Just a little reminder that might brighten your evening.
Robert Mueller is due to deliver a report to a federal judge tomorrow on Paul Manafort’s cooperation.
A judge is about to learn how Manafort has been helping.
Maybe we will too.https://t.co/mdjjbk0jBJ
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) November 26, 2018
End of a long, and for some people stressful, weekend.
… Lawyers in the case… asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington for an extension until Nov. 26. They didn’t explain why, saying in a brief filing on Thursday [11/15] that they will then submit “a report that will be of greater assistance in the court’s management of this matter.”
Nothing else in the two-paragraph document indicates what, if anything, may be happening in the next 10 days. But the filing could suggest that Manafort’s cooperation with Mueller may be nearing a critical point…
“If Manafort is a key figure in a soon-to-be-made public indictment, such that he’s a major witness or co-conspirator, that would be a pretty big event,” [former federal prosecutor Patrick] Cotter said. “They may want to say to the judge, ‘You’re going to have his sentencing way back because Manafort is going to be a key witness in a brand new case.’”
Prosecutors may also still be debriefing Manafort and need more time, Cotter said.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said the filing “tells us that something significant and public will be happening within the next 10 days. That will enable the prosecutors to give them a better sense of where Manafort is in terms of the overall process.”…
And George ‘Coffee Boy’ Papadopoulus isn’t looking forward to tomorrow, either…
A federal judge on Sunday ruled that George Papadopoulos must report to prison as scheduled on Monday, rejecting a bid by the former Trump campaign adviser to delay the start of his sentence while a constitutional challenge to the special counsel’s investigation of Russian election interference remains unresolved.
Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to spend 14 days in prison, had argued that it was possible that the constitutional challenge in a separate case would result in his conviction being set aside and that he should therefore be allowed to remain free on bail. But U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss noted that Papadopoulos had not appealed his conviction, having waived his right to do so when he pleaded guilty. Moss also wrote that Papadopoulos had not shown that the appeals court in the separate case probably would conclude that the special counsel’s appointment was unlawful…Late last week, his new lawyers asked Moss to allow Papadopoulos to delay the start of his prison term until a constitutional challenge to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is resolved in Washington. Mueller is investigating whether anyone in Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to influence the election’s outcome.
Moss resoundingly rejected what he termed the “11th hour” request, writing in a 13-page ruling that even if the challenge to Mueller’s appointment was successful — and he doubted it would be — it would be unlikely to give Papadopoulos cause to undo his conviction…
Omnes Omnibus
Woohoo!
Denali
At long last!
Steeplejack
I was going to drop this in the last thread, but this is a better place.
It continues to amaze me—though it shouldn’t—that in the Trump era all the sleaze and ugliness is right out there on open display. They don’t bother to hide it.
Here’s a picture of Trump at his golf course today:
Fat fuckGuy on the left is Christopher Ruddy, CEO of NewsMax. ’Nuff said.Fat fuckGuy on the right is Fred Fleitz, senior vice president at the Center for Security Policy—a “far-right think tank,” according to Wikipedia, whose founder and president is Frank Gaffney Jr., “counter-jihad conspiracy theorist.” Oh, and Fleitz used to be John Bolton’s chief of staff.This is who Trump is hanging out with—on a day when Russia is escalating some bullshit with Ukraine and Trump’s goons are firing tear gas into Mexico at women and children.
This picture has been retweeted on numerous feeds, and the comments are merciless. One of the milder ones—David F. Soros: “It really is the retired lifestyle: watch TV, yell at people, golf, followed by the early bird special at Mar-a-Lago.”
A Ghost To Most
Things are looking up
January is coming.
AliceBlue
@Steeplejack: I think my favorite comment is “Form an orderly line ladies” courtesy of Charlie Pierce.
SWMBO
Tick Tock Muthafuquers! It’s almost time for Muellermas isn’t it?
Major Major Major Major
Here is a funny comic about cats.
Ruckus
@A Ghost To Most:
36 days I believe. Of course the nightmare will only be going into the second act.
zhena gogolia
I wish I still felt that Mueller was going to make any difference.
The Dangerman
Trump’s nuts roasting on an open fire…
Steeplejack
@AliceBlue:
Heh. I find that on many Twitter threads the comments are better than the original post.
Sometimes I forget how I got to some of them. Did we cover the one here from the woman whose father’s DNA test showed he wasn’t Italian?
MobiusKlein
@zhena gogolia: Your feelings are one thing you can control!
Let me help you
MULLER WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE, and has already to boot!
sukabi
@The Dangerman: that literally needs to happen.
Mike in NC
Requirements for club membership at Mar-A-Lago:
(1) $200,000 initiation fee
(2) Being a far right-wing fat fuck elderly racist white guy
(3) Enjoy eating expensive burnt pieces of steak smothered in ketchup
Omnes Omnibus
Fucking shit, Tramon, you are better than that.
