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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Scaring the GOP… White

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Scaring the GOP… White

by Anne Laurie|  March 12, 20194:58 am| 161 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Russiagate

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Georgia's Stacey Abrams says at SXSW: '2020 is definitely on the table' – CNNPolitics https://t.co/TaBpic1FV1

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 11, 2019

In #LeadFromTheOutside, I explore how to be intentional about plans, but flexible enough to adapt. 20 years ago, I never thought I’d be ready to run for POTUS before 2028. But life comes at you fast – as I shared in Q&A w @Yamiche at @sxsw. Now 2020 is definitely on the table…

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) March 11, 2019

I’m not gonna argue with the woman — she’ll do what she feels is best. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if she stuck with the earlier plan…

… Outside of a White House bid, Abrams’ name has been floated as a potential challenger to Georgia GOP Sen. David Perdue, a Trump-ally up for re-election next year. CNN reported in January that Abrams had met with top Democrats about a Senate run.

 
On a different topic, wise words from Marcy Wheeler:

In 2009, I found the COMPLETELY UNREDACTED reference to CIA waterboarding KSM 183 time b4 anyone else bc everyone else was busy talking abt how OLC memos were going to play politically.

W/notable exceptions, I feel like we're in similar situation wrt Mueller report.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 11, 2019

Most reporters are so spun up either trying to predict what Mueller will do & after him Barr & after him Congress or spun out by liars' anon claims, they're not looking at what the evidence says. As a result, what might happen is divorced from awareness of available tea leaves.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 11, 2019

And while Manafort is challenging it again, Amy Berman Jackson has said — after reviewing the evidence we haven't — that the polling data Manafort shared at meeting while discussing Ukrainian "peace" deal were evidence of a tie to Russian govt. NOT Ukrainian oligarchs. RU govt.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 11, 2019

But it does say there's a shit-ton of evidence that Mueller's prosecutors are talking about, even while still hiding the Good Stuff, irrespective of what I might guess abt The Report.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 11, 2019

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Previous Post: « Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Look Who’s Running for VP Already
Next Post: On the Road and In Your Backyard »

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 5:09 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ? ??

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 5:10 am

    Please run for Senate, Stacey??

  3. 3.

    eclare

    March 12, 2019 at 5:12 am

    @rikyrah: I agree, and continue the work to combat voter suppression.

    Good morning!

  4. 4.

    JPL

    March 12, 2019 at 5:24 am

    @rikyrah: It’s not a given that Stacey can beat David Perdue, and her political career is probably over if she loses two high profile state races. I wonder if that is what Beto is thinking also.
    I do want her to run for Senate though.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 5:26 am

    Blech.

  6. 6.

    HinTN

    March 12, 2019 at 5:43 am

    I sometimes don’t agree with Marcie’s conclusions, but there’s no doubt that no one digs harder into the available general evidence than she does.

    ETA: She’s right far more often than not.

  7. 7.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 12, 2019 at 5:47 am

    Monmouth Poll — March 11, 2019 (link)

    West Long Branch, NJ – Looking ahead to a second term, President Donald Trump has a significant deficit in the swing counties that were crucial to his 2016 victory.

    ***
    Just under 4-in-10 registered voters (38%) say that Trump should be re-elected in 2020. A majority of 57% say it is time to have someone new in the Oval Office.

    ***
    In approximately 300 “swing” counties, accounting for about one-fifth of the total U.S. electorate, only 33% back the incumbent’s re-election compared with 61% who want a change in the Oval Office. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the cumulative vote in these counties by just a single percentage point.

    In the nearly 2,500 “red” counties that Trump won by an average of 36 points in 2016, his current standing is a comparatively narrower 58% for re-election and 39% for someone new. In the remaining 360 “blue” counties that Clinton won by about 35 points on average, only 21% of voters support Trump for a second term while 74% want someone new.

    This poll reflects the results of the midterms and special elections. The red precincts remain steady. Meanwhile the blue precincts have exploded upwards from 2016 (from +35 to +53) and Drumpf’s support in purple districts have collapsed (from -1 to -28).

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 5:58 am

    Common sense in Washington state, ‘Give back to the earth’: Washington plans to legalize composting of human remains , is not immune to a ration of ratfucking.

    The process faces some opposition from the Catholic church, which says it would be an undignified process, according to Pederson.

    Unlike those wholly dignified processes of pumping a body full of chemicals poisonous to life of any kind or cooking it beyond a crisp.

    If the bill is approved in the legislature and signed off by Inslee, a process which could take months, there is still more work to do before human composting can be offered as a service. There will need to be discussions with the funeral board and other officials about the specific rules, explained Carpenter-Boggs.

    Yes, we must insure they get their cut of the pie.

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 12, 2019 at 5:59 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Fake News!

    Actually, that’s very encouraging to read but not surprising. Trump isn’t popular except among his delusional, shrinking base.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 6:25 am

    I really want Trump to lose Florida in 2020. It’s personal. He eked out a win in 2016 with 49% of the vote and struts around the state as if he won by a Saddam Hussein-like landslide. I hate the way that Queens-spawned bag of shit claims Florida as a “home state,” further sullying our already dubious reputation. I want him to lose the state’s 29 electoral votes in stinging, humiliating fashion in 2020, and then I want an extremely localized category 5 hurricane to scrub his tacky-ass Palm Beach estate off the beach.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    March 12, 2019 at 6:40 am

    @Betty Cracker: Tell us how you really feel.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    March 12, 2019 at 6:43 am

    @Patricia Kayden: The evangelicals will turnout because it’s all about the judges. Trump’s base isn’t big enough for him to win, if the democrats vote.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack

    March 12, 2019 at 6:45 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning! ?

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 6:45 am

    Heh: Musher loses huge lead in Alaska’s Iditarod Race after dogs go on strike

    Musher Nicolas Petit lost a huge lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Monday when his dog team refused to keep going after he yelled at one of the animals. A dog named Joey had been fighting with a younger dog on the team during a break on the way to the Bering Sea checkpoint of Koyuk when Petit stepped in.

    “Joey was behind him, and he’s been kind of picking on him most of the trip, and he got a hold of him at one point … I yelled at Joey, and everybody heard the yelling, and that doesn’t happen,” Petit told the Iditarod Insider website. “And then they wouldn’t go anymore. Anywhere. So we camped here.”

    Several mushers passed Petit’s team on the trail, erasing his five-hour lead in the race. Pete Kaiser of Alaska was the first musher into Koyuk, followed 11 minutes later by defending champion Joar Ulsom of Norway. The checkpoint is 827 miles into the 1,000-mile race across Alaska.

