Alan Dershowitz (!) says that Hannity should have disclosed that he was a client of Cohen before discussing the FBI raid last week.
Hannity responds: "I have the right to privacy." pic.twitter.com/lheMdQWqHl
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) April 17, 2018
Heavy metal thunder… (giant) head out onna highway…
Have said it before, will say it again: Murphy the Trickster God is *not* a subtle scripter.
Of all the law firms, in all the towns, in all the world, Sean Hannity walks into Michael Cohen’s.
— Rita Konaev (@RitaKonaev) April 16, 2018
The fact that Sean Hannity has been railing against the FBI's investigation of Michael Cohen without disclosing that Michael Cohen IS HIS LAWYER is wildly unethical, and also perfectly on-brand for a Fox News host https://t.co/5aJQt3Sqh7
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) April 16, 2018
So, Michael Cohen goes to court and tries to keep Sean Hannity’s emails and texts out of feds’ hands.
Hannity then jumps the gun thinking Cohen just implicated he paid off a mistress… and goes on a tear that ruins the whole scheme.
This. Is. Priceless.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) April 16, 2018
For context, Margaret Sullivan, just the day before Hannity lost it on-air, had a smart piece in the Washington Post warning us not to get too invested in dreams of a Trump impeachment:
… Nixon didn’t have Fox News in his corner.
President Trump does — and that might make all the difference if he were to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein or even special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The pro-Trump media, led by Fox, would give cover, and huge swaths of Americans would be encouraged to believe that the action was not only justified but absolutely necessary.
Night after night — for many months — Trump’s sycophant-in-chief, Sean Hannity, has been softening the ground. And his message is sinking in.
In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, three of four Republicans said they believed the Justice Department and the FBI are actively working to undermine Trump…
And now Sean Hannity, Galactic Brain, has taken his own mooted credibility, torn it to pieces on-air, set his feet on fire, and pissed on himself to douse the flames. Good job, Sean!
Hannity keeps saying 'real estate' and I keep thinking how Cohen paid Stormy by mortgaging his own house. https://t.co/BhJRM805DB
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) April 17, 2018
In response to some wild speculation, let me make clear that I did not ask Michael Cohen to bring this proceeding on my behalf, I have no personal interest in this proceeding, and, in fact, asked that my de minimis discussions with Michael Cohen,
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 16, 2018
which dealt almost exclusively about real estate, not be made a part of this proceeding.
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 16, 2018
Talking "almost exclusively about real estate" is the new "netflix and chill." https://t.co/ir4KQbcZlH
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 16, 2018
Hiking the Appalachian Trail
Watching Shark Week
Tweeting to Carlos Danger— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) January 19, 2018
Talking almost exclusively about real estate https://t.co/aUNbdkxxq8
— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) April 16, 2018
Someone should introduce today's Sean Hannity, who seems awfully bothered by "wild speculation", to May 2017's Sean Hannity, who had no problem tormenting a grieving family through wild speculation. pic.twitter.com/HwmmsuBY71
— Avi (@AviAhvee) April 16, 2018
Sneak peek of 'Hannity' tonight… pic.twitter.com/qud8et2cba
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 16, 2018
Patricia Kayden
So glad that these creeps are being exposed one by one. If Fox News was an actual news outlet, Hannity would be terminated for this gigantic and obvious conflict of interest. But alas.
NotMax
“That was the Sean Hannity from the mirror universe episode.”
mainmata
Hannity’s enormous rectangular head contains an orange-sized brain that fires off random bits of verbal spam masquerading as commentary. But this is Fox’s brand for sure.
What is actually happening with the whole l’affaire Trump would be rejected out of hand as too preposterous if it were a script offered to the old Monty Python cast.
Also, I wonder how many of those 3 out of 4 Republican Fox addicts are “likely voters”.
NotMax
Open thread?
In minor (extremely minor, nearly nano) news, replaced the trash can in the kitchen. Nothing amiss with the old one other than that, after 35 years of mutely providing steadfast service, it was looking well beyond shabby. Still doing a double take if I happen to turn my head and glance into the kitchen. And damn, have trash cans become friggin’ expensive!
Joyce H
Hey, did anyone else notice that when Trump arrived in Florida today, he exited AF1 from the lower door? I found that curious. Presidents always get on and off AF1 from that door that’s forward and in the upper part of the plane. He came down from the door that’s in the lower half and further back. Of course, there’s a shorter stairway from there, but it certainly looks less impressive, emerging from the belly of the plane and in the plane’s shadow. What do you suppose it means? Impaired, weak, or just no longer caring?
sukabi
@Joyce H: that’s not the first time he’s done that. I’m surprised he hasn’t ordered a portable escalator to haul his ass in and out of the plane.
Betty Cracker
There are few people in media more despicable than Sean Hannity, and this “real estate” thing is obviously bullshit. Why would multimillionaire, lawyered-up Hannity ask a goon with a degree from a crappy law school — a guy who barely practices law, apparently — for real estate advice? Nah, Cohen was brought in to deal with some gross scandal on Hannity’s behalf. The only question is, will it be gross and kinky enough that even Fox News will have to fire Hannity’s ass? Here’s hoping YES!
I never thought we’d have to live through a political nightmare like this, didn’t think we were dumb enough as a country to sink so low. The only possible upside is that it takes down wingnut shit-bags at every level: local, state, federal and media. Nothing could make all this awfulness worth it, but at least that would be something.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: “Oh, that was SEAN Hannity. I’m SHAUN, with an Sh-.”
sukabi
@Patricia Kayden: if FOX was even remotely interested in real news they wouldn’t have shows devoted to conspiracy theories or pushing gop/rw propaganda.
