year, Baud????
Kelly
Six year old grandson has discovered homophones and puns ;-)
Adam L Silverman
@Kelly: Better than your six your old grandson discovering hormones and guns.//
NotMax
@satby
In case you might not already be familiar with it, Corner Gas the series (available on Amazon Prime) is two hoots and a half.
rikyrah
MAGA, Bytches ??
NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) Tweeted:
China and India are the two largest buyers of American garbanzos, peas and lentils, but after President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and implemented steel and aluminum tariffs, those exports have all but stopped.
https://t.co/wFKKJ2C52R https://twitter.com/nprpolitics/status/1079838352822624257?s=17
eclare
@rikyrah: These people are evil.
James E Powell
@PsiFighter37:
Mouthpiece is pejorative. Kellyanne Conway is a mouthpiece. Is there some reason to regard Mig Greengard that way?
NotMax
Repeating just because it’s purty..
After midnight for some, well before for others. Regardless, enjoy the fireworks and the champagne by proxy.
Hau’ouli Makahiki Hou!
Kelly
@Adam L Silverman: My favorite thing with children is their new minds in this old world.
NotMax
USPS this afternoon dropped off the cigar restock ordered last Friday. Fine way to end the year as far as I’m concerned.
satby
@NotMax: very beautiful, thanks!
I was going to have a class of wine but decided wrestling with the cork would be too much work ?. Settled for a glass of sherry.
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: Very much so.
Something I had to learn quickly once I forfeited my straight cis privilege (actually more the moment that I started thinking about forfeiting it).
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: Hey, hormones are great. They made me the woman I am. //
Guns not so much.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Yep, they found new partners. Partners not stupid enough to impose tariffs. ?
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: Feature, not a bug. If we destroy all of the overseas markets for all our export crops, then we won’t need the invading brown hordes to tend and harvest them, amirite?
plato
plato
Mary G
Bread finally decided to rise and is now in the oven making the house smell heavenly. Once it’s out I’ll probably go to bed – I am fighting off the cold from hell and may get up for midnight or not depending on willingness of the flesh.
chris
@Sister Golden Bear: Nah. Peas and beans are all done by machines and farming robots are the next big thing. Still need peoples’ hands, underpaid of course, for the fruits and salad veggies. For now anyway.
NotMax
@plato
Noon on January 3rd, not tomorrow.
Just sayin’.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
We just watched the first two episodes of Vanity Fair. It has my approval — Frances de la Tour is indeed superb. Happy New Year!
plato
@NotMax: It was Ted’s tweet. Just sayin’.
NobodySpecial
Butina can be tried in absentia, correct?
Let her go if that’s the case. Then point out how Trump tried to get one of the criminals in his conspiracy removed from the country.
Amir Khalid
@chris:
Let him get his own gravy.
scott alloway
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Freeze for later use.
I do that with pot roast and chicken stock for soups.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
A much younger and svelter Frances is worth checking out, along with Bob Hoskins, in the mini-series Flickers from way back in 1980, also on Amazon Prime. And of course, she played Violet on Vicious.
ThresherK
Spent much of tonite at First Night Chatham (MA) and left with the raindrops falling at 9p. But they had fireworks at 6p, so we got that.
Happy New Year to the assembled.jackaltariat.
The Pale Scot
@satby:
I recommend Derry Girls, a N.I. produced comedy about students of a Catholic girls school in Derry before the Good Friday Agreement.
It takes a bit to grok the NI accents, there are websites that cover the slang
Add: It’s on Netfix, Oops
debbie
Here’s a great way to start a new year: Laura Ingraham has been canceled! (Via Daily Kos)
chris
@Amir Khalid: LOL! thanks
Jackie
@plato: Ted Lieu is becoming one of my heros. Love love love his point on zingers and dry humor!
Patricia Kayden
@dr. luba: So I’ll make sure to wish Trump a happy New Year on the 14th then so he can be comfortable.
Mary G
Nancy SMASH! opening strong:
J R in WV
OK, we have less than an hour to go here in WV…
HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone, Jackals especially! Of course only Jackals will see this…
Lots of good news today, Nazi bitch’s show cancelled, a sign of coming good times! You all stay safe and warm tonite!!
Mike in NC
@Mary G: They want Trump “to come to his senses”. As if!
satby
@The Pale Scot: thanks!
Also have to check out @NotMax: Corner Gas. Thanks!
westyny
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Make duck bread.
Amir Khalid
@Mike in NC:
I think they actually mean to highlight that Trump and his senses don’t even live in the same town.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Thoughts and prayers.
Aleta
@westyny: Make duck bread.
Or homemade quackers.
westyny
Happy New Year, jackals.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@westyny: It’s not even 9pm here on the left coast, listening to Let It Be…Naked, I’m fully clothed.
