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Wednesday Open Thread

I think I'm having time management issues. I just realized our last open thread is full, and I'm still catching up with the news.

Paul Ryan isn't running for re-election.

James Comey compares Trump to a "mob boss" in an interview with 20/20 to air Sunday night.(promoting his book).

I have not watched Roseanne, but I think the reunion of the Jersey Shore cast that began last week is entertaining. Everyone but Sami is in a house in Miami. It is almost in real time -- it begins the day after Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino pleaded guilty to a federal tax offense. It sounds like the judge wasn't going to sign off on his going to Florida to film before he made up his mind on a plea deal. The day he pleaded guilty, the judge agreed to him going. I sure hope he didn't plead guilty just to be able to hang out with his friends on TV. His sentencing date has been continued until June.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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    So let's ignore (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Zorba on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 02:23:52 PM EST
    politics altogether.
    Food!
    Last Sunday was Orthodox Easter (we call it Pascha).
    I still have plenty of leftover lamb, and I made tzatziki sauce so we can have the lamb on pita bread with tzatziki, feta, etc.
    Plus I made Greek meatballs, which are also good with tzatziki sauce.

    Tzatziki sauce! (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by Peter G on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 02:33:15 PM EST
    One of my favorite foods.

    Parent
    It's not (none / 0) (#8)
    by Zorba on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 04:04:09 PM EST
    Hard to make, Peter.  

    Parent
    Speaking of which... (none / 0) (#10)
    by kdog on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 05:13:13 PM EST
    The Mets are making Tzatziki out of the competition, 9-1 on the year for the best start in franchise history. Lone blemish courtesy of your beloved Cards, but we got two outta there!

    Shooting for 8 in a row tonight in Miami against the Marlins AAAA affiliate. Let's Go Mets!

    Parent

    Mookie would be proud... (none / 0) (#12)
    by desertswine on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 05:41:05 PM EST
    Never does... (none / 0) (#49)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:44:42 AM EST
    but it would be nice to have one within the last 30 years to reminisce about.  Maybe this year...Ya Gotta Believe!

    Make that 8 in a row...Mets have no hits through 6?  No problem!  Just put up 4 in the 8th for a 4-1 victory behind very strong pitching from Wheeler and the bullpen.  Back home to Flushing Meadows for the Brewers in town tomorrow.

    Parent

    Thank you Zorba (none / 0) (#29)
    by Jeralyn on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:43:00 PM EST
    I really enjoy reading your cooking comments. How are Greek meatballs different than Italian? (I will google "tzatziki sauce" but I'm curious about the meatballs recipe!

    Parent
    I will take the liberty (5.00 / 2) (#36)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:04:26 PM EST
    She won't mind

    1 large cucumber
    3 cloves garlic (or more, to taste)
    2 cups Greek whole milk yogurt
    2-3 fronds of fresh dill, finely chopped
    1 teaspoon fresh mint, finely chopped
    Salt
    Ground black pepper
    Ground white pepper
    Ground cayenne pepper
    2 T. olive oil
    2 T. fresh lemon juice
    1/3 c. sour cream
    1/3 c. mayonnaise
    Peel and seed the cucumber (leave a few strips of skin on, for color). Chop into very small pieces (use a food processor). Place into colander and allow to drain 15-30 minutes, then squeeze out any excess water. Crush garlic into a pulp. Mix together cucumber, garlic, yogurt, dill, mint, oil, lemon juice, sour cream, and mayo. Add salt and a dash of black, white, and red peppers, to taste.

    Of course, if you want more, double or triple the recipe.  You can also add more of anything, depending upon your taste.
    If you can't find plain whole milk Greek yogurt, take some plain, whole milk regular yogurt, line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth, dump the yogurt in, put the colander over a bowl, and let it drain for a few hours until thickened.

    (Yes, you can use low-fat yogurt, light mayonnaise, and light sour cream, but it won't be nearly as good.)

    Parent

    Howdy, that is basically Zorba's recipe. (none / 0) (#55)
    by fishcamp on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 10:30:51 AM EST
    She posted that several years ago when I asked her what is Tzatziki? We Scots didn't have Tzatziki back in Portland a century ago. I prefer whole milk plain yogurt as opposed to Greek yogurt since it makes the Tzatziki thinner.  My question is how can Greek yogurt have more protein than regular yogurt, since the whey drain from regular yogurt is loaded with protein?  Check it out next time at the grocery.

     Due to Zorba's excellent advice I use Kalamata olive oil in my Tzatziki and in and on everything all the time.  It has a slightly nutty flavor and none of the bitter taste all of the other olive oils available have. I'm now on my 12th gallon, and of course it costs more money.  Amazon now stocks it and with Prime it comes overnight.  City people can maybe find it at Greek grocery stores, if you can find one of those.  After stopping at three Greek grocery/restaurants in Miami and not finding it I was forced to use Amazon.  It's $40 per gallon from them.

    Parent

    it is exactly her recipe (5.00 / 1) (#58)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 11:49:38 AM EST
    I cut and pasted

    Parent
    You'll be (none / 0) (#60)
    by Zorba on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:00:53 PM EST
    hearing from my lawyer tomorrow.
    Kidding, kidding!   😉

    Parent
    You don't want to Google (none / 0) (#30)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:44:36 PM EST
    You want zorbas

    I'm sure she will post it again

    Parent

    I use ground lamb (none / 0) (#41)
    by Zorba on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 10:03:00 PM EST
    Or half ground lamb and half ground beef.  One egg per pound of meat.  Some chopped garlic, a bit of grated or finely chopped onion, fresh mint, fresh Italian parsley, dried oregano- all amounts to your personal taste.  
    For each pound of meat, soak a stale piece of bread in two tablespoons of milk then squeeze out the milk and add the bread to the meat.  Mix it all up.
    Make small meatballs, coat lightly in flour and fry.
     

    Parent
    Finished watching Wild Wild Country (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by McBain on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 02:26:47 PM EST
    about the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers.  I found it fascinating.  I was reminded a little of my experience with Transcendental Meditation years ago.

    I think most of the meditation forms having something positive to offer but sometimes, if not often, the people who ascend to power within the movement give it a bad name.  It can be hard to tell which leader or guru is sincere and which is some form of a con man.  


    Very fascinating... (none / 0) (#11)
    by kdog on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 05:22:04 PM EST
    I knew nothing about the group and their Oregon settlement. Wild wacky stuff.

    The people who ascend to power, more often than not, give people a bad name. The true guru will neither desire power, nor more Rollies than one could wash in a day/week/year.

    Parent

    The Bagwan people (none / 0) (#16)
    by fishcamp on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 06:35:16 PM EST
    Started with a hustler guy from Aspen and moved to Antelope,Oregon and created a mess.  I knew the original guy and he was nothing but a two bit hustler.  So there's that side of the story...

    Parent
    I must say... (none / 0) (#53)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 09:25:37 AM EST
    bussing in the homeless from all over the country to stuff the local ballot box in exchange for food and shelter was a pretty nifty dose of Machiavelli...if you're into that sort of thing.

    Parent
    But it didn't quite work (none / 0) (#77)
    by McBain on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:31:40 PM EST
    and then the sannyasins had to figure out what to do with the formally homeless.... some who appeared to be mentally ill.

    Parent
    Watch out Paulie (5.00 / 2) (#13)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 05:44:05 PM EST
    This is what happens to former republican House Speakers

    Boehner's bombshell weed reversal a big boost for marijuana

    The pot industry panicked when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended the government's hands-off policy on weed. Today, it can breathe a bit easier as former Republican House Speaker John Boehner joins the advisory board of U.S. cannabis producer Acreage Holdings.

    "It is difficult to overstate the impact of this monumental event for the U.S. cannabis sector," Vahan Ajamian, analyst at Beacon Securities Ltd., wrote in a note Wednesday.



    It seems like only yesterday... (none / 0) (#14)
    by desertswine on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 05:56:07 PM EST
    that Boner was standing on the floor of the House passing out checks from the tobacco companies.  What a card.

    Parent
    So (none / 0) (#18)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 07:16:45 PM EST
    A year from now Ryan will be dancing on a bar in West Hollywood.

    Parent
    Well, that may not (none / 0) (#86)
    by KeysDan on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:39:06 PM EST
    be such a bad place for Ryan.  His recent predecessors have had a checkered fate: Gingrich, drummed out by his Republican colleagues; Deny Hastert, the longest serving Republican Speaker of the House, released from federal prison last July and now serving in a Chicago half-way house (not allowed to be alone with children under 18); Boehner, gone to pot; and Paul Ryan, the granny-starver and counterfeit economic wizard, but media darling.

    With all the fast paced news, that makes the Cohen raid seem like it happened several months ago, Ryan leaving the Speakership/congressional seat is truly remarkable...despite/because of his abject failure at everything. At least, Hastert has the legacy of the "Hastert Rule," such as it is.