Omnes Omnibus
@sukabi: I was going to go with “Ew.”
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
Eventually he will. But it take time to round up this many culprits and some of them have at least some level of legal question of being arrested.
Personally I don’t think they should but that’s just me. But giving them immunity from indictment/arrest raises them above the rest of the citizens and gives them a much better platform on which to break the law. It should be the law and everyone should be equal to it. But of course we all know that is a fools wish, money and whiteness can overcome a lot. This is where the shit hits the fan, this is right here. It’s decision time for our country, are we a nation of laws that are applied equally to everyone or not. And of course the answer right now is we are not. Race, money, position in society can count for a lot, and they shouldn’t.
Yarrow
As bad as we think it is, it’s worse. Mueller is coming. Tick tock you treasonous motherfuckers.
I’ve been really busy today and haven’t read every thread. Did this get posted here today?
Zuckerberg and Sandberg are traitors. Traitors gonna pay. Tick tock.
NotMax
Result of 30 seconds playing around with image editing.
:)
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Is that gluten-free?
Jackie
@The Dangerman: I just spewed wine through my nose. It wasn’t pleasant – burnt like hell. But, worth it ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Ew was my reaction as well.
sukabi
@Steeplejack: funny, but why do people assume that their ancestors never migrated, except for when they came here?
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Even better, it’s Putin-free.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Not bad.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: It depends on what your expectations are: Trump frogmarched out of the White House…Not a chance, but there are things that are much more likely to happen like maybe an indictment of one or all of his older kids.
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
There seems to be a weird thing with Ancestry DNA right now where everyone whose family is from northern Italy is getting marked as not Italian. The same thing just happened to me even though I have direct paternal relatives in Lombardia that we hear from occasionally.
Ken
@Yarrow: It was mentioned but not discussed. Reading Charles Stross’ Laundry novels gave me an appreciation for the absolute power that Parliament can exercise, even without benefit of Stross’ Lovecraftian entities as enforcers.
Ruckus
@sukabi:
Because their ancestors were great people who came here for the free chocolate, not because of the shitty government or life or crimes they may have done somewhere else. Plus they passed stories down generations about where they were from and every one of those stories had a start in someone’s head, not 50 generations of written records. Mine is dad is Scotch/Irish background, with a few generations in america that have unknown origins and mom’s side is from Sicily. Of course that leaves out grandmas husband, granddad, on mom’s side. I have no idea where he supposedly came from. I like the answer, “What the fuck does it matter?”
sukabi
@Yarrow: I posted that on a thread last night, didn’t get much of a reaction.
Yes, zuckerburg and crew should end up broke and in prison. When they finally break that company open they’ll likely find that it wasn’t just Cambridge Anal that was given full access to user data.
Also they seem to be running a stealth partisan operation.
Steeplejack
@sukabi:
There’s very little logic to it. People’s sense of personal identity is formed from all sorts of things—physical appearance, family history, community, etc. At some level it can get to be like saying, “I’m a Hoosier.” It’s what Kurt Vonnegut called a granfalloon, “a proud and meaningless collection of human beings.”
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I wouldn’t say not a chance, but I would go with very, very highly unlikely. He’s got 2 yrs 56 days left. He looks like death warmed over and not warmed much, he appears to be sundowning some days, a good part of his party and close supporters/enablers are having discussions with prosecutors, a few have been indicted/plead guilty, his party lost half of congress and a whole lot more in the mid terms…… It’s not looking good for the orange ass, and I wouldn’t count out him being frog marched. Mind you I’m not holding my breath, but it is possible.
Yarrow
@Ken: The UK Parliament is not happy with Zuckerberg. And it’s just the beginning.
@sukabi: Yep. I don’t think they know how bad it’s going to get for them. The company took Russian money it’s it’s weird how little attention that has received. It’s been a big influence op for awhile now, all while making Zuckerberg, Sandberg and co. very wealthy.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Dr. Feelgood already has the letter awaiting signature pronouncing him the “healthiest person ever to occupy a federal prison cell.”
;)
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
Some of the DNA testing companies lower their prices over the Thanksgiving to New Year holiday axis. Families get together and go “hey, let’s explore the old family tree.”
This is cool, but people should allow for a few surprises.
There was an interesting WaPo story a while back about a family who discovered that one of their grandfathers had been accidentally switched with another baby at the hospital in the early 1900s.
Eunicecycle
Our cat does that! Then sits there like “What???”
Kent
When are we going to get the 20 paragraph NYT retrospective on why Republicans can’t gain traction with people of color in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Bronx district?