NotMax
T. Carlson: “Oh please, oh please.”
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: it may be that…or it may be that Hannity acted as a conduit between Cohen, Stone, Assange & Drumpf….just a bunch of guys talking and passing around info.
OzarkHillbilly
@sukabi:
Otherwise known as “infotainment”.
sukabi
@OzarkHillbilly: let’s just call it propaganda as it’s political in nature.
Celebrity gossip–> infotainment.
NotMax
Just for a fun respite.
Gee, the 21st century ain’t exactly as Billy and Babs Whitebread encountered when they met the future at the Seattle World’s Fair.
OzarkHillbilly
@sukabi: I don’t have TV. I thought it was all one and the same. My bad.
hervevillechaizelounge
I love that Margaret Sullivan article in the Post—to me, the right-wing news cycle is the real threat to democracy.
Oldsters grew up with Walter Cronkite; they believe news anchors are honorable people; combine that with Fox’s insistence that every other outlet is lying and this situation was inevitable. Thank god Trump is a buffoon, but the next republican candidate may be smarter and better able to hide his evil.
If someone told me last year Fox would be engaging in a campaign to discredit the FBI to cover-up Russian involvement in the voting process I would’ve thought them insane—and I’m a cynic.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: My mom and dad went to the Seattle World’s Fair, I got left with my grandma.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: I’ve never seen anyone as excited about a DNA model as that girl.
A lot of that World’s Fair is still in use. The monorail just goes from Seattle Center to a building in town where you might be able to buy tourist stuff or lunch. A lot of shops were empty last time we were there. The annual Folk Life Festival is held there on Memorial Day weekend, or maybe not if they didn’t find the funds for it this year. It was in doubt last year. I don’t know when it started but I first went to it in 84.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I wanted to go to the Seattle one in 1962, and the New York one in 64 but my parents felt they couldn’t afford it. We went to the one in Vancouver in 1986,and we left the kids with my parents.
p.a.
I half-remember a line from a history book about the Klan gaining and losing political power in Indiana in the ‘20s. Something like: The Indiana Klan drowned in a river of its own slime.
Now gone national…
Betty Cracker
@sukabi: Good point, and that would be better from the perspective of ejecting the traitorous shit-lords from their media and political perches.
oatler.
Man will soon be standing on the Moon someday, Pet Clark sang in 1965. I’m going to listen to my songs instead of Hannity’s Visa bill.
NotMax
@opiejeanne
The Greyhound pavilion at the ’64 NY fair featured the “Restaurant of the Future.” You paid to be handed a fiberboard container of prepared food which you – *gasp* – microwaved yourself!
Seemed an odd choice of an attraction for a bus company.
There’s a surprisingly captivating short out there (saw it, IIRC, on Amazon Prime) about how the Unisphere for the ’64 fair was designed, manufactured and built. Had totally forgotten that the land masses and islands are not flat but are depicted (in a general way) in relief. Even though knew full well it went successfully, still found myself holding my breath as it was depicted how the orbiting rings around the Unisphere were put together and hoisted into place.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: I was back in LA in 1986 starting my career with Satan. I was up in Seattle from 82 to 85.
MattF
I’ve postulated now and then that Trump would favor Hannity as a new Attorney General… Now, given this clear demonstration of Hannity’s legal skilz and insights, it’s a lock.
Aleta
Alan Dershowitz is so overrun with brain parasite he thinks he’s in line for a TrumpTV judgeship.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
NotMax
No desire to check. Has Laura what’s-her-face returned from ‘vacation’ yet?
sukabi
@MattF: fortunately the Attorney General has to be confirmed by congress, and has to pass a security clearance. There’s no way Hannity clears either hurdle.
gene108
@NotMax:
The phone tech they were bringing to market was a lot more sophisticated than I thought existed in 1962: call waiting, call forwarding, speed dial, conference calling, pagers, and touch tone phones. They get the “one day you’ll be able to turn off your oven, turn on you A/C and lawn sprinkler from your phone” part right. They just missed the advent of cell phones and the demise of pay phones.
I was impressed.
NotMax
@sukabi
Recess appointment. McConnell will take care of it.
/half-snarking
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Missed it, I was 70 miles to the west.
bystander
@sukabi:
…about real estate, got it? Once I was in a taxi going to work and driving down Fifth, I see Sean standing on the corner waiting to cross Fifth. We were so close that as we drove by I had a fantasy of reaching out and just palm slapping him. Another missed opportunity.
Everytime twitler hears about the “taint team” he thinks about joining.
NotMax
@gene108
Bell Labs was one helluva outfit in its day.
TS (the original)
So Morning J thinks the Judge should not have released Hannity’s name. There are ALWAYS different rules in the media for republicans. Imagine if the name had been a democrat pundit – Joe would be falling over himself with glee.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@sukabi: @NotMax: If Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt, Mike Pompeo, and Ben Carson, can make it thru the Senate, I hardly see it being a barrier to Hakkkity. As for security clearances, that might be a bump in the road but Javanka are still in the WH.
gene108
@hervevillechaizelounge:
After every defeat, over the last 50 years, the Republican Party gets more radically right-wing, and generally dumber.
Nixon to Reagan/Bush, Sr. to Bush, Jr. to Trump and Gingrich to Hastert to Boehner to Ryan.
The next Republicans in office will be full on white supremacists, who openly demand the destruction of the social safety net and a return to pre-New Deal America.
raven
@TS (the original): You want to report the entire piece or just whine about your interpretation of part of it?
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: West of Sultan? We’re you at Orcas?