    Petit said his dogs are well-fed and there’s no medical issue keeping them from getting up and running. “It’s just a head thing,” he said. “We’ll see if one of these dog teams coming by will wake them up at all.”

  15. 15.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 6:46 am

    I visited The Huntington on Saturday and took my trusty IR camera and shot some pictures, here’s one from the Chinese Garden.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 6:58 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Pretty damned good.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 7:06 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 7:07 am

    @JPL: I will! :)

    Trump said something incredibly outrageous the other day that mostly went by the boards because of the high pressure hose stream of shit that routinely jets from his gob: he tweeted that he’d instructed FEMA to give Alabama “A+ treatment” in the aftermath of the tornadoes there. The implication being that less Trump-supporting states would get less preferential treatment, like when he moronically criticized California’s forest-raking practices and threatened to withhold federal funding after the devastating wildfires in that state.

    He’s so damned petty that he divides the states into win and loss columns and distributes aid and the dubious blessing of his presence and regard accordingly. The 2020 election results will be seared on Trump’s decaying brain in similar fashion, and I want him to feel unwelcome in Florida. In the aftermath of his failed presidency and resounding electoral defeat (please FSM), I want Trump to scuttle between the private jet and self-branded golf resort (until the hurricane takes it out) avoiding everyone but sycophantic rich douchenozzle club members because he knows everyone else hates his fucking guts.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 7:09 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s pretty.

  20. 20.

    debbie

    March 12, 2019 at 7:11 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Florida is his home state? Wonder if he’s paying his home state’s taxes?

  21. 21.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 7:12 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    @Baud: Thanks, I’m taking a slightly different approach to capturing(different filter) and processing the shots. I think it works.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 7:14 am

    @debbie: We don’t have state taxes here — we fleece the tourists instead.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 7:14 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    What until the media gets it’s teeth into the scandal about how our candidate once threw empty Coke can into the trash rather than recycling it. Trump will coast to reelection. I for one will never vote for the lesser of two evils.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:17 am

    @Betty Cracker:
    Tell it, BC?

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:18 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Gorgeous?

  26. 26.

    Shakti

    March 12, 2019 at 7:19 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yup, that motherfucker only got a plurality. It’s hard to remember that.

    Meanwhile I’ve got crazy coworkers who think homeopathy is the cure for everything, including cancer and claim to hate the Bushes because they’re “progressive.” And I live in one of the more liberal Florida counties.

    I was voting for extremely localized lightning strike during a golf game since the various sinkholes have not done their job.

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:20 am

    ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
    Reparations are “too divisive,” yet city folks are out here getting paid farm bailouts.
    Trump’s farmers bailout money went to more than 1,000 residents of major cities following China trade war https://t.co/f5DZcngaYP https://twitter.com/MonieTalks_1/status/1105097017997570049?s=17

  28. 28.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 7:20 am

    @Baud: what = wait.

  29. 29.

    satby

    March 12, 2019 at 7:21 am

    @rikyrah: ? Good morning!
    @OzarkHillbilly: ?

    Much as I admire Stacey Adams and several other potential candidates for POTUS, we need a Democratic Senate just as much as we need a Democrat in the White House. I wish some of them would focus on taking the Senate back.

  30. 30.

    satby

    March 12, 2019 at 7:22 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Wow! Almost otherworldly.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:22 am

    Did I miss the discussion about this?

    skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
    i think the rather simple sexual harassment scandal in #KirstenGillibrand’s office is revealing and disqualifying in light of the brand she built around the issue. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1105310712241537025?s=17

  32. 32.

    debbie

    March 12, 2019 at 7:23 am

    @satby:

    Seconded.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    March 12, 2019 at 7:25 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Very nice

  34. 34.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 7:30 am

    Interesting

    Why We Need to Rethink Misdemeanor Justice

    We all want safe neighborhoods, but the way we treat many people arrested for low-level offenses does more harm than good.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 7:31 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I really like the framing in that shot. The multi-textured foreground and the clouds in the background really enhance the pagoda.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 7:33 am

    @Baud: Why settle for Evil-lite when you can get the real thing?

  37. 37.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 7:35 am

    @rikyrah:
    @satby:
    @JPL: Thanks, IR does have that other worldly effect, like Southern CA with snow.

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 7:36 am

    @rikyrah: It sure sounds bad if the Politico report is accurate, i.e., Gillibrand personally received the resigning employee’s letter and did nothing about the harasser until months later when informed that Politico was on the story. If true, that is blatant hypocrisy on a signature issue.

  39. 39.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 7:37 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, the IR really does bring out more contrast in the clouds. I’m always looking for a day with clouds like that to shoot IR. Saturday was just perfect.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 7:37 am

    @Baud: The fact that only poor people, especially those of color, is a bit of a tipoff.

  41. 41.

    eclare

    March 12, 2019 at 7:41 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I like the second photograph with the single pink shrub/tree in the middle.

  42. 42.

    satby

    March 12, 2019 at 7:43 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    blatant hypocrisy on a signature issue.

    Or her “signature issue” is driven by opportunism, not conviction.

  43. 43.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 7:43 am

    @eclare: It got a bit more water in that shot and geese, but I thought it turned out a bit cluttered.

  44. 44.

    eclare

    March 12, 2019 at 7:46 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Not to me, love the geese, the clouds, and the spot of color.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:47 am

    @satby:
    I feel you

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 7:48 am

    @eclare: Glad you like it, the way I do the color is I shoot two shots: one with the IR camera and then one with the visual camera. I combine the two shots in Photoshop.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:48 am

    The damage being done in the judicial branch ??

    Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) Tweeted:
    Here’s Schumer on Matey, who’s about to be confirmed to a lifetime seat on a US appeals court: He’s “never made an oral argument before a federal court of appeals. Never. He barely has any litigation experience. He’s spent most of his career as a political aide to Gov. Christie.” https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/1105244788297748480?s=17

  48. 48.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 12, 2019 at 7:49 am

    If all the money that will go into the presidential primaries instead went toward Senate races we’d be a lot better off.