    Parent

    He does work out (none / 0) (#139)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:04:45 PM EST
    So two nights ago (5.00 / 4) (#17)
    by fishcamp on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 06:55:15 PM EST
    my cat hopped up on the bed with a live iguana and let him go.  It ran under the pillows  and I was instantly awake flinging pillows around the room.  In doing so I partially dislocated my good shoulder, which popped right back into place, but is quite sore.  My bad shoulder is always sore.  Both had been damaged years ago ski racing.  

    We have thousands of Iguanas in my neighborhood and they are real pests.  Blackie my cat likes to bring them in live to show me, chase them around, and then eat them.  Another one of my charming stories I thought I would share.

    People say cats do this (none / 0) (#19)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 07:18:34 PM EST
    I think they all do, to "give you a gift"

    Not buyin it.  I think they so simply to freak you out.

    Parent

    My cat (none / 0) (#20)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 07:26:38 PM EST
    came to the door and I let her in. Later on I was walking down the hall and there was a dead rabbit in the middle of the floor. I screamed and made one of my boys get rid of it. The cat really does not like me and the feeling is mutual.

    I'm sorry you had such a scare and your arm is sore. I'm sure that puts the kabosh on fishing for now.

    Parent

    This is exactly (5.00 / 3) (#22)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 07:31:26 PM EST
    What I'm talking about.  Was that dead rabbit a gift?  No.  The cat wanted to freak you out.

    I think they get together and trade stories and laugh about it.  "You should have seen her face when we stepped on the remaining third of the dead rat....bahahahaha"

    It makes me like them even more.

    Parent

    To the cat haters (none / 0) (#24)
    by linea on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:08:28 PM EST
    Female cats are the most likely to bring gifts to their owners. However, both female and male cats will bring gifts to show affection. Often, cats neither kill nor eat these gifs.

    In the wild, cat mothers teach their young how to eat their food by bringing home dead or injured prey.

    When domestic cats bring a gift they are either demonstrating their hunting wisdom to you as part of their family (hoping for approval from you as surrogate mom or dad) or acting maternally as parent and teacher, and showing their surrogate child how to catch and kill birds or mice or bugs (because you are obviously too clumsy to catch and kill bugs on your own).

    Parent

    That's what they WANT you to think (none / 0) (#27)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:32:29 PM EST
    I want to edit that post (none / 0) (#28)
    by linea on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:39:33 PM EST
    Should be:

    `When domestic cats bring a gift they are either demonstrating their hunting wisdom to you and hoping for approval from you as their surrogate mother or acting as parent and teacher and showing their surrogate child how to catch and kill birds or mice or bugs (because you are obviously too clumsy to catch and kill bugs on your own).'

    Parent

    at least it (none / 0) (#33)
    by Jeralyn on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:54:13 PM EST
    popped back into place! Can you still go to the gym and do stuff that doesn't require you to use that shoulder, or is the gym  still gone from the hurricane?

    Parent
    No idea (none / 0) (#40)
    by linea on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:41:15 PM EST
    Re: `In doing so I partially dislocated my good shoulder, which popped right back into place'

    I never know how to respond when boys say ting like this. I feel like praise for stoicism is in order?


    Parent

    Shoulder injuries (none / 0) (#39)
    by MKS on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:40:46 PM EST
    can be tough and never really heal right.

    Parent
    Sometimes they do! (none / 0) (#46)
    by Anne on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:27:34 AM EST
    I was lucky, given the severity of my injuries, to be one of the few, it seems, who hasn't had problems.

    Two traumatic shoulder dislocations with fracture, 5 years apart - right shoulder in 2000, left shoulder in 2005.  First one was the result of slipping on the stairs and grabbing the railing to avoid breaking my neck, the second came when I stepped off a curb in the dark into a storm drain and attempted to break the fall without hitting my head.

    I tore ligaments and the labrum, broke off the rim of the socket both times - I'm sure it was like ground meat in there.  Both shoulders were surgically repaired, and I had a lot of PT.  A lot.  I also had good insurance - which definitely made a difference.  

    Other than the scars from the arthroscope to remind me, I don't even think about it - they don't ache or hurt, I have great range of motion, no instability - to me, it's like it never happened.

    I know how lucky I am to be able to tell the story with this ending, because I know people for whom this kind of thing has been an ongoing, chronic situation.


    Parent

    Tearing the labrum off (none / 0) (#110)
    by MKS on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 10:03:19 PM EST
    the socket.   That image could give me nightmares.

    Parent
    Fishcamp, my sympathies (none / 0) (#44)
    by Towanda on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 11:06:38 PM EST
    as I have been dealing with increasing pain -- and decreasing rotation -- in my shoulders, due to postpolio syndrome and/or fibromyalgia, an ongoing debate between my doctors.   I think it depends upn which courses they took in medical school. . . .

    Whatever the cause, and as there are no pills for relief from postpolio syndrome, we're trying the pill for fibromyalgia -- amitriptyoline, at a really low dose, so I have no side effets -- and it is helping! I hope that may help you.

    Parent

    Yikes (none / 0) (#45)
    by Ga6thDem on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:40:22 AM EST
    I'm glad you are getting relief. I get frozen shoulder and that is bad enough.

    Parent
    I hope you are feeling better, Fishcamp. (none / 0) (#47)
    by vml68 on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:14:51 AM EST
    As for Blackie...bad kitty, bad,bad kitty.

    Thank-you for reminding me again why I don't have a cat here in Florida. I used to have cats before I moved down here and have been gifted with the occasional small animal carcass. Rats, mice, voles, small snakes, I can deal with.
    Any kind of lizard is a no no. I am absolutely terrified of them.

    Parent

    What do cats like to eat for breakfast? (none / 0) (#50)
    by fishcamp on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:58:18 AM EST
    Mice-crispies.  That's a new joke that Apple's Hey Siri has posted.

    The gym I had been going to for many years is closed permanently.  The roof is still gone due to hurricane Irma, and I heard they have condemned the building.  There is one more gym down in Marathon, Florida that I was in the process of joining, but will now wait until this shoulder thing gets better.  I have some exercise equipment here at home.  Those stretch straps are good.

    I certainly didn't think my Iguana/cat story would bring so many comments and I thank all of you for your concern.  I posted that story because I know all of us are tired of the political mess Trump has caused.  Long time political people are fleeing the White House like mice with a big fat cat hunting them.  

    Hurricane season begins June 1st, less than one month from now.

    Parent

    Now that I think about it, our cat (none / 0) (#51)
    by Anne on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 09:06:45 AM EST
    leaves the dead things right outside the door, but she brings the live ones into the house to "play" with.

    Much like your iguana experience, I've had the pleasure of chasing more than a couple Chips - or were they Dales? - around the house trying to capture them in a large cup so I can release them outside to safety.  I've saved a few mice, too - more because I didn't want them to scurry into some nook or cranny and die.

    Ditto with birds.  Nothing quite like a cardinal flapping around in your family room in a panic while the cat calmly plots her next moves.

    Parent

    which is one reason my cats are indoor cats only (none / 0) (#54)
    by leap on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 10:22:56 AM EST
    Ditto with birds.  Nothing quite like a cardinal flapping around in your family room in a panic while the cat calmly plots her next moves.

    And why I live-trap cat interlopers that stalk, injure, and kill birds in my yard. I then take the cat to the humane society for owner retrieval or, if not that, adoption. It's a no-kill shelter. I get really upset when I have to cope with mortally wounded finches, sparrows, pigeons, et alia. Or have to bury the dead ones, that are laid out under the blueberry bushes.

    And I love cats, have lived with them my entire life. But domesticated cats do not need to kill birds, which I also love.

    Parent

    My Experience With Cats (none / 0) (#56)
    by RickyJim on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 11:05:17 AM EST
    seems to be different than most here.  A domestic cat, even an outdoor one, which is used to commercial cat food will not bother killing birds, mice or squirrels.  Canned cat food tastes so much better and requires less effort on their part to get.

    Parent
    RickyJim, that is simply not true. (none / 0) (#57)
    by fishcamp on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 11:46:23 AM EST
    I've had more than fifty cats and they all have chased, caught, killed, and ate small creatures.  My Aspen cats didn't last long due to the many coyotes and foxes.  Down here my cats love certain smelly canned cat food, but as soon as the Iguanas start hatching that is all they will eat.  It's built in all cats makeup to stalk, catch, and eat.  Maybe some of the inbred, fluffy, expensive cats don't exhibit these tendencies, but as soon as that canned food is not available they will be out catching and eating everything available.

    Parent
    A friend of mine's cat (none / 0) (#63)
    by jondee on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:30:00 PM EST
    used to catch garter snakes in his garden and chomp them down like adante strands of over-sized fettuccine..

    Our cat caught a mouse not long ago and tried to get it from him, but getting his jaws open was like trying to open a can without a can opener. When he realized what we were doing, he swallowed the mouse whole rather than give it up.

    Parent

    Maybe it's a (none / 0) (#67)
    by jondee on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:41:18 PM EST
    "once you've tried iguana, you don't go back" kinda thing..

    Apparently "the chicken of the trees" is scarce in some parts of South and Central America because so many people eat them.

