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One could wish that the Oval Office Resident weren’t quite such a gift to America’s hard-working editorial cartoonists…
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Cermet
But think of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server that contained no significant e-mails!
OzarkHillbilly
My name is Reek.
satby
Good morning a.m. peeps ? and good evening to the Pacific contingent ?!
I’m nursing tendonitis in the right elbow and just picking up my coffee ☕ is agony. Yet, I persist, because life without coffee is bleak indeed.
Viva BrisVegas
@satby:
Can’t you pick up your coffee with your left elbow?
Greetings from the chilly Pacific.
satby
@Viva BrisVegas: ? left myself wide open, didn’t I?
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: It is difficult to put up a proper guard when the elbow is not cooperating.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Mezz
It has to start with the staffers and officials. This insanity with the former ambassador is not going to change any Republican legislators’ minds (though it will amuse some of us endlessly to watch the breathless reporting of “has theOrange Jooleyus finally gone too far this time…?” – A: NO). Flake, Snow, Collins, Ryan – the lot of them – are spineless (and complicit). It is going to have to be a revolt from the bottom up, and Congressional staffers, that starts with you. Resign. Find other work. Go back to your home state, and work in politics there. You’re enabling the subversion of your own country. You are collaborators, even if unwilling.
Then it’s going to take (hopefully) peaceful marches in the streets. But this will end in the streets one way or another, that now seems crystal clear.
Anywho. Good morning sunshine.
And ETA: F*** Zuckerberg.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Schlemazel
@Mezz:
So . . . you are saying we’re fucked?
Any plan that counts on any Republican to do the right thing is doomed. The decent people of this country are going to have to turn out and turn out the goppers
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Tinare
@Mezz: It is becoming clear that our government is actively betraying the country. That’s not hyperbole anymore.
Sister Golden Bear
Good morning from Thailand. I’m in the hospital in preparation for surgery tomorrow morning. Mostly lots of waiting around, although the pre-surgical roto-rootering will happen this evening, and not looking forward to it. It’s supposed to be extremely unpleasant, but thankfully it’s over in 2-3 hours.
My traveling companion just came out surgery earlier this afternoon, and judging by her condition, I probably won’t be posting post-surgery for at least a day or so.
Ben Cisco
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Zuckerberg deserves a pitchfork, preferably a rusty one.
OzarkHillbilly
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: They have a voice. Nobody is denying them that. What they don’t deserve is a megaphone.
EZSmirkzz
Good morning AL.
It appears we’re in a more dangerous situation than we were when Aims and Hanssen were committing their treason in the 1980’s and 90’s., and one should remember or learn if one thinks I’m talking ancient history here, of Hanssen’s assessment of the American government and people to really understand where I’m coming from on this. Putin was probably very much aware of Ramon.
Not only have we got moles in the highest offices of our government we have a foreign power funneling dark money into a stalwart Republican partisan organization, the N.R.A., which has given their Republican recipients a myopic view of the current Russian intelligence ploy above and beyond what appears to be so obviously going on with the President. Again. if you know Hanssen’s assessment of the American government and people then you will understand the thin ice we are on right now.
Perhaps the President is genuinely being played by the Russians and isn’t an active participant in treason, but it doesn’t really matter if the people he associates with are either active or traitorous dupes, so long as the results are what the Russians are aiming for.
This isn’t latent cold war paranoia on my part here either. I can, to some extent understand Russian motivations to bring the United States to heel. The blowback from the neo-cons color revolutions should not be overlooked, anymore than N.A.T.O. sandbagging of Putin in the U.N. on Libya. That there is collusion between Assange and the Russians is also a no brainer if you have read Assange’s dissertations on the U.S. empire.
Now the President seems to be going out of his way to make America look tough, which is only making enemies out of friends, and America a fool to our adversaries. I would not be too quick to ascribe treason to stupidity. It is an old and foolish king that has become too wise in his own eyes to be warned. I do not consider the Russian people to be our enemies, but I do consider Putin to be so now. But I wouldn’t put to much hope in Republican politicians at this point, between myopic partisanship and graft and greed, Putin through Trump has them by the short and curlies.
That a blue collar, bleeding knuckle liberal’s assessment of the situation.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear: Sounds unpleasant. Best of luck.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear: Make sure you avoid caves while in Thailand.
satby
@Sister Golden Bear: good luck.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: exactly.
Schlemazel
@Sister Golden Bear:
Rest and recover is the best plan.
I have a couple of surgeries coming up, one small one huge but have been through the drill so many time now I know what to expect. I always come out of it just wanting to be left alone for a couple days.
kd bart
Alan Gold was nominally in charge of The Tangiers too.
Quinerly
@Sister Golden Bear: Good luck. Been thinking about you and sending you positive thoughts. Check in from time to time. You know how jackals worry. ????