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:50 am

    skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
    Jamelle Bouie: The Trouble With Biden https://t.co/USKuOGzrs4 https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1105358545627820032?s=17

  50. 50.

    eclare

    March 12, 2019 at 7:52 am

    @Bobby Thomson: And if Steyer would spend his money combating voter suppression rather than tv ads for impeachment, we would be better off.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:52 am

    I feel you, Mr. Blow

    Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) Tweeted:
    There is a basic calulation in politics that disgusts me, particularly as a black man. It says: Don’t rock the boat too much because you want to woo some of the people who voted for the opposition. When is not rocking the boat EVER been about doing the right thing?!!! https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1105376087973027840?s=17

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 7:53 am

    @satby: Maybe! I’m reflexively wary of labeling women candidates as “opportunists” because it’s so often used as code for “seeking power while female.” But that’s not to say women can’t be opportunists.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 7:57 am

    @rikyrah:

    because you want to woo some of the people who voted for the opposition. 

    That’s not entirely accurate. You also avoid rocking the boat to avoid losing weak members of your coalition. 2016 was an example of just how easily the fringe of the Democratic Party can be manipulated by propaganda.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:58 am

    ???

    Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) Tweeted:
    Please DM me w/invite instructions, @TuckerCarlson. I’d be happy to come on your shit-show, and explain why you’re an entitled white supremacist and represent a deep toxic unrest that is infecting our country. https://t.co/n4oiLiOTa8 https://twitter.com/mjfree/status/1105096880931987456?s=17

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 7:59 am

    Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) Tweeted:
    A federal paid leave program would ensure Americans have the opportunity to be caregivers and providers for their loved ones without worrying about income security and how to make ends meet. Congress must commit to passing the FAMILY Act. https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1105274458443603970?s=17

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 8:00 am

    @eclare:
    ???

    Voter Suppression and getting folks the right ID.

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 8:01 am

    ???

    Denizcan Grimes (@MrFilmkritik) Tweeted:
    Sarah Sanders gets paid by taxpayers just under $180K annually to treat them with derision, lie to them, and show up for ten minutes per month to do it all.

    I hope she goes down as hard as the the rest of them. https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/1105187922423267329?s=17

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    March 12, 2019 at 8:03 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m in Southern California right now and the snowplow is going past my house. Cabin. Cottage. Thing. It’s snowing.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 8:04 am

    Thread

    Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) Tweeted:
    This is such a freaking JOKE.

    DOJ: Oh, we can’t indict the President
    @SpeakerPelosi: Oh, we shouldn’t impeach the President.

    HE’S NOT A GODDAMN KING. He is a criminal. We have LAWS. USE THEM! https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1105215963841089537?s=17

  60. 60.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 12, 2019 at 8:06 am

    Spent a lovely day biking around Kamakura and Enoshima today. Here are some random pictures. A commenter here was kind enough to recommend the teamLab museum exhibit thing and we are going tomorrow, so thanks, commenter!

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 8:07 am

    Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) Tweeted:
    Bill commits adultery
    •Right Wing: Impeach!
    45 commits adultery
    •Right Wing:¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Franken assaults women
    •RW: Resign!
    45 assaults women
    •RW:¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    HRC sex ring conspiracy
    •RW: Lock her up!
    45 & actual sex ring
    •RW:¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Anyone else sensing a pattern here?? https://twitter.com/MuslimIQ/status/1105151531622510595?s=17

  62. 62.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 8:08 am

    m i t h (@ManInTheHoody) Tweeted:
    tbh i dont really care if trump is worth putting the country through the impeachment process because i believe the people suffering under his administrations policies are. https://twitter.com/ManInTheHoody/status/1105220688531476480?s=17

  63. 63.

    Lapassionara

    March 12, 2019 at 8:16 am

    @rikyrah: I sense a pattern, for sure. This Florida sex-trafficking, Chinese businessman let’s sell access to the president should be a non-stop story. Instead, it’s down the memory hole.

    Good morning, everyone.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    March 12, 2019 at 8:18 am

    @rikyrah

    When is not rocking the boat EVER been about doing the right thing?!!!

    Um, when you’re in a boat.

  65. 65.

    satby

    March 12, 2019 at 8:27 am

    I think that people forget (or weren’t around for) how the Nixon hearings and impending impeachment sucked all the air out of everything else Congress tried to do, and that it was the Republicans (Sam Ervin and Howard Baker) who lead the hearings against their own party’s president. It was bipartisan, and two years in the making.
    That isn’t the case right now, and a failed impeachment would empower the Shitgibbon. And it would fail right now, whether we like that fact or not. I am sick of tossing away our power for gaining better government on purity crusades. Impeachment won’t throw him in jail, may strengthen his party, and will distract (right now) from countering the worst excesses of this corrupt administration. Nancy Smash didn’t take impeachment off the table, she tabled it until the time is right.

  66. 66.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 12, 2019 at 8:29 am

    @rikyrah: Wow. That’s a hell of a chunk of change for someone who is so so horrible at her job. And she can’t even be bothered to be a lying POS on a regular basis. We get the rare appearance instead of completely ignoring questions on a schedule.

    The exchange with Jim Acosta the other day really was something. SNL couldn’t even fever dream up answering a question about toxic rhetoric with ‘I can’t believe the other side loves murderiñg babies so much!’

    “And would you like a soup or salad for your side?”
    “Oak really is the best wood for kitchen cabinets!”

  67. 67.

    hueyplong

    March 12, 2019 at 8:30 am

    @Betty Cracker: Left unsaid in your posts is the happy consequence that an electoral rebuke in FL might cause him to avoid ever returning, even if the hoped-for Category 5 fails to materialize at his resort.

    If, nevertheless, the storm does come, I’d like to think that President Harris would appear on the scene to toss paper towels to the temporarily de-housed millionaires and Chinese lobbyists.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    March 12, 2019 at 8:30 am

    FYI.

    Boeing confirmed late on Monday it will deploy a software upgrade to the 737 Max 8 — the model that crashed on Sunday in Ethiopia and six months ago in Indonesia — making the announcement a few hours after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would mandate “design changes” in the aircraft by April. Source

  69. 69.

    sherparick

    March 12, 2019 at 8:31 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: If you can reduce the margins in the Red Counties, Trump will be overwhelmed by about any Democrat who can frost a mirror.

  70. 70.

    gvg

    March 12, 2019 at 8:32 am

    @satby: Nope. She has paid a price more often than gained support over pursuing this for many years. She started before it was popular and has taken a consistant position even when it was more advantagous not to i.e. military harassment and Al Franken. I suspect she won’t get any traction as a Presidential candidate specifically because she was the lead face against Franken and quite a few people including women hold that against her.
    Probably she just screwed up this time. I don’t know, I’m only sure it’s not just opportunism on an issue.

  71. 71.

    eclare

    March 12, 2019 at 8:36 am

    @satby: Agree. Let the House investigations drip, drip, drip, as we pass legislation and force Rethug members to vote. A failed impeachment would only strengthen POS, just in time for 2020.