NotMax
@gene108
Just look at the triple teaming now going on in Peru.
We’ve sunken from Tinker to Evers to Chance and now have Ivanka to Marco to Pence.
TS (the original)
@raven: It’s all I heard – I reported – just for you – feel free to watch it yourself – I tuned out
raven
@TS (the original): Yea, well if you’d had listened to the entire thing maybe you wouldn’t faint.
sukabi
@TS (the original): you can’t blame Joe for sympathising with Hannity, doesn’t everybody have skeletons in their closets?
bystander
Joe and Meeka are aghast at Hannity’s violations of journalistic standards. I find it astounding that associating with shit Midas lowers the image of even a lowlife scumbag like Hannity. (No offense to any lowlife scumbags who may be reading.)
NotMax
@sukabi
“Don’t open that closet door, McGee!”
:)
Kay
It’s plain old corruption, though- we need a Fox news host involved somehow or the Trump Administration scandals will dominate.
NobodySpecial
Morning.
Off topic, but is anyone watching the new Lost In Space? I’m alternately raging at the bad science, facinated at the interpersonal foibles and flaws of the cast, and in love with how Parker Posey is nailing every single scene she’s in as Doctor Smith. I did not expect a portrayal that dark and off kilter on a PG show.
Baud
@hervevillechaizelounge:
That’s not been the trend.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Sequim. My parents bought property up there where they intended to retire in 67. We went up again in 68.
Waldo
@NotMax:
I don’t know, but I can’t imagine it could go on much longer. Someone’s got to cover for Hannity’s impending ‘vacation’.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sukabi:
Some have dead interns.
OzarkHillbilly
@bystander: None taken.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Now, now. It’s not like Pringle’s; he stopped after just one.
Kay
@sukabi:
Rudy Guilaini is in there somewhere. I feel like it’s a matter of time before he appears as a central figure. This crime ring has a particular geographic locus and it’s NYC.
OzarkHillbilly
Full Metal Jacket drill instructor R Lee Ermey dies aged 74 RIP
Immanentize
@NobodySpecial: I just started watching it — and there is some really bad, amazingly bad, writing/scenes. But I love love love Parker Posey. So I am hooked for more episodes.
Immanentize
@NotMax: That was Lays I think
p.a.
@NotMax: IIRC Bell Labs was involved in formulation of the Big Bang Theory: believe they were integral to discovery of background radiation and its implications as evidence of BB.
Woodrowfan
@?BillinGlendaleCA: most people just got a t-shirt or a snowglobe from the Fair. Getting a grandma is kind of cool.
Betty Cracker
@NobodySpecial: We’ve seen the first few episodes and found it enjoyable so far. Parker Posey is definitely a highlight! I know she’s been in a ton of movies and TV shows, but I will always associate Parker with “Best In Show.”
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Woodrowfan
@Immanentize: it was Lays, not Pringles.
satby
There’s something so wrong about needing to have the heat on in the last half of April. The cold and grey have me carb loading like I’m planning on doing a triathlon. Which I’m not.
beef
@p.a.:
Also, Bell Labs was where the transistor was invented.
debbie
@bystander:
I’m astounded that the words “journalistic standards” and “Hannity” are in the same sentence. What has this world come to???
different-church-lady
Like anyone who watches him cares whether he’s credible?
nonynony
@Kay:
Yeah I’ve been following that – a good old fashioned pay-to-play scandal. The GOP in this state have gotten so fat and lazy they’re forgetting that they’re supposed to hide their corruption under mountains of paperwork.
What do you think Kay? You think we have a shot of taking at least one chamber of the state assembly this year? I think we’ve got a shot at governor, but the assembly still seems like an uphill battle to me…
kd bart
Overcome by a desire to see Michael Clayton right now.
Kay
@nonynony:
This sounds crazy but I’m convinced by my own (bad and unscientific research) that Democrats don’t vote down-ballot. It can’t just be Democrats in this county! This may be widespread. They vote the top one or two and then leave the rest blank. Republicans complete their ballot. I think some Dem org should look into this.
Aleta
@p.a.: and from Bell Labs came Bellcom, which advised NASA on lunar work
mainmata
@Betty Cracker: Can’t “upvote” this enough. “Discussing real estate” is like “hiking the Appalachian trail”. Also Dumbass Hannity said that Cohen was not his attorney and then, in the next breath, asserted attorney-client privilege. He’s not only morally disgusting, he’s also really stupid.
nonynony
@Kay: I don’t think that sounds crazy at all. I used to leave races blank if I didn’t know enough about the race to make an informed decision. I felt like if I didn’t know enough to make a choice, my vote would be pointless and could be actively bad. I’d vote statewide races consistently, but often leave some county and judicial positions with no votes.
That changed with W – I now vote straight-ticket Democrat unless I know something about the candidates that would make voting for the Dem a bad decision. Because I now know enough to realize that even if I don’t know everything about the two candidates I do know that one of them is a Republican, and that’s enough to know that they’re likely to support a whole heap of bad and even dangerous policies that would be bad for the state/county/city/whatever.
Baud
@mainmata:
“Real estate” means “how do I keep my wife from getting the house in the divorce.”
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Kay: The all R Iowa legislature got rid of straight party voting last year. This tells me you’re right. They expect Rs to complete the ballot and Ds to stop.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Woodrowfan: I don’t remember her, I was 2 at the time of the fair and she died a year later.
Kay
@nonynony:
Statehouse races are so hard- the districts are huge, they never have any money for advertising, and a third of our voters don’t vote anything past the first race on the ballot. It can seem impossible.
debbie
I just heard that Kemba Wood is the judge presiding over Cohn’s hearing. How long until Trump blames Obama for all his troubles?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Sometimes I can’t stand our voters.