    Parent

    Not my experience, either. (none / 0) (#59)
    by Anne on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 11:52:41 AM EST
    Our cat is an indoor/outdoor cat who is happy to eat canned and dry cat food, but will go through periods of catching and killing birds, mice, chipmunks, baby squirrels, etc.

    Whatever primal instinct the cat is responding to, it doesn't appear to have anything to do with food, at least as far as I can tell.

    This has been the case with every cat we've ever had.

    Parent

    It's a cat's instinct to stalk and hunt prey. (none / 0) (#91)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 06:42:14 PM EST
    RickyJim: "A domestic cat, even an outdoor one, which is used to commercial cat food will not bother killing birds, mice or squirrels.  Canned cat food tastes so much better and requires less effort on their part to get."

    My friends on Oahu have a cat who was born and raised for his first eight months on the 28th floor of a high-rise condominium tower in downtown Honolulu, and had never before been outside. When they bought a house in Kailua, on the island's windward side, they started letting him outside in the yard, and within a few weeks, he had turned into The Great Hunter and was catching and bringing home rodents and birds all the time. Now, he's always well-fed. He hunts because that's what cats do -- that is, whenever they're not sleeping.

    As far canned cat food goes, it really depends on the cat because just like small children, cats can be notoriously finicky eaters. Both of our cats will turn up their noses at the canned stuff, and like to eat only Purina Cat Chow. (Admittedly, they're the first cats I've ever had who like only dry cat food.) But if we're cooking any kind of poultry, especially turkey, they're right there underfoot in the kitchen to await their fair share.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Leap, my first cat was a science experiment (none / 0) (#62)
    by vml68 on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:18:32 PM EST
    reject (from a University) slated for euthanasia when I managed to get him. He had no desire to step out of the house. My next one was a little feral kitten I adopted from the shelter I volunteered at. The shelter had an indoor cat only policy, if you wanted one of their cats.
    The next two were strays that were foisted on me by a friend. All four of these cats adapted to being indoor only cats without any problem. Like you, I did not want my cats killing any birds.

    Then one day someone dropped off a fat white grump of a cat at the shelter. Once he was checked out, vaccinated, etc., he was put up for adoption. He was adopted out twice and both times he was returned.
    Everyday he spent at the shelter, he got meaner and meaner. He would scratch or bite anyone that tried to hold him and no one else wanted to adopt him. For some reason when I held him, he would behave himself. I already had 4 cats and 2 dogs at the time and was not keen on adding another animal to the mix but I could see he was going crazy at the shelter so I reluctantly decided to adopt him.
    He was a whole different boy once I brought him home but I soon found out that he was only content to be indoors for a few days, after that he needed to get out of the house. The first time he escaped, he was gone for a couple of days and then returned with an "offering" for me. If I did not let him out of the house when he wanted to go, he would start destroying things. Scratching the walls, the carpets, the furniture. I soon learned to just let him do his thing. Since, all he brought back were rodents, I just dealt with it.

    Parent

    Iguanas are not native to FL, they are an (none / 0) (#61)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:04:35 PM EST
    invasive species.

    Parent
    Very true sarc. (none / 0) (#64)
    by fishcamp on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:35:23 PM EST
    We have all kinds of invasive creatures down here.  Lionfish are gobbling up many of the reef fish and then there are the pythons in the Everglades that eat evethhiing and are growing huge.  It's a jungle down here.  I had one catnip plant and one small marijuana plant growing  few years ago.  When I put them out on the porch the Iguanas ate them.  Hey didn't run from me when I got home so I think they were stoned.

    Parent
    Ha! Hopefully you did not dislocate the (none / 0) (#65)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:37:13 PM EST
    shoulder of your casting arm.

    Parent
    I see where there's 280 people (none / 0) (#68)
    by jondee on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:51:34 PM EST
    in Florida with liscenses to keep venomous reptiles..

    That could be a disaster waiting to happen when you consider what happened generations ago when just a few people released starlings and house sparrows in the U.S.

    Parent

    Yup (none / 0) (#69)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 02:21:46 PM EST
    I'm not sure the disaster is waiting (none / 0) (#143)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:16:57 PM EST
    I think it is in progress.

    Parent
    We are inundated with invasive.. (none / 0) (#90)
    by desertswine on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 06:30:45 PM EST
    species.  About 10yrs ago, or so, white-winged doves started showing up in the neighborhood.  First, two or three, then more.  Now they are everywhere.  They are not native to the US, originally coming from Eurasia.  They were released, or escaped, in Florida (where else) in the 1950s, then took that many years to reach New Mexico.

    (Don't get me started on tumbleweeds.)

    Parent

    Gloomy natural science. (1.00 / 1) (#111)
    by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 10:33:51 PM EST
    If the range of a species is declining then it is threatened or endangered depending on the degree of decline. Bad.

    On the other hand if the range of a species is expanding then it is invasive. Bad also.

    Parent

    Very dim understanding (none / 0) (#116)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:18:03 AM EST
    Of natural science and the reasons species often  become threatened or endangered.

    Parent
    Do you have... (none / 0) (#92)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 06:59:56 PM EST
    russian olives, nothern pike, emerald ash borers, rusty crawfish, New Zealand mudsnails or zebra mussels down there yet?

    Its getting to be like Florida here.

    Parent

    We've got oryx, ibex... (5.00 / 1) (#112)
    by desertswine on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 10:57:40 PM EST
    Speaking of hurricane season, (none / 0) (#192)
    by fishcamp on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:21:02 AM EST
    I see I was a month off there, but it's difficult to stop thinking about them after last years mess.  Islamorada did get hit by a tornado last night, several miles from me.  Not sure yet about damage.

    They are saying the melting fresh water from the Arctic is slowing down the Gulf Stream and will contribute to more storms for us.  So many disasters, bad leaders, and wars, it just makes one wonder how long the human race will keep running.

    Parent

    Gulf Stream (5.00 / 1) (#197)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:30:05 AM EST
    Just reading about this

    Climate Change Warning: Gulf Stream Currents at 1,600 Year Low

    The ocean currents known as the Gulf Stream move billions of gallons of water around the globe. The flows start north of the equator, goes along the east coast of the United States and then turns east toward Europe.

    The reduction in the movement of this current may indicate a tipping point in climate change toward what scientists fear might be irreversible.



    Parent
    After a long day of the craziness (5.00 / 1) (#70)
    by Anne on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 02:32:54 PM EST
    that is tax season, I have been conscripted (okay, I volunteered) to go wrangle two of my grandsons - 5 and 2 years old - because my daughter and her husband are both working late...

    Maybe we can make a fort in the living room and all lie down in it...

    We had the grandkids this last.. (none / 0) (#88)
    by desertswine on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 06:15:26 PM EST
    weekend ages 6 and 4 because Dad was at a conference in Chicago.  We actually had a great time playing - believe it or not - the board game Uncle Wiggily.  It's a game that's over a hundred years old, but because you all play it together, it's much, much better than TV or video games.

    After that, they just started running around and yelling.  But that was OK too.

    Parent

    Mike Pompeo, CIA Director, is (5.00 / 1) (#71)
    by KeysDan on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 02:58:57 PM EST
    a perfect fit for a Trumpian Secretary of State: a Christian right wing kakistocrat who is anti-Muslim, pro-Russia, pro-torture, and careerist. His nepotistic corruption tendencies have been noted in the appointment of his wife to a "volunteer" position at the CIA complete with executive office, CIA staff support and travel with her husband.

      Pompeo did not disclose at the time of his CIA confirmation that he owned a company that did business with a company owned by the Chinese government; and, said he was not involved in any financial transactions with a foreign government. Well, I suppose you can't remember everything, or even anything.

    Pompeo met with top Russian spy agency heads in the US, including with two who sanctioned by the US. Senator Booker has brought up several of these issues during the SOS confirmation hearings.  

    You forgot (none / 0) (#73)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:23:50 PM EST
    Anti gay

    Cory Booker nailed him pretty good today.

    Parent

    Although (5.00 / 1) (#75)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:25:44 PM EST
    I guess "Christian right" covered that

    Parent
    Yes, somehow (5.00 / 1) (#81)
    by KeysDan on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:51:03 PM EST
    I inadvertently excluded that part.  Surely, intended to do so as it is so a part of him.  He still has the same old opinion on same sex marriage...he doesn't like because god.

     But, he wants us to know that there were some same sex couples at CIA (whom he respects, at least, to the point of not advocating their being pushed off tall buildings--although I doubt that he will admonish those foreign countries/groups that do).

     But, apparently, when he thinks about that marriage when the bedroom door closes, it is really just too icky.   He was not asked, nor did he volunteer, his opinion of married men and new dads dating porn stars.

    We know Pompeo and he is no Hillary Clinton, who as Secretary of State presented at the Geneva Accords, her epic "Gay Rights are Human Rights" address.  

    Parent

    I just couldn't watch (none / 0) (#76)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:26:50 PM EST
    Tried, but he was so disappointing after watching Hillary Clinton answer hard questions.