    TL;DR, I trust Nancy.

  72. 72.

    satby

    March 12, 2019 at 8:38 am

    @NotMax: my last account in IT and boy, am I glad to be retired right now.

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    March 12, 2019 at 8:41 am

    For the ‘Is it live or is it Memorex’ file, smart phone be dumb.

    Here’s another friendly reminder that if your Android phone doesn’t have some kind of special hardware for face unlock, the feature probably isn’t very secure. The latest phone to implement face unlock with nothing but the normal front camera is the Galaxy S10, and users across the Web are reporting that the feature is easily confused or defeated.

    There are a number of reports that say—surprise!—a 2D image sensor can be fooled by a 2D image. The Verge was able to unlock the device with a video, and YouTube channel Unbox Therapy was able to unlock the S10 just by playing one of its public channel videos in view of the camera. The worst example is probably from AndroidWorld.it, which was able to unlock the Galaxy S10 by waving a still photo around in front of the device.

    The Galaxy S10 can also reportedly have trouble telling different people apart. Security Researcher Jane Wong was able to unlock her brother’s phone with her face. Source

  74. 74.

    satby

    March 12, 2019 at 8:44 am

    @gvg: I haven’t paid enough attention to her and she only would get my support as last standing Democrat after the primaries, but for her to ignore the issue in her own office until her staffer felt she had to resign? At best that’s really poor management if not hypocrisy, and Presidents need to be very good managers.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 8:46 am

    @gvg: Good points. Soros and other major donors said they wouldn’t donate a dime to Gillibrand if she wins the nomination specifically because they blame her for taking Franken out. If she’s an opportunist on this issue, she’s miscalculated at every turn. Highlighting harassment in the military probably wasn’t a huge vote generator either.

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    March 12, 2019 at 8:47 am

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t know enough about the details, but I’m always suspicious of Politico (for good or ill).

    Newsday followup.

    Malik initially was demoted. However, he was fired last week after further allegations surfaced, according to Gillibrand communications director Whitney Mitchell Brennan. The termination also came after Politico said it inquired about the initial complaint.

    “At every step of the process, immediate action was taken by the office,” Brennan said in a statement. “The previous allegations in question were investigated in consultation with Senate Employment Counsel, and included multiple interviews with relevant current employees who could potentially corroborate the claims. A full and thorough investigation into the evidence revealed employee misconduct that, while inappropriate, did not meet the standard for sexual harassment. However, because the office did find unprofessional behavior that violated office policy, including derogatory comments, the office took strong disciplinary action against the employee in question and he was given a final warning.”

    Brennan continued: “Recently, we learned of never-before reported and deeply troubling comments allegedly made by this same individual. The office immediately began another investigation and interviewed relevant witnesses, which has led to the office terminating the employee from staff last week.”

    Politico didn’t name the aide who said she resigned in protest. But it did publish her resignation letter, dated Aug. 30, 2018. In it, she says she informed Gillibrand’s chief of staff, Jess Fassler, and deputy chief of staff, Anne Bradley, and initially stayed on because she “felt satisfied that there had been a fair process.”

    But later she said she was leaving because of “how poorly the investigation and post-investigation was handled.” She also cited Gillibrand’s profile as someone fighting sexual misconduct in Congress and the military.

    Interpreting snippets is dangerous. I don’t know what caused her to change her mind about the process, but Gillibrand apparently had a process and did take action. Whether they were enough and timely enough, I can’t say.

    Things like this are (understandably) a litmus test for voters. Sexual harassment cannot be tolerated. And, ultimately, it wasn’t in her office.

    We’re going to be ruthless in vetting our candidates. Let’s not throw them overboard too soon – it’s still early.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 8:49 am

    Ben. No More, No Less. (@BJS_quire) Tweeted:
    Can’t these schmucks get their stories straight?

    Yesterday, the Democratic Party hates Jews.

    Today, the Democratic Party is basically a cabal funded by Jews.

    As a Jew, this is all very confusing, except it’s not. https://t.co/5p3EZDIoLv https://twitter.com/BJS_quire/status/1105448034350043138?s=17

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    March 12, 2019 at 8:49 am

    @satby: + Eleventy billion.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  79. 79.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 12, 2019 at 8:52 am

    @hueyplong: Sandwich bags of sand and squeaky inflatable hammers would be better.

  80. 80.

    hueyplong

    March 12, 2019 at 8:57 am

    @mrmoshpotato: True, but I’d want Trump to get the joke. He doesn’t do nuance.

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 8:59 am

    @Another Scott: You mean Politico shouldn’t be taken as the gospel truth? Wow, good to know! ;-)

  82. 82.

    Kay

    March 12, 2019 at 9:07 am

    @Another Scott:

    I don’t like her as a presidential candidate, and, honestly, I don’t think she’s catching fire with voters so this probably takes care of itself, but this is important:

    A full and thorough investigation into the evidence revealed employee misconduct that, while inappropriate, did not meet the standard for sexual harassment.

    There is a standard:

    The United States’ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines workplace sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature .

    There has to be process. I HOPE he wasn’t fired because of an allegation or because this is her “signature issue” – that would be bad. THAT would be horribly and irredeemably “opportunistic”. There has to be something in between Fox News “hire and promote people for sexual harassment” and “fire anyone on an allegation”. We really don’t have to choose between those two bad things.

  83. 83.

    Peale

    March 12, 2019 at 9:09 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: regarding these swing counties, I wonder how many of them just go anti presidents party every election. These are either the most petulantly angry voters or the most thoughtless…the kinds who just split their tickets to “keep them honest”.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    March 12, 2019 at 9:10 am

    @satby:

    THIS. THIS. THIS.

    @satby:

    Also this. It’s not as if she hasn’t shown, in her many, many, many policy flips, that she’s completely ready to change her strongly held convictions with the speed of light if it will further her ambitions. I find her completely untrustworthy and uncharismatic. Glad to see she is not getting any traction and it is very revealing that not a single member of the New York delegation has endorsed her. There is a reason for that and her defenders don’t want to talk about it. Al Franken must be laughing his ass off. Or trying to find ways to not want to murder someone. One or the other.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 9:14 am

    @Betty Cracker: Speaking as an atheist I feel the need to point out that there is not much truth in the gospels. The “truths” the gospels speak of are mostly aspirational.