Platonailedit
The russians are openly mocking the traitorous thug.
SFAW
@Cermet:
Fool! Hitlary apologist!!
Everyone knows that the NUCULAR CODES were in e-mails sent with pics of Wiener’s wiener by Huma Abedin to Hitlary, and that her server was hacked 378,421 times! In one week alone!!! Or maybe it was zero times. Ever. But the point is: look over THERE!!!
It would help this country immeasurably if the Rethug leadership were not so complicit and compromised. Of course, I also want a unicorn.
SFAW
@Sister Golden Bear:
Best wishes and good luck. I hope things go well.
Mezz
@Tinare: I just don’t see how anyone can disagree. Because then there are things like this: building off the NYT article today, I saw someone speculate – regarding one of the human intelligence sources the Americans were relying on – that the great urgency for that “back channel” communication (which as SURE AS I EXIST today does as well) was that the Americans had a spy in Putin’s inner circle, and Trump’s team had to relay that info to Putin.
So yep. Totally, terrifyingly fked.
(sorry, I don’t know how to, or if one can, put pics in here; I have a freaky ass tweet from Max Kennerly suggesting this.)
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not being a GoT aficionado, I had to look that up.
It seems appropriate, except that Putin didn’t have to torture Shitgibbon to get Lying Littledick to abase himself and our country. Well, maybe he kept telling Deadbeat Donnie that he (i.e., the Trumpentraitor) has tiny hands, until Cheeto Benito started crying.
debbie
@Sister Golden Bear:
Good luck!
Aleta
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Trump would have lasted less than 5 seconds.
NotMax
Heh. Hawaii is a laid back place, chapter the 99,811th. Decidedly different as a campaign ad (the music is straight out a late 1950s corporate promotional film); the last bit of the ad itself is a pleasure to hear said out loud.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
Trying to open BJ on my desktop (Win10/Chrome), I got five popup warnings ostensibly from Norton that this was a known fraudulent site. These popups didn’t appear on other sites. Has anyone else experienced this?
I just got the same warning when I tried to open DailyKos.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Golden Bear: Good luck.
NotMax
Police detective story and Nordic noir lovers –
An odd duck hybrid found on Netflix, Fallet. Like a toothsome noir cake covered with a generous icing of humor. Swedish production but it’s about 85% in English (percenatge varies by episode).
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel:
And everyone around me insisting I am absolutely helpless.
debbie
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:
I got those (not recently) and updated Chrome.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Better watch it, his lawyer is gonna beat you up for saying that.
rikyrah
@satby:
Feel better, satby ??
rikyrah
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Get the ENTIRE Phuck Outta Here ? ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: We have Norton too. No such warnings.
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
Sending you positive thoughts ?
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ? ?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ha! Rudi’s a bigger wuss than Trump.
Speaking of wusses, where’s Sessions been? He seems uncharacteristically silent.
rikyrah
@Mezz:
Remember, he also burned Israeli operatives with that meeting in the Oval Office with the Russians.
But, yes, I believe that it’s a given that he betrayed operatives that we had in Russia.
TRAITOR ?
Immanentize
@Sister Golden Bear: Good luck and heal fast. And take the meds they let you take.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Trump has picked up Putin’s claim that Montenegro is aggressive and not worth NATO defending. Wasn’t it the president of Montenegro that Trump shoved out of the way to get to the front of a photo shoot?
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: trump has the best lawyers! The toughest lawyers! Just wait until Mueller is paid a visit by Michael Cohen!
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Montenegro is the new Chad.
MomSense
@satby:
Hope your elbow feels better.
@Sister Golden Bear:
We are all rooting for you! Please let us know how you are doing as soon as you can. Jackals worry.
Immanentize
@satby:I am having the same problem — elbowitis. After a month, i went to the Doc, she said wait another month — which is next week. I wonder if they will give me a cortisone shot then….
rikyrah
The DHS plan for reunification of stolen children.
I will say it again..
They never had any plan to give back the children.??
https://view.connect.hhs.gov/?qs=69e85dc225c07c817e54be8602160076e65ea7877d05e8797ce4012e672b59e306425fb24e85a6efb3fb46979b73a20d7eaf5ab077665313c8513f3473922b3c647d37dbcfebad69
Baud
@satby:
Take care of yourself.
Immanentize
@debbie: Every one of the guys in trouble with the NRA Natasha seems to have some connection to Sessions.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Sessions is at the Annual Grand Gathering of Grand Dragons.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Not surprising. What old fart wouldn’t fall for a young lovely with guns?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: My Doc gave me cortisone shots in my shoulders for bursitis and tendonitis, no problemo. Elbows? Nope, refused to do it. Had to go to a specialist for that. It sounds like you’ve had them before but if you haven’t, the first 24-48 hours after the shot are pure hell, than relief comes.