You know….walk around and talk to the real salt of the earth folks in the bodegas about how they feel?
Not gonna hold my breath.
piratedan
i honestly don’t believe that they’ll be able to extricate DJT from the WH regardless of the magnitude of his crimes and their proof until McConnell is removed from office. Do I believe that Mitch is just as dirty as DJT, yes… yes I do and until Mueller pins his treasonous carcass to the wall, he’ll continue to run interference for DJT until his dying breath because each day that this travesty of an administration continues allows them to all burrow just a bit deeper and secure just a bit more wealth and appoint a few more apparatchiks into place to continue to work on their agenda.
PhoenixRising
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, the DNA test may be looking for Sicilian instead of Italian, which makes sense in light of the fact that Italy didn’t exist in its present format when the bulk of immigrants to North America took ship from its present-day boundaries.
My sister-in-law & wife had to explain to their mom over Thanksgiving why they haven’t used the DNA test she got them for the holidays last year, and it was epic. My wife pointed out that since mama had already done hers, it’s really a test of their paternal ancestry, a topic they see no upside to exploring further. (Her bio father cut out 40 years ago but all 3 of them would have been better off had he left sooner.)
After mom went for another tiny glass of merlot, Mrs PhoenixRising whispered ‘…because we each have 1 sibling…that we *know of*’ and she & her sister fell off their chairs laughing.
I find it charming when I hear from people who are confident in their ancestors’ fidelity & honesty to the degree that they are curious about 20 generations ago…the thing is, I worry about what is closer in time & space.
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
Check the comments on that post I linked. Many people weighing in with all sorts of family surprises!
lgerard
@Brachiator:
Reminds me of this episode an interesting but sad story.
Adam L Silverman
There are only 9:14 more shopping hours until Papadolous’s incarceration. Shop wisely, shop well…
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Dr. Feelgood is on something. And he is fucking lying. And people used to get arrested for taking whatever it is. And probably still do.
I’m old(ish) and I spend a fair amount of time at a hospital with other mostly old farts. I know old and infirm when I sit next to it or see it across the room. And all his lying doesn’t make the orange shitstain any healthier.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Three sticks, no waiting.
;)
PhoenixRising
@Ruckus:
The only one of my ancestors whose immigrant story I know for sure was not one of Prussia’s best people. He was imprisoned with Carl Shurz & didn’t let the doorknob hit his ass when the post-1848 reformed government freed the political prisoners. He catered Lincoln’s second inauguration out of his pastry shop near what is now the National Portrait Gallery, where the food was served, then thrown in an epic American food fight. U-S-A!
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: @sukabi: @Mnemosyne: @PhoenixRising: The simple reality is that the tests just aren’t very reliable.
https://gizmodo.com/how-dna-testing-botched-my-familys-heritage-and-probab-1820932637
Much more at the link. Also, the companies that do these tests can’t be trusted with your information:
https://gizmodo.com/what-dna-testing-companies-terrifying-privacy-policies-1819158337
Yarrow
@NotMax: How sad is it when you said “Dr. Feelgood” I wasn’t sure which of Trump’s crazy doctors you meant–his crazy NY doctor or Ronny Jackson who apparently handed out pills like candy?
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: What’s the over/under that George tries to skip out tomorrow AM?
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: Concur. I was just about to write something like that when I came to your comment.
Uncle Omar
@Steeplejack: What I find interesting is that the one in the middle is the slimmest and healthiest looking of the three. But,, they’re all what Dr. Thompson referred to as “fat-back grosseros” when describing the Aspen real estate developer community.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer:
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Would rate if highly unlikely. Whatever the sentence is for fleeing, it’s more than 14 days.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Yep. And given companies’ poor handling of our personal information, what’s stopping them from giving it all to health insurers so they can deny you coverage or make you pay more because you have certain genes. Oh, laws you say? Ha ha ha ha ha!
Brachiator
@sukabi:
I don’t think that Zuckerberg is going to prison. He might pay a fine and say he’s sorry.
I don’t think that FB is blameless, but the nature of the Internets made what CA did possible, and the danger of misuse of data is never going away.
Fer example. The UK wants to slap Zuck around, but also wants to use enhancements in facial recognition software so that their CCTV cameras can not only identify people, but also put together their social connections. China, and other countries, of course, want to do the same thing.
PhoenixRising
@Adam L Silverman: I’m convinced they aren’t reliable and the firms aren’t trustworthy. I’m further convinced by what little I know of my wife’s father that, let’s see how to put this, the thing DNA tests were first known as (‘paternity testing’) works reliably enough for a substantial downside to be possible in their circumstance. The only thing DNA tests do well are sometimes best not done at all.