  86. 86.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 12, 2019 at 9:15 am

    @JPL: And thankfully Trump has given Democrats and Independents more than enough reason to come out and vote against him in 2020. I keep hearing from people about how they got lower tax refunds and it pisses them off. Just one more reason to hate Republicans.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 9:25 am

    @Kay:

    There has to be something in between Fox News “hire and promote people for sexual harassment” and “fire anyone on an allegation”. We really don’t have to choose between those two bad things.

    QFT.

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 12, 2019 at 9:33 am

    Speaking of the Bible: South African man escapes jaws of whale

    Just before he jumped in the water he was heard to say, “Hold my beer. Watch this!”

    Like the Bible’s Jonah, a South African marine conservationist has narrowly survived after being caught in the jaws of a whale.

    Rainer Schimpf, 51, was swept into the mouth of a large Bryde’s whale off the coast of the South African town of Port Elizabeth while snorkelling and filming a sardine run last month.

    “Looming up out of darkness below came a Bryde’s whale shooting up into the ball of fish, gulping all in its path,” he told AFP, adding that his legs were hanging from the mammal’s mouth during the incident at the end of February.

    Schimpf’s wife, Silke, and a photographer watched on in horror from their boat, chartered to watch the sardine run, which creates a marine feeding frenzy off Africa’s southern coast.

    “I felt some pressure around my waist and I immediately knew what had happened. [It] accidentally included me in its mouth together with its main meal – the sardines.”
    …………………………….
    “[Then] the whale realised its mistake and opened its mouth, releasing me. I was washed out with what felt like tonnes of water from its mouth,” he said.

    Florida relatives did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

  89. 89.

    Aleta

    March 12, 2019 at 9:37 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s more than beautiful.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 9:40 am

    GOP fuss over potential Beto 2020 candidacy primed to backfire
    Rachel Maddow reports on a dramatic Republican political ad criticizing Beto O’Rourke, possibly for the purposes of tricking Democrats into favoring him, but equally likely to boost him to a degree that would be problematic for a Republican 2020 opponent.

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 9:41 am

    Former day spa owner built business on access to Trump circle
    Nicholas Nehamas, reporter for the Miami Herald, talks with Rachel Maddow about the apparently abrupt transformation of Cindy Yang, from day spa owner to influence broker selling access to Donald Trump, the Trump family, and high ranking Republican officials.

  92. 92.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 12, 2019 at 9:42 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Holy cow. That’s art.

  93. 93.

    Nicole

    March 12, 2019 at 10:08 am

    So I gather the same folk angry that Al Franken didn’t stick around long enough to get due process as a Senator are going to scream how dare an employee have gotten due process before getting fired.

    I like Gillibrand fine (full disclosure, with the exception of Gabbard I range from “quite like” to “am perfectly fine with” all the woman candidates), but I think this will hurt because it sounds like it’s complicated to explain and voters, Dems and Pubs alike, don’t like things they have to listen to for more than five seconds. Look at how many continue to assume she was singlehandedly responsible for Al Franken announcing his resignation (letting Warren and Harris completely off the hook for doing EXACTLY the same thing Gillibrand did, just not first). And completely ignoring the fact that Franken could have stuck around for due process if he’d really wanted to; he CHOSE to resign. No one put a gun to his head.

    Ultimately, Gillibrand won’t be the nominee because she reminds people too much of Hillary- blonde, chubby, voice register definitely in the female zone. It’s not about her policies; she’s just the one we’ve picked to vent our misogyny on. She changed her positions! What an opportunist! Never mind Warren was a Republican until the late 1990s. (That’s just to cite an example; as a realist, I don’t care if politician’s policies change, as long as the change goes in the direction towards greater equality) But this’ll hurt her, if not end her candidacy. For the party, not a big deal; we have a good slate of candidates that we could lose several and still have good ones left, but make no mistake, the knee-jerk reactions against her have little to do with her actual voting record and a lot to do with misogyny.

  94. 94.

    StringOnAStick

    March 12, 2019 at 10:12 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: this is by far my favorite of your IR work; incredible!

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 12, 2019 at 10:15 am

    @satby: Sam Ervin was a Democrat. Back when North Carolina wasn’t insane.

  96. 96.

    StringOnAStick

    March 12, 2019 at 10:22 am

    I have a bit of anecdotal evidence (screw you kindle for not letting me combine those two works, you spelling authoritarian). My friends the 70 year old couple who we’re all in for Wilmer and bought the “he was robbed” crap well past the final election told me last week that they are totally over him because they so like Inslee. Their rational is that without aggressive action on climate change,none of the other plans and proposals will mean anything. Having your first grandchild can focus the mind and I hope the links I sent her about Vlad’s boys trying to split the left with misinformation helped too.

  97. 97.

    scav

    March 12, 2019 at 10:24 am

    @satby: This is also day two of front page and elsewhere debate about impeachment where some journalists have rediscovered their rolodexes of Democrats-on-the-street. Bottom-up non-support for the Orange one is being covered? Horrors! That should rattle a few cages or upset a few narratives.

  98. 98.

    H.E.Wolf

    March 12, 2019 at 10:26 am

    @satby:

    I think that people forget (or weren’t around for) how the Nixon hearings and impending impeachment sucked all the air out of everything else Congress tried to do, and that it was the Republicans (Sam Ervin and Howard Baker) who lead the hearings against their own party’s president. It was bipartisan, and two years in the making.

    You’re right about the eventual bipartisan nature of the decision to recommend impeachment in 1974, and about the two years it took for evidence to be revealed that produced that result.

    Sam Ervin, the Committee Chairman, was a Democrat in a majority-Democratic Senate. According to a memoir of the hearings by one of Ervin’s staff lawyers, Howard Baker (the Republican ranking member) conducted a lot of sabotage behind the scenes while looking all honorable and virtuous in front of the TV cameras in the hearings room. [ETA: Samuel Dash, 1976 memoir, “Chief Counsel: Inside the Ervin Committee”.]

    I was too young to be aware of the disruption to other Congressional activity in 1974, though I was very aware of it during the Bill Clinton impeachment process.

    At this moment in March, 2019, my focus is on (1) voter enfranchisement and (2) winning both houses of Congress in 2020.

    The current president deserves imprisonment for his crimes. I’d be satisfied with that. It has most of the same letters as impeachment and much worse lodging conditions.

  99. 99.

    Brickley Paiste

    March 12, 2019 at 10:27 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Nice. I don’t know anything about IR- do you stack a polarizer to darken the sky?