WereBear
The twin keys of Republican success was 1) dazzle the rubes by repeating back their numbnuts ideas and 2) keep the shenanigans on the down-low so no one would catch on.
#2 has collapsed in front of god and everybody.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: “I hate you all!”, vote Baud! 2020.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Michigan tried to get rid of it too. I’m getting it from being a poll worker and looking at actual ballots, though. Democrats don’t vote the whole ballot and Republicans do.
I was thinking about how Russians could screw with voting – on another topic! Anyway, voter rolls. They could change the address. That would create what they call a “mismatch” in poll-worker-speak, so we would need to look for an unusual number of mismatches. Of course by the time we found them it would be too late. I wonder if there were an unusual number of mismatches in Russia-targeted congressional races in ’16?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I said “sometimes.” Not when they’re voting for me.
Peale
@Kay: since it won’t come out right anyway, I might as well be blunt. A lot of our voters are dumb as rocks and don’t understand how power works. Or why it would be useful to have a governor or president with a legislature full of his or her own party members. Plus I think we have a lion’s share of the clever voters who like to split their ticket because that feels more honest.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Oh, I thought you might be taking Cole’s approach.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Only when it comes to nakedness.
SFAW
@mainmata:
You are aware that his nickname is “The Stupidest Man on Television,” aren’t you?
If someone were to put Hannity, Gohmert, and Jim Hoft on the same room, it would create sort of a black hole of Stupid. Except that it would not collapse on itself (or whatever it is black holes do), it would radiate outward and infect everyone in the vicinity.
SFAW
@Baud:
Probably not a great campaign theme/meme.
Patricia Kayden
@NobodySpecial: Wasn’t the original series dark?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Which is why Rudy has been as quiet as a church mouse pissing on cotton.
rikyrah
@satby:
I went to Peanut’s Spring Band Concert last night. As I was shivering going back to the car, I was like SPRING concert, my azz ??
I wore two sweaters at work, yesterday.
I am so over this winter
rikyrah
@Baud:
Hmmmmmm
You might be right.
OzarkHillbilly
Heh: GOP Scrambles To Keep ‘Dark Lord Of Coal Country’ From WV Senate Nomination
Lapassionara
@debbie: Ronald Reagan appointed her to the bench. Bill Clinton considered her for AG. I think she had a “nanny” problem in that she had failed to pay SS for her nanny.
I think she gave the President’s argument some consideration. She may agree to appoint a special master to do the priv review.
Good morning, everyone.
Ken
@Patricia Kayden: The first season was more dramatic, with the cast often in danger. The later seasons got campy, but still with some menacing aliens and situations.
The later seasons are also the ones where nearly every episode the narrator opened with “As you recall, last week Will, Dr. Smith, and the Robot were….” The polling said they were what the (young) audience liked.
rikyrah
A GOP scandal that the WaPo thinks that we are missing
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/986045083085692930?s=19
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: J and her sister had to stay with their aunt and uncle when her parents went to the one at Flushing Meadows. They got to do things like learn how to fold laundry. :-/
Our parents took us and even though we were only ~ 4-5 at the time, I still remember things like the Sinclair dinosaur. Good stuff!
It’s easy for me to say, not having kids, but big events like this really can be inspiring to youngsters and parents really should take them if they’re at all able.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
He killed 29 people. He is a perfect GOP candidate ?
Kay
@Peale:
I’m sick of them too. My God, they’re there anyway. Do 5 minutes of research and complete the ballot! I always feel sorry for our statehouse candidates here. They’re new and young every two years because no one will do it twice, and I don’t blame them.
danielx
@mainmata:
I remember saying, some time last year, that Trump being elected was too preposterous as a novelist plot. Rejected by agents out of hand, etc etc….and now we have progressed (regressed?) to the point where it would be rejected by Monty Python. Farce and tragedy wrapped into one rotten package.
ETA: Like Hannity truly gives a flying fuck about anything Dershowitz says.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Ach, it’s just Misery.
HinTN
@hervevillechaizelounge:
This is why I resist the calls for impeachment. Pence may be no smarter but he does hide his evil far better than Donny.
danielx
@Kay:
Kind of surprised Rosenberger is resigning, actually – Republican voters really do not seem to give a damn what their elected representatives do
Another Scott
@HinTN: It’s easy to hide as VP. Pence would be under much, much more scrutiny were he to grab the brass ring.
It’ll be interesting to see what Mueller’s team tells us about Pence’s role in this whole mess…
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@HinTN:
Pence was really unpopular in Indiana, though. They’ve reinvented him as “likeable” but he’s not.
Donald Trump was never going to hire someone who would outshine him. Go ahead and impeach. Trump disappears, Pence transforms back into what he was- unpopular.
Kay
@danielx:
It’s because they’re worried about the rest of the Republicans. Corruption killed Republicans in Ohio in ’06. They blamed Bush but it wasn’t him- it was them.
Kay
@danielx:
He’s also term-limited so it’s not a sacrifice at all.
rikyrah
Luvvie did a piece on Beyonce at Coachella
https://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2018/04/beychella.html
SFAW
@rikyrah:
I have it on good authority – the BEST authority! — that Hitlary
would havehas killed a bazillion more.Waldo
@danielx:
Dershbag isn’t saying it for Hannity’s benefit — he’s trying to hang on to his last shred of professional dignity by appearing to care about the law.