    Just eff it. Sh*thole Trump Cabinet!

    Parent

    I just sort of walked by (5.00 / 4) (#78)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:31:44 PM EST
    When Booker was making him squirm

    In other nooze

    I was suspicious of this yesterday

    Grassley-Feinstein feud threatens Mueller protection plan

    It was impossible to believe grASSley wanted anything but to defang Mueller.  Good for DiFi

    Parent

    "a slippery slope." (5.00 / 1) (#79)
    by KeysDan on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:33:34 PM EST
    Wendy Vitter, wife of former Senator David Vitter (he of the diaper sex, DC Madam scandal), and Trump nominee for US District Judge (Eastern District of Louisiana) refused to say if the landmark Supreme Court civil rights case was rightly decided.

     After all, commenting on the Supreme Court striking down segregation in public schools is a slippery slope.  The next thing you know, a Senator might ask her about the wisdom of passing the thirteenth amendment. There is just no end to it.

     And, commenting on the 1954 ruling is just too soon. Miss Vitter probably wants to let the finding ripen a bit more.

    Someone told me this today (5.00 / 1) (#100)
    by Peter G on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:04:42 PM EST
    and I thought she was kidding, just parodying Vitter's refusal to admit delivering (and believing) her own speeches on reproductive rights.

    Parent
    Wendy Vitter (none / 0) (#122)
    by KeysDan on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 11:30:50 AM EST
    is general counsel for the Archdiocese of New Orleans--a diocese that has a stormy history of desegregation of its schools.  In the early 1960s, then Archbishop John Patrick Cody* was involved in desegregation of the Catholic schools to the extent of ex-communicating some of its recalcitrant parishioners.  Seems, Miss Vitter may have learned something about that matter at her parent's knee.

      *Cody later become the embattled and controversial Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago--under federal investigation for diverting a million dollars of tax-exempt church funds to his alleged mistress, the divorcee Mrs. Helen Wilson, a step-cousin who followed him in his church assignments around the country for over 25 years. Cody stonewalled the federal investigation and eventually died making an indictment moot.  

    Parent

    Daily News cover (5.00 / 2) (#118)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:35:17 AM EST
    Interesting (5.00 / 2) (#124)
    by FlJoe on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 12:03:18 PM EST
    Trump lawyer Michael Cohen arranged for a $1.6 million hush payout to a former Playboy model on behalf of Elliott Broidy, a top donor to the Republican Party who had impregnated her last year.
    Link
    I have been watching this Broidy guy, a confessed felon who is tied into the Mueller investigation through George Nader. I suspect he was funneling foreign money to the Republicans.

    We seem to be in the clutches... (5.00 / 1) (#133)
    by desertswine on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 03:01:53 PM EST
    of a vast international Mafia.

    Parent
    SNL COLD OPEN (5.00 / 1) (#171)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 08:05:23 AM EST
    Art Bell (5.00 / 1) (#187)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 08:53:34 AM EST
    Dead at 72.

    I want to believe.

    My son dragged me to "A Quiet Place." (none / 0) (#3)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 02:29:02 PM EST
    He said it was a scary movie.

    And it was. Holy crap. I highly recommend this movie.

    Yes (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 03:00:54 PM EST
    Best scary movie in years.

    In other entertainment nooze

    If you have not been watching THE TERROR on AMC you are missing something special.

    Dont be spooked by the name.  It's the name of a ship in an actual arctic expedition to find the northwest passage disappeared.  

    It's Ridley Scott and it's excellent on all levels.

    It's on Monday night before McMafia which is also very good.

    Parent

    Cool, I'll check it out. (none / 0) (#6)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 03:05:17 PM EST
    Wiki (none / 0) (#23)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 07:42:54 PM EST
    In 1845 a lavishly equipped two-ship expedition led by Sir John Franklin sailed to the Canadian Arctic to chart the last unknown swaths of the Northwest Passage. Confidence was high, as they estimated there was less than 500 km (310 mi) remaining of unexplored Arctic mainland coast. When the ships failed to return, relief expeditions and search parties explored the Canadian Arctic, which resulted in a thorough charting of the region, along with a possible passage. Many artifacts from the expedition were found over the next century and a half, including notes that the ships were ice-locked in 1846 near King William Island, about halfway through the passage, and unable to break free. Records showed Franklin died in 1847 and Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier took over command. In 1848 the expedition abandoned the two ships and its members tried to escape south across the tundra by sledge. Although some of the crew may have survived into the early 1850s, no evidence has ever been found of any survivors. In 1853 explorer John Rae was told by local Inuit about the disastrous fate of Franklin's expedition, but his reports were not welcomed in Britain.

    Starvation, exposure and scurvy all contributed to the men's deaths. In 1981 Owen Beattie, an anthropologist from the University of Alberta, examined remains from sites associated with the expedition.[42] This led to further investigations and the examination of tissue and bone from the frozen bodies of three seamen, John Torrington, William Braine and John Hartnell, exhumed from the permafrost of Beechey Island. Laboratory tests revealed high concentrations of lead in all three (the expedition carried 8,000 tins of food sealed with a lead-based solder).[43] Another researcher has suggested botulism caused deaths among crew members.[44] New evidence, confirming reports first made by John Rae in 1854 based on Inuit accounts, has shown that the last of the crew resorted to cannibalism of deceased members in an effort to survive.[45]

    Newsweek

    `THE TERROR' TRUE STORY: THE REAL HISTORY BEHIND AMC'S NEW HORROR SERIES



    Parent

    This is all you need to know about (none / 0) (#25)
    by Peter G on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:13:22 PM EST
    Franklin's expedition. The late and must missed Stan Rogers' epic song.

    Parent
    Wow (none / 0) (#26)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:29:34 PM EST
    Amazing.  I never heard that

    I will be very surprised if they do not use that at some point in this mini series

    Parent

    "Much missed," of course (none / 0) (#34)
    by Peter G on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:01:12 PM EST
    not "must missed." Born 1949, same as Jeralyn and me. Died 35 yrs ago in an airplane accident; what a loss.

    Parent
    I like Garnet Rogers, too. (none / 0) (#80)
    by leap on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:34:59 PM EST
    "Night Drive", about his late brother, a melancholy piece. He has a wonderful voice.

    Parent
    I keep meaning to watch (none / 0) (#32)
    by Jeralyn on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:51:33 PM EST
    McMafia, but I'm so stuck on "Enemigo Intimo" which airs for an hour Monday to Friday, I've had little time to watch anything else (except House Hunters International and Caribbean Life of course.)

    Parent
    It's very good (none / 0) (#37)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:06:09 PM EST
    It was a bit if a slow takeoff but it's getting interesting

    Parent
    Agreed. (none / 0) (#42)
    by Towanda on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 10:47:14 PM EST
    And google for the book that is the basis of the show.. This is not fiction. Yikes.

    Parent
    I got to see A Quiet Place last night (none / 0) (#165)
    by McBain on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 01:28:45 PM EST
    I liked it but didn't find it particularly scary. It reminded me of two other films I enjoyed.... Tremors and 10 Cloverfield Lane.  

    Parent
    Time to wake the fk up Mitch (none / 0) (#7)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 03:43:14 PM EST
    I guess (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 04:31:19 PM EST
    everybody has been calling because they are sick of hearing about Trump attempting or wanting to fire Mueller. I fired off an email to both my senators and one of them had crime as a heading and that is the one I mailed it to him under.

    Parent
    Comey interview (none / 0) (#15)
    by Yman on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 06:03:06 PM EST
    James Comey is about to `shock the president and his team'

    A source told Axios that what the former FBI director had to say during that interview is "going to shock the president and his team" and "certainly add more meat to the charges swirling around Trump."

    The source added that the interview included information that's never been divulged before and left people in the room "stunned."

    Comey apparently answered every question.

    Set to air in Sunday night at 10PM as s 20/20 Special.

    I hope they (5.00 / 2) (#21)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 07:27:43 PM EST
    ask him some questions regarding his actions right before the election.

    Parent
    He's baaaaack (none / 0) (#31)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 08:49:48 PM EST
    Bannon pitches White House on plan to cripple Mueller probe and protect Trump

    This is my favorite part.  Retroactive executive privilege

    The first step, these people say, would be for Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and in recent days signed off on a search warrant of Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

    Bannon is also recommending the White House cease its cooperation with Mueller, reversing the policy of Trump's legal team to provide information to the special counsel's team and to allow staff members to sit for interviews.

    And he is telling associates inside and outside the administration that the president should create a new legal battleground to protect himself from the investigation by asserting executive privilege -- and arguing that Mueller's interviews with White House officials over the past year should now be null and void.



    As brilliant an amateur lawyer (not) as he is (5.00 / 1) (#38)
    by Peter G on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:07:32 PM EST
    a political strategist, that Bannon guy (just ask Roy Moore). Unless executive privilege is very different in its operation from any other legal privilege, the privilege is waived, gone, if not timely asserted, that is, unless claimed prior to the disclosure. There is no such thing as "retroactive" privilege, that I've ever heard of.