NotMax
@NotMax
Now, I’m not saying his wife may not have a sudden urge for an extended visit to The Hermitage….
sukabi
@Ruckus: are we even sure he’s going to submit to another physical? Did they get the orange asshole another dr? Last I heard Dr. Randy got himself shitcanned.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: I’m betting Mueller has a couple of G-Men sitting on him making sure he doesn’t try and skip.
Ruckus
@PhoenixRising:
As I related in my comment, there are some real gaps in my family history. Mom’s dad died of congestive heart failure on the tennis court in 1936, playing with my mom. Still in the depression, had enough money to be off playing tennis in the middle of the day with his daughter and they lived in what was then a nice suburb of LA proper. You now know all I do about my grandad. Mom’s maternal granddad was supposed to have been a mafia hit man from Sicily.
That is the total extent of my knowledge of my mom’s side of the family.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I would ordinarily do the same, but George doesn’t seem to be the sharpest knife in the plastic chopsticks drawer. Also, his
handlerwife seems to be egging him on to ever greater feats of stupidity.Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I’m pretty sure if she does one of these genetic ancestry tests it isn’t going to come back showing she’s Italian.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@zhena gogolia:
Ya. My fear exactly, fwiw.
Betwixt the moribund neutered fecklessness of our national press corpse and the blanket immunity offered like a goddam beseeching supplicant by the ig’nint and the evil (not mutually exclusive! can be both!), I fear that (and even *this* ain’t a given) Mueller’ll drop a bombshell n Preznit Pussygrabber Fuck-Yeah-I-Obstructed-Justice-The-Fuck-You-Gonna-Do-Bout-It? n alla his aiders and abettors will KellyAnneConway both-sides fuck-off-we-hold-the-hammer the fuck outta it.
Me, I called that Cheeto Benito would be forced from office *somefuckinghow* in the midst of his puling petulant black hole of neediness, and still expect it’ll happen. Course, maybe will, maybe won’t.
But I want more. I want accountability. It ain’t enough for Mueller to say/allege Trump n his minions are guilty of criminality and perhaps treason. And then the nation collectively clutches its fucking pearls n sez “Oh, ain’t it a shame!” and then don’t nothing come of it but some lying shithead leaves office under a both-sides cloud (oooh, scary! KStreetConsequential!), but don’t never face no consequences. And we see it all around us — what, Tom Price is gotta leave HHS? Aw, ya mean he can’t grift no more in the government n he’s reduced to the private sector swindle! Whatta motherfuckin shame! N who’s that dickhead from the EPA — Scott Pruitt — ya mean he’s gotta step down? Wow! There’s a goddamn lowering on the grift circuit. Penalties? Indictments? Obstacles of any kind apart from “stop doing yer pernicious shit” (which, I’ll own, ain’t nothing)?
Gotta Zinke-hinky-no on that’n!
Know who done the unpardonable n got clean away withit? Nixon. Pardoned. Tx. both sides n you can’t handle the truth! And then? Reagan. Ya, selling arms to terrorists to fund an illegal proxy war — totally cool! Nuttin to see there! After that? W. *de-fucking-liberately* lying us into an unnecessary war. Now we got stoopid shits pining for the days of W. just on account a how embarrassing Trump is. Taking up Anne L.’s point bout how many divisions does the Hague got, since GeeDub n DarthCheney never got escorted to the Hague, reckon we know the answer to that hypothetical.
Much like the Wall Street scam of the aughts, don’t nothing change until somebody that done sumpin wrong goes to jail. And that’s my questions bout the Mueller investigation: One, does he got the stroke (or the want-to) in these benighted times to pull that off, and two, is him n our society prepared to deliver us from this evil or will they be like the disappointment of Fitzmas? Alla the roaches disappear into that good night n Dems not only clean up the mess but suffer the abuse of disingenuous assholes who wanna blame them for not cleaning up the Republican Gotterdammerung fast enough.
What’s callt for: in the form of not just indictments n prosecutions but something resembling the harsh fucking justice these assholes are more’n willing to mete out to mere bit players in our grinding wheels’a “just-us” justice.
Me, if the evidence sez Trump is guilty of criminality (to say nothing of treason), then he deserves to fester inna orange jump suit (matches his hair!) n I think we is equal to the knowledge (n it might even be obstructive) a knowin that “we” elected a know-nothing criminal traitor n mebbe it’d be a good idea not to repeat the experiment.
(But that’s just me.)
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: LOL. Ya think?
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
That is where they live now, borders were not always guarded. Half my Swedish family (relatives living outside Stockholm) are French courtesy of a deal the Swedish king made with the French to supply mining engineers back in the 1700s. Ancestry is rarely neat and orderly
frosty
@Adam L Silverman: My twin brother and I got different results from NatGeo. One of us had a section of Europe that the other didn’t.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Da.