Kay
I just love these two. I listened to Stormy’s statement outside the Trump hearing and she did great! Am I the only person who can’t do anything with composite sketches, though? I’m always thinking “that looks like 50 people I saw today”. I get that it’s a PR gimmick but are there really people who can honestly say “the eyes are a little lower” when they see someone for 5 seconds?
rikyrah
Frum cracks me up. Still don’t trust him, but his Dolt45 Twitter game is strong
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/986058421203095552?s=19
Kay
Whatever sketch Stormy releases let’s all say “that looks exactly like Don Jr.”
Then say “the eyes…” and just trail off.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I remember going to my North Carolina niece’s outdoor commencement when she finished law school. May in NC and it was 50 degrees. We, unfortunately had not brought the appropriate clothes for what the weather actually turns out to be, so I feel your pain.
Cowboy Diva
@Lapassionara:
She paid the SS for the employee, but the employee was undocumented (which was not actually illegal at the time?). Apparently she decided it was too close to the previous scandal, and so bowed out.
JohnO
@Kay:
Nope. The older I get the more this become so, too.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I have been hearing about that for weeks through links here on BJ, so some of us paying attention. But the news media apparently isn’t.
rikyrah
I have said that Race Bannon and Mother have watched too many episodes of House of Cards
Uh huh
https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/986101945403396096?s=19
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, yeah, that’s her masterpiece. But Waiting for Guffman is also a highlight of her career.
Immanentize
@Kay:
Composite sketches are one of the true drivers of mis-ID. They cement a vague or false memory of what someone looks like. The only ones that actually have value, in my experience, are the ones that are truly ‘composote’ — made from many different witnesses whose information is then blended. ID experts agree, it’s the wisdom of the herd.
Uncle Cosmo
@p.a.: Purely by accident – they (almost literally) stumbled onto the evidence. In 1964-5 Penzias & Wilson were shaking down a radio antenna for use in sending data up to & down from communications satellites just coming online. They found a “hiss” in the signal & tried everything they could think of to remove it (including chasing pigeons out of the “horn” antenna & shoveling out the residual pigeon shit) but, as they say, it persisted. At last in desperation they called Robert Dicke, the eminent Princeton astrophysics prof, for advice. When he looked at their data he saw immediately that the spectrum was consistent with the radiation of a black body at ~3 degrees Kelvin – which is what the residual radiation from the Big Bang had been predicted to look like, & which he & his students had been planning observations to look for in the very near future. IOW, Dicke got scooped. Penzias & Wilson shared a Nobel Prize for the completely fortuitous discovery – the equivalent of finding a hunk of glassy rock in mine tailings & having it turn out to be the Cullinan diamond – though they might have deserved it for the long, meticulous, & otherwise thankless labor of excluding every other possible source for the “hiss” – for, as Baker Street’s most famous resident once put it, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
GregB
I hope we are’t talking about a composite sketch based on Michae Coheln’s taint.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
It was a holiday so my son met some friends at the library. I was driving in sleet thinking that I just want to live somewhere warm year round.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: It was almost 40 yrs ago I saw a man run over a little old lady* who was crossing the street. He looked right at me for about 1 1/2 seconds. Pretty sure I could even now do a reasonable job on a composite sketch. After all this time It would probably look like a dozen different people but one of those dozen would definitely be him. Intense moments burn especially bright because of heightened awareness.
*she had a broken wrist and was more than a little confused but was otherwise OK
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: That’s assuming It doesn’t mean something on the order of You can’t show the property until
Guido & GiuseppeAndrei & Igor dig up the bones in the back yard & resod the graves.bemused
Rawstory has piece on Jeff Sessions’ goal to deny asylum to victims of domestic violence and RS chose the creepiest photo ever of evil Sessions grinning from ear to ear. There’s a real possibility I may have nightmares.
rikyrah
@Kay:
???
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
?
jonas
@Betty Cracker: Actually, it would make sense for Hannity to be talking real estate with Cohen, but that’s probably going to end up being a worse look for him in the end than paying off a pornstar mistress. Cohen was less Trump’s attorney than a consigliere and fixer who — when he wasn’t arranging secret payoffs to Stormy Daniels — made it rain Ukrainian and Russian cash for Trump Org properties. As Josh Marshall has been reporting over the past year, there’s a very suspicious web of connections emerging between Cohen, shady taxi medallion owners in NYC and elsewhere, Russian investors, and the Trump Org. My suspicion is that Hannity wanted in on some grift Cohen was running involving some Trump condos and a guy named Boris who deals entirely in cash and doesn’t want his last name used.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cowboy Diva:
That’s what I read.
gene108
@Another Scott:
The medià would be on a big push to “heal the country” and so would ignore everything Pence could be culpable of with regards to Russian interference. They bent over backwards to try to normalize Trump with the “tonight he became President” shit.
No one would go hammer and tongs after Pence.
The Mueller investigation would probably be scuttled for the sake of “healing” and the findings sealed for 100 years.
schrodingers_cat
I am so fucking tired of the preemptive surrender and the learned helplessness in the face of an all out R assault on our democracy and its norms.
*whine, whine*, we can’t do anything because T’s base is still with him and Fox News lies everyday.
Did the RWNJs curl into a ball when Obama was in office and there was a positive story about him in the media?
I think not.
If we want to defer to T’s base on everything then we should just give up, because we are done.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Right, but why would it be more reliable than this?
They don’t seem to be lying- they’re just way too confident. All kinds of bias comes in.
Frankensteinbeck
@SFAW:
When Rikyah says “The curve for mediocre white men is real” I’m seeing two meanings now. On the one hand, there’s a clubby ‘white guys are forgiven things no one else could get away with.’ That part I knew. But damn if I’m not seeing a huge, widespread trend that stupid white men prefer other stupid white men. They don’t just tolerate. They want to elect, hire, and listen to the dumbest fucks they can, as long as it’s a white man. Not just crazy and racist, they specifically want stupid, and ‘they’ are at every economic level.