  100. 100.

    tobie

    March 12, 2019 at 10:33 am

    @Nicole: I actually do have problems with the fact that Warren was a Republican until the late 1990s and apparently supported Reagan. I cannot square that one bit with the anti-corporatist, pro-labor populist she has become. I was in high school when Reagan was elected and even I knew how bad he was for workers. Decimating the air traffic controllers union and eviscerating the social safety net were defining aspects of his Presidency.

  101. 101.

    debbie

    March 12, 2019 at 10:35 am

    @rikyrah:

    Driving home after a doctor’s appointment, I listened to Glenn Beck’s outrage over Carlson’s remarks. FREEDOM OF SPEECH! CAN’T YOU SOCIALISTS TELL WHEN SOMEONE IS JOKING? Then it came out that someone at Media Matters had done something to Glenn Beck years ago.

  102. 102.

    geg6

    March 12, 2019 at 10:38 am

    @Nicole:

    Yeah, because I’m a big old woman hater.

    I actually haven’t decided on anyone as a nominee. Currently, of the ones who have announced, I like Harris and Booker (and it just may be that I have residual love for him from when I first discovered him in the first decade of the century). I am only adamantly against Gillibrand, Sanders and Gabbard.

  103. 103.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 12, 2019 at 10:39 am

    this is apparently based on a speech Biden didn’t deliver, so a purposeful leak, a sort of test drive. I’m surprised Biden’s going in on free college and not some kind of M4A public option. I just would’ve thought health care reform, short of SP, would be his big fuckin’ deal

    reg Sargent @ ThePlumLineGS
    Joe Biden appears set to enter the race. Per @mikememoli, his agenda will include:
    $15 minimum wage
    Free public college
    Tax hike on privileged investment income
    Big infrastructure spending package
    But: No Medicare-for-all. Green New Deal unclear.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    March 12, 2019 at 10:40 am

    Again, it’s Glenn Beck, but he’s denouncing Omar because (he says) she is fund raising for a sister group of Hamas.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 12, 2019 at 10:42 am

    @StringOnAStick: I’m thinking of sending Inslee some money just to promote climate as an issue, I don’t think he has a chance (I have gotten just about every primary wrong for the last ten years)

  106. 106.

    debbie

    March 12, 2019 at 10:42 am

    @rikyrah:

    Ha, remember what a scandal it was for Bill Clinton when he met with Charlie Tree? Now, it’s just crickets.

  107. 107.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 12, 2019 at 10:45 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Call me ageist, but I don’t want an octogenarian in the Oval Office.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 12, 2019 at 10:48 am

    @debbie: you just gave me a premonition of tonight’s Maddow show opening: “Thank you, my friend” to Chris Hayes, then “We’ve got a lot big news to get tonight, an interview with Dem primary candidate X…. but first!” big hand clap “Char-Lie TREE! Does that name mean anything to you? [giggle] Back in the nineties, Charlie Tree was….”

    After five minutes we’ll get to the connection of Tree and Clinton, and five minutes after that the parallels to Ms Yang

    ETA: @Gin & Tonic: there’s a lot of talk of a one term pledge, I don’t know how that would play, much less if he would do it

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 12, 2019 at 10:50 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Even one term, he’d be 80 halfway through. Do. Not. Want.

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 10:56 am

    I’m not being a smartypants, but, what’s the difference between a bribe, and the usual ‘generous donation to the school’, like the one that got Jared Kushner into Harvard?

    Actresses, CEOs arrested in nationwide college admissions cheating scam
    By AARON KATERSKY BILL HUTCHINSON
    Mar 12, 2019, 10:22 AM EST

    Actresses and chief executives are among 50 people arrested in a nationwide college admissions cheating scam, according to court records unsealed in Boston Tuesday.

    Those indicted allegedly paid bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California, federal prosecutors said.

    In most cases the students did not know their admission was contingent on a bribe, officials said.

  111. 111.

    Renie

    March 12, 2019 at 10:57 am

    @rikyrah: Wasn’t there talk she was going to leave at the end of last year? I guess she couldn’t get another job cuz no one wanted to hire her.

  112. 112.

    Miss Bianca

    March 12, 2019 at 10:57 am

    I still wish she would run for Senate. I really, really like the cut of her jib.

  113. 113.

    waratah

    March 12, 2019 at 10:58 am

    @rikyrah: I think she has this wrong. The Republicans started on Beto right after the election. They are worried that he will turn Texas blue if he is the nominee. They noticed he was able to get the independent vote as well as a lot of Republicans vote. Just not enough yet. A recent poll in Texas showed he was right there with Trump.

  114. 114.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 12, 2019 at 11:02 am

    @rikyrah:

    Matthew Yglesias @ mattyglesias
    -Did they not realize that there are totally legal ways of doing this?

    -You launch a discussion with the development office about making a large contribution in exchange for naming rights to something to something or other.
    At the same time, your kid applies.
    You don’t need to explicitly link the two.

    -Next thing you know your son is off to the races calling plumbers between classes and otherwise impressing the world with his business savvy.

    Yglesias was at Harvard with Kushner, that last is a reference to Jared claiming to been a college “entrepreneur” because he used some of his trust fund to buy rental properties in the Boston suburbs. He offered up calling plumbers between classes as an example of his MOTU mastery.

  115. 115.

    gene108

    March 12, 2019 at 11:04 am

    Reading a book about Jimmy Carter wrote about growing up during the Great Depression, in rural SW Georgia. When the New Deal laws kicked in that forced farmers to plow under some of their crop, in order to stabilize crop prices, his father never forgave FDR for forcing him to waste cropland, and never voted for FDR again.

    Also, the New Deal was giving remittances to people there, so they would have some money. A lot of attitudes could be ripped from today’s headlines about paying people not to work, and how lazy blacks are and paying them a stipend to survive was just going to make them lazier.

    It’s interesting how somethings never really change.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    March 12, 2019 at 11:11 am

    @rikyrah:

    I’m not being a smartypants, but, what’s the difference between a bribe, and the usual ‘generous donation to the school’, like the one that got Jared Kushner into Harvard?

    I read the article you linked to, and I’d say there is a big difference. Paying 500k to have your kid listed as a recruit for the crew team (when she doesn’t crew) so she can get in seems a lot different than giving 500k for a building or for The Center for Whatever It Is That You Care About.

    edit: Or, what our Foolish Literalist said at #114.

  117. 117.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 12, 2019 at 11:12 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I intend to pay no attention to Biden unless he becomes the nominee, in which case I will of course support him as hard as I can. Until and unless that happens, he’s irrelevant in my thinking.

  118. 118.