    Parent
    Thanks, as I laughed at that (5.00 / 1) (#43)
    by Towanda on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 10:52:55 PM EST
    and thought that retroactive executive privilege cannot be for real.

    I bet that Bannon was the sort of student who tries to appeal a grade three years later -- the sort of students who are the reason why faculty senates have to pass resolutions to state the obvious.

    Parent

    Many a brilliant lawyer (none / 0) (#66)
    by KeysDan on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 01:38:31 PM EST
    in the Trump Administration, some even graduated from law school.  Mick Mulvaney, (J.D. U NC), the Acting Director of the Consumer Protection Agency (and, as is the custom for this administration, an enemy of the agency he heads), appeared before congressional committees:

     both the House Financial Services and Senate Banking, and asserted that it would be his statutory right to just sit there and twiddle his thumbs while House/Senate members ask questions, since the 2010 Dodd Frank law only requires the bureau director to "appear" before Congress.  But, it doesn't specifically mandate his answering questions.  

    Parent

    Alas, (5.00 / 2) (#72)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:07:14 PM EST
    Shady Mulvaney's appearance before congressional committee was not a total waste of time, thanks to Monopoly (Wo)Man, who was there to once again personify our collective digust in her most entertaining way.

    Long live Monopoly (Wo)Man.  And Senator Warren, who I hear tore into Shady pretty ruthlessly while his thumbs twiddled.

    Parent

    And speaking of Trumpian legal beagles, ... (none / 0) (#97)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:37:23 PM EST
    ... don't anybody dare criticize Wendy Vitter,one of Trump's judicial nominees, who during her confirmation hearing today refused to offer an opinion to senators as to whether or not she believed that the 1954 SCOTUS ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education" was correctly decided. (Never mind that the decision to strike down racial segregation of public schools was a unanimous one.)

    So much brilliance.

    Parent

    It's Inconsistent With What He Advised Last Year (none / 0) (#35)
    by RickyJim on Wed Apr 11, 2018 at 09:03:39 PM EST
    Then he advised Trump to not to fire Comey an told Michael Wolff that the firing was the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.

    Parent
    Bone Spurs (none / 0) (#48)
    by Chuck0 on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:40:29 AM EST
    has backed off the missile threats. I guess he got "the call" from Vlad and is following Vlad's marching orders.

    Targets were moved (5.00 / 1) (#52)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 09:22:23 AM EST
    Aircraft hidden, air defense systems went hot, and Russian ships headed for the Mediterranean. Assad and his allies could have sailed a battleship through that sly military move the US pulled off :)

    Parent
    TIME cover (none / 0) (#74)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 03:24:36 PM EST
    Well now (none / 0) (#82)
    by MKS on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:18:36 PM EST
    Comey says Trump asked him to investigate existence of pee tape....

    Is it really so far fetched?

    If he's asking about the existence of (5.00 / 1) (#96)
    by Anne on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:32:13 PM EST
    a tape, isn't he admitting it happened, and he's just worried there's proof?

    Because if it didn't happen, why would he need to investigate whether there's a tape?

    Parent

    From what I heard today (none / 0) (#98)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:44:34 PM EST
    He wanted him to prove it was not true.

    Which is really sort of hard.  Proving a negative and Russell's tea pot and all that philosophy stuff.

    Parent

    Here (none / 0) (#99)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:52:29 PM EST
    Trump asked Comey if the FBI could do anything to disprove the news reports he feared would leak from the unverified dossier, which was compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele.


    Parent
    Sphincters definitely (none / 0) (#83)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:28:24 PM EST
    Seem to be tightening in advance of this book.

    They have a "war room"

    The have a website called "lyincomey"

    If Trump could hire a lawyer he would probably be taking him to court.

    Parent

    FBI went through the book (none / 0) (#85)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:35:09 PM EST
    So nothing illegal there. Would he claim slander? To sue Comey he'd have to be deposed wouldn't he?

    Parent
    Oh yeah, depos (5.00 / 1) (#94)
    by MKS on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:25:35 PM EST
    Nope, but if you're Trump (none / 0) (#84)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:32:59 PM EST
    And Russia has you in country and setting you up to collect anything blackmail worthy on you, my bet is underage girls :(

    That tape would be another blow to the collective political self esteem of the nation. I don't doubt for a minute they have something like that either.

    Trump never knew who he was tangling with, he's such an idiot.

    Parent

    RICO (none / 0) (#87)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 05:59:13 PM EST
    Earlier some guy was talking about the possibility of indicting the Trump organization using RICO statutes?

    Do you lawyers think this is possible?

    For non lawyers (none / 0) (#95)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:29:06 PM EST
    I was just reading from the source of all wisdom, WIKIPEDIA

    I gotta say this is tantalizing stuff

    Under RICO, a person who has committed "at least two acts of racketeering activity" drawn from a list of 35 crimes--27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes--within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering if such acts are related in one of four specified ways to an "enterprise".[citation needed] Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count.[citation needed] In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity."[citation needed]

    When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, they have the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond. This provision was placed in the law because the owners of Mafia-related shell corporations often absconded with the assets. An injunction and/or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.

    In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney. Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court, as it focuses on patterns of behavior as opposed to criminal acts.[2]



    Parent
    I would say that well over 15% of that (none / 0) (#101)
    by Peter G on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:11:28 PM EST
    explanation is accurate.

    Parent
    Ha! (5.00 / 1) (#109)
    by MKS on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 10:01:35 PM EST
    15% true.  I like that.  I think I will use that phrase next time I get the chance.

    Parent
    Can you explain that further (none / 0) (#102)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:15:49 PM EST
    Or direct me to a better source ?

    Parent
    It's really complicated. It takes about (none / 0) (#106)
    by Peter G on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 09:06:54 PM EST
    two full pages of instructions to (try to) explain the basics of it to a jury. The Supreme Court has written numerous opinions elaborating the meaning of particular aspects of the RICO law, including "enterprise", "participate in conducting", "pattern", etc. No, it's not easy to prove, nor is it easy to defend.

    Parent
    Thanks (none / 0) (#107)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 09:18:17 PM EST
    It does seem pretty flexible tho, as it's been used on crime families abortion clinic protesters and Catholic priests.

    Parent
    Yes, true. Any somewhat organized group (none / 0) (#108)
    by Peter G on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 09:45:16 PM EST
    (legal or illegal) can be a RICO "enterprise" if its "affairs" are "conducted" "through" a "pattern" of "racketeering activity." (All quoted terms are defined either in the statute or in case law.)

    Parent
    Because (none / 0) (#103)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:23:30 PM EST
    That's not the only thing I read and I did note the questionable reliability of the source after asking for opinions.

    But I have not read anything that seems to dispute much in that.   Which was easy to cut and paste.

    Parent

    Oh my! (none / 0) (#89)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 06:29:18 PM EST
    Trump's allies worry that federal investigators may have seized recordings made by his attorney
    The Washington Post13 minutes ago
    President Trump's personal attorney Michael D. Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen's office and residences

    The story is behind a paywall but the gist is really enough

    I appreciate Richard Blumenthal respectfull saying (none / 0) (#93)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 07:09:08 PM EST
    The world is watching, but how does anyone think Murtha, Ted Kennedy, or Wellstone would have sounded at the mic right now?

    Donald won't talk to Mueller (none / 0) (#104)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:51:37 PM EST
    Surprise.

    This is expected to accelerate the release of the Mueller report that NBC has him in at least 4 areas of obstruction.

    The report was already expected between May and July.  So it could be real soon.

    DailyKos



    NBC (none / 0) (#105)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 12, 2018 at 08:57:01 PM EST
    Friday (none / 0) (#113)
    by FlJoe on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 05:59:43 AM EST
    The 13th, Scooter Libby to be pardoned? Only an appetizer I suspect, I think there is a better than even chance Rosenstein is gone by tonight. Chances for a Syrian attack seem to be fading(for now).
    Mueller can light one off at any moment, buckle up.

    I think Michael Cohen has the potential (none / 0) (#114)
    by Anne on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 06:33:22 AM EST
    to just blow this whole thing wide open, and that pressure may be reaching critical levels for him, and for Trump.

    I think the window on firing Mueller and Rosenstein may have closed - which doesn't mean Trump won't still do it, but isn't it kind of like closing the barn door after the horses have left?

    What a clusterfk this is.

    Parent

    I agree (5.00 / 1) (#121)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 11:20:02 AM EST
    It seems Cohen's office being raided has more or less sent Donald off the cliff.

    Parent
    McClatchy is reporting (5.00 / 2) (#155)
    by Repack Rider on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:54:51 PM EST
    ...that Mueller can place Cohen in Prague at a time he denied to Congress that he was there.

    I'm thinking maybe Cohen was dumb enough to carry his cell phone, which might as well be a map of his travels.

    Parent

    Knew it!! (none / 0) (#184)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 07:24:51 AM EST
    You actually (5.00 / 1) (#185)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 07:43:35 AM EST
    are the first person I thought of when I heard about this because I remember you talking about how you could go to Prague and not have your passport stamped.