Frankensteinbeck
@bemused:
Republicans feel strongly that victims need to stay under the power of their abusers, so no surprise there.
Just One More Canuck
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You must mean Cole. Baud is all about the love
eric
I would give the left “one” if the composite sketch looked like Putin.
bystander
@Baud:
…especially, if the NDA and payoff go bust-o.
Elizabelle
Good morning, jackals. WaPost: Sean Hannity’s idea of ‘attorney-client privilege’ was right out of ‘Breaking Bad’
Hannity going all “Better Call Saul” may not work in real life.
mainmata
@NotMax: My wife’s grandfather was one of the organizers of the 1939 New York World’s Fair and one of only a few individuals to be an Army officer who saw action in both World War I and II. Apparently, he was a real genius but eccentric, sort of like Patton. He was long gone before I met my wife but years later we met a very old man in Florida who had worked with her grandfather on that NY World’s Fair. What are the odds?
satby
@bystander: I keep seeing those Taboola click bait ads about Melania’s incredible IQ. If she was really smart she’d ditch Tangerine Twitler soon. She has to know he’s lying about his net worth, and she could write her own tell all book and make her own millions.
Mark's Bubbie
@p.a.: My husband and I checked out the horn antenna a couple of years ago. (We live nearby.) Pretty cool
Elizabelle
@Frankensteinbeck: Good point. You and rikyrah are not wrong.
WRT Hannity: this is where a propaganda outfit like Fox “News” is yet another type of problem. They have no standards. They are not actually journalists.
With an actual set of journalists, failure to disclose that you have a legal relationship with the guy you’re slagging would be a real ethics problem.
Not so Fox “News”. They’re in it for the bucks they make as they propangadize for Republicans. Although some stories become so radioactive that even Fox throws up its hands.
Hannity would be off the air or suspended from publishing at another outlet, while its management and attorneys scrutinize the Cohen connection. Not our Fox!
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Hence my statement that it would “probably look like a dozen different guys”.
The confirmation bias asserts itself when the cops put line up on stage and say “Is the guy one of these?” and all 6 of them look wildly different but only one of them looks close to what you remember. Too often the witness thinks the cops have put that guy up there because of independent information but it all to often is just “this guy doesn’t have an alibi” and the witness doesn’t want to disappoint the cops or feels other subtle pressures to reply in the affirmative.
When has a line-up ever consisted of 6 white guys with dark hair and a mustache and standing from 5-6 to 5-9 and weighing 150 to 175? They don’t do that for a reason, the reason being the witness would all to often say, “I don’t know.”
The Moar You Know
@Joyce H: This happens a lot. Trump’s phobia of stairs is well known.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Agree with you.
Actually, less focus on Trump’s base and their media enablers is good. Keep the eyes on the real issues; skip the poutrage and lying.
afanasia
@zhena gogolia: my favorite Parker Posey movie is one of her earliest: Party Girl. “I want to go to library school!”
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1066050_party_girl?
bemused
@Frankensteinbeck:
Of course. It was the photo that is horrifying to see. You just know whatever was making Sessions that happy at the time it was taken was something diabolically nasty.
eric
@Elizabelle: Actually, the law of privilege is more nuanced: what matters is if the “client” thought he or she was talking to the lawyer for the purpose of legal advice. That is why lawyers are always very careful to make sure that a person understands that there is NO client relationship. So, all Hannity had to say was “i thought he was my lawyer” and the communications (if really about legal advice) would be protected. But, Hannity panicked and did not seek the advice of a lawyer before making public statements, thereby breaking the First Commandment: NEVER talk the press or police without talking to your lawyer first.
Elizabelle
@gene108: Yep. You get the learned helplessness award for this morning. At least, the pre 10:00 am one.
Buck up.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Elizabelle: That’s hilarious!
Tick-tock…
Elizabelle
@eric: Thank you. That’s very interesting.
germy
“Hannity, I’m just gonna say this. You’re like my brother, but I’m glad for like a millisecond that the heat’s off me and on you.”
– Laura Ingraham
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
If only she hadn’t signed that pesky NDA.
germy
@satby:
“By Melania Trump, as told to Michael Wolff”
Radiumgirl
@Kay: They’re not lying, they’re convinced that they’re right. It’s not a deliberate effort to deceived — but they are mistaken.
Immanentize
@jonas: The “talking about real estate” sounds so much like Junior’s “we just discussed adoptions.”
Probably already noted above….
germy
@Immanentize:
I always wonder about those age-enhanced sketches of “what this missing child would look like today” I wonder how accurate they are.
If one of those artists had a photo of me when I was ten years old, I wonder how he’d “age” me.
I don’t look like an older version of my ten year old self.
germy
sdhays
@jonas: This is what I was thinking – if true (and I’m as skeptical as anyone), talking “real estate” with Michael Cohen isn’t actually less compromising than having him help your cover up your sex scandal.
ETA: It’s clearly a euphemism for something, but it could just as easily be a euphemism for “get me in on that sweet, sweet Russian oligarch money” as “help me cover up my pregnant girlfriend so my wife doesn’t take my house”.
The Other Chuck
@gene108:
He said in 2015.
Wild Cat
@OzarkHillbilly: If you read about him, I don’t think Ermey would be a friend of this blog.
Another Scott
Interesting. As of 1011AM EDT, Twitter seems to be broken.
Hmm…
Cheers,
Scott.