    Aleta

    March 12, 2019 at 11:13 am

    @StringOnAStick: Glad your surgery went well. Here’s to PT and healing, an amazing thing.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    March 12, 2019 at 11:17 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Great photo, the combined real color and IR images are wonderful.

    Thanks!

  120. 120.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 11:19 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Meghan McCain and Ben Sasse wrote an opinion piece in WSJ about protecting babies who survive abortions. She has freaked out about that on the View but then she is always freaking out on the View which rawstory reports ad nauseam. Rawstory goes overboard with story title embellishments but Meghan seems to be on the verge of a major meltdown and should take a long time out.

  121. 121.

    Betty Cracker

    March 12, 2019 at 11:23 am

    @geg6: Nicole is right, though. That’s not to say non-misogynist, good-faith critiques of Gillibrand cannot exist; I don’t think Nicole was excluding that possibility. But IMO, 90% of the invective hurled at Gillibrand is of the knee-jerk variety Nicole called out — probably 99.5% if the platform is Twitter. I hold no brief for Gillibrand, but the pile-ons she attracts set off the same alarm bells for me as the bullshit flung at Clinton in 2016.

    Shorter: if the shoe don’t fit, don’t wear it, but Nicole is right that a lot of the anti-Gillibrand sentiment is sexist, and it’s worth noticing even if you aren’t particularly a fan of Gillibrand because that same pile of garbage will eventually land on a woman you do support. Again.

  122. 122.

    tam1MI

    March 12, 2019 at 11:28 am

    @Kay: “Unwelcome sexual advances”, “Requests for sexual favors”, “Verbal conduct of a sexual nature” are EXACTLY the things the woman who quit documented and had other witnesses to corroborate. Gillibrand’s office saying otherwise is a lie.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 11:28 am

    @bemused:

    Meghan McCain and Ben Sasse wrote an opinion piece in WSJ about protecting babies who survive abortions. 

    By giving them universal health care?

  124. 124.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 11:29 am

    @rikyrah:

    There goes her Garage Sale Mystery gig.

  125. 125.

    Baud

    March 12, 2019 at 11:30 am

    @tam1MI:

    Greetings, new nym. Your unsupported assertions are appreciated.

  126. 126.

    Nicole

    March 12, 2019 at 11:30 am

    @geg6: So you’re okay with Harris having called on Franken to resign, then? Because she did it less than an hour after Gillibrand. Why is it okay with you that Harris demanded Franken resign and not okay that Gillibrand did?

    (Also, FYI, unless I’m calling a person out specifically, my comments are not directed at any specific person. That’s on you that you assumed I was calling you, specifically, a woman-hater.)

    But I am specifically asking you why you’re okay with Harris having called on Franken to resign and not okay with Gillibrand having done it, and I am sincerely curious as to what the difference is for you.

  127. 127.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 11:32 am

    @Baud:

    Health care only for zygotes.

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 12, 2019 at 11:41 am

    the ultimate “root for injuries!” twitter/media spat

    POLITICO @ politico
    Donald Trump Jr. lashed out at Dick Cheney for criticizing the Trump administration’s foreign policy at a private interview with Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend

    “Isn’t it fitting that Cheney is the one mad that Trump is ending his reckless and endless wars?” Trump Jr. tweeted. “I never knew peace would be so unpopular!”

    He should watch his ass. I think Liz Cheney could snap his spine like a dry twig just based on sheer, concentrated mean.

  129. 129.

    trollhattan

    March 12, 2019 at 11:41 am

    @Nicole:
    You’ve pretty much summed things for me.

  130. 130.

    zhena gogolia

    March 12, 2019 at 11:42 am

    @Nicole:

    Yes.

  131. 131.

    tam1MI

    March 12, 2019 at 11:44 am

    @Nicole: Gillibrand’s apologists really need to stop talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to what she did to Al Franken, because the hypocrisy of their arguments is glaring. Either the woman is the Brave Heroine Who Took The Lead On Getting Rid Of That Monster, Al Franken, as they were originally flogging her as, or she was just another lemming charging over the cliff. Pick a lane.

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    March 12, 2019 at 11:44 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    He should watch his ass. I think Liz Cheney could snap his spine like a dry twig just based on sheer, concentrated mean.

    BWA HA HA HA HA H AH HA HA HAH

  133. 133.

    Gravenstone

    March 12, 2019 at 11:48 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dick will also need a new donor heart one of the days. Maybe the Cheneys can cull Jr. and use his for the next spare?

  134. 134.

    tam1MI

    March 12, 2019 at 11:48 am

    @Baud: I’ve been here a while., thank you. (Can’t exactly blame you for thinking I’m a newcomer what with all the rolls popping out of the woodwork lately). The assertions are from the Politico article, it’s worth reading in full.

  135. 135.

    Nicole

    March 12, 2019 at 11:51 am

    @tam1MI: I think she’s the one who took the heat for something the Senate women decided to do together- CNN (I think it was CNN) ran an article a few days after the resignation about the women’s united front in calling publicly for resignation. What I find weird is people continually damning her for Franken and at the same time talking about how much they like Harris and/or Warren, who did exactly the same thing she did- publicly called for his resignation. It’s a cognitive dissonance I can’t wrap my own head around.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 12, 2019 at 11:51 am

    @Gravenstone: Maybe the Cheneys can cull Jr. and use his for the next spare?

    He’s a generous lad, he already donated his brain to…. somebody

  137. 137.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 11:59 am

    Quite long presser on msnbc about college entrance exam scheme.
    I wonder how many other famous names will surface.
    Cripes, these people have plenty of money and reputations but still resort to cheating. I feel sorry for their kids.

  138. 138.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 12:00 pm

    @bemused:

    At least I feel sorry for the kids who didn’t know and are ashamed.

  139. 139.

    geg6

    March 12, 2019 at 12:01 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Having lived through the various permutations of Arlen Specter, I am not fond of flip floppers who change their ideals like I change my underwear. Gillibrand is that and I still haven’t seen an explanation for all her many flip flops. Warren, who is not really my candidate but who I don’t hate, has a much more believable conversion story that shows it was based on her experiences in the world of bankruptcy and commercial law. And it wasn’t an abrupt change, it was a gradual one, which is probably more common to most people who go through conversions.

    I just think she’s not honest about her motivations and positions. She has struck me that way since I first became aware of her, long before Al Franken and that mess.

  140. 140.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 12:05 pm

    @geg6:

    I’ve been skeptical about her for awhile too. For lack of better words, I don’t like her aura.