    The whole passport stamp thing is nonsense anyway as some countries don't even stamp your passport. Jamaica did stamp ours but Mexico did not and actually just gave us a piece of paper.

    Parent

    This past summer (none / 0) (#186)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 08:23:41 AM EST
    Josh and I visited Warsaw. For whatever reason not everyone arriving in Warsaw has to clear customs. If I were bringing in a large quantity of cash or items from another country I was asked to get into a line and speak with a customs inspector. I was bringing in neither of those things, we walked out of the airport and got a cab. They just took my word for it. Which was nice, to be trusted, but that sort of thing is never happening in the US ever again.

    My passport flying directly into Warsaw was not stamped and we cleared nothing flying back to the US from Warsaw either. I could have left Warsaw in a car and gone to Prague and my passport would not show I was in Poland or the Czech Republic.

    Parent

    Cable news is running Comey interview (none / 0) (#115)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 06:51:07 AM EST
    Clips. Just saw Comey say he never thought he would say this but he doesn't know if the President wasn't with prostitutes in Moscow peeing on each other in 2013.

    That isn't going to work for Trump.

    He has nothing on his public schedule today.


    Parent

    (Sigh!) If only James Comey ... (5.00 / 2) (#135)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 04:00:49 PM EST
    ... had followed long-established DOJ protocols in July and October 2016 and resisted his personal urge to moralize sanctimomiously at Hillary Clinton's expense -- and ultimately, at our country's expense as well --  regarding the overblown email controversy, she'd likely be president today and he'd still have his job as FBI director.

    Unfortunately, Comey's book also further raises yet another uncomfortable aspect of his own personal conduct. He says in No Higher Duty or A Higher Loyalty or whatever the fck it's called that he saw President Trump demonstrate a personal inability / unwillingness to meet his primary obligation to defend our country against Russian interference and cyberattack. But if that's the case, then why did Comey refrain from telling us about it until now?

    As we endure all the forthcoming and simultaneous hagiography and denunciations of James Comey over the next few days, let's not forget that the man's self-titled "higher loyalty" has always been to the public nurturing of his own carefully cultivated personal reputation for rectitude and independence. The question, therefore, is whether there was ever any "us" in him.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Donald, it is simultaneously possible that (5.00 / 3) (#137)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 05:08:46 PM EST
    James Comey defied established legal process and that Trump firing him was obstruction of justice.

    Both of those facts can coexist.

    Parent

    Did I ever say otherwise? (5.00 / 2) (#163)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 04:47:06 AM EST
    "I hold no brief for James Comey. He seems to me as he always has: an ambitious careerist with an unseemly affection for his own rectitude. His clumsy, unforgivable meddling in the last week of the 2016 presidential campaign should mark him lousy in American political history for all time. And now he's pitching a book about how he is the primary martyr of the Never Trump movement, getting fired for us all."
    - Charles Pierce, "James Comey Is No Hero" (April 13, 2018)

    I happen to agree with Charles Pierce's opinion that Comey is a consummate careerist who's rarely missed an opportunity to burnish his own self-reverential reputation as a pillar of moral and ethical rectitude, even if said burnishing comes at someone else's expense. And during the 2016 election season, it ultimately came at the expense of our entire country.

    Legally, Comey did nothing wrong. But he showed appalling personal judgment in first chastising Hillary Clinton publicly with little more than pure speculation on his part, and then reopening that politicized snipe hunt for ultimately no good reason only 11 days before Election Day.

    As former Attorney General Loretta Lynch said just the other day in an interview, she thought that holding a televised press conference that July was a very strange way for Comey to report the FBI's findings to her. And further, she specifically warned him to not send that letter in October 2016 to GOP congressional leaders, until he knew for certain that those supposedly new emails actually were new emails. He did anyway -- and they weren't.

    Trump's dismissal of James Comey in May 2017 was assuredly obstruction of justice. But honestly, President Obama really should've fired Comey's sorry ass in the wake of Mrs. Clinton's loss, when it was clear that Comey's self-aggrandizing interference in the campaign -- particularly in its waning days -- likely tilted the outcome in Trump's favor. The guy caused real damage.

    So, please excuse me if I don't necessarily hold James Comey in exaltedly high esteem. Had he not acted so sanctimoniously during the 2016 campaign, more than likely Mrs. Clinton would've slid through and been elected in spite of the headwinds, and we wouldn't presently be where we are today as a nation, wondering aloud if our chief executive is an agent (unwitting or otherwise) of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Armando (none / 0) (#138)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 06:01:05 PM EST
    said it best when he said Comey saw himself above the law. His self righteousness unfortunately ended up being the thing that put Trump into office. However that doesn't give Trump the right to obstruct justice.

    Unfortunately a lot of this is going to come back and ding President Obama. Fortunately for him he's going to look like a paragon of virtue against what has followed him.

    Parent

    I (5.00 / 1) (#148)
    by FlJoe on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:27:30 PM EST
    don't see it that way, I think the Republican were extremely successful at working the refs. The Republicans wanted Hillary's blood, Comey could of course could not deliver so he tried to split the difference. Not out of some Solomonic solution (like he imagines), but out of cowardice(IMO).

    In any case, even an untruthful slimeball has a
    order of magnitude more credibility then tRump ever had.

    Parent

    Don't you just (none / 0) (#123)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 11:34:12 AM EST
    love the fact that he was hiding behind Melania with his comments to Comey? Hahaha. That's all pretty hillarious now from what we know with at least TWO women Stormy and Karen.

    Parent
    Trump is lizard brain smart though (5.00 / 3) (#128)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 12:24:35 PM EST
    He had an idea of how to appeal to Comey trying to enlist Comey's aid in squashing the dossier.

    My husband met someone on her security detail yesterday who was bragging about flirting with Melania and she's very accepting of that objectification fawning shit. If it is true nobody should feel sorry for Melania ever again, she's a true Trump shallow as a puddle clear to the bone.

    Parent

    Nice sccop. (none / 0) (#130)
    by MKS on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 01:44:26 PM EST
    I saw and read some of what Comey had to say. (none / 0) (#129)
    by vml68 on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 01:42:55 PM EST
    The comment on Tr*mp's orange skin, bright blond hair, etc., MEEOWW!!!

    Parent
    Been some speculation (none / 0) (#136)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 04:51:09 PM EST
    That stuff was included for the purpose of making Trumps head explode so he does and/or says something really stupid.

    Otoh he does and says stupid things every day with no help.

    Parent

    I heard last night (none / 0) (#117)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:21:44 AM EST
    That DeGenova and his wife had been lobbying heavily for Libbys pardon.

    I can see Trump doing it now to just, in his mind, send some kind of message.

    Unfortunately the wrong message since one of the things Mueller is going to say amounts to obstruction is the dangling pardon.   According to NBC

    Parent

    Bill Krystol (none / 0) (#120)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 10:45:27 AM EST
    Agrees with you.  It could happen today.

    So this

    REPUBLICANS FOR THE RULE OF LAW

    Parent

    John Brennan beats Trump's azzzz (none / 0) (#127)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 12:11:33 PM EST
    LOST IN SPACE (none / 0) (#119)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:48:27 AM EST
    New NETFLIX series drops today

    LATimes

    But some things happen and they, and several other families, wind up stranded on an uncharted, unsettled planet that -- as in the original -- threatens in various ways to kill them.

    The women's parts have been strengthened. In the original, June Lockhart's Maureen, though nominally a biochemist and not without maternal spine, actually served milk and cookies. Now Maureen (Molly Parker), a scientific polymath, is the effective head of the family, to which John (Toby Stephens), a former Navy SEAL often away, is trying to return, even as his wife is filing for divorce. Older daughter Judy (Taylor Russell), little more than a blond mannequin in the original, is a medical doctor (and also the product of Maureen's first marriage, and biracial). Penny (Mina Sundwall) is still the dreamy middle child, but also a sulky teenager ready to rebel. ("Oh my God, I hate this planet.") She and her sister don't get along.

    I'm excited

    Season 4 of Bosch (none / 0) (#125)
    by Chuck0 on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 12:03:28 PM EST
    also dropped today (actually last night). Stars Titus Welliver as Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch. Based on the character created by Michael Connelly. I like his books.

    Parent
    Oops. (none / 0) (#126)
    by Chuck0 on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 12:03:48 PM EST
    That's on Amazon Prime.

    Parent
    In case anyone missed it (none / 0) (#131)
    by linea on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 02:28:07 PM EST
    Season 2 of A Series of Unfortunate Events is on Netflix. Pop singer Kitana Turnbull ("Poitive is Popular"j is excellent as Carmelita Spats.

    Parent
    It does not compute! (none / 0) (#140)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:07:50 PM EST
    My love for Molly Parker will make me try this out.

    Who plays the robot? and, most importantly, Dr. Smith? How I wish it were Ian McKellan!