Ruckus
@sukabi:
You think he took that “last physical?”
Dr Feelgood listened to his bullshit for 2 minutes and walked out and said he’s fine. Which is what he was told to say. Because shit for brains thinks he’s perfect. That ain’t no physical.
Most everyone I know personally over about 55-60 yrs old is on medication. You think that the orange shitstain would take medication? I don’t because that would mean he isn’t perfect. Those other fucks in the picture above, I’d bet they take meds, for BP, cholesterol at the very least.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: It’s such a poor cover I can’t quite figure out the game there. Did they think no one would notice?
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
I would say it’s more like polling. Estimates can be useful and reasonable, but they are not gospel.
Ruckus
@PhoenixRising:
On the scientific front they aren’t reliable at all.
First, they only look at a very small bit of one’s genetic makeup.
Second they don’t have anything like reliable data going back more than a few years.
It’s all bullshit and magic, to get $49-98 out of your wallet. Would it matter if they told you that 90% of your genetics are Martian? It would be just as reliable.
Yarrow
@Brachiator: It all depends on which genes turn out on the day?
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Yes. A good chunk of Putin’s MO is being completely in your face about this stuff and then just daring everyone/anyone to do something about it. The whole Skirpal poisoning was like this. Even the incident in the Azov Sea today was like this. Blatant, flagrant, and then the Russians just deny, deny, deny, spread disinformation as propaganda domestically and then through their social media and RT and Sputnik, and then they sit back and wait for a response that never comes.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: Amen!
Steeplejack
@frosty:
Twin sons of different mothers.
Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg, “Tell Me to My Face.”
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Dollars to donuts it ain’t gonna come back X% Sentinelese.
:)
Ken
@Ruckus: IIRC he did at least take a cognition test. You may recall the big “whoosh” sound when he bragged that he’d passed. It reminded me of a joke, “I have three certificates from psychiatrists saying I’m not a danger to others – most people don’t even have one!”
ETA: You may also recall that his weight was 239 pounds, which drew comments.
Schlemazel
@Ruckus:
I think the tangerine turd is on several meds and they keep it on the QT.
One guess is he takes drugs for his hair. He has had scalp reduction surgery to stave off his baldness and I bet his vanity wins. The rest I would guess to be at least uppers and downers given his moods. Probably others.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, I get that in a larger level. It’s just her as Italian is so laughable. That one example is so obviously wrong it seems ridiculous.
oldgold
A key aspect of the motion to extend the Status Report filing for 10 days is that it was a joint filing by the Government and Manafort
That it was joint means both sides expected new meaningful cooperation from Manafort and/or some showing of substantive fruit from his prior cooperation would occur within 10 days.
I do fear the Status Report might be sealed.
Yarrow
@Schlemazel: He takes propecia for his hair loss. His long time doctor in NY said that.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Putin wouldn’t be such tough shit if it wasn’t for his nuclear arsenal.
What’s the definition of insanity? ; )
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: One would hope.
Yarrow
@Ken: 239 pounds was the most he could weigh given his height and not be considered obese. So that’s what he has to weigh. Also, he grew an inch from his previous physical. Weird for someone in their 70’s.
Doug R
@zhena gogolia:
My Mom died last year and as executor of their estate (Dad died in 2014) and as I was going through their letters, I found one from Sam Irvin’s office addressed to my Dad. Something to the effect that they were going to find out the truth and thanks for your support, etc.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Wouldn’t trust his NY doctor to give me directions to Times Square if we were both standing at 42nd Street and Broadway.
Funny, we never hear about any Florida doctor.
Yarrow
@NotMax: I’d guess there are a lot of doctors we haven’t heard about.
Ruckus
@Ken:
I’ve been taking neuro tests for the last 3 years. Six months ago my record shows that I took one. But nothing in the hour was a neuro test. The next appointment the doc told me that he talked to that last doc and that the standard neuro test I took was negative. I told him that no standard neuro test had been done. The look on his face was priceless, he almost shit himself. But he did end up doing a complete standard neuro exam. And I’d bet that any exam of the orange shitstain consisted of him telling the doc that he’s fine, sign here and get out, he has tweeting to do. Most of this type of testing is all graduated, learned responses and is adjusted for the age of the patient. Believe me I’ve been there.
Amir Khalid
@frosty:
Just checking: are you identical twins, or fraternal?
NotMax
@Yarrow
Ronny Jackson turned out to be one of those military types who fervently believes gold braid covers (and acts as immunization against) all sins.
Adam better qualified to expound on this theory than is poor civilian layman I.
Brachiator
I have a used Pixel phone and have recently used the Night Sight feature which has been pushed down to the Camera App. Damn, it takes some impressive photos in low light.