  141. 141.

    geg6

    March 12, 2019 at 12:05 pm

    @Nicole:

    You obviously didn’t read what I wrote. The Franken thing is not my major motivation for disliking her. I dislike her because I don’t find her honest or trustworthy. This is based on her actual record as a politician and was my feeling about her long before the Franken thing. But go ahead and love her if you’d like. We’ll cancel each other out.

    As for who I currently like, it is likely to change as the process goes on. I’m not married to any of them. But the three I won’t support will not change. I made my mind up about them long before any of them ever decided to run for president.

  142. 142.

    Nicole

    March 12, 2019 at 12:12 pm

    @geg6: Which flip flops are you referring to, specifically? The two that I can think of are guns and immigration, and Gillibrand addressed both of them pretty head-on, saying she was wrong on both points. As someone who moved from Central PA to NYC, and lived for ten years in a majority-white neighborhood in NYC (I now live in a majority black neighborhood), I found her ignorance on both issues plausible- I know plenty of NYC residents that hold similar views to where she was in 2009, except they’re still holding them in 2019. Which makes them exhausting to talk to.

    Totally agree with you about Arlen Specter, though. I remember his final flip back to the Democrats, and my brother calling me about it, with a sigh: “Ugh. He’s still an asshole, but now he’s our asshole.”

    For what it’s worth, I’ll be astounded if Gillibrand is the nominee, so much like Klobuchar, I think most of this is ultimately a lot of sound and fury from all of us jackals, but I do think she’s being attacked for reasons that have nothing to do with her actual voting record, which, in the end, is the part that actually affects the lives of everyday people.

  143. 143.

    Nicole

    March 12, 2019 at 12:16 pm

    @bemused:

    For lack of better words, I don’t like her aura.

    (Puts head on desk and weeps silently)

  144. 144.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 12, 2019 at 12:24 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    He should watch his ass. I think Liz Cheney could snap his spine like a dry twig just based on sheer, concentrated mean.

    I usually have microwave popcorn on hand, but that would make me splurge for a big can of Garrett’s

  145. 145.

    geg6

    March 12, 2019 at 12:26 pm

    Nicole @142:

    Not everyone has to like her. Some people rub you the wrong way right from the get go. I think that is exactly what bemused and I are saying. She strikes us as insincere or untrustworthy or having a bad aura or whatever you want to call it. Seems that any criticism of her seems to strike you as sexist or something. I don’t have to like every woman and I don’t. I don’t like her and really don’t want to vote for her in the same way I don’t want to vote for Sanders or Gabbard. Although I would if they were the only choices.

    As for her flip flops, I don’t have time to look up the others but the guns and tobacco are major changes that came out of nowhere and I have yet to see her articulate how she decided suddenly that she was wrong about. Just not very believable to me.

    Thankfully, none of the ones on my “don’t ever want to vote for” list are, IMHO, likely to be the Dem nominee.

  146. 146.

    UncleEbeneezer

    March 12, 2019 at 12:37 pm

    @Nicole: Isn’t it funny watching all the people who were outraged that Gillibrand single-handedly burned Franken at the stake by denying him the Due Process!!1! that was so important he didn’t bother to request it, now fuming at her campaigns efforts to, ya know give due process…

  147. 147.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 12, 2019 at 12:39 pm

    @geg6:

    but the guns and tobacco are major changes that came out of nowhere and I have yet to see her articulate how she decided suddenly that she was wrong about

    Because you can’t be anti-gun and get elected in NY-20 (rural upstate), and you can’t be pro-gun and get much support from NYC once you’re Senator.

  148. 148.

    bemused

    March 12, 2019 at 12:43 pm

    @Nicole:

    Oh lighten up. It’s just another way of saying going with my gut feelings about people which has served me very well since I got out of my teens decades ago.

  149. 149.

    Miss Bianca

    March 12, 2019 at 12:44 pm

    @Nicole: I’m with you here, fwiw.

  150. 150.

    Juju

    March 12, 2019 at 12:44 pm

    @Nicole: I agree with everything you said except that Gillibrand is chubby. I should be so lucky to be chubby like that.

  151. 151.

    tam1MI

    March 12, 2019 at 1:04 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: Yes, the way she bent over backwards to cut every bit of slack she could (under the guise of “due process”) for the guy who wasn’t a threat to her Presidential designs, versus the way she threw due process out the window for Al Franken, who did threaten them, has been well noted.

  152. 152.

    StringOnAStick

    March 12, 2019 at 1:07 pm

    @Aleta: Thanks so much! I’m nearly fully weight bearing but high as a kite on pain meds so I’m using a walker around the house for stability. I was told to walk 10minutes out of every waking hour, and our 1.5 year old pair of kitties follows my every lap around the house. Love, love, love our kitties!

  153. 153.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 12, 2019 at 1:41 pm

    @Juju: Agreed. Not chubby, not thin like a stick insect but no chubby at all.

  154. 154.

    tybee

    March 12, 2019 at 1:42 pm

    ms. tybee had a knee replaced on jan 2nd. she’s mostly mobile now but she was not and is not a fan of PT.
    she had a different torturer/murderer/sadist knickname for each therapist.

    2nd knee gets done in April. figure it’ll all be over and done with by the end of summer. or at least that’s the plan.

  155. 155.

    StringOnAStick

    March 12, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    @tybee: Yeah, I figure that my current tolerable pain level will change once I get to my first PT appointment this afternoon. PT’s smile sweetly while discerning just how much you can stand. I first looked into becoming a PT before I settled on dental hygiene, that means most of the time I’m not causing significant pain!

  156. 156.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 2:32 pm

    @NotMax: Dead thread and all…

    That’s been the case since Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0), your quote neglected to mention that that OS also tells you BEFORE you enable the insecure face unlock that it’s NOT SECURE.

  157. 157.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 2:38 pm

    @Aleta:
    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    @StringOnAStick: Thanks, glad y’all like it.

  158. 158.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 12, 2019 at 2:45 pm

    @Brickley Paiste: The dark sky is a natural effect of IR, no polarizer required.
    @J R in WV: You’re welcome, the technique allows me a lot of flexibility in blending the visual colors in.

  159. 159.

    NotMax

    March 12, 2019 at 3:36 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    Difference in this case (if I read the article correctly) being that in this instance the feature is always enabled and there is no way to disable it.

  160. 160.

    RAVEN

    March 13, 2019 at 9:57 am

    [email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]@@@@

  161. 161.

    RAVEN

    March 13, 2019 at 10:03 am

    Stolen from a message board

    “The Family Trump has always been extremely concerned with heir worthiness.”

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