Brachiator
@Sister Golden Bear: Best wishes and good luck. Will look forward to your posts after everything has been taken care of.
different-church-lady
@Ben Cisco:
…in the left nostril.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Tail wags and waves back! John Lennon, fearless rescue kitty, is having his morning private time. Haven’t seen him.
NotMax
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
Probably not the answer you want to hear. Get rid of Norton.
Microsoft does a lot of things ‘well enough’ – the already built in anti-virus program Windows Defender, however, is one of those things it does right (after a slightly rocky start when it was rolled out bundled with Win 8 as a successor to the excellent Microsoft Security Essentials which was available only as a separate download for Win 7). Your computer without Norton will run better and faster (Norton over the years has become what is called bloatware, programs that unnecessarily suck up your computer’s resources and impede its performance).
Good, clear rundown of why Windows Defender plus an anti-malware program (which you should have even if Norton is installed and running) is sufficient and robust enough for most PC users.
If you do ditch Norton, go to their website and make sure to unsubscribe there, otherwise they have been known to keep charging you even if you are no longer using the product.
Should you be unsure if Windows Defender is enabled on your machine, a quick Google search and how to enable or disable Windows Defender should provide those instructions.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I have had two such shots in my life. The first was iny heel for plantar fasciitis. That hurt like hell! Well, it burned like hell too. The second one was in my elbow about ten years ago. My (regular) Doctor did it and he has this little trick where he first injects the site with a touch of novacaine to make sure he has targeted the right spot. Instant relief from the tendonitis! Then he puts in the cortisone and this prevents that burn and pain somehow. It was smooth as silk and I didn’t have to cringe for a day like I did with my heel injection
Platonailedit
@NotMax:
+1. Did away with all the anti virus crap ever since windows defender came into the scene. Zero meltdowns in the last 10+ years.
A Ghost To Most
@EZSmirkzz: Infiltration at all levels, per Adam S.
Assume corruption.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Did you read Silverman’s breakdown of Spy Girl’s Sugar Daddy? The connections he had to right-wing world?
MomSense
@Baud:
Thank dog for your humor, Baud.
Citizen Scientist
@Baud: Or is it the new ‘Namibia’?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I have probably had better than a dozen in my elbows and shoulders for both bursitis and tendonitis. It had been a few years since the last time and then about 2 months ago I got a trip down memory lane in my left shoulder. Holy shit I had forgotten how bad they could be. I was absolutely useless for those next 2 days. Then it got better but never pain free. Had an MRI ($850, my cost) and find that my rotator cuff is torn. Oh joy.
Ken
@SFAW:
So we’re not going with the theory that the “pee tape” is really of Trump, bruised and bloody after the Russian Mafia beat the hell out of him for missing a payment, and sobbing that he’ll do anything they want?
Pity, it seemed to wrap up so much – his role as Putin’s lickspittle, the decline in cognition and speech, his fear of falling down the stairs…
lowtechcyclist
@debbie:
A theme song for those old farts: Tommy Shaw, Girls With Guns (1984)
Sister Golden Bear
Probably a dead thread, but… Right now my biggest problem is boredom. It was good that I had several hours alone this afternoon. Discovered Hulu doesn’t work overseas, and was smart enough to figure out I was using a VPN service. Had to try two others before I got one to work. But now I can catch up on “Xena” when I’m awake enough.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@NotMax:
Thanks for the advice, although I didn’t want to hear it. I was hoping to hear that Norton is now being spoofed by Kaspersky in a desperate attempt by the GRU to drive us away from this site.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Golden Bear:
Good luck. I hope everything goes well.
Heidi Mom
@satby: “Bleak” is an understatement! For some of us, coffee is an essential nutrient. Hope you feel better soon.
Heidi Mom
@NotMax: I’ll give that a try. Right now I’m watching Hinterland, a police procedural from Wales with a classic brilliant-but-emotionally-damaged detective. I didn’t know “Welsh noir” was a thing, but maybe this is the first with more to come.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: All the best to you. You will feel so much better once you’ve got this surgery in the rear view mirror, and then you can go to Thailand travelogue and culture. Really important point in your life.
Elizabelle
@Aleta: Good to know. I will make a point to see it.
“Spiked” exhibit by of cartoons by Rob Rogers, at GWU’s Corcoran in DC. Closed Mondays.
hueyplong
@Ken: I like the way you think. At least on that one point.
Dupe1970
@Cermet: And wasn’t hacked.
satby
@rikyrah: thanks sweetie!
Darkrose
@Sister Golden Bear: Good luck! ? Hope it all goes well.
The Other Chuck
@NotMax:
Norton is triggering on ad networks that either (A) have been known to be compromised with malware, or (B) known to use shady practices to track users regardless of Do-Not-Track settings. Given BJ’s track record with advertisers, I wouldn’t be surprised if both were true.