There is, I think, hardware (a chip) in the Pixel 3 which makes it even better, but even in an older phone it does well. Ultimately, I think that every phone manufacturer will come up with a version of this, it’s so damn useful.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: It is quite impressively bad cover. The work history she’s provided, where she’s lived; all of it falls apart quickly with a little digging. We can basically say we know who she isn’t, despite her claims, what we can’t say is who she actually is. We have some educated guesses, but that’s it.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, none of it really holds up. It’s laughably bad. I mean, if she were really trying to use it as a cover. I have to think they made it so obvious for a reason.
I’d guess some people know who she really is, like people on Mueller’s team. I wonder if George P. knows.
Schlemazel
@Yarrow:
Also, if you look at pictures of him standing next to 6’1″ President Obama he is a good inch shorter. I am 5’10” and at my worst was 220. I can say with great certainty that fat ass is much more than 239
NotMax
@Yarrow
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Madame Butterfly Gambit.
:)
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
Ahem. Nothing can stave off baldness. Scalp reduction surgery merely rearranges one’s scalp to hide it.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: My understanding, based on what was reported of his work in Iraq, is that he’s an excellent combat surgeon, which is how he got the White House assignment and the promotion to Rear Admiral lower half/one star. My understanding is that he’s also a toxic leader based on what has been reported about his time in the White House, that he appears to have an alcohol problem, and he hands out prescription meds like candy. Now whether this was always the case, but wasn’t an issue in Iraq because he had no access to alcohol in Iraq (one part of General Order 1 for all personnel deployed to Iraq bans alcohol possession and usage), or whether it only developed when he got back from his combat surgeon deployments I cannot say. It is also entirely possible that he was promoted above his capabilities to perform. That as an O6/captain serving as a combat surgeon and combat surgery team lead he was an excellent surgeon and effective commanding officer, but as an O7/rear admiral lower half running the White House medical unit he was in way over his head, was self medicating his own PTS from his Iraq deployments with alcohol, and just wanted to be everyone’s buddy – hence handing out pills.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
How could you convince a raving narcissist that he needs meds? I know people who aren’t raving narcissists and they don’t take all their meds prescribed.
I suppose that it’s possible. I’m just one who thinks it’s unlikely.
@Yarrow:
I think we all joined in on that dog pile about him weighing 239 lbs and being an inch taller. Medical marvel that he is.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: I’m curious to see if Mueller has her scarfed up once George goes to prison.
Yarrow
@Schlemazel: It’s obvious to anyone that looks at him. It’s why there was so much pushback to the claims about his height and weight. It just didn’t hold up. Dr. Ronny Jackson was lying. The real question was why he did so.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Is it known if he was doing this while in the Obama White House? Prescribing pills like candy that is?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
Remember when people were called conspiracy theorists for doing that?
Sab
@Steeplejack: I am late to this thread, but that thread was amazing.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
By the way, why does the US Navy have two officer ranks called Rear Admiral?
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman:
In that extended press conference he came across to me as someone who wanted to be liked, so I’d give that possibility some weight. Whether that is as a result of his work in Iraq or something else, I’m in no position to say.
@Adam L Silverman: I wonder if she’ll try to flee before he goes to prison. You know, go visit her “family in Italy.” Ha.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: A number of the more senior Obama staffers are the ones who came out and said he handed out sleeping pills for them without prescription when they were doing long, often overseas, travel. And that he also would hand stuff out without doing proper exams in the White House. A lot of this also came out in materials sent to and/or uncovered by Senator Tester.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Because people balk at being called Full Frontal Admiral?
:)
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I do!
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid: agreed. It was short hand. I would guess he has had transplants too. That is why his hair is so thin. He keeps it really long to hide how little of it there is
Steeplejack (phone)
@Sab:
It was hilarious!
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
This sounds highly plausible to me.
I’ve had the displeasure of serving under officers who were promoted above their skill level. There is a learned skill set to being an effective officer as well as general personality. I’ve seen a few that were excellent, I’ve seen a number that were OK, and a few that should never have been in uniform or at least not in the level that they occupied. I’ve seen one outstanding. I’d imagine there are more than that one but that’s not something I’d bet on, other than some of those excellent one’s could fit the bill if they tried just a bit.
You’ve seen them at a higher level than I ever did and that could skew your perceptions of how good many are. And even there some of the sour rises to the top. Peter Principle and all that.
Schlemazel
@Ruckus:
The uppers feed his sense of power and virility. The downers help him sleep
My guess is he takes other shit because it hides problems he knows he has. He fools himself as well as everyone else
Chetan Murthy
@Schlemazel: The boy’s five-foot-nine, and wears lifts.