The Other Chuck
@SFAW:
They more or less “evaporate” over billions of years, proportional to their size. Evaporate into where, not even Hawking knew.
J R in WV
@satby:
Heat on in the last half of April. And A/C on in the beginning and end of April.
Turning the A/C on at noon, and turning the furnace back on at sundown!!! Before the leaves come out, we have a huge solar gain, which in the winter is a very good thing.
But if it gets hot in April, the big room in the center of the house can really pick up the heat fast, as the days get longer and the sun gets higher.
Then the politics is from Wonderland, where things mean exactly what Faux says they do, until they DON’T anymore.!!! hi sean!!!
Wild Cat
@Elizabelle: They’ll do the “Entertainment” defense. It’s the new Twinkie, circa 1980 or so. After all, Hannity, like Limbaugh or O’Reilly or Beck or Ingraham, is just an entertainer, right? Right?
J R in WV
@Lapassionara:
She paid the taxes on her nanny, but the nanny was an undocumented alien, so even though the Judge didn’t violate any law, the Rs landed on her like a pallet of building supplies. So she stuck with her lifetime appointment on the Fed Bench.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I suspect that will be rendered void pretty soon, or her pre-nup will. Frumpy doesn’t have competent legal advice, and it looks like he hasn’t had it for years.
OzarkHillbilly
@Wild Cat: In reading his bio I saw that he was on the board of the NRA, which I had been unaware of. Definitely not a friend of mine. Still I can admire his work in FMJ.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: From your keyboard to her noodly appendages.
rikyrah
Republicans expected their tax plan to be popular by now (but it’s not)
04/17/18 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Pointing to nothing in particular, Donald Trump declared this morning, “So many people are seeing the benefits of the Tax Cut Bill. Everyone is talking, really nice to see!”
In reality, of course, everyone isn’t talking about the Republican tax plan, and there’s nothing especially “nice” about public attitudes on the subject. Perhaps someone should show the president the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Elizabelle
@Wild Cat: Yes, the constant citing “Entertainment”, when they’re assuring their witless audience they’re a fair and balanced source of news. It’s disturbing, actually. I think mainstream journalists also bear a lot of responsibility for the drubbing their profession has taken (fake news!). The “present both sides”, when one side is demonstrably false but “objectivity” precludes including evidence of that, real time, in their stories, has come back to haunt them. (A lot of articles and reports do “fact check” in real time, but some do not, including some howlers from the AP.)
Anyway, I wish there was some way we could drum Fox News out of business. They’re dangerous.
Elizabelle
We didn’t have a “morning thread” today. Hope all is well with Anne Laurie.
Maybe Betty will award us with some cedar waxwings before much longer. (Love those birds.)
Princess
@Kay: The answer, I believe, is yes. When my husband early voted in Illinois, he was turned away because they told him he had already voted. I think that was based on a mismatch of name to address. Illinois was one of the states we knew had been hacked early on. They told him to come back and in the end they had sorted it out and he voted. But most people won’t bother to do that and we wouldn’t have caught it if he hadn’t voted early.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: This one went up at 4:30, took a while to get going. Pretty sure Anne is fine.
Calouste
Talking about Rosenstein, wasn’t he going to get sacked “within 48 hours” last Friday? That seems to have gone completely down the memory hole.
Heidi Mom
@Kay: When I was a non-retired lawyer (almost 27 yrs with the state appellate court system, never practiced), I took a CLE (Continuing Legal Ed.) course centered on the unreliability of eyewitness IDs. One example: A woman identified an innocent man as her rapist; he was convicted, sentenced, and served time; he was later cleared (by DNA evidence and/or someone else’s confession, can’t recall); the victim asked for his forgiveness, which he gave; and they wrote a book together, called Picking Cotton (his surname was Cotton). What really sticks in my mind is that she said it’s still the innocent man’s face that she sees in her nightmares.
Chyron HR
@Calouste:
Well, duh, how can Rosenstein be fired when Twitter is down?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Calouste: They decided that air strikes in Syria would be a better bet. Rosenstein can always be fired later, amirite?
Wild Cat
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess. As a guy who grew up on integral Kubrick (seeing 2001, Clockwork Orange, and (the interesting but distant) Barry Lyndon upon original release, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut are so regressive. And so was Ermey. As an aside, “The Short Timers,” which the movie was based on, was a decent novella.
Lapassionara
@J R in WV: Thanks.
bystander
@satby: I like to think once twitler’s infidelity became substantiated, Melania got to renegotiate their pre-nup. She agrees to stay on so long as he is Prez, but once that is over, she can file for an uncontested divorce and get her payoff.
japa21
@Princess: He still should have been allowed to vote a provisional ballot. Just about the only reason one can’t be allowed to vote either a regular or provisional ballot is if they belong in a different precinct and acknowledge that is where they still reside.
No Drought No More
Before yesterday’s Sean Han-rat-i bust, there was George Will, who failed in 1980 to disclose he helped prepare Reagan for a debate with Carter, but who nonetheless praised his performance as “thoroughbred” on that week’s ABC’s Sunday morning gasbag show. Suffice to say, Will enjoyed a long and, I assume, very lucrative career sitting in the exact same chair every Sunday morning on ABC for the next quarter century.
OzarkHillbilly
@Heidi Mom:
Read the book. He ended up serving time with the guy, recognized the similarities between them, found out the guy was there for rape and that his MO matched the MO in the rape he’d been convicted of. I do not recall the particulars of how he managed to get things straightened out. I think DNA played a role but not in the way one might expect.
Good book.