ETA: Now Abbey Road.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Some of the responses to that tweet are mind boggling. I’d bet good money that a lot of them are bots that do not have english at their first language.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
New Years Eve and I was home and back in my sweats by 10 pm. Middle-aged and loving it!
And The Beast had to skip his Mar-A-Lago NYE party. Ha!
debbie
And the celebratory gunfire has started…
Sab
Good year for me. Got my 94 year old dad with dementia in a good nursing home where he seems happy. So I can sleep at night, which is a huge change in my life. My uncle’s dog (my uncle died, age 85, leaving a bereaved cocker, age 9) seems settled in with our other dog and five cats. Sold my dad’s house. They cut down ALL the trees and shrubbery, but that’s not my problem. My autistic granddaughter has nearly met the 5 year mark without regressing, and is currently chattering like a magpie, so that is hugely good. And I came home from my dad’s house and my husband can still stand me, so that is very good.
Year sucked politically. First half was a nightmare personally, but second half was great.
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
I see a variant of Skitt’s Law.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
More than she deserves, frankly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: Second worst holiday for our canine friends, though folk around here were setting off firecrackers Christmas night.
Mike in NC
@debbie: Last night my wife said that she was hearing gunfire in the distance. I stepped into the sunroom and sure enough there were periodic shots fired. This was between 8 and 10 PM. She asked if people hunted in the dark and I suspected few do.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I know. There are a couple of dogs in this building, and I’m sure I’ll hear a howl or two. Poor things.
debbie
@Mike in NC:
Certainly not the smart ones!
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I love the Replacements!
Steve in the Eighties
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL:
MisterForkbeard
@Ruckus: I’m frankly amazed at the level of ignorance AND racism in some of the replies to that tweet.
You can also tell that Trump has activated them on “Angels” and Officer Singh. What a fucking reprehensible troll, and I hope he burns in hell.
different-church-lady
2019 is way to many numbers.
mdblanche
Should auld acquaintance be forgot…
Debbie(Aussie)
Happy new year, east coast Jackals!
J R in WV
@Sab:
That sounds like a pretty swell second half – best of luck next year!
Happy 2019, all Jackals!!
Major Major Major Major
Happy new year everyone! I’m up at a lovely gay house party in garrison having a fabulous time.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Like a Baghdad wedding.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
Sab
@Debbie(Aussie): What time zone are you in? My uninformed impression is that you have been in tomorrow for many hours. Is that right?
Also, do your drains swirl backwards? My BIL used to go down under on business, but he would never tell about the drains.
Joy in FL
Happy New Year to all jackals : )
piratedan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: what’s going to be different is that THIS time the media is going to be covering Pelosi because of Trump, instead when she held the gavel when Obama was President, they simply didn’t give a fuck and reduced all policy to simple GOP talking points and gotcha moments because the actual guts of the sausage making that is legislation was too much for the media to bear, so they rolled to the GOP strategy of the Tea Party and all of that astroturfed crap because VIOLA! we have conflict!
Now, they’re actually going to have to get a primer on what policy and procedures are because Pelosi will absolutely decimate the GOP in regards to putting forth policy, explaining what it is and how it effects people… Dems are going to give the media and America a good old fashioned primer on civics that will absolutely devastate Trump and the rest of the crew of the good ship Traitorous because she will kill these guys on law and order and make these asshats own every evil piece of shit that that they’ve passed and good stuff that they’ve denied and set it all up buffet style for the media to pick and choose what they choose to find interesting.
and eventually the news media is going to find that Americans actually want to hear about the news versus Conservative fantasyland
evodevo
@piratedan: SOUNDS good … from your lips to the FSM’s ear …
Uncle Cosmo
@Geeno: True story: When I first visited Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia, later Croatia) in 1985 I made a friend with whom I corresponded for some years. Every year I would get a New Year’s card from him. Until the Communist government of Yugoslavia collapsed. The next year’s card arrived early, & instead of sretna nova godina it read sretan Božić – Merry Christmas.
Sretna nova godina, Jackaltariat!
Just Chuck
@piratedan: My prediction is the media will now rediscover “obstruction” as their favorite word again, or at best portray everything as some mushy “Dems clash with GOP” both-sidesism. I wish I had even a fraction of the faith you put in the media and how their coverage of the new congress will be.
Uncle Cosmo
@Sab: As I understand it, the drain-swirling thing is not quite an urban(e) legend – but the direction of swirl is primarily determined by the geometry of the basin, not the Coriolis force (which, ceteris paribus, would tend to spin the swirl in opposite directions between Northern & Southern Hemispheres).
The moon, however, does look upside-down. So there’s that. :^D