Get rid of it if you like, but I’d at least install an adblocker. These days I recommend Ghostery.
Once you uninstall Norton, Windows will complain loudly if you don’t have any other AV running, and will walk you through enabling Defender. Otherwise just tap start and type “security”, which should show the relevant settings link (I’m on a Mac so I don’t know the exact name of it)
satby
@MomSense: @Baud: thanks guys! Probably shouldn’t have done a month’s worth of work in three days ?
@Immanentize: hope the doc decides you’ve suffered enough!
NotMax
@The Other Chuck
Strictly entre nous, I augment Firefox with AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, Privacy Badger and Better Privacy (among other utilitarian add-ons).
Tenar Arha
@rikyrah:
Yeah, they definitely never had a plan. This is our child stealing government in inaction.
Now, sitting here wondering when those f-ers even posted that, since we’ve known since last week they were definitely going to blow the judge’s deadline.
The Other Chuck
@NotMax: Sounds like a lot of redundant plugins [edit: not really, having looked into them further], and I suspect ABP alone can do most of it with custom lists. I pick Ghostery for the commendable job they do of giving a high-level and layman-accessible view of advertiser networks.
Privacy Badger does look very interesting though. Might add that to my default recommends, since I’m inclined to trust the EFF. Does look like a privacy tool and not an ad-blocker, so the autoplay nonsense may still need the latter to fix.
EZSmirkzz
@A Ghost To Most: Where I disagree with Adam on this is this is not that this is a Constitutional crisis, it is an existential crisis for the American republic. While I don’t think they are colluding, the free enterprise cabal is attacking American institutions at the same time, so we have an accumulative effect of alkaline and acidic corrosion which will at some point come into contact with each other. This shit’s starting to get serious now, and the information bubble brains are still missing the big picture, IMHO.
Knowing something, and being able to prove that something are two different things, and far be it from me to accuse any particular Republican of treason, when in reality there may be Democrats doing the same thing. Intelligence analysis is the easy part, gathering the intelligence to analyze not so much, especially with a click bait media that is more interested in eyeballs to sell advertising to than doing any of the work required for intelligence gathering. With that in mind, as far as the media goes, all I can say is complacency kills. Complacency Kills was a job-site safety saying for a year (1979?) with Brown and Root. When it comes to the fourth column then it gets a little more abstract.
I think there will always be “moles” in our government, just as there will always be moles in other, adversarial governments working for us. The deep state bullshit sounds like a red herring to me, unless we somehow conclude that those individuals are only working part time to undermine Trump, depending on which way the wind blows on any given day. Maybe they’re the moles that W. Bush left behind for the Obama administration?
As for Adam and Walter P. for that matter, I do not know what information bubble they are in, if they are in fact in one. The latter is definitely showing signs of being so. Still, you have to let minds like that go where they go, and have a good threshing floor in your own barnyard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Hardly a bailiwick of political activists. Analysts can only analyze what they know, and one either reads widely outside of their own notions or they read themselves into an information bubble. Still, they are to be considered a valuable resource in future endeavors, so endurance with them is a disposition to be cultivated within oneself when dealing with them.
Long ago when men were men and blogs were blogs, Emptywheel blogged at dKos, went on to the Next Hurrah and now has her own site, https://www.emptywheel.net/ which you may wish to check out if you don’t already. She is first rate legal analysis on the ongoing situation.
There, I’ve said more than I intended.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: “Xena” re-reuns, m’dear? AWESOME. Best of luck to you and catch us up when you’re up to it!
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@NotMax: Oh, that looks interesting! I’m watching Wallander now and just finished Hinterland (obviously this one wasn’t Nordic Noir but close enough).
stinger
@Sister Golden Bear: Best wishes for a quick recovery. You’ve got a lot to deal with right now.
stinger
@Immanentize:
I’ve had only one surgery as an adult. I’m a bit of a stoic with a high pain threshhold, a baseless fear of addiction, and a dislike of “bothering” people, such as nurses. My surgeon was firm that I should take the prescribed pain meds, saying, “Pain is not part of the healing process.” I did, and I wasn’t sorry.
The Pale Scot
@EZSmirkzz:
I’m pretty sure I remember it being something along the line of self absorbed fools, but could you give a clue or link?
EZSmirkzz
@The Pale Scot: I became aware of it being said in the film “Breach”. Second quarter of the flick as I recall, when O’Neil is read into the case by his supervisor.
workworkwork
I’m so glad I got the #MAKA extension for Chrome. All those cartoons come up as adorable kitties!
EZSmirkzz
@The Pale Scot: “The US can errantly be likened to a powerfully built, but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated.” Starting at 47:21