Link: https://goodmenproject.com/politics-2/donald-trump-almost-definitely-five-foot-nine-bbab/
“Donald Trump Is Almost Definitely Five-Foot-Nine”
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: I don’t know the specific history, but officially the US Navy flag ranks are: rear admiral lower half (one star), rear admiral upper half (two stars), vice admiral (three stars), admiral (four stars). I think, if I’m recalling correctly, the distinction between the one and two star admirals had to do with their historic assignments. Basically the names for the ranks are legacies that don’t make much sense any longer. It is important to note that the US got rid of some of the intermediate naval ranks like commodore and did some collapsing of ranks and duties over time so that what we now call a rear admiral lower half (one star) would have been a commodore before the rank was retired. For instance, on the Army side one star generals are brigadier generals. They got this rank because they historically commanded brigades; hence brigadier. Brigades are now commanded by colonels, but we still call one stars brigadier generals. Similarly, if I’m recalling correctly, major general (2 stars), was originally sergeant major general and was a cavalry rank. It was ultimately shortened to major general, which confuses a lot of people because lieutenant generals have 3 stars and outrank major generals even though majors outrank lieutenants. Basically a historic nomenclature issue.
ETA: Almost forgot – the rear, in rear admiral, comes from being the most junior of the flag ranks and assigned to command the ships at the rear of the float.
Sab
@Steeplejack (phone): And I thought my family is nuts.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Recently saw a friend here whom hadn’t touched base with for a while. Probably in his early forties now. Used to do the extra-long hair thing and has apparently given that up, had that shorn and now looks like an ectomorphic version of Mr. Fields in The Abbott & Costello Show .
AThornton
The US Navy has Rear Admiral (lower half) who wears one star and a rank of Rear Admiral (upper half) who wears two stars.
Here’s the history
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: It wouldn’t surprise me. In fact this may be the reason that Mueller has not charged her so that he can see what she does once George goes to prison tomorrow. It is alway better to keep the network one is surveilling intact for as long as possible to see what the different pieces in it will do. If she tries to run, she’s not going to get far. Mueller most definitely has her under surveillance.
James E Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s like the Coneheads – We are from France!
Mnemosyne
@PhoenixRising:
I seem to have come from a long line of very boring people from Germany, northern Italy, and England, with a tiny dash of Irish, which is exactly what I’d always been told. I was kind of hoping for some interesting drama, TBH, but my biological parents are both gone and I only have 1 biological sibling, so the drama would have been pretty minimal.
NotMax
In moderation? Help me, Adam One Kenobi, you’re my only hope.
Schlemazel
@Chetan Murthy:
OH MY! That certainly explains a lot of stuff, the baggy suits, the comic ties. Maybe he is 239 on 5’7″frame that could be right
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I find “sergeant major general” particularly confusing, because in most Commonwealth countries a sergeant-major is an NCO or warrant officer.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Well, PPACA protects people from that kind of fuckery by only allowing rates to be set by age and geographic region, but people on both the left and the right are eager to get rid of it for their preferred utopias.
It also varies by state — in CA, by state law health insurers are not allowed to discriminate based on your DNA. States with less strong consumer laws will be a different story.
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: Just as a disclosure: I’ve been very lucky that I’ve either worked directly for or was temporarily assigned (sometimes for prolonged periods) to general officers who were excellent. They weren’t perfect, but I got lucky in that I got to work with and for about 7 or 8 really good ones. That said, my understanding is they were the exception rather than the rule. I’ve seen a lot who were bad in a variety of different ways. So in Jackson’s case if he’d been put in charge of combat surgeons he might have been just find.
As for Jackson, it is also possible that the promotion wasn’t so much the problem as the assignment. I worked for a general officer who was an excellent officer. And my impression is he would have been an excellent general officer in an operational unit. Unfortunately they put him in charge of something on the generating side of the Army and that was a bad fit for him. Ultimately he had some emotional issues, both related to this and that exacerbated the problems, that led him to put in for retirement before he had been expected to.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
It is in the US Army also.
In a MASH episode Hawkeye invents the rank oh ‘Corporal Captain’ it does not fly
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: That’s my take on it. He’s got her under surveillance but it’s better to see what she’s doing and going to do than it is to charger her with something. She seems kind of nuts herself so I wonder if she’s giving up lots of good info.
Adam L Silverman
@James E Powell: The Coneheads had more believable accents.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
What you are saying is that he’s fooling everyone who wants to be fooled and himself most of all. Now that sounds like a narcissist.
I’m just not convinced that a doc could tell him the truth about his health and convince him to take the meds that anyone else in his condition would be taking. And seeing as how he’s actually gotten a lot worse in the last two years….
I just feel that he’s headed for a massive flameout. Will it be in the next two years? Anything is possible.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Already freed. But I’m going to bed in a few, so you all try to stay out of moderation.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Yep. And anything not on the exchange is fair game. And that’s just health insurance. What about car insurance or mortgage risk or jobs?