    Parent

    I didn't see this comment (none / 0) (#156)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:58:06 PM EST
    Till now

    Parent
    I sprung for at lest a month of the STARZ app to (none / 0) (#142)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:12:02 PM EST
    watch the 'Howard's End' mini-series. Not sorry, after episode 1. It fulfills my prestige period Brit drama needs for the month. I'm not familiar with the actresses playing the sisters, so it seems fresh, and Matthew McFayden in the Anthony Hopkins movie role is fine.  No one can replace Vanessa Redgrave as the dying mother for me, but Julia Ormond is very good.

    Lovely sets and costumes - I'm in for the duration!

    Parent

    It is very good (none / 0) (#146)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:23:38 PM EST
    And I'm not that into costume dramas

    I just watched the first episode of LOST IN SPACE.

    it's excellent.  Molly Parker from TRANSCENDENCE and Toby Stevens from BLACK SAILS (which is also a pretty great costume drama).

    The best thing about it is the DANGER WILL ROBINSON robot.  It's all about the girls.  Even Dr Smith is a woman.

    Parent

    I'll check it out (none / 0) (#149)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:27:53 PM EST
    That was the only space show I liked as a like. Yes, it is true, I hated Star Trek.

    Parent
    It's great (none / 0) (#151)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:32:34 PM EST
    In the opening scene when they are waiting to crash they are playing Go Fish in zero gravity.

    Parent
    Any Tarheels on TalkLeft? (none / 0) (#132)
    by Chuck0 on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 02:39:44 PM EST
    I am contemplating pursuing a couple of different job opportunities, both in NC. One is in Cary (Research Triangle), the other is in Elizabeth City (near the coast). Does anyone here have any insight to these areas of NC?

    I lived in NC (none / 0) (#134)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 03:25:38 PM EST
    and have family there. What type of environment are you looking for? Cary to me is kind of like McMansion city while Elizbeth City (last time I was there) was kind of old beach NC.

    Parent
    Is it wishful thinking (none / 0) (#141)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:08:15 PM EST
    On my part or is the fact that Comey is making the rounds bringing up the most salacious part of the dossier and McClatchy is reporting confirmation of another part of the dossier that Cohen was in fact in Prague meeting with Russian hackers, which Cohen flatly denied, starting to look sort of ........ coordinated ?

    Actually not (1.00 / 1) (#172)
    by linea on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 10:14:47 AM EST
    Re: `McClatchy is reporting confirmation of another part of the dossier'

    The article claims that unidentified `sources' claim that Cohen went to Prague and opines that, if true, `confirmation of the trip would lend credence' to the claims in the Steele Dossier.

    In this tweet, Michael Cohen rebuts the claim and states that he was in LA with his son and that he has never been to Prague:

    Bad reporting, bad information and bad story by same reporter Peter Stone @McClatchyDC. No matter how many times or ways they write it, I have never been to Prague. I was in LA with my son. Proven!

    So no. There has not been `confirmation of another part' of the dossier.


    Parent

    Actually - yes (none / 0) (#175)
    by Yman on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 12:04:42 PM EST
    `McClatchy is reporting confirmation of another part of the dossier'

    That is - in fact - what they are reporting.  Although I can understand why some would prefer not to believe a credible news source and cite Michael Cohen - a man with zero credibility - in return.

    Heh.

    Parent

    Actually - no (1.00 / 1) (#177)
    by linea on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 01:27:01 PM EST
    Perhaps you should consider reading the article (or take a remedial reading comprehension course).

    I have no idea if Cohen might have gone to Prague to meet Russians but the reporters for McClatchy news are not claiming that McClatchy news has proof he was in Prague. They are simply reporting what anonymous sources are claiming.

    AGAIN: The article claims that unidentified `sources' claim that Cohen went to Prague and opines that, if true, `confirmation of the trip would lend credence' to the claims in the Steele Dossier.

    Parent

    Actually, and per the article linked, (5.00 / 4) (#180)
    by Anne on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 03:24:47 PM EST
    The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump's personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

    Also, regarding reading comprehension?  People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

    What that means is...

    Parent

    Read it (5.00 / 3) (#181)
    by Yman on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 04:29:18 PM EST
    Which i how I know that Howdy's characterization of the article was entirely correct and that your characterization of his post - as usual - was laughably false.

    But feel free to opine on something you're arguably qualified to discuss - as opposed the reading comprehension skills of your betters.  A new dieting fad?  Maybe Ivanka has a new handbag line?

    Parent

    So far (none / 0) (#179)
    by Repack Rider on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 02:06:50 PM EST
    ...those "unidentified sources" have been extremely accurate in predicting what will later be confirmed.

    Until that stops, no reason not to believe them.

    Parent

    The dogs bark (none / 0) (#176)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 12:08:02 PM EST
    The caravan passes

    Parent
    I'm wondering if Mueller handed Cohen off (none / 0) (#144)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:18:39 PM EST
    to the NY prosecutors, knowing that FBI office leaks like a sieve, on purpose. I put nothing past his 20 dimensional chess abilities.

    Parent
    I mean, there were other sound reasons to do it (none / 0) (#145)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:20:56 PM EST
    but the liking is a feature in this case, not a bug.

    Parent
    I continue to believe (none / 0) (#147)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:25:57 PM EST
    Mueller, Rosenstein and others have gamed this out and they are 10 moves ahead of Cheeto, Nunes and the rest of the peanut gallery.

    Parent
    Yep. If only they were allowed to prosecute cheeto (none / 0) (#150)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:30:58 PM EST
    Bedeviling him into resignation is the best I hope for.  My optimism in Congress waxes and wanes.

    Holy hell, cheeto is going to address the nation on Syria in a few minutes. that dog is really wagging.

    Parent

    WSJ (none / 0) (#152)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:35:49 PM EST
    He hasn't said exactly what we are doing (none / 0) (#153)
    by ruffian on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:46:03 PM EST
    Unless I missed it...some action with England and france.

    Then a lot of blather.

    Parent

    I tried to watch (5.00 / 1) (#154)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:53:23 PM EST
    I absolutely can not listen to the man.  The sound of petulant nasal voice makes me queasy

    I will listen to Rachel's translation.

    Parent

    civic duty is a bi*ch sometimes (none / 0) (#167)
    by ruffian on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 04:00:55 PM EST
    It physically makes me ill to watch him. Won't be doing it again.

    I hate even when MSNBC feels compelled to show tape of him. Rachel rarely does so. She gets it. Probably makes her ill too.

    Parent

    Strikes launched (none / 0) (#157)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 07:59:51 PM EST
    The Mad Orange is digging us deep in Syria.

    Parent
    You have to wonder (none / 0) (#158)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:05:19 PM EST
    If any of the congressional republicans, other than the usual suspects, will take a step back with this and begin to appreciate the insanity of the place at which we have now clearly arrived.

    Parent
    Somehow, I doubt it (none / 0) (#159)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:11:38 PM EST
    We're in deep, deep dogsh!t and I don't know how we dig our way out.

    Parent
    And still, no one knows what the (none / 0) (#160)
    by Anne on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:36:37 PM EST
    strategy is - and will he go to Congress for authorizations?

    Sh!t's gettin' real now.

    Parent

    Oh no, I'm forgetting about... (none / 0) (#161)
    by desertswine on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 08:54:42 PM EST
    Michael Cohen, Trump, and the rest of the Mafioso..  its going, going...    

    Oh wait, its is back now.

    Parent

    I'm glad (5.00 / 1) (#162)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Apr 13, 2018 at 09:04:36 PM EST
    is spent many days watching the Sopranos years ago. I never thought watching that show would be so instructive when it came to an American president.

    Parent
    They just said (none / 0) (#164)
    by CaptHowdy on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 08:26:17 AM EST
    There has been a 2000% increase in Russian trolls in the last 24 hours.

    Stewing in Mulligans. (none / 0) (#166)
    by KeysDan on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 03:29:22 PM EST
    Governor Eric Greitens (R. MO) will be tried by jury for invasion of privacy, a felony in Missouri.  The charge stems from Greitens sexual affair (in the basement of his home, with the wife and children upstairs) with his hairdresser that involved blindfolding, taping up, and undressing the woman after which he took photos to serve as blackmail in the event she spilled the beans.

    In addition to the felony case, the governor is subject to impeachment from office.   However, Greitens has found support among his base of evangelical Christians.

     The Rev. Park, finds the governor's behavior irrelevant, saying: " I see a lot of these personal attacks both on Trump and Greitens as a way to take away attention from the ideals that matter most to evangelical Christians." .."It does seem to be a little bit of a witch hunt." The reverend supports the Governor's anti-abortion position and claims the evangelicals respect him for his policies.

    His family was not home for the (5.00 / 1) (#168)
    by Anne on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 04:10:57 PM EST
    basement episode, nor for any other times they may have met at his house - it was always when she was out of town.

    From the report, Greitens allegedly told the woman, when he met her in the alley:

    Next weekend, my wife is going out of town, you can come over to my house, we can discuss these things, because ... I have to get back to my house in a minute.

    Regardless, it's still pretty gross.