Kay
@Princess:
Illinois was actually “penetrated”- from what I;ve read ( not a lot- there isn’t a lot of information) Illinois had the worst hacking problems.
They have all this info. They know how many mismatches there were. What we need is some government entity willing to do the work of looking at it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Wild Cat: I never had much love for Kubrick. I can see why people do but he usually left me a little flat. Different strokes and all that.
Kelly
@Kay: Oregon judicial races are nonpartisan and it’s difficult to get an idea of how the judges might rule. The whole idea of judicial, prosecution and law enforcement elected positions seems weird to me. County and local races are nonpartisan here in Marion county which seems to result in mostly Republican County Commissioners, school boards etc.
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: Oh yeah. My Reagan-loving accountant (who loves him some GOP but wants to set Trump on fire with his bare hands) ran my numbers for both this year and next year, because he is not an idiot (this is why I love him). Next year, after the midterms, I get a tax increase. Of between 11 to 20 thousand dollars. Which we don’t have. Thanks to Paul Ryan and company yanking all (I mean all) deductions for teachers.
This is seriously “lose your house” territory for my wife and I. If I were a Republican I’d have changed parties at this point. Since I can’t change parties I’m just going to grit my teeth and panic quietly.
Most voters will see similar, but not as bad, increases. And they will blame it on the newly elected Dems unless Dems get out and do some preemptive damage control.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@The Other Chuck: Pedant warning: It’s an inverse proportion. Big ones last essentially forever, microscopic ones evaporate instantaneously. And the mass is lost by “Hawking Radiation”, mass emitted at the event horizon.
Elizabelle
@bystander: If this is the case, I hope Melania negotiated a “one term and I’m out” clause. He runs for re-election, she runs for divorce court.
Sometimes it’s nice not to be able to know the future. I really cannot imagine one where Trump serves his full first term.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: That’s terrible.
I hope the law as enacted is overturned or amended by then. You cannot be the only folks with forward thinking accountants.
More info please: which aspects of the new Ryan tax cut law specifically hurt you and your wife? We hear a lot of sloganeering on Facebook; I am curious as to the real-world impact on actual teachers.
Frankensteinbeck
@Calouste:
Didn’t go down my memory hole. I was watching and commenting at the time. There was only going to be an announcement about him, which could have been anything. Always remember Trump is a giant fucking chicken. He wouldn’t announce a firing like that ahead of time. If he did it at all, he would have someone else deliver the news while Rosenstein was far away. Since there are people up close who would go ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ for Rosenstein, the guy’s probably immortal and untouchable.
Wild Cat
@OzarkHillbilly: His legacy stands as a big INCOMPLETE due to his nonsensical decision to release a film every decade or so later in life, but his early stuff is fun, especially “The Killing,” which was scripted by Jim Thompson. But “2001” actually did change cinema, and its controversy lives on.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Removal of all deductions for any classroom or job-related expenses for teachers.
You hear about teachers spending several thousand dollars per year on their classes, plus continuing ed requirements, mileage for school functions, and that sort of thing. The reason a lot of teachers were willing to put up with that is because you could write it off on your taxes and get it back that way.
That’s all gone. Most teachers don’t even know it yet.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: Jebus.
Any idea if they left the continuing ed, mileage, and expenses deductions in place for lawyers, doctors and accountants?
Let’s have some more teacher strikes. Most people have no idea what they’re up against.
rikyrah
Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s secret ‘Client #3’ is Sean Hannity
Rachel Maddow reports on how it was revealed that Fox News personality Sean Hannity is a client of Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Wild Cat
@Elizabelle: There was probably no Golden Age of TV Journalism, but Barbara Walters heading to ABC on a $1M contract in the 1970s to change basic news into an entertainment medium pretty much set the tone for what we’re dealing with today. Obviously 24/7/365 cable news brought us down an extra notch or two or a thousand.
Elizabelle
Email from Frontline on their programming tonight. Airing it while their protagonist is still with us.
Elizabelle
Betty’s put up a fresh thread, re Scott Pruitt. (Le sigh.)
Tokyokie
@Kay: I NEVER vote a straight-party Democratic ticket. Which isn’t to say I don’t vote for every Democrat on the ballot. Here in Texas, the Democrats often fail to field candidates for every race, and if a Republican’s only opponent is a Green or a Libertarian, that’s who gets my vote. Hell, back in the day, I’d vote for La Raza Unida candidates. The races in which a Republican is the only candidate? I leave those blank.
And I’m perfectly willing to believe that Hannity was discussing real estate matters with Cohen. Isn’t the purchase of overpriced Manhattan condos one of the ways by which Russian mobsters were laundering their money? I can see Hannity wanting a piece of that action.
The Other Chuck
@Elizabelle: Wow, I didn’t know McCain was a POW, the things you learn from the news golly..
The Other Chuck
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: As I (weakly) understand it, there’s still an antiparticle that gets sucked into the black hole, and we don’t know where it goes when the black hole goes away. Might explain the matter/antimatter imbalance in the universe tho?
Aleta
Why doesn’t Henny Penny simply say, ‘Yes, of course I harassed women and bought sex and was blackmailed over photos of my freedom of expression. So what.’
What a cowardly tough guy he is.
Oh, he might lose his job? But that would be McCarthyism! * Surely, then, Fuckyous will stand up to a boycott from the Christian right to protect him! Because our country is in a fight for libertarian freedoms, and he is our beacon! Women and their overly numerous relatives are going too far!
* (Not in the slightest.)
JDM
@NotMax:
Please, no bare midriff!
Stan
@<
I tried it for like ten minutes and was bored to death. So it gets better?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat:
Agreed. I get sick of it too.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You worked for Dick Cheney?