Schlemazel
I am going to try to go back to bed. Have my first appointment at Mayo in the morning and I am a tad keyed up about it. I know I shouldn’t be because nothing is going to be solved in a day but the hope of progress has me a bit amped
Good night all you princes of jackals, you Kings of progressivism
Doug R
@Brachiator:
Makes me think we all might be wearing Burkas someday, and not just from the heat.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: It is here too. We inherited the rank nomenclature. Originally sergeants major were cavalry ranks, so the general officer for cavalry was called a sergeant major general. The sergeant got dropped at the general officer level and the rank of sergeant major moved into other branches of the Army.
Also, an important modern reality is that only the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and a few other countries have a professional NCO corps. If you see junior officers getting in trouble in an Army somewhere it is usually because they don’t have a professional NCO corps. This happens all the time with the Israeli army. Whenever you see one of these lieutenants or junior captains get into trouble when dealing with the Palestinians in Gaza or in periodic forays into southern Lebanon, you can almost always quickly conclude that it is because there was no senior NCO to mentor and advise them.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Danke schön.
Adam L Silverman
@Schlemazel: We’re keeping good thoughts. Good luck tomorrow!
Mnemosyne
@frosty:
Leaving aside the fact that different genes can express themselves between siblings, widespread voluntary DNA testing is making it apparent that human chimeras are not nearly as rare as scientists used to think, particularly when it comes to twins:
https://pictorial.jezebel.com/one-person-two-sets-of-dna-the-strange-case-of-the-hu-1689290862
So it’s not at all unexpected that you and a twin would have disparate DNA.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Again, depends on the consumer protections in your state. In California, no one is allowed to use your private medical information to discriminate against you, including DNA that you voluntarily had tested. That includes employers, mortgage companies, car insurers, etc.
But if you’re not lucky enough to live in a state that bans genetic and medical discrimination, you’re probably screwed.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Was stationed on a DDG and the flotilla commander was, let’s just say a bit of an ass. Story I heard on the grapevine was that he was definitely not going to be advanced next time around. Of course I ended up on the crappy LPH that he was made captain of. He did what all official assholes do, he took it out on those below him. It was a fun 4-5 weeks on board that ship. I know that he was given direct orders from the Pentagon to send in my records and didn’t do it. Ship’s clerk told me this. I understand that he got a call from an admiral at 6am (9am Pentagon time) a few days later. About 2 weeks after that the ship received a radiogram, that I was shown, ordering him to give me an honorable discharge within 3 days by noon. I walked off that ship at 11:59am, 3 days later. The XO told me in my exit interview that I’d be back, my kind always came back. I informed him that I had a buddy, whose dad owned a large dairy, with 5 locations that each had a lot of cows and that I’d shovel cow shit every day for the rest of my life before I’d work for people like him ever again. At least I left him speechless.
So as you can see my appreciation for some officers is less than exceptional.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
Good luck! I’ve only had very minor personal experience with Mayo (and it was in AZ), but I was impressed that the doctors there were willing to immediately call in other doctors from the same specialty to consult on a case together rather than making you bounce around to multiple appointments.
(Mine was what we had thought was stubborn teenage acne, but the Mayo dermatologist called in a second dermatologist and they both agreed that I had rosacea at an unusually young age.)
JGabriel
@Mike in NC:
(4) Stupidity.
sukabi
@JGabriel: pretty sure stupidity is a given considering the previous 3 requirements.
sm*t cl*de
@Yarrow:
Corporations don’t ‘give’ information away. They sell it.
sm*t cl*de
@Ruckus:
Hey now. Beer isn’t medication. It’s food.
Ruckus
@sm*t cl*de:
I think you may have been in the navy with me.
Were you born in 53 and lived in NYC in the 60s?
smike
@sm*t cl*de:
Nutritious, too.
NotMax
@smike
Vodka counts as a serving of vegetables, right?
;)
sm*t cl*de
@NotMax:
I have heard rumours of an abomination called a “bloody mary” but that is for the hardcore health freaks.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Someday, Peter Pitts will be known as the Andrew Wakefield of DNA testing.
Rand Careaga
@Brachiator:
It’s a long read, but utterly fascinating.
...now I try to be amused
@Adam L Silverman:
As I understand it, the word “general” was appended to company-level rank titles for those officers whose purview was the entire army: Captain General (later just General), Lieutenant General, and Sergeant Major General (later Major General).
Jacel
@Steeplejack: The guy on his left looks like one of the more odious characters in the long-running indy comic strip Raw Meat. Here is a recent appearance of that fictional guy.
Jacel
@NotMax: As The Kinks would say, “La da da da da da, potatoes.”