    Parent

    Thanks, (none / 0) (#169)
    by KeysDan on Sat Apr 14, 2018 at 05:49:01 PM EST
    Read the (erroneous)reporting earlier. Yes, pretty gross, but outweighed by his wonderful family values policies, of course.

    Parent
    Question (none / 0) (#178)
    by Repack Rider on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 02:04:49 PM EST
    What do you call all the Irish people milling around on the White House lawn?

    The Mulligans.

    Parent

    ... to visit with the grandsons, and we arrived at my daughter's home in east Honolulu just in time for what had to be the worst monsoon storm I've seen in over three decades in Hawaii.

    According to the National Weather Service, an estimated 16 inches of rain fell in a 3-1/2-hour period between 6:00 and 9:30 p.m. last night, as a giant storm cell stalled over the eastern end of Oahu and opened up on us. The rain came down in sheets and looking out the front window from the inside of the house, the water was cascading off the roofs like a waterfall.

    Our old townhouse survived intact, but the surrounding grounds and driveways are covered in thick mud and broken tree limbs and branches from the storm's accompanying winds. The complex itself lost at least seven big trees that were felled, including an 80-ft. eucalyptus that toppled across the sidewalk in front of the house. Other trees look like they suffered a lot of damage.

    The rest of east Honolulu wasn't so lucky. There is lots of damage from Diamond Head to Haunama Bay. Kalanianaole Hwy, the main road to Waikiki and downtown, was only fully reopened this afternoon after crews spent 10 hours clearing all the mud and debris. Hundreds of homes were flooded. (One neighborhood in Aina Haina along Papai Street was inundated by an overflowing Wailupe Stream.) But thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt or killed.

    We spent the entire day clearing the mud from the patio, driveway and carport, and helping neighbors do the same. As for all the downed trees, they'll need professionals to remove them over the next week or so.

    I hope I don't see anything like that again for a while. Things actually got pretty hairy about 8:00 p.m. because it kept raining harder and harder, and by that point we knew that the highway was closed and we were trapped in the valley for the duration. We were just hoping that the water raging down nearby Kuliouou Stream wouldn't top its banks. It didn't, but it came close.

    We should've stayed on the Big Island this weekend. ;-)

    We are in flux (none / 0) (#174)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 11:47:38 AM EST
    From what I read your state is going to be better off that mine which is expected to be a desert.

    Hanginthere

    Parent

    Audio books dot com (none / 0) (#173)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 10:30:02 AM EST
    I'm really liking this.  I cancelled audible when I realized audio books had a better selection.  At least for me.  They have a huge selection of free books too.  I suppose audible does too but I never kept my trial memberships long enough to get it.

    So far in between the Southern Reach trilogy, I'm waiting to may 1st for the final book, I have done 2 Lovecraft books and I just started Moby Dick.  Which oddly I never read.  Needless to say it's worth the time :)

    I've found having news with subtitles and an audio book on the sound system fills my ADHD needs well.

    R. Lee Ermey (1944-2018). (none / 0) (#182)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 09:44:51 PM EST
    His death at age 74 was announced today by his manager. Ermey will be forever associated with Stanley Kubrick's 1987 Vietnam War epic "Full Metal Jacket" as Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann, the hardcore and in-your-face Marine Corps drill instructor who dominates the film's first half at Parris Island.

    Sgt. Hartmann's brutalizing and belittling beatdown of the new recruits at Parris Island in the film's amazing opening scene was almost entirely ad-libbed by Ermey, who drew from his own personal experience as a former Marine DI himself. Director Kubrick didn't tell his actors beforehand what they were about to endure in that scene, and the intended effect was such that the actors admitted afterward that they really were terrified.

    Ermey's powerhouse performance as Sgt. Hartmann also struck such a nerve with movie audiences that USMC recruiters soon found themselves having to assure nervous parents of prospective new recruits that the Corps had indeed changed in the two decades after Vietnam, and that drill instructors were no longer allowed to act in such an abusive manner toward their rookie charges.

    Semper fidelis.

    I hope he is not remembered (none / 0) (#183)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Apr 15, 2018 at 09:55:55 PM EST
    Only for that.  As good as it was.

    he had a long and varied career from the Toy Story movies to the crusty captain in SE7EN

    Parent

    It must be Monday (none / 0) (#188)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:02:05 AM EST
    Comey was disappointing last night (none / 0) (#190)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:08:56 AM EST
    Anything explosive they had already aired. And he would do it all the same if he had it to do all over again...sigh, and Trump shouldn't be impeached because it would shorten the pain of Americans? Is he helping anyone right now with this media tour?

    Parent
    He's helping himself (none / 0) (#191)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:17:45 AM EST
    Quite a lot I expect  

    I have to say tho the thing about expecting Hillary to win, we all did, and thinking if he did not release the information her presidency would have been tainted, makes a kind of sense to me.

    We all know Trumps major plan was to say the election was rigged.  That would have given him everything he and the republicans needed.

    Not saying it was the right or wrong decision.  Just that I can see the reasoning.

    Parent

    Saying the election was rigged is what (5.00 / 1) (#194)
    by Anne on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:27:41 AM EST
    tied Obama's hands - there was very little he could do without confirming for Trump and his base that the fix was in, that Obama was working for Hillary.

    It was so diabolically smart it makes me think that Trump didn't come up with it as a plan as much as he stumbled into it to pre-excuse the loss he thought was coming.

    Parent

    So smart (5.00 / 1) (#198)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:32:38 AM EST
    It's almost like an "active measure"

    Parent
    I almost think that was his (none / 0) (#200)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:40:31 AM EST
    Plan, to the extent he had one, from the beginning.  It's very clear from how completely u prepared they were he never expected to win.

    It even seems he did not want to win.  We know Melania did not want that.

    It completely believable it was in his mind just a thing to raise his profile and forever say the eke tion was "rigged".

    Now let's speculAte -
    The Russians saw this and thought 'lets just see what happens if we make him win'.  
    High 5s


    Parent

    I at first thought his reasoning (5.00 / 1) (#195)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:27:55 AM EST
    For the press conference made some sense too until he got to how announcing the Trump campaign investigation would have been "unfair" and then he went on the blame the voters that he influenced for Trump.

    Last I checked his expertise and authority were all in the legal realm, not the moral realm. Sometime (not today) I will hunt up some ethics experts and read what that have to say on his interview and his logic.

    Oddly, Rosenstein says he would write the fire Comey memo all over again too, and he says the American people even after last night don't know the whole Comey story and everything he did that gave Rosenstein concern.

    Parent

    I'm (5.00 / 4) (#202)
    by FlJoe on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:57:13 AM EST
    not buying it, it was not his job to read the polls and base his decision to violate protocol on that.

    I think he needs to be asked what his actions if tRump had been ahead in the polls. He fricking sat on the fact that the tRump campaign was under investigation, even allowing the false NYT's story to stand. Any fair minded person would have disclosed both or neither.

    I think we need a new thread just on Comey, there is a lot to deconstruct here.

    Parent

    Rug cleaning advice (none / 0) (#189)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:05:26 AM EST
    I bought 3 old Persian rugs yesterday with tags from Iran on them. I do not know their age, but they need cleaned. I have never owned such a rug. My rugs usually come from Kmart or IKEA. Any advice or horror stories that you can share is appreciated in advance. I will begin calling around today trying to choose someone to clean them. TKS

    Couple names for you (5.00 / 1) (#193)
    by Anne on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:24:01 AM EST
    McDowell's, here.

    Don't know if they travel into your area, but if not, they probably know someone.

    Or you could try Ayoub, which is closer to you.

    Parent

    Thank you Anne (none / 0) (#196)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:29:07 AM EST
    It's wonderful you have local names!!!

    Parent
    Tracy, they wash their carpets (5.00 / 1) (#199)
    by fishcamp on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:38:29 AM EST
    in rivers over in Persia.  I have about 15 carpets from over there and use a cleaner that comes over with everything to clean them here at home.  He also cleaned my fabric chair and sheepskin seat covers in my car.  They say not to use harsh chemical cleaners, so I have my guy use half as much soap.  The water vacuums they use are important so colors won't run.   The colors are probably set by now with your older carpets.  You can actually rent a machine and do it yourself.  I've used Tide soap in the past.  Just scrub and rinse fast to avoid any soap damage.  Regular carpet cleaner people use soap that is way too strong and can fade out the indigo blues.  

    Parent
    Anne"s place McDowells (5.00 / 1) (#201)
    by fishcamp on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:52:51 AM EST
    looks like the right place for you.  Those kinds of stores can repair old carpets, and put new fringes on them too.  They can actually cut good parts from damaged carpets to sew a good one together, and you can't even tell the difference unless you've seen thousands of carpets from certain areas.  Go with them if you can.

     I love those kinds of stores.  If you can peek into the back repair room it will look just like a centuries old carpet place in the old country.  The repair guys will be smoking hookahs in their turbans, chattering in some Arabic lingo, and glaring at you for being an infidel improperly covered.  

    Parent